abbey medieval festival

 Megan has gone away to a music conference in Gumpee.

On Saturday, Chris, Dan, Jemma went to the Abbey Medieval Festival up on the North side of Brisbane.

The main purpose of our visit was to help Derek with the PA systems.  We met up with Paul Merrifield, Glyn Carter, Roz Window, Steve Richardson.  So it was somewhat of a reunion.

Having gotten the PA system at the Jousting to work, we were able to enjoy the show.  Attempts to photograph the moment of contact between the two competitors proved too much for a camera phone.

 There are many people who dress for the occasion and set up medieval style tents and light cap fires and roast venison and other game.  No issues with poaching as they are all Lords and Ladies.  Not a surf or a slave in sight.






So Dan was press ganged into operating the blacksmiths bellows.

 He then decided to rise to the ranks of the knight hood and tried out some armour.

My suggestion is that if you intend attending the tournament, fit out your budding knight in shining armour at home as the purchase of armaments at the festival is not cheap.  One might even suggest a rip off.  These swords that I think consisted of two bits of 3 ply glued together and a dollop of paint went at $9 each.  Another vendor would give you a better quality sword complete with shield for $30.


My other suggestion is to bring a packed lunch and wear a nappy because the queues for both the food vendors and the toilets were very very long.  At one stage while waiting for said convenience I was inconvenienced by having to step round a huge pile of poo.  Wondering aloud about the pour soul who had been so unfortunate as to have not been able to maintain a dignified stance in the line caused a helpful queue member to point out that it was horse poo.  I suspect the horse realised that tying to back into a porta loo would not have been particualaly genuine in keeping with the medievil era. 

Pascoe UK Adventure Blog

http://www.pascoeukadventure.blogspot.com/

Warwick Von Steiglitz visit

James (jnr) was scheduled to fly in to Brisbane tonight so in the afternoon, Lewis, Clare, Morgan and Peter arrived.  Morgan came complete with various incendiary devices and this spured Chris into action.  Chris had been watching videos on youtube that inspired him to make some kind of chared cotton that responds well to sparks from a flint.  At one stage Morgan lit up some kind of smoke / flash thing which was quite spectacular.

James was picked up.  Then we all posed for a family happy snap.  How often do you get the whole family together.

To save the picture, right click on it and choose "save link as".  This saves the original file.  If you choose "save picture as", I think you only get the low res version that you clicked on.

Sand Pit

A working bee held in the back yard to get the new sand pit installed

Jemma took on the challenge of sweeping the roof of the garden shed.  It was about 50mm thick compost.  Leaves that had fallen from nearby trees.  Along with miscellaneous junk.

 Oreo supervised and had a great time hasing leaves and being entertained.  here Dan has him chasing a leaf.  I had not seen him expend such enery for ages.

 After we dug all the old sand out and spread it on the lawn near the house we lined the sand pit with black material of some sort.  Complements on Easterfest.

Backed up the ute and shoveled out the sand.

Day Camp

Singing songs

Jemma










Marcus and the teens apply the rule that fire must be made in oil drums.  In their case, lots of oil drums

Cal and Chris










Dan in the red tee shirt at the middle right.  Sitting.  Sulking.  Looking at the fence.

Day Camp bike Ride

This week is all the Thomson children are going to the Oxley Uniting Church Day Camp.

Because their parents are too lazy to drive them, they will have to ride their bikes.

So politically un correct these days.  We should drive them right to the park and then hover over them just to be sure they do everything just so

Dan and Jemma prepare by pumping tyres.  Actually Dan had to put a new back tyre on because someone had been skidding and had worn out the tyre.  We could not identify the culprit.










Then we had a practice ride so they would know where to go and hopefully not get lost on the way.

I took my GPS tracker with me but I think I should have had it sample at a higher rate.

Portable Sandpit

Dan, Jemma and Oreo playing in our new sand pit.

And this is where it came from.
Chris Chapman (L)
Trevor Armstrong (R)