Oh No! ESB Does it Again....
Well, everyone will be happy to know that Disaster Cat, her husband The Wolf and our House-mate The Lizard; have all returned safe and sound from an SCA Crown Tourney in Southern England. Now for those of you who don't know, Crown Tourney is a "fighting event" where people dress up in armor and hit each other with rattan sticks. The one who bashes the best gets the job of King (or sometimes Queen) for the next six months. He (or she) fights for his/her consort who then gets to be either queen or king depending. And yes, a consort does have to be a member of the opposite sex, don't complain to me, I didn't write the rules...anyway, normally Wolf is fighting so I get to be a consort. This job mostly consists of sitting outside trying to look appreciative while keeping my teeth from chattering. Sometimes there's a marquee to sit under, sometimes there isn't. Which is better than what the fighters get. The weather here in Europe pretty much assures them a mud bath in October and a mud-bath (or snow bath) in March. This time though, we didn't get our paper work out in time so I was free to enjoy my more typical SCA job as The Viking Lady Trader. And, while I was busy trying to convince people they really needed more trade beads and hand-woven trim in their lives, my other half was watching the tourney. He was cold, I was not. We both enjoyed ourselves and had a good weekend.
Most events have something to complain about (its like going off to Summer-Camp only you need more pillows) but this one really was just fine. So, after two fun days where we didn't have to worry about much, we faced the 12 hour drive plus ferry ride back. For once, we even got to do some site seeing at Av-bury Stone Circle along the way. Its a really, large stone circle and a lot more fun than Stone Henge. Why? Because Stone Henge is now surrounded by fences, wire and barriers. Not to mention the entry fee and filing past: The Henge Kitchen selling ice cream cones, before you even get to the pathway. Av-bury on the other hand, has the misfortune to have a road running in the middle of it. But, because of that, The National Trust has not figured out a way to totally block it off from public access. The local village is also located part-way within the stones. Since I was there the last time, The National Trust has thrown up a museum that you can pay a lot of money to go into. But you can just ignore it, use the gift-shop bathroom and go inside the circle for free. It also helps that a local pub (built sometime in the dim and distant past) is also part-way in the circle itself. So if they did try to charge an entrance fee, you could still just walk out of the pub and into the circle itself. Our friend Merlin, along for the trip, suggested that "some-day" National Trust would most likely buy the pub to solve this problem. But in the meantime, this stone circle remains one of the great freebies of English Tourism.
After visiting several very large stones (you can walk right up and lean on them) we departed to face the rest of the trip. At least this time it was a relaxed one because the ferry didn't leave until 3am. We got home about 9am, by which point everyone else went to bed. I got the left over food put away. As often happens at events, there was some food left over. This time we lucked out and got freebies of onions, carrots, cheese, butter, tea bags and a huge bag of potatoes. Bag of potatoes is still in the car, since it will need someone larger and stronger than me to remove it.
The morning went on, the great cat escape was mostly rounded up and put back into the bedroom. I think they must have spent most of the weekend having cat adventures throughout the house. One had taken up residence in our house-mate's room. Since his allergy is the reason the cats don't have the run of the house all the time, I personally think it was a revenge attack on the part of the cat. But who knows? To quote my husband: "The Minds of Cats are easy read: Small words in LARGE TYPE" (as in FEED ME, PET ME, OPEN DOOR OR ELSE!). I think it may have been this last one that provoked the mass cat escape...but they are all back in the bedroom now. Having left their hair lurking in various corners of the house.
Just as I was getting ready to go take a nap, having fallen asleep reading the newspaper, I remembered to check the mail. Oh Joy, Oh Rapture...NOT! Guess what? Our friendly neighbors at the Electric Company (ESB) evidently with their ears still stinging from hundred's of calls due to last week's overdue notification of an nine hour power cut, made sure this time to inform us all before they do it this time. With an entire 24 HOURS notification....how...er..a..nice of them. It is better than receiving the notice at 2:30 in the afternoon (and five hours of electricity-free living). This time I can (and have) made a thermos full of hot tea to have waiting on the table for me when I get up. It was good timing since just coming in from a trip, I had not even put the thermos away yet. And with the weather report predicting dark, damp, grey weather tomorrow (there was sunshine today of course) it will be a great day to just sit in the dark and contemplate Halloween. Now, we have had one of the mildest Summers in years. But do you think the friendly folks at ESB could have done all these so-called "Planned" power outages when the weather was warm, mostly dry and sunny? No, they have nicely let us have three who days (so-far) of gloomy meditation time. And not just for short-outages of an hour or two...no they give us the ENTIRE DAY to sit in the dark and freeze. Not everyone out here in the country-side has a turf stove to keep warm, though many people do. We have no gas lines, so electric heat is the most common fall back. I guess they just want us all to get into the spirit of the season? I'm feeling so seasonal right now I'm wondering if I can find any good spells to cast in their general direction while I'm huddling in the dark with my candle tomorrow? Or maybe I'll just take a clue from my husband, forget the whole thing and decide I have to run away to DUBLIN for the day?
Oops, can't do that, we've got people coming over tomorrow night. ....grrrrrrrrrr!!!!!
Stayed tuned for:
The Further Adventures of Disaster Cat.....