The past weekend
Gentle Readers,
I noticed that I have not yet posted about my weekend so here it is.
On Friday, Lydia and I had a lovely evening to ourselves eating a vaguely Asian chicken noodle soup and watching the Princess Bride (Princesses and Weddings and Sword-fighting). We got to bed fairly early and as far as I could tell, had a great night's sleep.
First thing saturday morning, as soon as Cortejo got home, we packed up the car and zipped off to Kingston for a German longsword class being taught by Barry Keys. We were a little worried because the weather reports claimed that Kingston would be seeing heavy snowfall but the trip down was completely uneventful. The roads were clear and dry and we were only as late for the class as we started.
I jumped into the class and Cortejo and Lydia headed off to visit with friends.
About a half hour after I arrived, one of my classmates had to go and get somethign from her car and came back covered with snow. We all looked outside and everything was white. It was very impressive, but nowhere near as interesting as the longsword.
Lunch was supposed to be provided but as everything that was purchased was sugared (except, strangely, the baloney) brave the storm and get myself something I could eat. I ended up with a mediocre beef curry that was sadly overpriced but it was warm and filling and hit the spot. I should have kept going a bit further up the street to the pizza place.
The class was really interesting. While the german style is not my preference, I'm willing to take what I can get with regards to longsword play. I regret that I was not up to the sparring that we ended the class with, but perhaps next time.
I spoke with Barry about making a pair of Aluminum Messers (he also makes aluminum longswords in the german style) and it looks like those will be a go. Now I just need to get the wooden dussaks I have lying around in the basement finished so I can get people practicing. I also need to get my leather dussak finished.
After practice it was still snowing fairly heavily, but thankfully one of the local students offered to give me lift to FiniteDancer's place. The drive was a bit harrowing, but for the most part people were not driving like maniacs.
We made plans to have dinner out that night (mostly because once we considered ordering in part of our party was already at the restaurant). For some reason the ladies present were the ones who did most of the shoveling. I kept offering to help but I was refused. I suspect that they wanted a break from the kids.
The restaurant (an East Side Mario's) was surprisingly packed. However, the server was still very accommodating and handled the 2 young children and 6 immature adults with grace and wit. I'm a little shocked at how much food there was on the table. It was almost like having dinner at my parent's house.
When we finally left the restaurant, the sky was almost clear and the snow had stopped. We started thinking about heading back to Ottawa, but first we had to return to our friends place. Less than a minit after leaving the parking lot we were in white out conditions. Thankfully we had been given the simplest directions to and from the restaurant so finding our way back to the correct neighborhood was possible. However, finding our friends house turned out to be much more difficult. Once we were sure we had passed it, we stopped the car and turned it around and then Cortejo got out and I slowly followed her up the street as she shouted "Marco". Our friends were standing on their front porch waving a spotlight (and being barely visible).
We were forbidden from going home that night.
The night passed uneventfully, mostly we just sat around and talked. However, Lydia was so wired from the evening that I had to hold her and sing her to sleep. Actually I shouldn't say it was uneventful. My host got a call at 3am to go into work the next day. That meant she had to leave at 5:30. It made for a somewhat less sleep than expected but most of the next day was spent sitting around so it was fairly bearable.
I watched "It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad Mad World." It's a fine movie and has been ripped off by everything (I'm sure there is an actual remake coming out soon).
The only thing of note (other than missing fencing) was that on the way home Lydia piped up "I'm a little sleepy. I'm going to sleep for a little bit." and was out like a light.
After she woke up, we sang They Might be Giants songs all the way home.
I noticed that I have not yet posted about my weekend so here it is.
On Friday, Lydia and I had a lovely evening to ourselves eating a vaguely Asian chicken noodle soup and watching the Princess Bride (Princesses and Weddings and Sword-fighting). We got to bed fairly early and as far as I could tell, had a great night's sleep.
First thing saturday morning, as soon as Cortejo got home, we packed up the car and zipped off to Kingston for a German longsword class being taught by Barry Keys. We were a little worried because the weather reports claimed that Kingston would be seeing heavy snowfall but the trip down was completely uneventful. The roads were clear and dry and we were only as late for the class as we started.
I jumped into the class and Cortejo and Lydia headed off to visit with friends.
About a half hour after I arrived, one of my classmates had to go and get somethign from her car and came back covered with snow. We all looked outside and everything was white. It was very impressive, but nowhere near as interesting as the longsword.
Lunch was supposed to be provided but as everything that was purchased was sugared (except, strangely, the baloney) brave the storm and get myself something I could eat. I ended up with a mediocre beef curry that was sadly overpriced but it was warm and filling and hit the spot. I should have kept going a bit further up the street to the pizza place.
The class was really interesting. While the german style is not my preference, I'm willing to take what I can get with regards to longsword play. I regret that I was not up to the sparring that we ended the class with, but perhaps next time.
I spoke with Barry about making a pair of Aluminum Messers (he also makes aluminum longswords in the german style) and it looks like those will be a go. Now I just need to get the wooden dussaks I have lying around in the basement finished so I can get people practicing. I also need to get my leather dussak finished.
After practice it was still snowing fairly heavily, but thankfully one of the local students offered to give me lift to FiniteDancer's place. The drive was a bit harrowing, but for the most part people were not driving like maniacs.
We made plans to have dinner out that night (mostly because once we considered ordering in part of our party was already at the restaurant). For some reason the ladies present were the ones who did most of the shoveling. I kept offering to help but I was refused. I suspect that they wanted a break from the kids.
The restaurant (an East Side Mario's) was surprisingly packed. However, the server was still very accommodating and handled the 2 young children and 6 immature adults with grace and wit. I'm a little shocked at how much food there was on the table. It was almost like having dinner at my parent's house.
When we finally left the restaurant, the sky was almost clear and the snow had stopped. We started thinking about heading back to Ottawa, but first we had to return to our friends place. Less than a minit after leaving the parking lot we were in white out conditions. Thankfully we had been given the simplest directions to and from the restaurant so finding our way back to the correct neighborhood was possible. However, finding our friends house turned out to be much more difficult. Once we were sure we had passed it, we stopped the car and turned it around and then Cortejo got out and I slowly followed her up the street as she shouted "Marco". Our friends were standing on their front porch waving a spotlight (and being barely visible).
We were forbidden from going home that night.
The night passed uneventfully, mostly we just sat around and talked. However, Lydia was so wired from the evening that I had to hold her and sing her to sleep. Actually I shouldn't say it was uneventful. My host got a call at 3am to go into work the next day. That meant she had to leave at 5:30. It made for a somewhat less sleep than expected but most of the next day was spent sitting around so it was fairly bearable.
I watched "It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad Mad World." It's a fine movie and has been ripped off by everything (I'm sure there is an actual remake coming out soon).
The only thing of note (other than missing fencing) was that on the way home Lydia piped up "I'm a little sleepy. I'm going to sleep for a little bit." and was out like a light.
After she woke up, we sang They Might be Giants songs all the way home.