I think I'm turning gweilo-ish...
...I really think so...
At this rate, I won't even count as a banana any more!
It wasn't that long ago that I was 6 days into a week long trip to Malta without thinking to put on sunblock and without consequences.
Then, over the weekend, along with a bunch of other Norfolkes, I went to a Rawdon's training bash in a field behind a pub in Hantshire. And I got a mildly burned nose. WTF?! Strange then to also wake up to frost on the outside of the tent too but this we blamed on the lack of aircraft and hence contrails :-)
Still, aside from that (Mrs Lincoln), it was a fun weekend. Not actually that heavy on the training (but we did burn off our share of gunpowder), goodly amount of beer drinking - we managed to drink the pub out of all its decent beer by Saturday evening (Courage doesn't count!)!
The key revelation of the weekend during one of the talks/theory sessions was that, far from being ragtag militia scum, Trayned Bandes like the Norfolke Trayned Bandes were, in fact, at least semi-posh as you had to be a landowner or son of one to join. Quite a shock then to learn that the NTB was supposed to be a bunch of middle-class part-time soldiers. aeshna_uk pointed out somewhat later when I told her about this that we are, in fact, largely a bunch of middle-class part-time (pretend) soldiers...
The other highlight was seeing the NTB pike block take on and indeed push back almost twice their number of Rawdons! ("Why have we stopped? Why are we moving backwards?") :-) It turned out that the NTB pike block had signficantly more years collective experience than their opponents (well over a hundred yeards between the four of them!)!
Lastly, seems various Norfolkes are talking about a trip to Vietnam. This could be interesting...
At this rate, I won't even count as a banana any more!
It wasn't that long ago that I was 6 days into a week long trip to Malta without thinking to put on sunblock and without consequences.
Then, over the weekend, along with a bunch of other Norfolkes, I went to a Rawdon's training bash in a field behind a pub in Hantshire. And I got a mildly burned nose. WTF?! Strange then to also wake up to frost on the outside of the tent too but this we blamed on the lack of aircraft and hence contrails :-)
Still, aside from that (Mrs Lincoln), it was a fun weekend. Not actually that heavy on the training (but we did burn off our share of gunpowder), goodly amount of beer drinking - we managed to drink the pub out of all its decent beer by Saturday evening (Courage doesn't count!)!
The key revelation of the weekend during one of the talks/theory sessions was that, far from being ragtag militia scum, Trayned Bandes like the Norfolke Trayned Bandes were, in fact, at least semi-posh as you had to be a landowner or son of one to join. Quite a shock then to learn that the NTB was supposed to be a bunch of middle-class part-time soldiers. aeshna_uk pointed out somewhat later when I told her about this that we are, in fact, largely a bunch of middle-class part-time (pretend) soldiers...
The other highlight was seeing the NTB pike block take on and indeed push back almost twice their number of Rawdons! ("Why have we stopped? Why are we moving backwards?") :-) It turned out that the NTB pike block had signficantly more years collective experience than their opponents (well over a hundred yeards between the four of them!)!
Lastly, seems various Norfolkes are talking about a trip to Vietnam. This could be interesting...