Tir Righ Investiture Take 2
So It looks as if they found someone else to go to Ottawa after all. P replied with essentially was "I am not volunteering, but will go if ordered". But itsn't not Friday yet.
Anyway, Tir Righ Investiture meant court, court and more court. As Seagirt A&S Champion I attended Their Excellencies, so at least I had a good seat. King Skeggi is good at trying to make it interesting and believes in short courts, so that was a good thing. Investitures mean a lot of business though so Principality courts were not so short. I think what takes the longest is the swearing of fealty - each peerage separately, champions, officers, then anyone from the populous. It just takes a bit to get all the folks up there and back to their seats. I didn't remember from the previous Investitrue the knights fealty - they put their sword tips on the Prince. Not a position I would like to be in. :) Impressive looking though. Since I don't fight heavy, not going to happen anyeway.
Timings were awkward throughout the day. Just as I figured. We brought the cooler with food for lunch, which would have worked had I not been attending in court - I didn't know Ming and Elina would be there, but they had no other attendants and that would look bad, them uo there alone. P won't eat before a tourney so he didn't get it out. Thankfully, Viscountess Thora had extra and was willing to share, and she makes a mighty fine tuna sandwich (tuna, green onion, feta cheese and lemon Mrs Dash - tasty!). I was close to biting someone or dropping, I think it was 3ish when breakfast had been at 7ish. Must get a little cooler like Ming and Elina had.
So Rapier Tourney started around 4ish - 28 entrants. 1st Round - 2 pools of 14 each, Round Robin. P lost 3 of 13 fights, 2 of them Dons, so not bad. He progresses to Sweet 16, single elim. Makes it through that to top 8. Gets one of the Dons who got him in round one, but then is eliminated. That guy goes on to be be runner up in the Tourney, so P is pleased. He had hoped just to get past round 1, because he was against people he had never met, nor even seen fence. Surely not bad for his 1st Tir Righ Tourney in 10 years.
Tourney s followed by more court. We try to be polite and attend, but it is not moving at a good pace. We leave at 8:30 to find the hotel. If we weren't so freaking tired we might have actually ventured for one of likely a hundred restaruants on East Hastings. Instead it is pizza in the hotel room. It was really nice to put our feet up while we ate.
Sunday was meetings (the joys of exchequerhood) and cadet tourney for P. He got in a solid hour of fencing, so he had a good time. So now we change, chuck stuff in the car and off for the ferry. Since we did not eat from the cooler on Saturday we had a freezing cold picnic outside the terminal and got on the 3:00 ferry no problem. Ran into Fletcher on the stairwell, so even though all other Seagirtians day tripped it the day before, we still ended up trading SCA stories on the way home. The really nice thing about the 3:00 is that we got to the kennel before it closed and saved a few bucks that way.
It is sad that more Seagirtians did not come, but looking back, perhaps there was little to draw them. Of those who came - the B&B (royalty chaneover, obvious reason they came), 2 Pels for the elevation of a new pelican, 1 curia member, 1 entrant in the rapier championship, 2 populous - but they were there just to see other friends and so left the event for a while. I can see why - nothing for them to do. There were tiems I was very glad for my stitching and knitting. I would have been bored otherwise too. Travel was not a big issue. In fact I find it quite pleasant compared to marathon drives of Ruantallan. Since we cought an early ferry on Saturday, we ate at the breakfast buffet, killed more than half the time (then found the other Seagirtians and chatted) and on the way home - in the car for an hour, then you can walk around again. Driving to YYG seems more duanting. Less costly though. It is not a cheap ferry. I guess that is the biggest reason they stay away. It is too bad. Seagirt seems to be (unintentionally) isolating itself because of this. Going through the Tir Righ Songboke we bought on the weekend, Seagirt seemed more a part of things in the way back machine. Hopefully it is just a lull.