On the stupidity of camping in subzero temperatures
Oo the first post in bloody ages it appears!
I need not tell any of my dear readers from this side of the pond that the weather in Britain this weekend is best described as "really bloody cold". One would wonder, therefore, why I chose to spend it camping in a field somewhere just south of Birmingham.
Well it was a live-roleplaying event, of the type which has become known to me as "beer and mud" and involves consumption of alcohol and camping (as opposed to the "cheese and wine" type which tends to involve vampires). Of course that doesn't excuse the abject stupidity of putting myself and my ever-suffering other half into a situation where all that lies between us and subzero temperatures was some thermal underwear - Marks and Sparks thermal undies for the win btw - and a cloak. But we'd pre-paid and I'd had to miss the last one due to me getting ill within about 5 minutes of arriving at site, so we gritted our teeth and got ourselves to this one regardless of the dodgy weather.
And it was very possibly the best live-roleplaying event, of any stripe, I've ever been to!
It really felt like because everyone had made an effort to get there, they were going to really go for it and enjoy themselves. That and Profound Decisions (who runs these particular events) had managed to lay on some very good entertainment in the form of fire jugglers (who were players not professionals but still very entertaining), Sumo Wrestling (players again - the Sumo Shoeshine man was very amusing), fireworks, and a bunch of other pseudo-Oriental entertainments. The fact that I managed to make a small in-character fortune in the space of a few hours was nice too.
However, the cold nights were definitely a downer on the whole weekend. It was about -2 degrees, so even wrapped up in a thick sleeping bag with whatever cloaks and coats we could get over us, we were still very cold indeed. Yesterday morning, my various injuries were really starting to play-up, so we couldn't have got through another night of it and fled home and by the looks of the amount of cars leaving at the time, we weren't alone.
I'm now completely looking forward to the next event.
I need not tell any of my dear readers from this side of the pond that the weather in Britain this weekend is best described as "really bloody cold". One would wonder, therefore, why I chose to spend it camping in a field somewhere just south of Birmingham.
Well it was a live-roleplaying event, of the type which has become known to me as "beer and mud" and involves consumption of alcohol and camping (as opposed to the "cheese and wine" type which tends to involve vampires). Of course that doesn't excuse the abject stupidity of putting myself and my ever-suffering other half into a situation where all that lies between us and subzero temperatures was some thermal underwear - Marks and Sparks thermal undies for the win btw - and a cloak. But we'd pre-paid and I'd had to miss the last one due to me getting ill within about 5 minutes of arriving at site, so we gritted our teeth and got ourselves to this one regardless of the dodgy weather.
And it was very possibly the best live-roleplaying event, of any stripe, I've ever been to!
It really felt like because everyone had made an effort to get there, they were going to really go for it and enjoy themselves. That and Profound Decisions (who runs these particular events) had managed to lay on some very good entertainment in the form of fire jugglers (who were players not professionals but still very entertaining), Sumo Wrestling (players again - the Sumo Shoeshine man was very amusing), fireworks, and a bunch of other pseudo-Oriental entertainments. The fact that I managed to make a small in-character fortune in the space of a few hours was nice too.
However, the cold nights were definitely a downer on the whole weekend. It was about -2 degrees, so even wrapped up in a thick sleeping bag with whatever cloaks and coats we could get over us, we were still very cold indeed. Yesterday morning, my various injuries were really starting to play-up, so we couldn't have got through another night of it and fled home and by the looks of the amount of cars leaving at the time, we weren't alone.
I'm now completely looking forward to the next event.