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Last weekend was Kingdom University, my favorite event ever (well, except maybe Known World Heraldic Symposium, but that isn't held in my kingdom every year). It's the one event that I've always said I wouldn't miss, even if I couldn't get to any other event in a year.
Of course, I then went and missed last year's, due to being at home giving birth instead. I don't feel too bad at my reason for not being there, and it certainly wasn't going to stop me from going this year! Poor Gwen (Lucky Gwen?) is likely going to end up celebrating a lot of birthdays at university. :)
This is the first year that I've gone that I haven't taught. I feel bad about that. I really wanted there to be a strong heraldic track (thanks very much to Dubhghall for teaching the one heraldic class that did get taught), and in particular wanted to teach a class on the new rules. But I simply never got around to telling the chancellor I wanted to teach, and in the end, I think this was probably a good thing, because I'm not sure things would've worked out for me to teach uninterruptedly. I certainly wasn't able to attend any class uninterruptedly, though I got to poke my head into many, as Gwen wanted to spend the whole day walking from room to room -- though she did enjoy playing with wool in the spinning-for-children class. She did very well; there was a long lunch break right at naptime, and there was a quiet room where I could put her down to sleep. (We were staying off site, so that we had real beds, etc., rather than crash space.) Unfortunately, it didn't work so well for her afternoon nap, and eventually I asked Johanna to take us back to the hotel, where she ended up sleeping OK, waking up in time for us to return for court and then feast; she stayed awake through the first course and then fell asleep again upstairs, where she slept until nearly midnight, even through the ball with the live music, not even the drums and trombone woke her up!
Joel got to go to a number of classes, and seemed to enjoy himself tremendously. One of the classes was on the history of beer, and he was surprised to find that it wasn't just theory, it was also practical with lots of beer on hand to taste. The site was set up so that High Table was in a room of its own, and sat 16, so Paul and I invited all of the people we gave awards to and their partners, plus the baron and baroness of Aarnimets&aauml;, the Princess of Nordmark,![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
goncalves, and pogbody for extra fun. The teacher of the beer class, Helgi, was one of those -- we made him a member of the Panache -- and over the course of dinner Joel discovered what I can only call a bosom friend. They like beer. They like military history. They like war games. It's highly likely that Helgi will be coming, possibly with his younger brother, to visit Joel to drink beer, go to museums, and play wargames, while I'm in South Africa. I'm very glad he's made a new friend.
--
Today has been rough. Gwen napped for 35 min. this morning, and then was really fussy and hard to please. She just woke up a bit ago from a 2 hour nap (she also napped 2 hours yesterday afternoon) and woke up crying (just like yesterday afternoon, too). I don't know what's wrong. We had plans to go out shopping together (Joel and I) today, since it's the last free weekend we have together until a few days before we head to the US, and we were going to do some Christmas shopping, but that plan is out, since the stores close in half an hour. Luckily tomorrow is koopzondag so maybe if she has a better morning nap tomorrow we can try going out then.
Of course, I then went and missed last year's, due to being at home giving birth instead. I don't feel too bad at my reason for not being there, and it certainly wasn't going to stop me from going this year! Poor Gwen (Lucky Gwen?) is likely going to end up celebrating a lot of birthdays at university. :)
This is the first year that I've gone that I haven't taught. I feel bad about that. I really wanted there to be a strong heraldic track (thanks very much to Dubhghall for teaching the one heraldic class that did get taught), and in particular wanted to teach a class on the new rules. But I simply never got around to telling the chancellor I wanted to teach, and in the end, I think this was probably a good thing, because I'm not sure things would've worked out for me to teach uninterruptedly. I certainly wasn't able to attend any class uninterruptedly, though I got to poke my head into many, as Gwen wanted to spend the whole day walking from room to room -- though she did enjoy playing with wool in the spinning-for-children class. She did very well; there was a long lunch break right at naptime, and there was a quiet room where I could put her down to sleep. (We were staying off site, so that we had real beds, etc., rather than crash space.) Unfortunately, it didn't work so well for her afternoon nap, and eventually I asked Johanna to take us back to the hotel, where she ended up sleeping OK, waking up in time for us to return for court and then feast; she stayed awake through the first course and then fell asleep again upstairs, where she slept until nearly midnight, even through the ball with the live music, not even the drums and trombone woke her up!
Joel got to go to a number of classes, and seemed to enjoy himself tremendously. One of the classes was on the history of beer, and he was surprised to find that it wasn't just theory, it was also practical with lots of beer on hand to taste. The site was set up so that High Table was in a room of its own, and sat 16, so Paul and I invited all of the people we gave awards to and their partners, plus the baron and baroness of Aarnimets&aauml;, the Princess of Nordmark,
goncalves, and pogbody for extra fun. The teacher of the beer class, Helgi, was one of those -- we made him a member of the Panache -- and over the course of dinner Joel discovered what I can only call a bosom friend. They like beer. They like military history. They like war games. It's highly likely that Helgi will be coming, possibly with his younger brother, to visit Joel to drink beer, go to museums, and play wargames, while I'm in South Africa. I'm very glad he's made a new friend.--
Today has been rough. Gwen napped for 35 min. this morning, and then was really fussy and hard to please. She just woke up a bit ago from a 2 hour nap (she also napped 2 hours yesterday afternoon) and woke up crying (just like yesterday afternoon, too). I don't know what's wrong. We had plans to go out shopping together (Joel and I) today, since it's the last free weekend we have together until a few days before we head to the US, and we were going to do some Christmas shopping, but that plan is out, since the stores close in half an hour. Luckily tomorrow is koopzondag so maybe if she has a better morning nap tomorrow we can try going out then.
