the long version
Apr. 4th, 2012 03:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
aryanhwyThe trip started out a bit rough; when I was checking bus times Friday afternoon I saw a notice that some of the trains between Utrecht and Schiphol were canceled due to signal malfunction, but I couldn't quite figure out how long they though things would be disrupted. And then we missed the bus to the station by minutes, so we had to walk out -- not generally a problem, but we had Gwen in the carseat and that gets heavy to carry, and it takes just enough longer to walk than bus that we rushed at the end to make sure we could get the train (which we did). When we changed at den Bosch, I checked the overheard boards, and the train we were planning to get was listed as going to the airport, no disruptions, so I figured we were set.
We then get about 5 min. out of Utrecht and there's an announcement that this train would be going no further, and that passengers for Schiphol should take another train to Amsterdam and change there. This sounded fishy to me -- I know there's got to be faster ways of getting to Schiphol from Utrecht than via Amsterdam CS, so I dug out the phone and started tracking down alternatives. We did change trains, but then decided to get out at Duivendrecht, and either try to get a taxi from there or take the metro to Zuid and get a taxi from there. One lesser known travel tip: If you want to find out about station amenities (e.g., whether there is a taxi queue), don't bother trying to find the info via the NS (Dutch rail) website, as the info isn't there. Instead, check the train station's wikipedia page. That's how we found out that there were taxis from Duivendrecht.
We weren't the only ones to have this idea; we got down to the taxi rank (which was empty) and there was a crowd of people with luggage there. A taxi showed up within a few minutes, though, and he must've called his friends because soon after that scads descended, so everyone who was waiting was able to get one. Because we'd left enough in advance we were still doing OK time wise, but it was an extra 45EUR that we weren't expecting to pay!
Our flight was at 21:50, and we'd left Tilburg around 18:00, and in that time Gwen took two half hour dozes, so she was really tired by the time we got to the gate to wait. It was noises and there were lots of people and she started crying and crying. After awhile the lady who worked at the Segafredo stand a bit away came over and insisted that I come and sit down behind the counter in a chair there, where it was quieter and cooler and more comfortable, and eventually I was able to get her to calm down, though she was still somewhat fussy until we got in the air. Then, thank goodness, she fell asleep. We got into site around 11:30 UK time and pretty much went straight to bed; Freiman and Esmeralda were already in the room and asleep and we unfortunately woke them up until Gwen got settled again, but then she slept through until about 6:00am. Because the beds were bunkbeds, and there wasn't really any out of the way spot on the floor, I just put her mattress between me and the wall and we shared the bed. She did amazingly well both nights, given that there were 8 other people in the room, one of whom snored, the beds were really noisy and creaky, and neither of us are used to sharing a bed with each other. Everyone in the room commented during the course of the weekend that it was much better sharing with her than they worried it might be!
The event was really laid back; breakfast started up about an hour after Gwen woke up on Saturday, and then armor inspections happened around 10ish and the tourney started after that.![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
jpgsawyer was our herald, and the text he wrote up was excellent; it proclaimed Master Paul to be the One, True Heir who would have preferred to have his right to the throne be simply recognized, but was willing to fight all comers to prove to all his right. After the participants were all heralded in, tables were moved over so that the consorts had a good view of the field, and things began.
Now, I knew I would be very nervous watching if I didn't have a relatively good idea of how Paul was faring, so I made up a little cheat sheet. There were 9 contestants in a best out of 3 round robin, so in each round 4 fights were fought and one person sat out. I put all the contestants in columns and the rounds in rows, and for each fight I put the name of the loser under the name of the winner, and an X for byes, so that at any time I could quick glance at the sheet and see how many people any individual fighter had beaten so far. The cheat sheet was quite popular, with a number of people sitting near me asking to see it! And Paul...just. kept. on. winning. After he won his first bout, there was much squeeing, and Anne and I had a delightful time waggling our fingers at him whenever he saluted us before a fight. About round 6, whenever he won, a chorus of "de Gorey, de Gorey" would arise, and on the last bought we changed it to "The One, True Heir!" As a friend commented, Paul was the only one on the field who had squealing fangrrls. :) But this was only the second time someone had ever fought for me, of course I was going to be supportive of my consort!
With it being best 2/3, the tournament ran rather longer than some, but I didn't really notice, things seemed to go along at a zippy pace. For a bit Gwen lay on a blanket on the grass in front of me, but for most of it Joel took care of her, feeding her, cuddling her, and, in the middle, taking her back to the room and napping with her. Anne provided dark chocolate with orange and geranium; very yummy.
And Paul. Just. Kept. On. Winning, and suddenly there I was next to the Queen with Lady Isabetta on the other side watching the final (best out of 5). Paul won the first. Viscount William won the second. When the third bought was declared for William, my thought was "it's all over, William will win the next one" -- and I was quite happy about it because the entire tournament had been such a joy to watch and participate in, it was so light-hearted and everyone seemed to have such fun, and Lady Isabetta seemed very nice -- but then this declaration was rescinded, and the bought was refought and Paul won. Then William. Suddenly there was just one more fight left, and I barely followed what happened until William yielded and Paul had won.
The rest of the afternoon went in a flurry, there was lunch, some peerage meetings, some hanging out and discussion of important issues (culminating in ascertaining that Joel will be my privy clerk, tutor, and personal confessor, and as such there may be times that we need to secrete ourselves together for the good of my eternal soul, and whatever goes on behind closed doors remains between him, and me, and God. It will be the duty Lady Anne, as my chief lady-in-waiting, to make sure during such times that the Prince (and later King) does not intrude upon me inopportunely.)
One thing I'd always wondered was how one goes about packing for a Crown Tourney. There is a chance that there are things that you might wish you had, but if it's only a chance, is it really worth spending precious luggage space on them? Well, I decided that Paul had a good enough chance, and thus I should plan accordingly. I brought my purple silk, and, in event that we won, I brought Joel's matching cotehardie along for him to wear at supper/court. I also brought along a gift for Gwen that I'd gotten at my babyshower, an adorable little onesie bydraconisregena which, since it bears the arms of the kingdom, should strictly speaking only be worn by the king/queen or their heirs...or, I figured, their heirs' heirs. :)
I'm sure no one would've batted an eye seeing her in this, but it would have bothered my heraldic sensibilities. But, if we won...so I brought it along, and she wore it on Sunday. I also stashed my purple silk stockings in, knowing that I would not process in to be crowned wearing thick wool socks and clogs (thanks,jpgsawyer for the loan of your shoes!).
Court was relatively short and filled with all sorts of deserving recognition, not the least of which wasjpgsawyer's laureling, which had nearly been reason enough alone for me to go to the event.
During feast His Highness and I briefly discussed our goals and aspirations for the reign, and they can be succinctly summarized in three points:
We will be planning our coronation ceremony along the lines of Henry VIII's. His Highness looks darned smashing in early Tudor, and Lady Anne pinned up my cotehardie at the end of the night and took it home with her and she will make me suitable garb to match his.
Gwen woke up again rather earlier than desired Sunday morning (when it was COLD out, let me tell you! as I discovered running with her over to the bathroom to get some warm water for a bottle in just my chemise), and while she was happy to lie on the bed and talk quietly to me, she didn't fall back asleep. I finally asked Joel to get up and take her elsewhere, and then napped for another two hours. I then ended up getting her to nap for nearly the same period; I set her up on the bed wedged between some pillows and since there were always people in there packing up, I didn't feel bad leaving her there unsupervised. As morning wore on the day grew nicer and nicer, with the sun coming out. Our flight wasn't until the evening, so we remained on site until everyone else had left, and then joined people at the pub at the end of the street for lunch, after whichmaryf and Finn kindly took us directly to the airport rather than just to the train station. We got there about 1.5 hours before check-in, but that was fine as they offered .5 hours free wireless, so I got to hop online, and see the first of the congratulations already come rolling in (it's amazingly how quickly word spread), and Gwen napped. And while we were sitting there, who did we run into but Davide, a colleague of ours from Amsterdam who took a permanent position in Liverpool in September! He was on his way to Germany for holiday, and so we sat and caught up for awhile, which was fun.
Gwen was over tired and fussy again on the flight home, not falling asleep until some ways in, but then she fell asleep as we waited for the train (around 22:00), and then slept the entire way to Tilburg, and stayed sleeping on the bus, and stayed sleeping on the walk from the bus to home, and stayed sleeping when I picked her up from her carseat and put her into bed! Of course, she then only slept until about 6:00, and since we'd gotten home at 0:30, and asleep at 1:00, I was basically dying. But an hour later she went back to sleep and slept for another 2.5 hours, at which time I did the same, so I made it through the rest of the day without being too sleep deprived!
It was a great event -- a fun tourney, a glorious outcome, a delicious feast, a very good baby, and a wonderful Joel who shoulder a lot more baby responsibility than he's used to (what with usually being asleep during the day when she's awake!) allowing me to freely watch the tourney, attend meetings, and sit in court without feeling distracted or worried. There were also many people on hand always willing to give her extra cuddles and flirting, and I knew no matter where she was she was in good keeping.
We then get about 5 min. out of Utrecht and there's an announcement that this train would be going no further, and that passengers for Schiphol should take another train to Amsterdam and change there. This sounded fishy to me -- I know there's got to be faster ways of getting to Schiphol from Utrecht than via Amsterdam CS, so I dug out the phone and started tracking down alternatives. We did change trains, but then decided to get out at Duivendrecht, and either try to get a taxi from there or take the metro to Zuid and get a taxi from there. One lesser known travel tip: If you want to find out about station amenities (e.g., whether there is a taxi queue), don't bother trying to find the info via the NS (Dutch rail) website, as the info isn't there. Instead, check the train station's wikipedia page. That's how we found out that there were taxis from Duivendrecht.
We weren't the only ones to have this idea; we got down to the taxi rank (which was empty) and there was a crowd of people with luggage there. A taxi showed up within a few minutes, though, and he must've called his friends because soon after that scads descended, so everyone who was waiting was able to get one. Because we'd left enough in advance we were still doing OK time wise, but it was an extra 45EUR that we weren't expecting to pay!
Our flight was at 21:50, and we'd left Tilburg around 18:00, and in that time Gwen took two half hour dozes, so she was really tired by the time we got to the gate to wait. It was noises and there were lots of people and she started crying and crying. After awhile the lady who worked at the Segafredo stand a bit away came over and insisted that I come and sit down behind the counter in a chair there, where it was quieter and cooler and more comfortable, and eventually I was able to get her to calm down, though she was still somewhat fussy until we got in the air. Then, thank goodness, she fell asleep. We got into site around 11:30 UK time and pretty much went straight to bed; Freiman and Esmeralda were already in the room and asleep and we unfortunately woke them up until Gwen got settled again, but then she slept through until about 6:00am. Because the beds were bunkbeds, and there wasn't really any out of the way spot on the floor, I just put her mattress between me and the wall and we shared the bed. She did amazingly well both nights, given that there were 8 other people in the room, one of whom snored, the beds were really noisy and creaky, and neither of us are used to sharing a bed with each other. Everyone in the room commented during the course of the weekend that it was much better sharing with her than they worried it might be!
The event was really laid back; breakfast started up about an hour after Gwen woke up on Saturday, and then armor inspections happened around 10ish and the tourney started after that.
jpgsawyer was our herald, and the text he wrote up was excellent; it proclaimed Master Paul to be the One, True Heir who would have preferred to have his right to the throne be simply recognized, but was willing to fight all comers to prove to all his right. After the participants were all heralded in, tables were moved over so that the consorts had a good view of the field, and things began.Now, I knew I would be very nervous watching if I didn't have a relatively good idea of how Paul was faring, so I made up a little cheat sheet. There were 9 contestants in a best out of 3 round robin, so in each round 4 fights were fought and one person sat out. I put all the contestants in columns and the rounds in rows, and for each fight I put the name of the loser under the name of the winner, and an X for byes, so that at any time I could quick glance at the sheet and see how many people any individual fighter had beaten so far. The cheat sheet was quite popular, with a number of people sitting near me asking to see it! And Paul...just. kept. on. winning. After he won his first bout, there was much squeeing, and Anne and I had a delightful time waggling our fingers at him whenever he saluted us before a fight. About round 6, whenever he won, a chorus of "de Gorey, de Gorey" would arise, and on the last bought we changed it to "The One, True Heir!" As a friend commented, Paul was the only one on the field who had squealing fangrrls. :) But this was only the second time someone had ever fought for me, of course I was going to be supportive of my consort!
With it being best 2/3, the tournament ran rather longer than some, but I didn't really notice, things seemed to go along at a zippy pace. For a bit Gwen lay on a blanket on the grass in front of me, but for most of it Joel took care of her, feeding her, cuddling her, and, in the middle, taking her back to the room and napping with her. Anne provided dark chocolate with orange and geranium; very yummy.
And Paul. Just. Kept. On. Winning, and suddenly there I was next to the Queen with Lady Isabetta on the other side watching the final (best out of 5). Paul won the first. Viscount William won the second. When the third bought was declared for William, my thought was "it's all over, William will win the next one" -- and I was quite happy about it because the entire tournament had been such a joy to watch and participate in, it was so light-hearted and everyone seemed to have such fun, and Lady Isabetta seemed very nice -- but then this declaration was rescinded, and the bought was refought and Paul won. Then William. Suddenly there was just one more fight left, and I barely followed what happened until William yielded and Paul had won.
The rest of the afternoon went in a flurry, there was lunch, some peerage meetings, some hanging out and discussion of important issues (culminating in ascertaining that Joel will be my privy clerk, tutor, and personal confessor, and as such there may be times that we need to secrete ourselves together for the good of my eternal soul, and whatever goes on behind closed doors remains between him, and me, and God. It will be the duty Lady Anne, as my chief lady-in-waiting, to make sure during such times that the Prince (and later King) does not intrude upon me inopportunely.)
One thing I'd always wondered was how one goes about packing for a Crown Tourney. There is a chance that there are things that you might wish you had, but if it's only a chance, is it really worth spending precious luggage space on them? Well, I decided that Paul had a good enough chance, and thus I should plan accordingly. I brought my purple silk, and, in event that we won, I brought Joel's matching cotehardie along for him to wear at supper/court. I also brought along a gift for Gwen that I'd gotten at my babyshower, an adorable little onesie by
draconisregena which, since it bears the arms of the kingdom, should strictly speaking only be worn by the king/queen or their heirs...or, I figured, their heirs' heirs. :)I'm sure no one would've batted an eye seeing her in this, but it would have bothered my heraldic sensibilities. But, if we won...so I brought it along, and she wore it on Sunday. I also stashed my purple silk stockings in, knowing that I would not process in to be crowned wearing thick wool socks and clogs (thanks,
jpgsawyer for the loan of your shoes!).Court was relatively short and filled with all sorts of deserving recognition, not the least of which was
jpgsawyer's laureling, which had nearly been reason enough alone for me to go to the event.During feast His Highness and I briefly discussed our goals and aspirations for the reign, and they can be succinctly summarized in three points:
- Food, beer, and dance. (If you don't like beer, feel free to substitute your choice of beverage.)
- If there is a choice between a SCA-ism and a medieval way, we'd like to do it the medieval way.
- Neither of us have any issues with the use of religious language.
We will be planning our coronation ceremony along the lines of Henry VIII's. His Highness looks darned smashing in early Tudor, and Lady Anne pinned up my cotehardie at the end of the night and took it home with her and she will make me suitable garb to match his.
Gwen woke up again rather earlier than desired Sunday morning (when it was COLD out, let me tell you! as I discovered running with her over to the bathroom to get some warm water for a bottle in just my chemise), and while she was happy to lie on the bed and talk quietly to me, she didn't fall back asleep. I finally asked Joel to get up and take her elsewhere, and then napped for another two hours. I then ended up getting her to nap for nearly the same period; I set her up on the bed wedged between some pillows and since there were always people in there packing up, I didn't feel bad leaving her there unsupervised. As morning wore on the day grew nicer and nicer, with the sun coming out. Our flight wasn't until the evening, so we remained on site until everyone else had left, and then joined people at the pub at the end of the street for lunch, after which
maryf and Finn kindly took us directly to the airport rather than just to the train station. We got there about 1.5 hours before check-in, but that was fine as they offered .5 hours free wireless, so I got to hop online, and see the first of the congratulations already come rolling in (it's amazingly how quickly word spread), and Gwen napped. And while we were sitting there, who did we run into but Davide, a colleague of ours from Amsterdam who took a permanent position in Liverpool in September! He was on his way to Germany for holiday, and so we sat and caught up for awhile, which was fun.Gwen was over tired and fussy again on the flight home, not falling asleep until some ways in, but then she fell asleep as we waited for the train (around 22:00), and then slept the entire way to Tilburg, and stayed sleeping on the bus, and stayed sleeping on the walk from the bus to home, and stayed sleeping when I picked her up from her carseat and put her into bed! Of course, she then only slept until about 6:00, and since we'd gotten home at 0:30, and asleep at 1:00, I was basically dying. But an hour later she went back to sleep and slept for another 2.5 hours, at which time I did the same, so I made it through the rest of the day without being too sleep deprived!
It was a great event -- a fun tourney, a glorious outcome, a delicious feast, a very good baby, and a wonderful Joel who shoulder a lot more baby responsibility than he's used to (what with usually being asleep during the day when she's awake!) allowing me to freely watch the tourney, attend meetings, and sit in court without feeling distracted or worried. There were also many people on hand always willing to give her extra cuddles and flirting, and I knew no matter where she was she was in good keeping.
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no subject
Date: 2012-04-04 04:06 pm (UTC)I wish you luck with the challenge of being queen, a new mother and working. Congratulations again.
no subject
Date: 2012-04-04 05:14 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-04-04 06:51 pm (UTC):P
no subject
Date: 2012-04-04 06:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-04-05 12:10 am (UTC)Heralds talk. This is news?
no subject
Date: 2012-04-05 07:48 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-04-07 09:17 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-04-09 10:25 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-04-09 01:31 pm (UTC)