PL3A53 R3B00+

75 cm might not seem that much, but as two hill walkers have proved it is the difference between a mountain and a really rather large mole hill.

So yes I said I only had one project left to do for Maelstrom. An easy project now that I've spent time thinking about it and working out how to remake my armour so that it fit. I even have a week in which to work...However I still haven't found my rivets. Trying to decide whether to let it stress me or not. Place your bets now...

It's one small bag of rivet tops in one large room of crafting supplies...if I'm lucky. If I'm unlucky they could be anywhere.

In good news I managed to find the details for Le Prevo who were the place I got them from in the first place. A place whose customer service extended to calling me to point out that I needed longer rivets for my bosses and made sure I had enough for what I wanted.
However I doubt that I can get the rivets on time if I reorder them. This is more for buying new ones if I can't find them after the event. It can't be that hard to find them can it?

For those that did not read the declaration of the hunt I am planning on visiting quite a few National Trust properties this year to take full advantage of my membership card and also indulge my inner history buff.

I started this kick with a trip to Little Moreton Hall - Preempt from the hunt as it was too short notice and was a change for choccoweeble   to renew her card.

( Minor details )

This does lead me to announce my first official hunt.

Time: 8th of March Dunham Massey - One week's notice I know, it isn't much but the two weekends after are kind of booked.
Location: just west-southwest of Manchester Map here
Price:Gift aided £8.50 (Normal £7.70)
Membership costs: Look Here
Space available in car: 2-3 depending on how squashed you want to be. This is from Chester. We're happy to pick up and drop off Manchester people and those close by to avoid extra cars. Especially as parking is limited as they are doing work on the carpark.
Facilities available are: Shop, Cafe, Picnic area, walking, garden and new for this year, Exhibition of toys from Dunham's hidden collection...but no dogs allowed.

So I've been spending a pleasant day at work...not really doing much work. I mean there is only so much you can do to stretch 3 calls for 6 hours especially if all they are is password resets. I've also noticed that msn has less people on it on Sunday.

So instead I've been writing on one of my stories and trying to describe a sport/artform that I rather admire but am very certain I could never perform; Parcours or Freerunning. My own performance at this is more due to lack of physical fitness than any ability. I know my reflexes are good enough but I'm not stupid enough to think I'm strong enough to do half of what they do.

Anyway I spent my morning plotting out how to cross a city by any means possible and at very high speed. To help me with this I've been watching Banlieue 13 or District 13 to give it it's English name. (On a side note it bothers me that the disk did not have an option to watch the French with French subtitles - Paying attention to two languages at once just distracts me). It certainly helped show what you can and can't do and how to ensure things work out. That part is the easy bit. The hard part is taking this very visual thing and describing a full pelt mad cap rush through a city in words. Now I've read a lot of books and I've written quite a bit but boy this is tricky.

It's not a case of just saying they moved from building to building. It's explaining how they put feet to the wall, scramble for grip, scuttle up a pipe, before vaulting a fence and dropping themselves off the other side, legs bending and absorbing the fall. It's fast, it's dangerous and you only stay safe when your mind is several steps ahead and it's proving to be a challenge to write. A fun one, but still a challenge.

1. No matter how witty you want to be, when you start to type you'll forget everything

2. Lurching like a zombie is strangely more dignified than waddling like a lame duck

3. Minute taking makes my handwriting more irratic and illegible than usual

4. Despite having only emptied the books from the two bookshelves I'm now filling, they will still fill more space when being returned to them.

5. Even I can make my tea too hot to drink

That is all...

So It's the year of the Rat and New years Day. At least according to the Chinese calendar. So I've decided to follow a few chinese traditions just for the fun of it.

The following are the ones pertinent to me.

Don't wash your hair today - Apparently this is so you don't wash the luck from your year. I shall therefore wash my hair before work tomorrow. Nothing unlucky about that, plus I'm in all night so no need to prettify myself.

Wear Red - apparently to bring a bright happy future. I don't currently have a red shirt that fits so will have to take one in which leads me to section three or actually just put on a red tie ;)

It is believed that appearance and attitude during New Year's sets the tone for the rest of the year. - So I plan on being cheerful, helpful, focused and determined today and get things I set myself done so hopefully this will spread to the rest of the year.

Now I'm not superstitious as such, I just tend to work on a "well if it's not true I'm just getting things done" and "if it is then I'm all good" ;)

So Yesterday I and a few of my collegues decided to do our usual walk around the lakes/pond that is next to our building. The road for the business park is a 30 limit and has this week been visited at least twice by traffic police and they even booked someone as I was leaving today.

Anyway we spotted the rather obvious results of someone speeding on the road. My inner csi looked at the angle and worked out that this was what happened when you took a u-turn at too high a speed and overshoot the road. You can just make out that he avoided the lake/pond by a few mere feet.

For other clearer pics of the tracks go here


Pics taken with my phonecamera.

I get the urge every now and then to challenge myself and make something I needs in a very short space of time. Usually for larp but also for random other occasions. Often this will, due to time constraints and my ability to find a pattern I like, involve me taking apart something that I've worn out and like in order to replicate said piece of clothing.

This time I really decided to push the boat out and took apart a suit jacket. Things to note as taking it apart was that the sleeves were a stranger configuration than I thought and the pieces were oddly shaped, the lining was actually attached in several parts by small strips to avoid sliding and the pockets were too complicated for me to really care about.

So far I've had to take apart and reser about 6 seams as I put things back together wrong. I've had to make an adjustment to one piece of lining because I didn't realise the two back pieces weren't the same and I've sacrificed several pins and one needles to the gods of sewing.

I'm now almost at the finishline but will no doubt have to finish up tomorrow and I think I have taken away a few lessons that will come in handy next time I decide to do something this daft.

1. Making notes of which piece attached which way round would have been a good idea and saved me about 45 mins.
2. Marking which seam had to be done first would have saved me resewing the sleeves quite so much.
3. Not loosing some of my more useful colours of threads would have made my mistakes a bit more forgiving.
4. Kneeling for this long makes my legs cramp at work...

Today was an ish day at work. Meaning I was only thereish mentally for most of the day. The rest of the time I was sitting with Kerrigan composing yet more Artificer Poetry which will no doubt be aired at somepoint.

I came home to the task of finding a craft I could fit into the small space before slimming world and the cinema. So I decided to take apart and resew one of the four men's shirts I bought on the basis that their shirts are more military colours than what I can find elsewhere. In an effort not to feel like I was wasting my time I picked the least nice shirt to start with. Turns out I had to do a little more adjusting than I thought and, despite removing almost 3 inches out of the back of the shirt it's still longer than the front...

I've now got it finished in what can roughly be said to be 1h 20 mins and it well sort of looks fine...I can't really tell seeing as I am still lacking in that rather useful thing 'A full length mirror'. Ah well at worst it looks a little untailored and at best I have some shirts I feel happy wearing out instead of my nice ones. I've worn worse fitting shirts to work and with my expanding waistcoat section I can hide ill fitted bits.

Now on to one of my other 12 projects that I started...or was it 14? One of them has been completely abandonned as I am without the right tools the rest as getting there bit by bit.

However I was too tired to be able to form any coherent sentences about the topic I had in mind...

So all I will say is, New Years was good. Meeting people again was fun. redhillian's Jeep made seeing that we were at the right house easy as I actually recognised it even though I had no idea they were going to be there. I plan on posting stuff about various things later. Stopping now as coherency has gone out the window.

Goal for today. Get to sleep early enough that waking at 5 tomorrow for work will not ruin my day...

Night all.