The event was ”The Tailor’s Story, or, There Will be Cheese”. It was so much fun!
It didn’t have many things I normal associate with SCA events (like lots of hugs/cuddles, singing and dancing), because we were attempting to respect social distance, despite the fact that about 40 of us were gathered in one place. But it was still wonderful to be there, and had a number of highlights for me.
First there was getting there. I was to travel with Villiam the Juggler, and he wanted to stop by the regular Friday evening Phire training session before we went. So I arranged with Johan that we would do our Friday acroyoga session at Phire instead of in the morning.
Friday morning I got up nice and early, did some hours of work, took a break and packed up the bedding I couldn’t pack the night before (as I was sleeping on those pillows), and then put the bedding bag and tourney chests into the car. There were still some hours to go before time to leave for Phire Practice (which starts at 17:00 on Fridays), so it felt a little early to pack the food, since I didn’t want the box of frozen black currants I was bringing for the cooks to use at the event to start melting, and other than that it was only toiletries that still needed packing, so I sat down to the computer, where I finally started sending messages to some of the people who had expressed interest in teaching at Norrskensfesten next month. Some of them replied straight away, and as I replied to replies the time just slipped away, and suddenly I realised that it was already after 16:00, I was hungry, and I still had to pack the food and toiletries!
So I shut down the computer, quickly tossed everything into their bags and warmed up the last of the soup that was in the fridge. Ate it, and managed to get out the door in good enough time that I pulled into the parking lot at the normal Phire meeting place at exactly 17:00, just as Villiam biked up to the door. Then he explained that he was only here to put a note on the door saying we were meeting today only at the site we usually use on Mondays. So I sent Johan a text message to let him know of the change, and he redirected.
I drove around campus the long way to get to the other site, since otherwise I would have had to turn across traffic on a busy street, at 17:00 on a Friday. I probably got there faster than I would have, though the actual distance travelled is about three times as far. (one can’t take the shortcut through the middle of campus just now, because they are replacing buried pipes, so the road it completely blocked off and dug up).
Villiam had a number of things he needed to do before he would be ready, so instead of just a quick 15-20 minutes of Acroyoga Johan and I managed 40 minutes of acroyoga. Then Villiam and I hit the road, enjoying good company, and the sound of heavy rain, for nearly three hours (Google says 2.25 hours, but we stopped for petrol, and, with the very heavy rain, didn’t always drive as fast as the speed limit permits).
We arrived around 21:00, claimed some beds (I took the top bunk, of course!), and changed into costume. Then I checked in with the King and Queen to confirm that they wanted my services as Lady in waiting for the weekend. (That role would have been held by my dear friend Aeirin, who is squire to his Majesty, but, sadly, at the last minute she came down with a sore throat, and couldn’t come, so she asked me if I could stand in, and, of course, I said I would be delighted to.) After visiting with them a bit I did my yoga, and then realised how tired I was, and went to bed at 23:00.
I rose at 07:30 on Saturday and got myself dressed and ready before breakfast was served, then got TRM’s feast gear out of the basket and set up and ready, and as soon as they were up I fetched them coffee and asked what they wanted for breakfast and fetched that. Note: In this site the dining hall (read: old school gym) is on one end of the building, upstairs, whilst the kitchen is on the other end of the building downstairs. Luckily, there was a small room right next to the gym that we could use for dishwashing, so while I ran back and forth and up and down stairs often all weekend to fetch and carry and deliver messages for the King and Queen, I didn’t have to go far to wash their dishes after every meal.
During breakfast TRM asked me if I was interested in holding the Sword of State during court, since their Champion has recently moved to Finland and couldn’t make it to the event. Yes! Of course I would love to do that. Then they asked me to find them two other Ladies in Waiting for court.
This was easily accomplished–the first two people I asked if they would enjoy doing that said yes. I also asked TRM if they would be interested in having people cued up ready to provide entertainment if it should happen that we needed to wait for someone to be fetched to court. They liked the idea so I told Villiam to bring his juggling balls etc. to court and be ready if they call on him, but to sit back down promptly when the summoned person arrives. Then I asked Kjartan if he wanted to do some music should they need a second set of entertainment while waiting for someone. Both were happy to stand ready.
Then it was time for the Tipspromenad (”quiz walk”), which was one of many contests of the day to determine the next Renväktare (”Reindeer Guardian”), who will take care of Sven, Reengarda’s most important reindeer. The first couple of questions were easy: which year did the SCA start? and ”who won at the battle of Hastings?”, but then the questions got harder, and Villiam and I (who did the walk as a team) had to guess for most of them.
After the walk Villiam and I stood on the porch and worked on sanding the wooden spoons we had carved the weekend before at Frostheim’s spoon carving workshop, whilst many others gathered around a fire and chatted. Then it was nearly time for lunch, so I found out what was for lunch (oven pancake that had been previously cooked, then cut into strips, and fried), and what flavours (the lactose-free choices, which Her Majesty needs were plain and with apple and cinnamon, while the normal ones came in plain, with cheese, and with cheese and meat), plus what side options (Drottningssylt (”Queen’s Jam”, which is a mix of forest berries) and bacon), and reported to TRM the options, and then fetched them their lunch. Having seen them frying the lactose free-variants in cooking oil, I decided that I would rather eat the food I brought with me, so I did. After cleaning up the lunch dishes I helped decorate the hall, and was more than a bit jealous that Keldor, who was wearing trousers and a tunic, got to do the climbing to hang the silk banners from the rafters, whilst I, wearing skirts long enough to step on, stayed on the ground. But, by the time we were done, the result was beautiful and didn’t quite look so much like a school gym with a plywood stage folded up against the wall.