Made it back from Maelstrom. Brief review follows.

( Brief review. )

So, all in all, I'm not 100% happy with my experience over the last few days. I apologise to folks for basically being rather useless over the course of the weekend; I had honestly thought that once I'd get out there, my levels of "Being Able To Deal With Things" would've been propped up by Maelstrom-related enthusiasm.

On the plus side, I believe that Sprog has invited folks along to watch Andrew W.K. play the piano tomorrow night. That ought to cheer me up.

I'll be off to catch a train in a few minutes, once Mister Pink's declared that is Ready To Go^TM. Still not one hundred percent sure about actually going, but there's no backing out now, right?

Hopefully all will go well, and I'll be back on Sunday evening / Monday morning full of tales of danger, excitement and cake.

Rough Plan

7:30am - Finally give up on trying to sleep, start drinking large quantities of coffee instead. If you can't be asleep, you might as well be awake.

9:00am - Sling assortment of things into small bag (juggling balls, MP3 player, book or two) and drink more coffee. Have a slice of toast with marmalade on it, if there's any bread to be found.

11:00am - Check weather, if cold or wet, stick on coat, grab bag, leave house and head towards Chez Pink.

11:10am - Realise I've left Cuthbert at the house, run back, grab Cuthbert, head off again.

12:00pm - Arrive at Chez Pink, poke him with a stick until he agrees to get breakfast/lunch.

Some Point In The Afternoon o'clock - Panic a lot.

3:00pm - Head off to St Pancras station, catch train to Long Eaton, panic some more.

Around 4:30-5:00pm, Look, I Don't Really Have This Planned - Arrive on site. Fall asleep in tent.

So that's the rough plan. Like most plans, it is unlikely to survive contact with the enemy and, like most of my plans, my biggest enemy that stands in the way of it being completed is me.

Right. I'm going to be more or less AFK from now until Sunday night, as I ought to be packing and knocking back my weight in orange juice to try and fend off what might very well be a case of the sniffles caught from Miss Freddie.

See folks there, or when I get back! Be excellent to one another!


( Psst, buddy! )

Mister Pink informs me that I've been turned into a motivational poster...

Made it back home by a sensible hour, which was indeed a novelty, and spent the evening eating food, feeling sleepy and watching stupid YouTube videos ("Candy mountain, Charlie, candy mountain!"). After a bit of sleep, it's now the morning of the day after, and I can honestly say that I'd like another twelve or so hours of sleep.

( A short, snappy review of the event. )

Two glasses of port later, and the pre-Maelstrom nerves have all but vanished in a puff of good-natured cheer. I accept that alcohol isn't the way to solve my problems, but it provides a convenient distraction until I find the solution.

Made it back from the game, though despite falling asleep for most of the journey along the M4/M5 (waking up just in time to give directions into Exeter), I am still pretty tired.

Overall, the weekend was fantastic, with much greatness coming from the formation of Team Exeter Dryad, theological discussions in the Lyzar Forum, preaching about the Raven to folks who didn't know well enough to run away and large amounts of bein' vex'd by things. I'll get round to posting something a bit more intelligent once I've got a few hours of sleep under my belt (sleep that doesn't involved being kicked in the face).

Exeterites!

Miss Jenny has agreed to come along to the coming Maelstrom game (though I'm not sure she knows what she's letting herself in for knows what she wants to play yet), and will be bringing her Large Red Van. This means that, providing we can all agree what day we'd like to leave (I'm still hoping for Thursday), we can all go in the van. A huge, huge thank you is in order for Miss Jenny in that regards!

Would everyone (Ash and Carrie, Team Ena) be willing to travel down on the Thursday? If not, we can look at putting things into the van and taking it down there on the Thursday, with folks who wish to travel on the Friday going by train.

Again, big thanks to Miss Jenny. Awesomesauce.

Exeterites! Or, at least, Exeterites plann- wait a minute, I can hear an ice cream truck outside!

Darnit, I don't have enough change in my wallet to get ice cream. And there's ice cream in the freezer that needs eating up regardless.

Anyway, Exeterites who're coming to Maelstrom (and Mister Pink), we need to work out how we're going to travel northwards to get to the coming game. Sadly, Mister Jake won't be present, and Leeroy is nowhere near large enough to carry everyone. Therefore, I am going to humbly propose that we hire a vehicle to take us to Maelfroth, but before I can hire something, I need to know - who is coming and who would be interested in hiring a car to get there?

Just got back in. Thank you to the people who were staying in the tent with me (Ni, Gill, Darren) for putting up with me last night and this morning while in my wibbly state. Am giving serious consideration to saying "no, my brain and body cannot take Maelstrom anymore" and finding some other way to get my LARP-fix.

Well, it's probably an hour or so after time in, and I've retreated to the tent. Too many people for me to deal with, too cold for me to think straight, too tired and too stressed to cope.

I would like nothing more than to go home. This wasn't a good idea (should've guessed that earlier like, say, before I left) and I shall see what I can do about leaving in the morning. For now, I'll sit here with my book and wait until I fall asleep. At least I have chocolate...

Things To Do Tomorrow

• Clear out Reg of extraneous things in order that we may have the maximum amount of space available.
• Pack all OOC-gubbins into a bag. Remember to include warm fleece pyjamas, dressing gown, large sleeping bag and pillow.
• Panic a lot.
• Take a trip to Big Tescos to get some emergency food supplies for weekend and food for the house so Mister Colin doesn't starve.
• Try not to panic.
• Give Freddie a ring in the evening to find out how her interview went.
• Try to catch up on sleep (maybe).
• Double-check that I've packed everything, get it ready for loading into the car in the morning.
• Make a few "travelling to and from event" CDs to listen to while driving.

Edit (1030, March 19^th): Packed most of OOC gubbins into bag, have found big sleeping bag. Debating when is best to go to Big Tescos. Trying to decide on music for car proving difficult.

Edit 2 (1424, March 19^th): Just got back from Big Tescos. There is now milk in the fridge and some food in the freezer. Congratulated myself on packing so well, only to realise that (a) I've still got a little pile of things to fit in the bag and (b) all my IC gubbins are at Ash and Carrie's place. Ah well. Feeling rather nervous and apprehensive.

We've got the first copy printed out. I'm going to take it to the printers tomorrow lunchtime, and hopefully will be waddling home with many, many copies of the newspaper under one arm. I've already come to a few decisions about how the next edition is going to be printed; namely, a change in font size to cram more information into each page and making the title of the newspaper a little larger.

Let's just hope it sells well, eh?

About two-thirds of the way now through putting the paper together. Running a little short on articles. Tempted to print "ALL WORK AND NO PLAY MAKES MASOUD GO CRAZY" over and over again in the middle two pages, along with some adverts.