janewilliams20

 While I can still just about remember what I did.

I'd promised myself that I would take it easy this year - only just done my first full (nearly!) week back at work after over 2 months off sick, so I'd need to allow for getting tired easily. So, minimise prep. activities, think of myself as a consumer not a producer, chill.... yeah, right. The pre-Continuum to-do list posted Wednesday night shows how well that went.
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So, during that weekend, I've been Lunars in three events, Sundomer in one,  non-Gloranthan in one, and Sartarite only for a few songs. There's something wrong here. 

There was this suggestion that some new songs for the Singalong at Continuum might be nice. I heard about this while in Wales, having been listening to Bryn Terfel singing Welsh songs in the car, and remembered that I'd produced a version of "Land of my Fathers" years ago. Well, when I say a version, I'd taken the English translation, noted that it fitted Glorantha pretty well anyway, and changed a few words.

I offered it, and was told that it didn't seem all that Gloranthan. OK, tastes differ... so I went back and had a look, it had been ten years after all.

Yes. Rather stilted Victorian English. I was listening to Bryn in Welsh. I'd heard that the "translation" was more a case of putting some words or other to the same tune, in any case...

So, I tracked down the real meaning of the Welsh. I tracked down the Welsh lyrics. What I've almost produced is a closer translation (despite adaptation for a different universe), and retains the same rhyming pattern as the Welsh. It's pretty close to done, and has much more punch than what I had before. I'm pretty pleased with it - but I'm also stuck on a few lines.

But, "almost" done, and it's gone 22:00, and I got four hours sleep last night, and... maybe time to drop it, and do some simpler and more basic things that also need doing before I leave tomorrow morning? Two army lists, print out the scenario I'm running Saturday morning, and maybe finish writing the new story I'm telling Friday night?

Friday - it took many attempts to get us a room, as the double near the main event had been converted to singles, the University-managed room-booking desk closed till 2 (registration opened at 1), and while the Continuum staff (hi Loz!) were helpful and organised and useful, the University staff.... let's not go there. Ended up in a place (the Knoll) which while amazingly scenic, was far too far from Continuum Central to walk, and had the most unequipped kitchen I have ever seen.

Maddie and I did the food prep for the evening in there (after an Asda trip to obtain things like a frying pan, some cutlery, and so on), the Gophers (mainly Dave) transported the results over to the centre, and the "Hearts in Glorantha" launch party went well, even if most of the contributors didn't show up. (Which in a couple of cases is fine by me). newt producing something of that quality, charging a fiver for it not £15, and still making a profit, will, I hope, make other publishers sit up and take notice. Photos of the food are still on my camera, and will stay there for a bit.

Saturday morning, off to the Greydog Inn, and an unfortunate murder. grahamrobinson reckoned he could write a free-from that I could enjoy. He was right - but no more comment, he's running it again this morning, and I'm not allowed to do spoilers. I'll just mention in passing that silverhippo as a Trickster was brilliant.

Lunchbreak, and Dave grabs me - they've found us new rooms! Dash over to the Knoll, pack, dash back, grab bits for the Duck Point Boat Race, stagger into the entrance looking for somewhere to put the game (due to start in 5 min according to my timetable) - no, it's OK, afternoon slot starts at 2 not 1. Phew. I'd got to the point of "sit down or fall over", with crying starting to be an option, so the chance to grab some hot stodge and a drink was a Good Thing.

The game was great fun. I'm glad I didn't over-plan it, the players invented most of the plot, as expected. Many invented their own boats, never mind their own factions, the sabotage options were wonderful, and the eventual Baboon craft (a stolen newtling reed boat, with the ballista mounted on top and covered by a horseskin and some bits of inexpert carpentry, then "decorated" and mostly manned by Humakti, is something I'd like to see an artist make a stab at. No boat finished the race: most sank, and one got disqualified for cheating (the captain will be crucified in a few weeks, when they've finished interrogating him). The Storm Bull team tell me that as stag nights go, that was the best ever (they're currently stranded in the middle of the Upland Marsh with no boat and no sense of direction but quite a lot of beer). If anyone can claim to have won, it was Utta Rutta, token male baboon, who thinks he's found the love of his life. Or possibly it was the NPC Humakti racing team, who now know how to build and shoot a ballista, including how to use it to launch a crack squad of Death Drakes through the Governor's bedroom window.

Saturday evening - collapse, sleep. I'm getting old.

Sunday morning - I'm playing in Darren's "Winter Warriors"! HQ2 game, and all about Inora - the one game this weekend I REALLY wanted to get into. And in the afternoon - Duck Point, the re-run. I had so many on the Reserve list, I thought I'd do a repeat. Play test comments have been noted. Then the story-telling in the evening... the harp is in the back of the car and I MUST have a few more goes at it before then. I'll be telling a story about Boldhome Pie (which was delicious, by the way) - must finish writing that, the details of Sartar history are causing me trouble - and reading some from the "Twelve days of Xmas" series.

Wed 16th ctd.

Evening meal back under the trees at the Reichs Kuchenmeister, though the wind got up and chased us indoors as soon as we'd finished our venison goulash. It seems the title means "Master Chefs of the Empire" or Magister Coquinae, and they were in charge of enforcing the law in Rothenburg. The family blazon involves a knights helmet surrounded by cooking utensils. I knew I approved of the place!

No photos at all today!

Thursday 17th
We escaped from Rothenburg. Down to Dinkelsbuhl, which is supposed to be similar but unspoilt. In fact it's just smaller. We had coffee, looked at the church and the big doors with huge silver hinges, took photos and carried on to Coberg.

Coberg was originally intended as a part-way stop on our way to the Harz mountains, but it also has a Castle. Not just a pretty little Schloss, but a serious Veste aka Fortress. It also had a free music festival starting today... by the time we'd found somewhere to stay (the Tulip) and got lost a few times, the Veste was closed. So we wandered back into town, looked round (not that much to see after a surfeit of half-timbered houses in Rothenburg), ate, then spent some time watching and listening to various interesting groups. Square dance, Irish dance, slack rope, quite a lot I couldn't identify, and some between-dances entertainment from a chap who appeared to be able to get a tune out of anything, including a sink plunger and a foot-pump. Then back to the hotel, where we found and used the pool table. Team Williams beat Team Piggott, mainly because Dave used to play snooker for the BAe team, and it shows.

Fri 18th
Up in the morning feeling absolutely shattered, and breakfast, even with coffee, made things worse rather than better. Internet access in the hotel was overpriced: the internet cafe next door was far cheaper, but didn't let Yahoo Mail send messages, and wouldn't read my USB stick. We drove up to the castle, and Shirley and I sat in the car with drinks from the cafe while the other three “did” the place. Full of swords and armour, apparently. I can't have been right, because I didn't care. I learnt a lot though. We sat there and compared notes on food intolerance and liver oddities. It looks as if I may have acquired a wheat intolerance – symptoms include exhaustion for no apparent reason, the liver problems match, and I've been eating more bread than usual and drinking weissbier. So for a bit, I'm going to try cutting out wheat, and see what happens. It helped Shirley, it may help me, and the trial can't hurt. No wheat, no milk, no cream, with German cuisine, will be interesting.

Anyway, this was only ever meant to be a stop-over, so on to the Harz, arriving (thanks to dawdling tractors) after 6 in the evening. We're in Wernigerode, in the Hotel Wernigerode, found by the means of “it's got three coaches parked outside, it must be a big hotel”. Apparently there's wireless access (hot-spot) in the lobby, but there's also a free Internet PC, and it's fully equipped. It will read my USB stick – shame Flickr is still so slow, and won't use the latest uploader. Only IE6. Having caught up with things, I'm writing this on the laptop and will transfer to US stick and take it downstairs tomorrow morning.

Now, back to writing the Duck Point Boat Race game. There's a printer downstairs, I may even print out what I've done so far for future scribbling in the car. Need to pick Team Piggott's collective brains on designing the boad-game part of it...

Sat am update: feeling great, stayed up late writing the game, still woke up early. So posting before breakfast. The no-wheat experiment will continue.

Been off with a migraine today - I tried hitting it with paracetamol and so on, but when breakfast failed to stay put it became clear that this was not going to be a quick shift, and despite intentions to go in to work once it had cleared, it never did. Still around, mildly: keeping my eyes focused for more than a minute or so hurts, so driving isn't an option.

But, late afternoon, I did manage to get back to the PC for more than a few minutes at a time, and got a few things done.

( geeky bit under here )

Now, if only the pain behind my right eye would go away... time for more paracetamol, methinks. And a long drink, and an early night.

They asked us to post stuff to the Continuum website, set up for that purpose: so having done so from time to time over the weekend, let me copy those posts in here.

( What I said Sunday morning )

Then I posted some pictures of Dwarf Mine to Flickr.

( Sunday afternoon, I said )