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Having not done anything for a couple of weeks, I decided to go to Strawberry Fair yesterday, supposedly to help out CHaOS people.
That's not quite true, actually; I had to be in town for an opticians appointment, and I was halfway back to Churchill before the 'go to Strawberry Fair' demands in my head won out and I turned back and headed out.
Strawberry Fair was quite impressive. Lots of pretty colours, quite a few pretty people. I wandered around in something of a daze, combing the fair for CHaOS people. Along the way I bought a few things because they'd be good for LARP or because I need new summer clothes and there were shiny things, although I only had 8 pounds with me because I hadn't been planning on buying anything more than lunch (and had bought a bowl of melon). On further reports I think I walked right past where the CHaOS people were (the Kids Tent), but it was kind of dim in there because it was so bright outside, and all the signs that were up were advertising arts and crafts type things, so I decided it couldn't possibly be in there.
Having thoroughly explored the entire fair (which was quite entertaining - there was a stall with the best fairy wings I've ever seen, and many people wandering around in really cool stuff, including an alien with a metal crinoline), I decided I needed to find more lunch than some melon and sit down or I was going to fall over. However, I only had 3 pounds left at this stage, and there seemed to be no water being sold anywhere for less than a pound, and I wanted a drink. Eventually I compromised, buying 2.50 worth of food (a giant vegetarian spring roll and a crab claw in batter) and eating it very slowly whilst sitting down, then combing the fair again for water that cost less than the sixty-one pence I had remaining. (There were strange things like entirely transparent very-thin-noodles in the vegetarian spring roll. I would vaguely like to know what they were, if anyone has any ideas. They just tasted of Generic Spring Roll Flavouring.)
Failing to find any such thing, and almost getting in the way of a very frustrated ambulence trying to get through the crowds, I headed out to Poohsoc. I was suddenly unsure of where Poohsoc was, so I took out my phone, which featured a text message from![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
tienelle asking where I was. So I phoned him and asked him where Poohsoc was, and said I'd be there. Met Jonathan (the assassin) on the way in and we both got thoroughly lost, including getting lousy directions from the porters that dead-ended. Eventually we managed to find Katie's room, and tienelle showed up complaining that there was nothing interesting in Strawberry Fair, having been run around by his parents through it. I insisted this was not the case, and after rehydrating a bit, went back with him to show him the clothes stalls he'd missed. There were *lots* of people, and it's harder to navigate crowds with two - at one point I managed to duck across a stream of people and he just stood looking lost on the other side, wondering where I'd gone because all around was an opaque mass of people.
We found one or two shiny things, although everything was suffering from the usual problem of All The Cool Stuff Is Made For Girls. Eventually he only bought one thing, and we were going to get money to buy another but decided that we'd better get to Oblivion before I fell over, because my legs were registering their displeasure with my treatment of them in no uncertain terms. I did make it to Oblivion, but only by much effort of will. Then I collapsed on the sofa and looked very dead indeed.
I continued to look pretty dead for a while, managing to fall over onto the floor so I could watch people outside momentarily, but not more than that. Katy (foreverdirt) and Ewan (fhtagn showed back up from food shopping; Edith (edith_the_hutt) invited Stuart (ilanin) as an emergency backup sanity device (his usual emergency sanity device, Ian (requiem_17_23) being busy. Eventually, with much water, I recovered a bit - enough to wander around and eat some meat and be vaguely sociable.
Eventually Snut and Jenni (neko_of_doom) showed up in a taxi, amidst much bouncing and squeeing. I wandered out to work out what was happening, and ended up fighting with Nicholas over who could hide behind the other, then chasing him around Stuart. We migrated back inside, and there was much squeeing over manga and RPG book shininess, and I ate half a bowl of lettuce, and then back outside, and Jenni decided to threaten people with a BBQ fork; when she threatened Nicholas with it I took it from her, because that's my job.
More food and more running around ensued, including several people attempting to remove the fork from me; they were all perfectly capable of doing so, but got bored too easily. Eventually I went and acquired LARP weaponary, because someone was using the fork for its intended purpose and so I'd run out of implements to threaten people with. There was much LARP-weaponary-randomness, in which Stuart denouncned all LARPers, Ewan and Snut refused to duel (instead deciding to slaughter the noncombatents and then get drunk), and Jenni almost fell backwards over a table whilst we were fighting with daggers. This kind of put an end to that part of the proceedings, because we broke a bowl. Oops.
I was feeling a bit fragile again, so I went and sat down and read Hellsing, and also watched Naath play Frozen Bubble, which became a disturbingly popular occupation, especially disturbing to Naath because she was self-professedly useless at the game. I started to get a headache, and tried drinking some water, but felt sick. So I sat and played Frozen Bubble to take my mind off it. Edith made concerned noises, but Oblivion has no paracetamol that isn't the fizzy stuff that I can't bring myself to drink, so the headache just got worse. Katy lent me her coat because I was getting cold and had lost my jumper somewhere (also left my mobile phone at Poohsoc), and a chair in the garden was organised so I could join the main party, but I wasn't very coherant and it was too cold outside. So I went back inside and sat on the sofa whining, first to Jenni and then to Nicholas. We decided I ought to try and go to sleep, so I did, but it didn't work very well until about 3am.
Woke up about 8, but everyone was still asleep; Nicholas got up about 9 to go to church, so I blinked at him a bit, declared that my headache had gone away, tried to get up and decided I was far too fragile to be doing the 50min walk into church. Still not sure what caused the headache.
That's not quite true, actually; I had to be in town for an opticians appointment, and I was halfway back to Churchill before the 'go to Strawberry Fair' demands in my head won out and I turned back and headed out.
Strawberry Fair was quite impressive. Lots of pretty colours, quite a few pretty people. I wandered around in something of a daze, combing the fair for CHaOS people. Along the way I bought a few things because they'd be good for LARP or because I need new summer clothes and there were shiny things, although I only had 8 pounds with me because I hadn't been planning on buying anything more than lunch (and had bought a bowl of melon). On further reports I think I walked right past where the CHaOS people were (the Kids Tent), but it was kind of dim in there because it was so bright outside, and all the signs that were up were advertising arts and crafts type things, so I decided it couldn't possibly be in there.
Having thoroughly explored the entire fair (which was quite entertaining - there was a stall with the best fairy wings I've ever seen, and many people wandering around in really cool stuff, including an alien with a metal crinoline), I decided I needed to find more lunch than some melon and sit down or I was going to fall over. However, I only had 3 pounds left at this stage, and there seemed to be no water being sold anywhere for less than a pound, and I wanted a drink. Eventually I compromised, buying 2.50 worth of food (a giant vegetarian spring roll and a crab claw in batter) and eating it very slowly whilst sitting down, then combing the fair again for water that cost less than the sixty-one pence I had remaining. (There were strange things like entirely transparent very-thin-noodles in the vegetarian spring roll. I would vaguely like to know what they were, if anyone has any ideas. They just tasted of Generic Spring Roll Flavouring.)
Failing to find any such thing, and almost getting in the way of a very frustrated ambulence trying to get through the crowds, I headed out to Poohsoc. I was suddenly unsure of where Poohsoc was, so I took out my phone, which featured a text message from
tienelle asking where I was. So I phoned him and asked him where Poohsoc was, and said I'd be there. Met Jonathan (the assassin) on the way in and we both got thoroughly lost, including getting lousy directions from the porters that dead-ended. Eventually we managed to find Katie's room, and tienelle showed up complaining that there was nothing interesting in Strawberry Fair, having been run around by his parents through it. I insisted this was not the case, and after rehydrating a bit, went back with him to show him the clothes stalls he'd missed. There were *lots* of people, and it's harder to navigate crowds with two - at one point I managed to duck across a stream of people and he just stood looking lost on the other side, wondering where I'd gone because all around was an opaque mass of people.We found one or two shiny things, although everything was suffering from the usual problem of All The Cool Stuff Is Made For Girls. Eventually he only bought one thing, and we were going to get money to buy another but decided that we'd better get to Oblivion before I fell over, because my legs were registering their displeasure with my treatment of them in no uncertain terms. I did make it to Oblivion, but only by much effort of will. Then I collapsed on the sofa and looked very dead indeed.
I continued to look pretty dead for a while, managing to fall over onto the floor so I could watch people outside momentarily, but not more than that. Katy (
foreverdirt) and Ewan (fhtagn showed back up from food shopping; Edith (edith_the_hutt) invited Stuart (ilanin) as an emergency backup sanity device (his usual emergency sanity device, Ian (requiem_17_23) being busy. Eventually, with much water, I recovered a bit - enough to wander around and eat some meat and be vaguely sociable. Eventually Snut and Jenni (
neko_of_doom) showed up in a taxi, amidst much bouncing and squeeing. I wandered out to work out what was happening, and ended up fighting with Nicholas over who could hide behind the other, then chasing him around Stuart. We migrated back inside, and there was much squeeing over manga and RPG book shininess, and I ate half a bowl of lettuce, and then back outside, and Jenni decided to threaten people with a BBQ fork; when she threatened Nicholas with it I took it from her, because that's my job.More food and more running around ensued, including several people attempting to remove the fork from me; they were all perfectly capable of doing so, but got bored too easily. Eventually I went and acquired LARP weaponary, because someone was using the fork for its intended purpose and so I'd run out of implements to threaten people with. There was much LARP-weaponary-randomness, in which Stuart denouncned all LARPers, Ewan and Snut refused to duel (instead deciding to slaughter the noncombatents and then get drunk), and Jenni almost fell backwards over a table whilst we were fighting with daggers. This kind of put an end to that part of the proceedings, because we broke a bowl. Oops.
I was feeling a bit fragile again, so I went and sat down and read Hellsing, and also watched Naath play Frozen Bubble, which became a disturbingly popular occupation, especially disturbing to Naath because she was self-professedly useless at the game. I started to get a headache, and tried drinking some water, but felt sick. So I sat and played Frozen Bubble to take my mind off it. Edith made concerned noises, but Oblivion has no paracetamol that isn't the fizzy stuff that I can't bring myself to drink, so the headache just got worse. Katy lent me her coat because I was getting cold and had lost my jumper somewhere (also left my mobile phone at Poohsoc), and a chair in the garden was organised so I could join the main party, but I wasn't very coherant and it was too cold outside. So I went back inside and sat on the sofa whining, first to Jenni and then to Nicholas. We decided I ought to try and go to sleep, so I did, but it didn't work very well until about 3am.
Woke up about 8, but everyone was still asleep; Nicholas got up about 9 to go to church, so I blinked at him a bit, declared that my headache had gone away, tried to get up and decided I was far too fragile to be doing the 50min walk into church. Still not sure what caused the headache.
