Oh and take note of the new day bodice for the black bustle!! :D
After that we had our usual set up on, lots of puns being thrown around about "holding poles" and tent "erections". Yes, it's childish, but it's a tradition now, and we laugh ourselves silly through set up. Afternoon came around and we enjoyed drinks on the ramparts looking out at the sun setting over Brisbane River.
There were also MANY comments about feeding my tent more so it would grow up into a real tent. It's now been nicknamed the baby bell, but I have to say, now that I've put it up 3 times, I think I'm at the point where I can put it up by myself in around 10 minutes.. (obviously dependent on how hard the ground is.. haha).
I've said I was madly excited about History Alive. But there was also some trepidation. I had been conned into entering the archery competition. Enter opportunity to make a HUGE fool of myself here, especially given I've been practising with my recurve, and not my longbow. I'd only shot that bow twice. Combined with that was the knowledge that I was going to stand out like a sore thumb, being as I was going to be the only person in the competition NOT in medieval. I decided that I would do the comp anyway, time to show that archery wasn't just a medieval thing. So I rocked up in my tartan with my longbow on Saturday. The first thing that happened? A medieval reenactor asks me about my bow with alot of derision "So why is it so short for a longbow", I couldn't resist. "Well for a medieval men's longbow it's short, but it's not short at all for a Victorian era Lady's bow -gesture to the fact that I'm wearing Victorian" in an equally patronising manner. Go me. Bloody know-it-alls! By the way, the new tartan bustle dress.... The first pic taken by another of my photographer friends, Nick.
Out of my 5 arrows, I only got one into the target. Which isn't a terrible thing really - most people did pretty badly on the Saturday.... Here's a photo even of me and one of my arrows, caught by one of my photographer friends, David.
All in all I felt happy that I put myself out there... As you can see, I really do stand out. On the Sunday, I went back and entered again. I was running late, so I ended up being in the last flight. And then managed to get to get a bullseye, one inside the circle and one on the board, landing me in the finals. I didn't win, but was still pretty stoked with that result.
Saturday night we had a regimental dinner for the first time in a few years, so the ladies went to town on decorating the engine room of the fort with flags, candles and laterns, the atmosphere is always amazing when we do this, it's probably one of my favourite things! The Captain made me sit at the head of the table this year, which was a huge surprise, and quite a honour.
There was only one really bad thing that happened over the weekend. We have a room in which we have a static display of historical items, ladies accessories, toiletry items for both men and women, and magazines. These things are all locked in boxes, and are displayed on tables. We block off the sides of the tables so we can store some items (including my bow since my tent is often open). I also had my crinoline and a couple of dresses (depending on what I was wearing at the time) almost behind the table as well. On Sunday afternoon, I wondered into the room and my jaw hit the floor. A kid had moved the bench blocking access to behind the table, had my bow (thankfully not strung) and an arrow and was acting like he was going to fire an arrow. Meanwhile, his mother had her back to him and was wearing my crinoline and my teagown. I kinda freaked out and went "uh, you need to put down the bow and arrow, and could you please not put on my clothes". I was gobsmacked. I pointed out to the mother that her 10 yr old was playing with a weapon, and that even if she wasn't worried, _I_ would be the one to get in trouble if anything were to happen. Needless to say, we're rethinking how we store things during the event given we can't have someone in the room at all times to supervise the punters. -sigh-
So that was my History Alive weekend... :D
As per usual, the slideshow!!
