rwrylsin

The weekend didn't quite go to plan, but it was pretty good.

Friday night we unexpectedly went and joined a group of friends at a pub for multiple birthday drinks. (Multiple birthdays, and multiple drinks). It was good fun, I borrowed an iPhone to confirm that the call from work was indeed a false alarm, and sales of a couple more furniture items were made.

Before heading out a quick baking was done, Moist Treacle and Ginger Cake. However, it turns out that I actually have vast amounts of golden syrup, not treacle. This would have nicely used up the remaining treacle if only I had noticed sooner that I was pouring in golden syrup, So it was actually Moist Treacle, Golden Syrup and Ginger Cake.
(In Aus, my treacle was in green tins, the golden syrup in red tins. Here it is the other way around, and apparently I don't read labels).
Anyway, Saturday morning I quickly added some lemon frosting and hoped for the best as we took it with us for lunch with relatives. Appreciative noises were made and the cake disappeared very quickly, so I'll call it a success. Certainly I thought it tasted pretty good.

After lunch we drove up to Inverness, arriving at our B&B at 6pm. The drive up was quite miserable in places, but then the clouds would break, golden sunlight would come flooding along the glen, chasing shadows over the broken ground, and I'd swear we were in the most beautiful place on earth.
On signing in, we noticed that the other fencers from our club were staying in the same place, so after settling in we knocked on their door and caught up with the days events. Glasgow might not have been sending very many people this year, but we apparently made up for it in quality. They had secured 1st and 3rd in the Women's Foil, David added 2nd in Men's Epee and I finished with 3rd in the Women's Sabre. Not bad for 5 entries, and the 5th was a young novice so he isn't expected to win anything at Opens just yet.

( Fencing Details )


Yesterday we made our final pilgrimage to the local gym. (It's closed for refurbishment or something from today). Colder weather has set in, during the walk there I could feel my joints going stiff, I don't know if it was this or Sunday's fencing that made for a rather slow workout. I still like cold weather, but my body really doesn't.
We also finally remembered to light our wedding candle. One year we'll get the right day.

( London last week )

( Then off to Liverpool )

If anyone was wondering, the spider was moved to a more spider friendly locale outside the flat. It was remarkably well-behaved and perched serenely on the sheet of paper as I carried it out.

This morning it was off to the chiropractor. Now that things are back where they should be in relation to each other, the headache has mostly eased and the cramps around the hips seem to have departed. Another night in my own bed will hopefully see me back in good shape.

Saturday was fairly quiet. David was off fencing (hence I could make a complete mess of the kitchen with impunity), so mostly just caught up on the washing and fiddled with the computer a little.

On Sunday it was my turn to tootle up to Grangemouth for the ( Scottish Champs )

( Vaguely Related Rant )

Spent the weekend in Belgium for my second A-grade competition.
While many of the top fencers were taking a weekend off, the standard at the lower end was higher than at the London A-grade. I only managed one pool victory again, examining the video David took suggests a flaw at the start of my attacks which I'm going to have to try harder to avoid next weekend.
It was at least sufficient to squeak past the cut again and into the DE.

The DE bout started ok, but my opponent inexorably built up a lead and after the break I only managed one extra point. I will however assume from some very hard hits that I was successful in my aim to be annoying. (Finished 15-6 I think, the six points I got were rather nice ones).

So, finished 77th in a field of 91. No points for me.
Next weekend is Koblenz, where I shall make my final attempt to win two pool bouts. Since I expect the standard to be even higher than Gent/Gand, this will require me to fence much better. Tricky.

On the one hand, I'm a little disappointed to not make the 64 and get points. On the other, I have to admit that if someone who does as little training as me were able to regularly make the last 64 of World Cup A-grades, it would be a sad indictment on the sport of Fencing.

The early exit did at least leave Sunday free. Tourist update to follow shortly.

Had a very nice, relaxing long weekend.
( Birmingham )

( Fencing: Birmingham International )

( Home again, via Jodrell Bank )

We continued home, dodging roadworks and police vehicles. Felt that someone needed to put up signs: "M6 southbound full, seek alternative parking". The sunshine eventually returned when we reached Scotland.

The format for A-grades is rather different, and could take a little getting used to.

( A-grade rambling back here )

I have a few competition-free weeks until the Edinburgh Satellite. I should really try and get a lesson some time...

Went to the inaugural Cornwall Pro-Sabre competition on the weekend. 'twas good.

( Very long trip report for a short trip )

Thus my adventure ended with dragging a fencing bag through lesser-known London streets at midnight, pointedly ignoring the drunk welcoming me to Sunny London.

As previously mentioned, we were in Bristol on the weekend.

( Rambling Here )

Highland this weekend, still no training.
Next will be the Pro-Sabre, I'll have to find somewhere to train before that one. (Will be in London again the week before). Will also need to find some enthusiasm.

While in Bristol, I toddled over to the Leon Paul stand and purchased the Tyshler training device. Will post more thoughts on it later.

I have my FIE world cup point. As promised, it shall henceforth be known as George.
( Another fencing tale )

Holiday details and photos to follow... probably tomorrow.

Woke early this morning and discovered that it had snowed! Was in fact still snowing, and this was real, serious, 10-15cm of snow. We would have been really pleased and excited if we hadn't been about to drive to Edinburgh for a fencing tournament.



At 8am, still only a third of the way to Edinburgh and cruising at 30mph in the middle of a long queue, we figured we weren't going to make David's 8:30 check-in. I called ahead and left a message that he was running half an hour late in the hope that they would wait. Happily they did, they even let him in after missing the half-hour delayed checkin by about 10 minutes.



( Fencing Stuff )
Final place was 13th out of 34, so an overall improvement on last year. Gotta be happy with that.

Also got to say hello to some visiting Australians, we were quite plentiful this year. davidcook did quite well over in the epee, but I'll let him talk about that otherwise he won't update at all.
Then we drove home, still with a little snow clinging to the car roof. The carpark was much as we left it, apparently everyone else had more sense than to drive today. It's so pretty...