Jubilation

Jubilation is my excuse and I'm sticking to it.

In case anyone missed it, we lucky few, we band of brothers - i.e. Great Britain and the Commonwealth - have been celebrating the Queen's Diamond Jubilee.  On balance it's looked a lot jollier than Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee.  Judging from the pictures, de rigeur behaviour for that was to stand very quietly in the streets in case a sudden noise brought the celebrations to a quick end.

It's been all go here.  Processions, parties, flotillas of boats on the Thames, beacon lighting and bunting.  Lots of bunting.  I ran across an agitated man attempting to buy some at the end of last week only to be told by a sad shop assistant that he couldn't.  She placated him with England bunting, but you could tell he didn't think it was the same thing really.  

In the best traditions of England, the weather cooperated, dropping a further river all over the Thames, but then cheering up long enough to let everyone mow their lawns.  Then it rained again and hasn't stopped since yesterday morning.

Truthfully, however, I've done very little in the way of actual Jubilee celebrating.  Mostly I've been catching up on sleep and fighting my way through a new set of Renaissance patterns.  Oh, and sorting out my computer.  Conveniently that decided not to work on the day I had set aside for catching up with all my online games.  Dave from Mumbai was his usual helpful self, but in the fault lay, as so often, with the weather.  Or my SLder tendencies.  Or a combination.

At any rate, I am now back after a partially enforced absence and am embarking on a D&DNext playtest via Google+.  As a monkey.  Just because.  He's called Fuyuki.

Ninja Monkey by Loam.  From Deviant Art

A not-terribly-interesting update

Short roundup of what's happening in game world.

Den - the one-shot adventure I am running for a group of 4e novices - has gone well.  They've survived a horrible cult, a deranged halfling priestess and a selection of misguided mushroom people.  They've also acquired a meteorite shard of dubious origin and rescued most of the people they set out to rescue.  Result all around I'd say.  Even better is that the group wants to continue.  Makes me happy. 

Tombs I are confronting one of the more irritating opponents the Tomb of Horrors has to offer.  A gargoyle that turns itself back into impervious stone when you hit it hard enough.  Alas for them, it guards the way to their ultimate quarry, so they are currently surrounding it and waiting for it to come back to life long enough for them to hit it.

Tombs II are engaged in negotiations with a group of pirates as they attempt to make their way to Sigil.  Slaad eggs are involved.  Their tiefling warlord has been notably inventive.  It was her plan to take a brass band and mercenaries to a dock to create a large-scale distraction. 

Our home game is approaching a climactic encounter.  We get to play tonight and I'm looking forward to it.  This is a campaign devised and run by my son, so we're making the most of him before he vanishes into exam hell.

On the practical front, washing machine loaded with bloodstained shirts (fake blood, which I'm assured comes out with pre-washing, although I have my doubts).

Planning session for next years Youth Theatre productions.  With a team of two, it's extremely difficult to get all 150+ members on stage every year, so I think we may have to think again about how we do this.  And find plays.

What else?  Oh, yes.  Replace the burst tire.  Leaving the boot depot of dreams yesterday, I managed to burst a tire and ended up waiting for the AA in a garage forecourt while they fitted the temporary wheel.  All was well and the necessarily slow journey home was rather therapeutic.  Driving through the Dales in the rain is remarkably beautiful.  Soul food - which let's face it, I probably needed.

We interrupt your scheduled posting ...

... to inform you that there is snow falling in Richmond.  Right on schedule, as it happens.

The weathermen got it bang on the button.  The local council appear not to have believed them as there are no gritters visible.  Other non-visible things are the roads.

It will all melt by morning, I'm sure.  Good old Mother Nature - always with the surprises.

Mikelmerck - on weather (5th day of advent)

(Yes indeed, a slight sense of thematic need prompted this one, along with a semi-joke from Barry Blatt a few weeks ago.)

A bit parky,  frost, mist and breeze

Mikelmerckian weather has a charm of its own.  A charm hard to fathom for the outsider, but much appreciated by the natives.

Visitors say Mikelmerck weather comes in two flavours.  Cold and wet or the ever-popular foggy and wet.  This is an injustice as Srivener Wainwright demonstrates. He has conscientiously documented the various types of rain throughout the year.

1. Drizzle
2. Squally showers
3. Downpour
4. A good drench
5. Precipitation
6. Flurries
7. Torrent
8. Tempest
9. Heavy condensation
10. Heavy dew
11. Sheets
12. Freezing
13. Deluge
14. Sprinkling
15. Misting
16. Showers of mixed amphibians
17. Showers 
18. Thunderstorm
19. Cloudburst
20. Spitting

To these he adds the following seasonal options:

1. High winds (any time of year)
2. Dense fog (autumn and winter)
3. Mist (autumn and winter)
4. Early lying mist (spring and summer)
5. Gusting winds (any time of year)
6. Overcast (any time of year)
7. Dank air (any time of year)
8. Thick frost (autumn and winter)
9. Sleet (winter)
10. Snow flurries (winter)
11. Snowstorm (winter)
12. Mardy (when summer isn't what it should be)
13. Hail (spring and summer)
14. Blowy (any time of year, but notably in late spring)
15. Bit parky (only if the temperature drops below zero)
16. Sunshine (Progress time only)
17. Breezes
18. Gales
19. Clarty (summer only)
20. Sheepsky (a prelude to thunder)

Dense fog, overcast with spitting rain