[In case you’re reading these from the top down, instead of chronologically, Stephen is posting using my login, because his has stopped working for some reason. I’m commenting in brackets like this. –T]
So, after such a long and event-filled Saturday, we looked forward to a slightly slower and more sedate Sunday. The morning started at a reasonable time (7:30 for me, 8:15 for Tam), and after breakfast we drove up to Upper Hutt to meet with a fellow (Shaun) and look at his Ute. [A “ute”, pronounced “yoot” or “yewt”, is a “utility vehicle”, i.e., a pickup truck. –T] This Ute had a little problem, in that he had rolled in into a ditch and buggered up the cab, denting in the top, shattering the windshield, and bending both doors. I will call around to some panel-beaters this week, and see if it can be repaired cheaply. [“Panelbeaters” is the wondrously evocative word for “body shop”. –T] The main reason I wanted to go up was that Shaun was a regular on the lifestyleblock list, a smallfarmer site I have been reading for the last few years. Getting connections into that community is really important, as they have so much skill and knowledge and will be vital in the coming months. Ian (also of the list) and a woman whose name we can’t remember were also there, and we talked for nearly an hour. Ian suggested we get about 30 lambs and run them on the land until we can get around to having some stock of our own. He even volunteered to drive over to the stock sales in Carterton with us, to help us with the whole process. Don’t know if I want to do that, as it may be easier to lease the land out to stock, run horses on it at $10/head/week or something like that. But it was nice to get the offer, and feel a bit of the often discussed “kiwi friendliness”. [Kiwi friendliness in this instance extended to the woman’s new horse as well, which she’d just finished brushing and which contentedly stood there in the little knot of us by the porch, cocking an ear to the conversation and occasionally using my shoulder to scratch its face. –T]
Afterwards we got a bit of food in Upper Hutt central, […stopped for a bit to skip stones in the Hutt… –T] then made our way back down into the city to drop by fight practice. This week all three of the heavy list fighters were there, and we chatted as they took rest-breaks from fighting. All three (Richard, Stephen and Dillan) seemed quite cool, and I very much look forward to getting my gear in a few weeks and joining them. Having such a small community of fighters will be like how I started back years ago in Philadelphia, back when it was only Brad, Len and I fighting in the back driveway week after week. They also do combat archery with 3/4″ blunts, which may get Tamara out there plinking away at us on occasion.
Rodger from the Folklore Fest also dropped by, and he and Tamara spoke of plans for the festival. Tamara wants to dance [Sybille and I want to dance… well, Sybille really wants to dance; I mostly just want to play dress up and mess with the tourists a bit. –T], but another troupe has arranged to do a stage performance, and they are a bit nervous about having other people in their territory, but it sounds like she may be able to swing a “pirate-gypsy” theme [Roger’s idea, not mine, I swear ! –T] that will not cause any conflict, and be lots of fun to boot. I will be participating in some heavy-list fighting being done as demos, which means a high priority upon unpacking will be finding all my fighting gear and making sure it is all ready to go, as I have not seen it in 9+ months.
To our great amusement we also saw the monsters training for some of their events. This folklore fest is structured a bit like a Ren Faire, and yet not. Rodger, who is running the thing, wants it to mutate into a more “Middle Earth Faire”, with a definite fantasy element thrown in. With such a small community of fighters, dancers, and recreationists to choose from, it is going to have to be a blender of different genres to make critical mass for performers. Should be a hoot, though. [The main difficulty is explaining to the locals just what a Renn Fair is. Most of the folks Roger has roped in are re-creationists, and the line between re-creation and street theater can be surprising wide and opaque. –T]
Overall a great Sunday. We met lots of people, and established more connections with freaks like us that will hopefully help us expand our social circle. And that is very useful. Later tonight we go off to do some drumming, as every full moon they have a big drum jam-session at a local club.
[…That’d be Zebos, yes. Sybille and I are heading over together & we’ll hopefully hook up with Roger and chat some more about the festival. Woo ! –T]