Yes, yes, it’s been a while. Let’s face it, you aren’t reading this for regular updates. So, what’s the reason been this time? I’ll explain.

I have moved house, and into one I actually own! Before I go any further, I need to issue Herculean level thanks to all who’ve helped. No matter how little you think you’ve done, we have seen it and appreciate it. It has meant the world to us, and made an incredibly stressful time a lot less “Oh fuck, let’s just burn the house down and flee.” It’s a sign of the quality of the people in our lives the number of folks who’ve offered help, and our thanks and pizza (or indeed, the joy an almost teenager took throwing things in a skip) seems vastly inadequate for the help you’ve given us. We love you all.

The move itself was like an age of the Earth, or the credits to a Marvel film when you really need to pee but don’t want to miss the after credits part. I knew we had a lot of stuff, and there’s 2 flights of stairs to get to the new place, but I didn’t think it would take as long as it did. Let alone the stuff that went upstairs that should have gone to the garage. *sighs* The two days following were painful, to say the least. Every day is leg day. There hasn’t been any noise issues so far, outside of the shopping centre across the street’s fire alarm going off around 1am recently and while a nearby church’s singing was oddly soothing Sunday morning, the screaming and yelling style of worship they shifted to was disconcerting to say the least. As issues go, that ain’t bad though. Still, a large amount of stuff is on shelves, though that’s brought it’s own chaos. You see, we madly got stuff out of boxes, but with the deadline, there was no organisation. Well, outside of me getting precious and putting all my Robert E Howard on the one shelf. So, that’s the next task for me – and not getting distracted won’t be easy.

All that work though has meant we aren’t, for the most part, living out of boxes and that’s done wonders for me. Being able to see my stuff, even if the hell of moving has me more inclined to try to sell more of it, has made it feel more like ours. Funny what moving does to a book collection. We’re still talking through decoration, though my wife and I have planned to take one side of a corridor each and decorate according to our whims. She’s looking at theatre posters and pictures of her friends. I’m looking at a poster for the 1973 Three Musketeers, some Frank Frazetta art and concert posters. We match beautifully don’t we? If we really go all out, we might even colour code the walls before we hang art up…

In other news, I’m going back to the Ravenswood Institute LARP this year, but not as a student! I’d been kicking around an idea since last event and it seemed workable. I got in touch with the orgs to run it past them and see if I was on the right track and before I knew it, I’m an NPC crew member! IC details are still being sorted, so this is strictly an out of character announcement, but I’m really looking forward to it. Also means I get to fuss over new costume and props! There will be some hard work though, mostly vocal practice, as one of the ideas was having an enchanted whistle/blowing horn, the effect being “Shut up and pay attention to me!” Now, I own a blowing horn (Leaving me with money at medieval events is dangerous), but can’t exactly make much of a sound and as I live in an apartment building, I’d rather not torment my neighbours. So, the working plan is to find the nearest national park, walk a decent distance in away from people, put my lips together, and blow…

Lastly, I have survived another year, and we had people over to celebrate that! It was lovely to see people, get their feedback on the new place and feel loved that they responded to the dress code request, that being to please wear a cape/cloak. I probably should have expected the one cheeky sod who dressed as Edna Mode… We didn’t wind up playing many games or watching a movie, but I did get to show the classic Doctor Who serial The Time Warrior, and a HAI! time was had by all. I did just realise I didn’t put on the playlist I’d made, though given the number of people in the room that’s probably for the best. So, for those curious, here it is:

That’s it for now, I need to clean up and head to work. I hope you’re all having a wonderful day, for a Monday that is. Be seeing you…