A big week! Tuesday was pay day and with it the final payment on my car! Three years in, I love it more than ever and we have travelled over fifty two thousand kilometers together. Paying it off frees up a large chunk of my budget, which will be a lovely change!
Pokemon Go has been a interesting game to get into. I’ve only ever had a sideways glance at the universe, being too money-poor to own a GameBoy when I was younger, and time-poor since I have had the cash to play otherwise. The exploration of the local areas around work and home has been fun - I’ve walked down Kedron Brook for the first time in the seven and a half years of working for my current employer! The infrastructure behind the game, let alone the code of the UI itself is a shambles, but they’re making great strides to keep it all running and us engaged. An unsurprising response to the game has been from the various facets of social media, with the lovers and haters having plenty to work with.
Wednesday marked the return of RMB from far-away lands - this time various places around the mediterranean. It’d been four weeks, and that was definitely long enough for both of us, I was missing her terribly.
I took Friday off to hang out with RMB, and we went to the Pen Shoppe, lcoated in the Brisbane Arcade in the Queen Street Mall. A fascinating boutique I’d walked past many times, marvelling at the shiny and sleek wonders in the window, but never building up the courage to enter. It’s an amazing little place, packed to the gills with incredibly beautiful writing instruments, ink and the paper to write on, along with accessories for a well-equipped writer. I was on the hunt for some Mont Blanc Lavender Purple and purchased some along with some Lamy Dark Lilac, which they just happened to have a limited edition bottle of. The Lavender Purple is even more beautiful than I’d seen in reviews and the post on /r/fountainpens that led me to it. I can’t wait to try out the Lamy!
Friday night was something special indeed. The Powerhouse Theatre presented Kári Gislason and Richard Fidler for “Icelandic Sagas”, a combination of parts of the former’s life and the original Sagas themselves.
Kári was born in Iceland and moved to Brisbane in his youth, then grew up and earned a PhD studying the Sagas of his ancestoral home. He and Richard (from the ABC) travelled to Iceland to produce a podcast about the Sagas and also discover some truth to his past.
The most famous writer of Sagas there is, Snorri Sturluson is basically the Shakespeare of Iceland, and their highly accurate historical records allowed him to trace his lineage all the way back through twenty-three generations to discover that he was indeed related to Snorri. Fascinating story, and a lovely pair of guys.
Saturday in the daytime a bit of a write-off, with the late nights of the rest of the week taking a bit of a toll on my sleeping patterns. The night time however was a lovely SCA event - the Feast of Santiago - marking fifteen years of the Barony of St Florian. Held at the Greek Orthodox Church Parish Hall in Mount Gravatt, it was a beautifully decorated, catered and attended event. Lots of fun for all!
I receieved a Baronial award that night, the Bouget. Awarded for service, I guess I’ve been making an impression lately. Recently I have realised that I had been enjoying the fruits of the labour of others, and made a concerted effort to help out around the place. I enjoyed the recognition as much as one should, but will admit that it feels strange; the game doesn’t happen without those of us that do the work, and if you don’t help to enrich the game, why are you there?
This is a question I ask myself regularly in many community events, so it’s not surprising it comes up in the SCA.
Sunday we attended the celebration of the engagement of our friends Rufus and Georgina. Lovely people I know through the SCA (and a short time working with Rufus) I wish them a happy life together.
Something I forgot to mention earlier was the discovery of a film and book series by Dick Proenneke, a wilderness expert and all-round amazing guy. I highly recommend if you’re interested in watching a skilled craftsman at work, to see “Alone in the Wilderness”, an hour-long documentary about him building his now-famous shack in the mountains of Alaska, and the start of thirty years living there. I believe there’s books and even another film which is available which I intend to find and watch.
That’s about it for this week, it’s certainly been a big one! Next week I don’t have much planned, but I’m looking forward to Keith’s BBQ bonanza on Saturday, and hopefully the arrival of some new presents from across the seas!