I've been busy.
Jul. 30th, 2019 10:58 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pensnestWell, Camp Sparkle is over for another year.
It was our thirteenth Camp (!!!), so perhaps it is fitting that of the 15 people originally intending to come, only 12 actually made it… but, that meant that pretty well anybody who fancied a single room got one, so, silver lining.
Bath is an amazingly good place to visit (twice, even, as we were there last year too). Beast and I went to the Hershel Museum of Astronomy and the Roman Baths. We did the Tower Tour of the Abbey (212 spiral steps). We visited Stourhead, a not-too large stately home with a lovely lake. We went to the Fashion Museum (awesome place—watching the women's clothes morph into different shapes by the decade is particularly interesting) and the Museum of Asian Art, which had had a burglary but still contained many articles of great age, some of which looked remarkably modern. Chalcopyrite gave us an architectural tour of part of the city, which was lovely (and meant she was a fount of knowledge more generally after studying the place). We blew glass baubles, raided the fabulous yarn shop, and had afternoon tea. Other people went to Bristol for the day, or to the Thermae spa (which was, I admit, tempting in that oppressive weather).
We also played several games of Dixit and of Cards Against Humanity, and also a strange mutant hybrid of Cards Against Dixit (or possibly Dixit Against Humanity). We had breath-stealing laughs. We had a succession of enjoyable meals both familiar and new. We watched bits of Yuri On Ice and Brooklyn 99 on the miniscule TV. The Nsync puppets roamed the house and got themselves into all kinds of compromising positions. We even talked a bit about writing.
And of course, we baked in the yellow Bath streets when temperatures reached 32, and gazed in astonishment at the liveliest thunderstorm I've ever experienced in England.
*
I had to plunge straight into prep for my chorus's Reunion Tea as soon as we got back, but it happened on Sunday afternoon and went off very well, despite the unexpected setback of having No Tables in the room when we arrived! The caretaker arrived with twenty minutes to spare before the guests did, and released some tables from their imprisonment, just in time, really. But a large group of women is an amazing force, and in this case produced an array of interestingly flavoured scones, a room set with tables and chairs, lots of tea, a splendid collection of raffle prizes—and so many little details had just been dealt with because somebody had thought, hmm, I think we ought to label the different kinds of food, or, hmm, we're going to need waterproof signs to guide people to the right entrance, or, hmm, we ought to get pretty teacups and saucers. There were cheerful conversations. We sang with our ex members, then to them, then they sang to us.
*
In the meantime, my Bun has accepted a promotion (two steps up the system!) and a 30% pay rise. ***pride!!***
It was our thirteenth Camp (!!!), so perhaps it is fitting that of the 15 people originally intending to come, only 12 actually made it… but, that meant that pretty well anybody who fancied a single room got one, so, silver lining.
Bath is an amazingly good place to visit (twice, even, as we were there last year too). Beast and I went to the Hershel Museum of Astronomy and the Roman Baths. We did the Tower Tour of the Abbey (212 spiral steps). We visited Stourhead, a not-too large stately home with a lovely lake. We went to the Fashion Museum (awesome place—watching the women's clothes morph into different shapes by the decade is particularly interesting) and the Museum of Asian Art, which had had a burglary but still contained many articles of great age, some of which looked remarkably modern. Chalcopyrite gave us an architectural tour of part of the city, which was lovely (and meant she was a fount of knowledge more generally after studying the place). We blew glass baubles, raided the fabulous yarn shop, and had afternoon tea. Other people went to Bristol for the day, or to the Thermae spa (which was, I admit, tempting in that oppressive weather).
We also played several games of Dixit and of Cards Against Humanity, and also a strange mutant hybrid of Cards Against Dixit (or possibly Dixit Against Humanity). We had breath-stealing laughs. We had a succession of enjoyable meals both familiar and new. We watched bits of Yuri On Ice and Brooklyn 99 on the miniscule TV. The Nsync puppets roamed the house and got themselves into all kinds of compromising positions. We even talked a bit about writing.
And of course, we baked in the yellow Bath streets when temperatures reached 32, and gazed in astonishment at the liveliest thunderstorm I've ever experienced in England.
*
I had to plunge straight into prep for my chorus's Reunion Tea as soon as we got back, but it happened on Sunday afternoon and went off very well, despite the unexpected setback of having No Tables in the room when we arrived! The caretaker arrived with twenty minutes to spare before the guests did, and released some tables from their imprisonment, just in time, really. But a large group of women is an amazing force, and in this case produced an array of interestingly flavoured scones, a room set with tables and chairs, lots of tea, a splendid collection of raffle prizes—and so many little details had just been dealt with because somebody had thought, hmm, I think we ought to label the different kinds of food, or, hmm, we're going to need waterproof signs to guide people to the right entrance, or, hmm, we ought to get pretty teacups and saucers. There were cheerful conversations. We sang with our ex members, then to them, then they sang to us.
*
In the meantime, my Bun has accepted a promotion (two steps up the system!) and a 30% pay rise. ***pride!!***
no subject
Date: 2019-07-31 02:34 pm (UTC)Bath sounds fantastic. How was the glass blowing? It always looks like such a cool thing to do.
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Date: 2019-07-31 08:45 pm (UTC)I think the really interesting bit is watching the experts do the glass blowing and shaping. We all had the chance to choose our colours, and the blob was formed, then the expert blew down the long tube just to get a bubble started (
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Date: 2019-07-31 05:04 pm (UTC)I think I'd quite like to revisit Bath, maybe when they've finished the work on the Abbey. It's a nice, walkable city, and there are still bits I haven't investigated.
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Date: 2019-07-31 08:46 pm (UTC)There are still bits of Bath I haven't seen (like the spa!), and I could always revisit The Yarn Story. Such a beautiful city.
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Date: 2019-08-02 04:32 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-08-04 09:02 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-08-02 05:34 am (UTC)Bath is such a nicely walkable city for touristing around!
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Date: 2019-08-04 09:03 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-08-02 07:27 pm (UTC)The Reunion Tea sounds like it was a great success.
That's an awesome pay rise! Lots of congratulations to Bun!
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Date: 2019-08-04 09:04 pm (UTC)I'm very proud!
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Date: 2019-08-03 10:12 am (UTC)And bloody well done Bun!
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Date: 2019-08-04 09:05 pm (UTC)And I'm very proud of Bun. Of course, 30% of underpaid isn't *that* much, but she is most pleased to have her ability recognised. It's nice to be wanted!