The Was The Weekend That Was

Blimey, it's been a busy couple of days.

I suppose Friday night is usually considered the start of the weekend, and like many other people we spent ours drinking alcohol, watching twenty odd people kick a ball around for a bit and wonder where the hell all their motivation went. The boy stayed up for the first half but was plainly getting bored even during the ten minutes or so that England decided to actually play some football. Afterwards, we played Carcassone, and I did even worse than usual. I'll blame the wine.

Saturday we wandered into town for Free RPG Day and picked up the D&D and Exalted freebies. I also finally bought Underdark, thereby ensuring my players don't go anywhere near that place at any point in the rest of the campaign. Then we packed ourselves into the car, along with a friend from SO's other game she plays in, and went up to Durham for "Nerd East" - a mostly LARP kit fair run by the uni's student larp group, but which also had a games room and several stalls selling minis, used and new rpg books etc. The main draw was not so much the fair itself, but the people we knew who would be there, and despite the boy getting quite bored at points, it was a nice enough way to spend an afternoon. One couple of friends were down from Glasgow with their little boy, and the two youngsters got along like a house on fire (only slightly less destructively). I resisted buying anything and got to play a couple of games of Ca$h 'n Gun$ which was quite fun (you get to point foam guns at your friends and shout bang occasionally - what more could you want?) and then, after some working out of logistics, we ended up going to a barbeque. It was a very late night for all three of us, boy was falling asleep after his playmate went to bed, and we didn't get back to York until half eleven, but it was great to spend time with a bunch of people we mostly only see while larping.

Due to getting home so late, I deliberately avoided the internet this morning so as not to be spoiled over Doctor Who. We went to my (former, I suppose) supervisor's house for lunch. Despite some hiding and name calling to start with, the three eldest children (our boy, their daughter and eldest son) were soon playing together happily and energetically, while all four adults got to coo over the eight month old baby. After a lunch of some of the best burgers I've ever tasted (in homemade bread buns, nom) we went to Burnby Hall Gardens for a lovely walk and to let the kids run around some more. Not of course that this helped wear them down in any way, as they were still hyper when we got back to the house. But despite having to drag a very tired and grumpy boy away, it was a brilliant afternoon - they really are a lovely family and it's always reassuring to realise its not just your child who can cause chaos! Although I'm still not sure how anyone manages with more than one, so I don't think I'll be changing my mind on that front anytime soon. No matter how cute babies are, and how good the boy seems to be in the "big brother" role.

When we got home we finally managed to watch "The Pandorica Opens". Wow. Um.....wow.