Booking a trip and terrifying yourself because you realise this means you're somewhat Grown Up.

If I've been quite silent recently - which I have, I know - then, once again, it's not for lack of stuff going on but rather that there is so much stuff going on that I simply do not have time to sit down and write about it. It's poor because, not only am I neglecting talking to friends directly, but I am also cutting off my little 'here's what I'm up to' space! Oops!

See, even now I should be revising for my logic exam. I mean, I feel quietly confident but I am also aware that I need a high A on this test in order to get comfortably get an A over all and I need that because I want to go straight to PhD but yeah... lets not get ahead of ourselves. The point being, I'm ignoring that right now because I feel the need to write about the events of last night. I mean, I actually wrote a facebook status about last night so we know this is serious!

Last night, in a bit of a tumble of "Oh no! Prices are going up!", and after about a month of juggling on my part, we finally booked our ascension holiday trip. And we're going to Budapest. Yep. I'm going back. So, so, so over the moon. 

I mean, the flights are painful. They're from Eindhoven and we need to be there at six a.m. For those of you who don't know the geography of the Netherlands and are interested, Eindhoven is down there in the Not-Amsterdam. For those of you who are really interested, find a map and look near the Belgian border. It's going to be an early as sin start. Flight back departs at six a.m. so I'm just ignoring that one.

I'm also currently in the process of booking our apartment for the stay. The ones in the building I normally stay in are all booked but we've been offered an alternative owned by the same people, right next to the Operettszínház which amuses me slightly. I gave Leonoor's name and phone number (because we all know how often I answer my phone) so am having to write to them under her name now which amuses me even more (*). I have become a Nora! We will also be joined by Dania, Laura, Thomas and, last but not least, Stefan, so I'm guessing you'll see them mentioned a fair bit over the next few weeks as we continue to work stuff out.

So yeah, things are slowly falling into place... well, violently tumbling into place with no warning more like! Just got to wait until everything is booked and then I can start getting really excited. Actually, with my next few weeks booked up as they are, I am going to start getting exceptionally excited for the rest of the semester the minute this darn exam is over and done with!

(*) She does know, and gave me permission, and I am running all emails past her before I send them with her name, just to clarify that I've not stolen one of my best friend's identity!

This post is not for facebook as I've already written a status about it and there is such a thing as overkill in this world. Also it's rambling and not elegant and yeah, many, many reasons.

Glastonbury Medieval Fayre 2015

Held in the Abbey grounds over Easter weekend, Glastonbury Medieval Fayre makes for an enjoyable way to spend a day and this is exactly what we did yesterday.

There's a very good reason I don't get many photos of the locations of events.
That reason is my dad.

We decided to go on Saturday for various reasons, not least to ensure that I could get a proper night's sleep tonight as I'm flying home tomorrow. We probably didn't pick the best day for weather as the sun only made an appearance as the day was winding up but oh well, it's England!

All in all, it was a thoroughly delightful day. In fact, it seemed a lot stronger than last year's event. Perhaps this was because my remembering to pack a telephoto lens meant that we had some targeted things to focus on but I do genuinely think it was because the event was stronger this year.

Perhaps the highlight for spectators was the show performed by the Knights of the Damned Stunt team. They reenact a jousting tournament with great skill and a fair amount of theatrics. I've actually seen them a few times now, at various events, and have not grown tired of their performances. Indeed, we watched both shows on the Saturday to enable me to get some decent photos (a success) and both were different, high energy, and thoroughly entertaining!

The main battle is probably the focus of the day as various reenactment groups gather together to reenact a rather anachronistic battle - both Vikings and Napoleonic (I think) gunners were present, to give you some idea. It’s rather entertaining to watch the combination of people who don’t seem like they’re really into it and those who are about ready to tear each other’s arms off beating each other up in the name of history. That said, and for all the comedy included in the commentary and performance aspects, it’s really easy to see how chaotic a battle really would be. This was a (kinda) choreographed reenactment… imagine the reality whereby people were fighting for their lives amidst the crowd and noise. It’s something that’s hard to picture when our ideas of historic warfare come from a mixture of dusty history books and overly polished Hollywood films.

And that, of course, is the beauty, and the importance, of reenactment and of events like this one. It’s easy to teach people the information given in historical tomes. It’s hard to bring that history to life and to re-imbue it with life. Reenactment does just that. It takes the scholarship and makes it into something real, tangible, understandable, human.

Bonus photo of the most stunning sunset-ish moment.
Couldn't resist popping to the sea on the way home!