Well, I ended up being off work for three days last week what with the Being Ill thing. It was a nightmare when I went back in on Friday – my job is pretty time-dependent and three days is a very long time in terms of pulling patient pathways together. But you know: it was genuine being ill and now I’m on the road to recovery. Still coughing quite a lot, which is a pain in the arse. Particularly because so much coughing leads to great acid reflux which just makes me feel constantly hungry. I could do with chocolate right now, in fact. But there isn’t any. As usual. Because I’m good at heart.
I haven’t done a lot of writing in the past week, although yesterday I prodded chapter nine of ‘Childhood’s End’, my Silver Skulls ‘prequel’ to see what fell out. 4,400 words fell out in something like three hours. Clearly my muse just required a good prodding.
I need to turn my attention to the fact that there’s a faction banquet next weekend. For those of you who don’t know this about me, one of my hobbies is LRP (live role play), which largely involves running about in a field with the weapon du jour, beating the crap out of like-minded, consenting adults. Seriously, a hobby in which you get to hit people and not get into trouble for it? What’s not to like?
About three years ago, I stopped being a player and become a member of the organising staff group. This eats into my time far, far more than you’d think: I have to write plotlines for around 100-150 people to engage with and keep them all busy. This is no mean feat. Nice feedback comes when you get players saying things like ‘woah, that was awesome’. For the most part, they’re all pretty cool people. Every now and again though, you just feel SO much like you’re spitting into a force ten gale with them. Some people can be pretty ungrateful if they don’t think they’re getting enough ‘me’ time.
Roleplayers are pretty histrionic (and I do count myself in that number) and very demanding on a personal level. Imagine what it’s like wiwth a room full of people who need to be constantly reassured that it’s All About Them. Then tease that out to people phoning me at all hours of the day and night to complain that it’s Not Enough About Them. I have days when I could just walk away from it, were it not for the nicer, less ungrateful people involved.
I’m not selling my hobby very well, am I?
It’s given me good things. It’s given me confidence and it’s given me an escape and it’s given me a dislocated jaw… there’s the joy of contact sports for you.
But still. When a handful of people start whining constantly because things aren’t going the way THEY want, it can be totally disheartening. I’m sure the banquet will be good fun – the menu’s certainly pretty appealling:-
Cold starter of
- skewered meats
- olives
- salami, cured sausage
- flat bread
- houmous
- Haloumi cheese skewers
- Chutney
- mulled cider
Course 2
- slow cooked beef in red wine served inside warm crusty bread
- medley of mushrooms cooked in red wine served in warm crusty bread (V)
course 3 – non meat course
- red pepper,olive, cheese and onion tart with salad
- stuffed peppers (stuffed with cous cous, apricots, mushrooms, pine nuts and tomatoes)
- stuffed aubergine
Course 4 (main meat course)
- trio of roasted meats (depending on what is cost effective and available probably roast pork, sticky chicken legs or goose, slow cooked lamb)
- honey roasted veg
- garlic roasted new potatoes
- (V) pine nut roast with a lemon and herb stuffing
- tomato and cider gravy
- belly pork
Course 5/6
- Roman pear jelly made with sparkling white wine
- Greek yogurt with almonds
- honey biscuits
- Turkish delight
- candied fruits
- cheese
Sarah Cawkwell's Blog 