Damada was great. I did not dance or learn nearly as much as last year, but I did get a better tan and had a very relaxed time.

Thursday we departed by bus from Utrecht Lunetten around 22:30 (if I recall correctly) and after a 9 hour drive (with stops) and cramped sleeping we arrived in Le Mans at about 08:00 on Friday morning. We unpacked the bus, set up our camp on the soccer field and chilled. Some people tried to sleep, others made music or played 'volleyball'. I did some pyrography again (I love the French sun!).

In the evening there was ball. Matthijs and I made it a short night by going to bed as early as 00:30. We were still very tired from the bus trip. On Saturday morning/afternoon we attended a workshop 'variations in the jig', which I had already done last year. It was nearly the same, but still fun. We also did a workshop Bourree. I don't really like that dance and I thought that was because I never learned it properly. Which turned out to be true. The workshop was much fun, the variations were very nice but in the end at a ball it's almost always too crowded to actually do the things we learned. And you need people that also know the variations.

Again, ball in the evening. Made it till 03:30 this time. Sunday we had a very relaxed communal breakfast. Dennis made eggs for anybody who wanted it and Matthijs made tea (i.e. he heated water). After the dishes and clearing things away we went to the festival terrain again and chilled there in the sparse shade. No workshops that day because we were too lazy. We did take a peek at Indian dances. It was nearly the same as last year, with a lovely lady in costume explaining the steps.

Ball again in the evening and night. Went to bed at 02:30 with the alarm set on 06:30 because the bus would leave at 08:00. I didn't dance much that night. There were just to many dances that I did not know, and for the ones that I did know I did not find a partner or I just didn't like them (andro, hanter dro). I became a bit angry at myself for not daring to ask French/Belgian men to dance and decided that it was better to just get some sleep instead of frustrating myself any further.

Last year I bought a vest and a short dress. This time, after visiting the stall about 10 times, I bought a purple summer dress with a knitted top part. It is less suited for dancing because the skirt does not flare much, but otherwise it is very pretty. It's hanging on my balcony at the moment, drying from a wash and a vinegar bath. It bleeds so much color! I used the purple washing water to die two pieces of white fabric. I'm curious how good that will hold.

If I want to go again next year I'll have to work on my fear of asking people. I mean, I'll probably not see those French people again (very soon) so why would it be a problem if I would leave a bad impression? I am just too scared to be rejected and way too picky about whom I'd want to ask. All the old men (the could-have-been-my-father type) almost automatically are a no-go for me. There should be at least a bit of attraction before I consider asking someone, which narrows done the options. And then most men have already partnered up before I have found the guts to ask them. Here at home it's much the same, I usually stick to the people that I have danced with before but that's not many... So, something to work on.

I did take pictures at Damada, though not much and actually none of dancing people. I do have pictures of a huge mot (like, hand-sized), the sun through the leaves of a tree, the Dutch camp and Dutch chilling. When I get around to making a gallery I'll post a link.

Went to the Moots last weekend. Thank the Gods that the weather greatly improved, I really was not looking forward to the event with all the rain in the days before. Still I nearly succeeded in getting sunburn so it was good.

There was lots of plot this time, even for me, which was frightening and a bit hard. I usually get a 'oh-my-god-they-want-me-to-act-what-if-I-mess-up' kind of feeling when there's plot that affects my character. This time I had that feeling again but I also had the feeling that it was out of my hands or control. It was initiated by a quest that I missed, done on the last Moots (or was it Summoning?). It was about our background story (ancestors and stuff) that I hadn't memorized and did not seem to contain much hints as to how to handle it all. Having not felt the threat during the quest and not having any clue about the Big Badguy, I felt quite useless and not really 'into it'.

Still, the weather was good and the cooking was nice. (Though I did lots of dishes too and got a bit tired of them in the end) We had a nice end bash on Sunday and I did lots of healing, mostly on Grot Hagedis who had a bit of a beef with the Snake totem and got poisoned quite some times. During the end bash I suddenly seemed to be the target for the monsters. At least two of them went straight for me. One I managed to outrun while he was being harassed by other players. The other just seemed to materialize right in front of me and threw himself at me, throwing me on the ground. With only one hitpoint on torso I was already down but he flung himself onto me and kept stabbing me with his two daggers. Fortunately there were people there to get him off of my motionless form and to patch me up again. I later heard that even Mottul (Matthijs' character) had bashed in the guys head with his own hammer (after he was already dead).

The oops was an oops by Matthijs while packing on Sunday. When I had lugged the tent and the upgrade to the car he was no where to be seen. We probably just missed each other by taking a different route. So I called him to ask him where he was and a sad voice on the line said "I did something stupid". Turned out that he had left the keys in the car and then locked it. Oops.

Normally I'm quite a hothead. Matthijs had already prepared for a verbal cannonade but I amazed both of us by just laughing about it. I called Route Mobiel, explained the situation and within half an hour someone was there to help us. He did scare me by driving a tow truck; I immediately thought that he had got the message wrong and was going to tow our truck back to Enschede or something. Of course it was just his work-car, no big deal.

He unloaded some tools and started to work on the front passenger seat side of the car. However, there was nothing for the hook to grasp on to unlock the car. For some cars it works to use the door handle from the inside but on our Kia it does not. Fortunately I 'remembered' our little hatchback-lever next to the drivers seat. He could get a grasp on that so I crawled through the opened hatchback to the front to get the keys. Problem solved. The man said it would not cost me anything because you get three free services a year when you're a client of Route Mobiel. In the end it didn't cost us time: we were still getting all our stuff to the car while 'waiting'.

This morning I went to the dentist to get a little hole in a tooth filled. Turned out that there is another one appearing between two molars. It should be ok when I keep on using a tooth pick once a day. Let's hope so. The filling of the hole was no big deal. No pain, just two people stuffing things in your mouth and a bit of tenderness with the actual 'drilling'.

On my way back home I found a blackbird on the side of the road. It was still alive but had probably been hit by a car. I picked it up and called the animal ambulance. Unfortunately a bird is a fragile thing, not up to shocking experiences, and the little thing died in my hands before the ambulance could arrive. It just.. went limp. The chest deflated and did not inflate again, the little head sagged and the leg twitched one more time. I called off the ambulance and cried. I know the bird would probably have died even if there had been medical care, but it's just so sad to have something die on you. I put it under a tree between some rhododendrons. I know it may be found by cats but I just could not throw it in a garbage can and I had no tools for digging a grave.

After that sad story I'll conclude by saying that I'm looking forward to Damada this weekend. The weather forecast for Le Mans promises much sun and warmth. Yay!

Queens day was a disappointment. There were not many stands to begin with and when it started raining (and it lasted for hours..) lots of people decided to pack up and call it a day. Matthijs and I were not really looking for things and we came home with only a lantern with red glass and some stuff that we had needed to buy in the city for some time.

Spent the rest of the weekend sewing, mostly. I changed the blue dress of my VA character Enid. It had off-shoulder sleeves which prevented me from lifting my arms higher than my shoulders. I took the sleeves off, with Matthijs helping me to find the right places to cut, and put on some shoulder straps. I had to add fabric to the armpits, which were way too low after removing the sleeves, for which I reused the fabric of one of the sleeves.. For the shoulder straps I had to use new fabric, which is slightly darker because it hasn't been worn or washed as much as the dress. Aside from some small things that bother me (a bit of bulging fabric, an untidy hem) I'm happy with it. It took me most of the weekend.

I also started on a new dress, based on a summer dress pattern that I had used once so far. I adjusted it a bit. The pattern has a zipper on the back and the hem is equal length on all sides. I made the back 9 cm longer and transferred the closure to the front. I've yet to decide what kind of closure I'll use: buttons, lacing, hook-and-eyes. It's made from an old rust-brown curtain which frays like h*ll.

I'm also working on a new apron to replace the old one. The old one is made from some kind of wool-ish fabric but when you want to wipe your hands on it you get stuck with fabric fluff. Should've tested that before making something out of it of course. So now I just took a cotton (or something) bed sheet and dyed it off-white with tea. I've yet to sew it together.

I'm still planning to make a belly dance belt and matching top. I hope I'll get around to it before the 9th of this month, that's my next belly dance lesson. Meanwhile I'm trying to make a cord by luceting it, for the closure of my under dress. The last one was suede cord and it snapped after some use. I already am close to a meter length, but I'll need at least 2 meters and probably more.

Some news on the dental part of life. I had an appointment last week on Tuesday, which was just a normal biannual check. Turned out that I have a tiny hole in one of my teeth. Oh noes! The first one in my permanent teeth. It's still very small according to the dentist. It will be filled on the 18th. A taint on my reputation....

Last week was also the week that the cats tried to burn down our house. When I came back from sports (and visiting Musilon) I smelled gas. One of cats had jumped up to the stove and hit one of the knobs, giving it enough turn to let out the gas. Fortunately there was nothing to make a spark. The whole kitchen and living room were reeking of the gas. (I don't want to see the bill...) I quickly aired the whole house. So, now we keep the pipeline closed when we're not cooking.