Taboe was ok. For lots of people it was great, but for me it was ok. Probably because for me it was some kind of half living experiment with handsewn clothing and nearly no out-of-period tools. It makes you experience things differently when you have to make sure you don't get soaked to the bone because you have to sleep in the very same clothes you wear by day.

I think (hope..) I was too busy with "survival" to really get into the game. Or I've just been larping too long. The unknown did not really scare me as it should have. I'm too down to earth to get impressed by people throwing fish heads and shouting curses. It's a shame, really. All the elements were there, it just did not "do" it for me. Perhaps in a different setting, or with less worry about OC "survival" I'd get more into it.

My costume held out ok. Though I ditched the loincloth (put on normal underwear and leggings) on Saturday morning because it was chafing my thighs. If I'd kept it on I would not have been able to walk by noon because of the pain. I did keep on the bandeau, even though it was rather uncomfortable. Somehow the splitleather stretched from my bodywarmth and the whole thing lost its sturdiness. The rest of the costume was warm enough (yay for reindeer!) and though the leggings had a tendency of sagging a bit (retying it on the belt every time) it was also comfortable enough.

On Saturday the rain came. The whole forest turned into a swamp and this led of course to wet feet. Squishy inner shoes and cold feet. I tried drying them by the fire but it took too long and after two steps through the mud they were wet again. Still, if you stand/sit still for a while the water in the shoes heats up to body temperature and the cold becomes bearable. Until you start walking again. They also stretched a bit, which made me afraid I'd lose them in the mud. But they stayed on.

We slept rather comfortably. We did not have a Sahara tent. We had only a large rectangle of tent fabric and the promise of pioneer wood. The guys pioneered two "pyramids" with a long bar between them over which the tent fabric was thrown, resulting in an A shaped tent. We put two long poles on the ground and covered them with shorter poles, creating an off-the-ground bed base. This we covered with blankets and furs and used for a 5 person bed. Rather comfortable. I was very happy that I brought our tarp to cover up my side of the tent a bit, because else the bed would have been drenched at the end of Saturday.

On Sunday we woke up OC and quickly put on our normal clothes and dry shoes. What a great feeling! Rinske had brought a small gas burner and eggs, bacon and bread so we had a nice breakfast. Matthijs came by to bring me my winter coat from the car and share breakfast with us. At his camp nobody was awake yet. We hadn't seen each other much over the weekend, him being with a different tribe than I, on opposite sides of the terrain.

Our camp was the first to be cleared. First we packed and ditched our IC stuff in the cars and then we disassembled the tent. All poles were tied onto carts and returned to the shed in one go and then we were ready to go. Meaning they were ready to go. I had to help Matthijs with all his stuff. Unfortunately they were not so far in the breaking up of the camp, so lots of work to do still. Everything was wet, even Matthijs' bedding. Apparently he had been sleeping in a pool of rainwater. So much for the modern tents!

About 14:30 we were gone from the terrain and an hour later we were at home. It was Matthijs' birthday so we ordered pizza and I made a chocolate fudge cake. On Monday we had to unload the car and have everything up to dry. On Tuesday morning we had a man come over for mortgage counseling so the house had to be at least a bit presentable. Today we finally brought the last of the stuff to the shed.

So, all 36 Christmas cards have been made and sent except for one that we'll deliver ourselves this Saturday when we're going to the Christmas dinner of Matthijs' former student flat. There was a lot of cutting and gluing involved, mostly serial work, but we managed to avoid prefabricated cards.

The next couple of days is going to be busy, or at least they feel busy. Today work, this evening jazz. Tomorrow work, hopefully picking up the Lex photobook from the presser, going to Dorestad 1493, sleeping over at Laurens' place. Saturday going back to Enschede again, shopping for Christmas presents (in a crowded, filled with Germans, town.. yay), Christmas dinner until early in the morning. Sunday sleeping like a log and in the evening back to Utrecht for the musical We will rock you. Courtesy of Matthijs' cousin. Then two normal work days and on Wednesday we'll try to visit 7 (!) houses in Amersfoort.

So far we haven't found Our New House yet among the 9 we've seen from the inside. Either the garden is too small or the house is too small or the interior is weird. Perhaps we're just being too picky, but you have to live there at least 5 years to make it worthwhile so it'd better be good. After these 7 houses we've almost seen all houses in our target neighborhood, so let's hope that we'll have a hit this time. And then the whole mess of financing business, examination, etc. starts. Pfff.. I can't wait to get to the point of redecorating the house and I just don't want to think about the steps before that.

Christmas will be the next logistic operation. First to my mother and her girlfriend, then to Matthijs' mother, next is Matthijs' father, somewhere in between perhaps my grandparents and then my father. In two days.... I truly hope that at the days themselves it will feel more relaxed than I feel about it now. After that I have 5 days off from work and for New Year we haven't planned anything yet. We're not inviting people because nobody would show up anyway (history proofs it) and I'm tired of feeling rejected. We've been invited by Joost so we might drop by there. Or perhaps I can invite my brother for dinner and Arkham Horror. I don't know... I just don't have the whole holiday vibe yet (hell, we don't even have any Christmas decoration in our house yet..).

Well, not actually Vietnam and I'm not working for a radio station, but the bed looked like a battlefield this morning. Matthijs has a cold and weak veins in his nose. This leads to a runny nose and rather often a bloody nose after blowing it.

Of course a cold does not stop when you go to bed and when you're in bed it is usually dark in the room. Turned out this morning that his 'runny nose' was actually a bloody nose and even before breakfast I got to clean the mattress cover, the corners of the duvet and put all the bedding in the washing machine. The pillow is up next. Mind you, I would have Matthijs do this all himself because it is his mess, but he had to catch a train to Amsterdam and he really had to take a shower in what little time he had because he was bloody all over.

So much for the plan to vacuum clean the house. Will have to postpone that again...

Been to Lex X and managed to survive without getting sick or grumpy. I had a total of 8 hours sleep, all after 07:30, over the whole weekend. I did not really have a task there but I managed the bar and helped decorate IC rooms. Also helped with some first aid things without loosing my cool and drove all the way home from Belgium without any accidents. Yay!

Less yay is hearing about the evaluation forms that the bar was not very positively marked. Actually there was no bar but I did most of the dishes and checked if there was coffee and tea most of the time (in both rooms!). One person even mentioned that "there was no apple pie". WTF. What kind of larps does that person attend? I didn't even know for sure if there would be an oven and the kitchen only contained plates and glasses, no oven or stove or anything (catering on the house). All we had was a microwave in which I managed to bake some chocolate sponge cake. And well, people.. I did pay the full 75 EUR to do this for you all.

I'll now stop thinking about that because all in all I had a good weekend and I'm very proud of myself that I did not get a temper tantrum, emotional breakdown or such and I did have lots of fun with Blerik and Matthijs decorating the rooms. So, lets keep the happy feeling.

This Tuesday Matthijs and I looked at three houses in Amersfoort, from the inside, with real brokers. The first one had a very good interior but the garden was really small. The second house had a less than ideal interior but a better garden. The third one had a lovely garden but needs a dormer (or two) to make the attic useful. The last one was also outside our target neighborhood. So we'll continue our search. It was a good learning experience. On Saturday the 11th of December there's an "open house route" with 3 possibly likable and affordable houses in Amersfoort which we'll attend.

Tomorrow we'll go to Amsterdam for face to face communication about a few projects and in the afternoon we'll go to the Cirque du Soleil performance 'Totem'. Saturday we have to get into town for some shopping and in the afternoon/evening we'll celebrate my brother's birthday. Sunday we'll probably start thinking/working on a new version of EE's registration system to make it more usable for all parties. And I have to start making Christmas cards.