Suppose I'd better write something then

[cheekbones3]

Well then, that was a busy week. Monday and Tuesday were the standard days at work where I should have been doing more than I did, but I got them out of the way with minimum fuss, although thinking back, I suppose I was pretty short on sleep due to test-burning my fire toys on Monday night, and taping them up and finishing costume stuff late on both nights.

Wednesday then - first thing (well, before 10am anyway) I was up Calton Hill, helping with building the bonfire, sort out our tech stuff and generally getting very wet indeed. Luckily, after lunchtime the rain cleared, and it was quite a nice afternoon, and we generally mooched about, did a very quick walk-through and ate stuff.

After putting up the fire sculpture and taking it down again, we went off to get fed at the flat of one of our fearless leaders, and began the process of getting kitted up: cue travelling to the Bongo club in cloaks, trousers and not much else, where we got fully painted, which is always a fun experience, if a little chilly, especially when the paint first goes on, and when someone puts it into your ears!

Duly fully costumed, we got a bit more into character and marched up to the top of the hill again in formation. There was no point being fully charactered up this early simply because the procession takes a good hour to reach us anyway. I spent most of this time just trying to stop idiots marching through our space (oh, the fence we just stepped over was a boundary was it?) and listening to the distant drums. I didn't see Jim Reeves at this time (only one point for this reference, pop-pickers (oh, you're too young aren't you?)).

Then it came to be our turn. The procession arrived, and from that point everything was quite a blur for me. The ritual started fine with only a minor hitch, the flames took a while to light, and my fire gloves took ages to get on, as it seems did those of a couple of my colleagues. We got through the performance bit quite well, although I feel like I came out f it a bit too early - I was meant to come out anyway, but I was worried about missing where I should be. No harm done really. I then grabbed a fire brand, lit that eventually, and went up with Andy and Mona to light the Red Men, who were doing their first charge through our point. After that, I spent a lot of time trying to hold our space as the crowd converged, to no avail, and as the rain started to come down ever more heavily, it was time to try to shift all our stuff up to production before joining the other elements at the stage. As it turned out, we took so long sorting various issues that the procession had been through red man point and made it to the stage area by the time we got all the toys and fuel together, so we had to fight through the crowd to join on the back of them. The rain was really heavy by now.

The stage performance seemed to go not too badly, maybe a bit slower than usual due to the standing water on stage and various other factors, but it looked pretty good in the downpour - not actually seen any stage pictures yet, but I'm looking forward to finding some. I was pretty bloody cold for about five minutes, but then I seemed to warm pretty well for no apparent reason, although my eyes were stinging from the paint being washed into them. The procession went off to light then bonfire, we went on stage, I ended up dancing to the beastie drummers with only one other person for a wee while (quite surreal in front of thousands), then we got out our toys again and danced some more. The bonfire went up, the rain eased of course at this point, and the focus switched to the bower. I got handfasted to bunnyphone again which was cool, then the Red Men did their seduction of the white women, which was a load of piss this year frankly. This will hopefully be said at the debrief! That was us really, and a couple of incidents aside, the evening went its usual course after that point.

Thursday had to be productive, as I was revising for the promotion board on Friday morning. Snooker is a great revision aid. I also went to the pub for a well-deserved post-Beltane meal, and had a great shower which removed most of the paint eventually...

Friday then, and the promotion board seemed to go well. It was helped by my being interviewed by two of the least formal and funniest of the statisticians which relaxed me greatly. I had a brief meeting in the afternoon, then sneaked off early to go to the wake of one of our fire colleagues (Mark) who died during the Beltane build-up. A lovely and emotional affair it was.

Friday night consisted of a korfball theory course, and then hattivatti arrived for the weekend, a few others came along to the pub too.

Saturday I played korfball all day, seven games including five consecutively, so I sat out the party on the evening due to dehydration and extreme tiredness!

Sunday was the Great Edinburgh run, which I think I managed to finish in about 53 minutes, which after virtually no prep and the previous day's exertions wasn't too bad. It was followed by some more korfball, then the Beltane picnic, then some ranting over tea, and an evening of snooker.

Today the house is getting a bit tidied, and I still have toothache.

I was going to put more detail into this, but it turned more into a stream of conciousness and probably won't read very well!

Comments

[wee0ne.livejournal.com]

it was time to try to shift all our stuff up to production before joining the other elements at the stage. As it turned out, we took so long sorting various issues that the procession had been through red man point and made it to the stage area by the time we got all the toys and fuel together

I've had a wee think about this one, and will go see Alan with a couple of ideas sometime.
(it's both a scheduling problem and a safety issue: having open fuel is A Bad Thing™)

[cheekbones3.livejournal.com]

I think it was partly a lack of numbers on our part, and also the weather didn't help. Good point for the debrief however, Helen was one of the ones struggling to get stuff moved, she'll be able to give you more detail if you're going along.

[wee0ne.livejournal.com]

Get her to email me.... beltane (at) extremewahingup.org will get to me :)

[sharmaya.livejournal.com]

Congrats on the promotion - and I forgot to congratulate you on the 53 minute achievement too! :) Well done, all round. x

[cheekbones3.livejournal.com]

Cheers! Next time I intend to be much better, although I've only run for ten minutes since. When this bloody wind drops I'll get back out...