Wow, I cannot beleive that opening weekend of Bristol has already passed by. What a whirlwind it was too. Saturday was the hardest of the two days I think. There were so many poepel there and so many different groups of people and friends to spend time with. I really think I did a crappy job of it with some of my friends. I spent some time with Dave’s folks showing them around, and making sure they had a good time whenever possible. A big thank you to Jezebel Harlotte for her services at the town square public house. 🙂 I also spent time with Daves neighbors as well off and on. I unfortunatly managed to miss Tony’s wife Carrie and her friend the entire afternoon, I saw Juli once after the gates opened but only for a few minutes as she was busy. I only saw Bill and Nancy a couple of times off in the distance. It seemed we were all always on opposite ends of the faire at all times.
Some of Saturday’s highlights:
- Dirk Perfects extreemly cheerful greeting after I walked through the gate “Welcome home my friend!”
- Parade. Uncle Ho asked me to be in the parade with FOF, so I did, and I had a lot of fun. While walking to the stepping off point there was much goofing around including a chorus of “do-wah-ditty-ditty-dum-ditty-do” followed by sea shanties. It was rather impressive that the FOFers unrehearesed actually managed to pull it off and mostly be in key. I marched along side Karl, and afterwards we played around a bit with a small group of mundane patrons. They seemed to enjoy it, they were laughing and smiling at least.
- The Starboard Watch. I’m thrlled there is at least one sea shanty group at Bristol this year anyway.
- New shirt. I stoped in to House of Dra to pick up a new white shirt at the end of the day. Dra is a wonderful person and I was treated like royalty due to being a regular supporter.
- Most importantly, Jessie Linder and others arranged a revel/pub sing! This was probably the single most happiest point in my day. I have been dreading this season because I feared there would be nothing like the washwell set, or the old revel. Thankfully this was not to be the case, and everyone seemed ot enjoy it. I spread the word as best as I could while running like a chicken with my head cut off all day.
After faire Carl, Julie, Karl, Gabbi, Jen, Suzanne and I went to dinner. We tried out a rather nice, yet iexpensive resturaunt and really enjoyed it. They had great service, and they seemed honestly happy to have us. “You guys are the 1st people we have ever had from the faire here.” I find that hard to believe.
Sunday’s Highlights:
- Chris as a patron. It was really nice to get to hang out with Chris just the two of us again and just wander around doing whatever we felt like. We interacted with a lot of the cast, and got dragged into a bit or two.
- John Fjord. While taking pictres while the nobles were being fed and watered I was speaking with CaptainSir Martin Frobisher and he decided that he would name the first fjord he discovers in the new world after me. 🙂 “John Fjord”
- Impromptu shanty sing. I was walking towards te FOF garden, passing the cheese fritters booth when I heard someone singing. I looke dover and noticed Daniel Dowland over in the grape arbor area with another cast memeber in a makeshift song set. I wandered in to listen and was singing along quietly to myself so as not to interfere. Dan noticed (ok I guess I wasn’t as quiet as I thought) and motiond for me to be louder. So I did, and then worked around behind the other cast memeber and sang along with them. Daniel then left and the cast member made me move back around front and we sat and sang a few more songs to the audience. That was great fun.
- Have I mentioned the revel? Oh it was so wonderful to have that back again. Freeform musical silly fun at the end of the day, in the shade of the ship. I swear Jessie Linder and I were sharing a brain for a while as we both kept making the same jokes at the same time.
Overall, despide the obvious spots of saddness, I had a pretty good weekend. The scaryest part is I’m not really all that sore today, and I still have a voice, go figure. 🙂
John's Musings 
Right back at you, bud. It was great to just wandering, chat, and have fun with you. I wish we had more of a chance to do that. Maybe another run to Fort Ancient? 🙂
That would be fantastic.
I was so thrilled to see a lot of the faire that I missed.
And even more touched when I saw that you came to our bellydance show!
Great pictures of Yasmina, by the way, and an amusing picture of me, too.
Thank you so much! Please, introduce yourself sometime so I can give you a
hearty handshake. (BTW may I borrow that picture? Not every day I feel famous
enough for someone to take a picture of me.)