Recent Medieval Projects

With the show season back on us, I decided it's time to get on with some projects that I have been ignoring all winter. For anyone in re-enactment, this is a fairly normal state of affairs. Decide on a bunch of things to do for the next season and then just as the season arrives run around like a headless chicken trying to do them.
While there is the usual run of clothing that needs to be sorted out I have decided that some of the 'extra' bits of kit needed attention.
First up is one of the wooden chests I use to store my kit in.
I actually have 3 wooden boxes at the moment for kit. 2 of them needed no special attention, just a clean.
The last is an off the shelf pine tongue and groove storage box. The main problem with it is that tongue and groove paneling didn't exist in the 14th and 15th centuries. To resolve this I filled all the grooves in and then sanded everything smooth. then I decided to paint it up. I am about 2/3rds of the way through right now but this should give you a general idea of what it will look like.

I also decided to do some more leather work. In the past, i have stuck to fairly basic things like knife sheaves and simple pouches. I have been thinking of making up some gaming boards for chess, backgammon, Tablero and Hnefatafl, so I decided to make a case to hold the boards and pieces. I saw some designs for Scriveners Case's and decided that they would be ideal for the job I had at hand. This was the fist time I tried sowing a tube and insert ends and I am very pleased with the out come.


Next up is a dice cup. I have the leather cut out for it so I just need to sow it up.

The final piece I have been working on is a new helm. I have always had a very nice open face bascinet but I have always wanted a hounskull or pig-faced one. Recently one of the members of the group decided to off load hers so I bought it. unfortunately, it had a large amount of impact foam glued into it so I have been steadily cleaning it all out,

Not an easy job. The final thing to do is add some more mail to the aventail, but as the current mail is all riveted I need to invest in some more riveted links and carefully stitch it together.
 Once I get some in it should be a straight forward job to add it on.

Great Lakes Tourney

For me the main event in the Re-enactment world here in NZ is the Great Lakes Tourney. Hosted by The Company of the Lance, to which I belong, the event takes place at the end of January.

This year we are working hard to make this an extra special event. In previous years the main event has been an individual horseman's competition. To make things more interesting this year we are running the main event as a Teams Tourney. This means that individual Orders, made up of 3 riders, enter as a team. Each rider will compete in each of the 3 mounted disciplines, Melee, Skills at Arms and Tilt. The combined total of the team will be used to determine the overall winners.

Coupled to this we are running a number of other competitions, including, foot combat, archery and living history. We are also trying to organize battle style displays of massed combat.

While the overall scale of the event is small compared to the UK events such as Teweksbury and Berkeley, we are aiming to make it one of the premier events for New Zealand.

This means there's a lot of work to do but at the end of the day a good event makes it all worth while.

 

For information on the event take a look at http://www.taupojoust.com/default.aspx

Movember Update

One week into Movemeber and the team is still going at it. The 'rules' state that for the growth to be considered a Mo it must not join to the sideburns as this makes it a beard and it must not join at the chin as this makes it a Goatee. So I have opted to go for a 'trucker' look, think Paul Snr from American Chopper.
























A number of the guys have opted for this look, although Duncan's looks very Goatee-ish he did point out that there is a gap




Look closely and you may see it
 
Finally here is the whole gang

Movemeber

This year I, along with a number of the guys from work, have decided to support Movember.
What's Movember I hear you ask, well here is the blurb from their website

Movember - Changing the face of Men's Health Movember (the month formally known as November) is a charity event held during November each year. At the start of Movember guys register with a clean shaven face. The Movember participants known as Mo Bros then have the remainder of the month to grow and groom their moustache and along the way raise as much money and awareness about male health issues as possible. Movember culminates at the end of the month at the Gala Partés. These glamorous and groomed events will see Tom Selleck and Richard Hadlee look-a-likes battle it out on the catwalk for their chance to take home the prestigious Man of Movember title. While growing a Mo is left to the guys, Mo Sistas (ladies that support their guys or love Mo's!) form an important part of Movember with their powerful feminine touch, by recruiting Mo Bros, helping to raise funds and attending the highly anticipated Gala Parties. But it's not all fun and games, so why the extreme behavior? Which ever way we look at it, men are far less healthy than women.  The average life expectancy of a man in New Zealand is 4 years less than a woman. The obvious question is why? The answer is because men lack awareness about the very real health issue they face, have an attitude of "she'll be right" and are reluctant to see a doctor about an illness or to go for regular medical checks. The aim of Movember is to change these attitudes, make male health fun by putting the Mo back on the face of New Zealand men and in the process raise some serious funds for the number one male health issue, prostate cancer. Every year in New Zealand 2,656 men are diagnosed with prostate cancer and about 600 die of the disease, making prostate cancer the second largest cause of male cancer deaths, after lung cancer. Movember is very proud to be partnering with the Prostate Cancer Foundation of New Zealand [ www.prostate.org.nz ]. All donations are made directly to the Prostate Cancer Foundation of New Zealand who will use the funds to create awareness, increase support networks for those men who suffer from prostate cancer, fund research and scholarship programs. The Prostate Cancer Foundation of New Zealand is a registered charitable organisation. All donations are tax deductible to the extent permitted by law.  We challenge you to change the face of men's health. Check out Movember photos [ here ]

So for the first time in at least 9 years I am clean shaven.

Over the course of the month I'll try to grow the best Mo I can and then style it towards the end of the month. I'll post up some pics as I go.
Here's the rest of the team

To sponsor my Mo please go to http://www.movember.com/nz/donate, enter my registration number which is 121158 and your credit card details. Or you can sponsor me by cheque made payable to the "Prostate Cancer Foundation of New Zealand" clearly marking the donation as being for my Registration Number: 121158. Please mail cheques to: Movember, PO Box 87 150, Meadowbank 1742, Auckland. All donations over $5 are tax deductible.

Jeff Wayne's War of the Worlds

A long time ago I was given a tape that one of my Aunties recorded from the original album, yes it was on vinyl. When it was re-released on CD I got myself a new copy, having by that time worn out the original tape and nearly worn out the replacement.



















Then I heard that there was a live stage version touring. When it was announced it would be coming to Auckland I weighed up going to see it, I mean given that Richard Burton died many years ago and is the main character could someone else do the show justice, I get like this a lot with re-makes of originals.
I did some checking and found that not only had 2 of the original singers agreed to be involved, but Richard Burtons original recording would be used for the show and a lot of work had gone into re-creating him as a lifelike hologram for the show.
Time rolls on and finally the show date arrived.  am very pleased I chose to go and see it. the music was as good as ever, and there was something special about hearing the immortal opening lines, 'No one would have believed, in the last years of the nineteenth century that human affairs were being watched from the timeless worlds of space....'
The hologram, while not completely life like, was awesome, the performances of the live singers was excellent and held true to the style of the original singers, while bringing the styles of the new to the show.
All in all it was highly enjoyable, now I just have to wait for the next show I have tickets for.... We Will Rock You in November.

Roll on September

So August has gone by and I thought it would be a good time to look back at what I have done over eh last month and think about what I want to do over the next one.

August was a good month for me. Mainly because I had family visit from the UK for most of it. It's always good to catch up with family. Since moving to New Zealand I really only get to see family once a year and as I aim to go home every other year I only see the extended family every other year.
This year has been a bit different. I was home for the grand total of 8 days earlier in the year for a funeral, but mum still decided to come over for 25 days.
In the past, my eldest has come along as well but this year he wanted to stay home and hang out with his friends, but then he's 15 now so I guess they are way cooler than going to see dad. This meant that we could do some different things this year. As I didn't have any leave left to me the options for going away were limited but we did manage to do a fair bit.
We did a day on Waiheke Island in Auckland. I have been to the island twice before  but only to the main town by the ferry terminal so it was really nice to go for a look round the rest of the island.

We also spent a weekend in Melbourne. This was my first proper trip to Australia, having only ever transited through Sydney in the past. We spent the weekend exploring the main town center. It's always interesting to see how things run in other places.

Melbourne's Tram network is very reliable and easy to use. The city itself is very nice and even though it was winter we were very luck with the weather. The only time it really rained we were inside, on the whole, it was warm enough to sit outside and eat even in the evenings.

Mum also spent a fair amount of time touring around Auckland Region and sightseeing around the town.
Looking towards September I want to get back out with the Jousting Group a lot more. I'd also like to try and get out at least once to go scuba diving. It's been a long-term plan to go at least once a month and so far I have failed. This summer I want to make a much bigger effort, so we shall see.

Company of the Lance on TV3

 

For some time now the jousting group I belong to has been attempting to raise the profile of what we do in New Zealand.

Over the weekend a TV crew from the show Hyundai Sports Tonight came along to a training session to film what we do.

Over all the day went well even though the weather was not the best. Graham and Jezz put on a good show for the cameras.

The article was screened at short notice, but fortunately a copy was posted on the TV3 website.

 

If anyone is interested in knowing more or coming along drop me a line.

Ian