Beekay's writing box

My Political Views
I am a far-left moderate social libertarian
Left: 8.29, Libertarian: 2.43

Political Spectrum Quiz

Your results:
You are Supergirl

Supergirl 80% Green Lantern 70% Spider-Man 60% Wonder Woman 60% Catwoman 60% Superman 55% Iron Man 55% Hulk 50% The Flash 40% Batman 35% Robin 22%

Lean, muscular and feminine. Honest and a defender of the innocent.

Click here to take the Superhero Personality Quiz

I found it!! I found it!!

While we were in Burgundy for my 28th birthday we came across this lovely little Chateau somewhere out of Beaune while we were doing a bike tour suggested to us by the bike hire place we got our bikes from. We had just been planning to do a tour of the walls of Beaune, but the bike hire place guy convinced us that for not much longer time wise we could visit a couple of towns with castles, have a free tasting at a vinyard and see a bit more of the area. Although we didn't quite believe that would take 'just an hour or so' we decided to give it a go. And, boy, I'm glad we did. It was by far one of the most pleasant afternoons of my entire life. Gold and green patchwork under a beautiful blue sky, I felt like I'd stepped into a movie script. The highlight of the afternoon was the Chateau with the wine tasting, this lovely tanned young french woman came out to greet us as we rode up the gravel drive from the gate. Obviously hard at work, she was still stylishly dressed in a denim dress. We were the only ones there at the time so she took us for a tour through the 13th Century cellars and then spent at least an hour taking us through the wine list. Her 'tastes' got bigger as we chatted and she joined us for a kir royale at the end of the tasting. She was excited that we spoke english as she was planning to go to Britain to study as some point. I was pretty sloshed by the end of the tasting and peddling out of there was a bit wobbly for both RTV and I. All their wines were lovely, but the standout for me was the Dom Vincent Brut Cremant de Bourgogne (with which the lass had introduced us to kir royale). It was, hands down, the nicest sparkling white I have ever had. We bought a bottle and it didn't even last us our exit out of France, in fact I think I opened it later that night while luxuriating in the oversized bath at our apartment in Dijon.

I haven't been able to find it again, and I couldn't remember the name of the place nor the exact location. But today I found it again!! After a google search that actually worked (stupid me had been googling Don Vincent, not Dom Vincent) I actually came across their website and here it is..

http://www.chateau-langegardien.com/uk/index.php

Now here's hoping they export to Australia, me thinks a certain event in October could be enhanced by adding this particular drop.

Hello, I'm Alice and I'm an arachnophobe. Even since I was showered by thousands of baby huntsmen as a teenager after stupidly being the first to open some curtains after a cold canberran winter, I have had a physical reaction to being confronted by the little monsters.

Unfortunately, since moving out to the rural 'comforts' of Wamboin I've had more confrontations that I care to remember. This morning, for example, I was sitting at our dining table eating my breakfast and looking out over the beautiful vista that is our backyard when from the corner of my eye I caught a flicker of movement under the lip of the table about 10cm from my leg. After jumping about a metre backwards I looked more closely to find what looked like a miniature huntsman crawling along the underside of the table. Without my resident spider catcher in residence I was intending to spray the bajesus out of the little bugger, but whenever I have these encounters the death spray is never easy to find. So, I have every expectation that this is not the only encounter I will have with this particular crawly.

With the plethora of arachnids that make our property their home I have become less prone to overreactions to every spider encounter. I am almost at the point that I can remove the small ones to the garden myself. However, the big ones still provoke a reaction that I cant control. I just don't like them. The way they move freaks me out, and they are NOT aloud in my house. I understand rationally that they would keep our (spectacular) fly problem under control, that they're not poisonous and highly unlikely to bite. But I just can't.

GENERAL SCA
- Been an officer? (Local, Regional, Kingdom, Society?) - yup
- Do you have an SCA name? – yes....
- Do you have an SCA persona? – not really - I have a vague plan more than a persona
- Changed persona because of different garb? nope
- Been adopted by a person, household or clan? – yes
- Had a name and/or device accepted by the SCA College of Arms? – no...
- Had a name and/or device rejected by the SCA College of Arms? – no...
- Been taken or taken an apprentice, protege or squire? – yes
- Have rank higher than an Award of Arms? - yes
EVENTS
- Been an Event Steward/Autocrat? - Yes
- Kingdom level or local level? - local
- Cooked an Event? - nope
- Taught a class at an event? - nope
- Run an activity at an event? - yup

FIGHTING/MARTIAL ARTS
- Ever fought at an event? - some
- Ever fought at Pennsic or another War? - Yep, a few
- Done a different martial art at an event? - not really
- Ever run a martial activity at an event? - no
- Fought at an event tourney? - yup
- Ever fought in a Crown Tourney? - yup
- Won a tourney or contest at an event? - no
- Made your own armor? - no, have way to talented people around me.
- Made your own weapons? - yep
- Been a squire? – yes
- Have rank as an archer? – archers have ranks?
- Have rank as a fencer? - uber pleb
- Created a seige weapon? – No


ARTS & SCIENCES
- Have you ever entered an A&S contest? - Yes
- Have you ever won an A&S contest? - no
- Ever run an A&S contest? - no
- Ever judge/critique items in an A&S contest? - no
- Ever Wordsmithed a scroll? - no
- Illuminated a scroll? – have helped paint by numbers..
- Done the Calligraphy for a scroll? – no
- Made your own paper? - in primary school
- Made a book? - nope
- Make someone's order medallion? - no
- Write someone in for an award? - yep
- Have you ever sewn your own garb? - a bit
- Sewn Garb for others? -yes
- Ever been sewing on the way to an event? - way too often
- Ever finished an outfit before an event? - several times
- Researched and completed an outfit from said research? - yes
- Ever taught a class on sewing? - not formally
- Finished a hat? – several
- Do you know how to spin? I can spin crap
- Ever woven your own fabric? - nope
- Do you know how to knit? - yup
- Do you know how to crochet? - nope
- Have you ever dyed your own yarn or fabric? - yes
- Embroidered a garment? - yup
- Beaded a garment? - yes
- Ever entertained at a feast? Yes and they will never let me do it again
- Ever ran a bardic circle? - yeah, no
- Ever performed in a bardic circle? - no
- Had songs requested from you at such? - no
- Ever competed in a formal bardic? - No
- Know any period songs? - yes
- Been banned from a bardic circle for a song/performance, or have a piece you perform banned/controlled? – no

COURT IN THE SCA
- Ran a court as Royalty (King/Queen or Baron/Baroness)? - no
- Ran a court as Herald? - no
- Heralded at Court? - no
- Been an Attendant, Guard or Champion at court? - attendant
- Been called to court to receive an award, if so which one/s?- yes
- Been called to court to present something, if so what? - yes
- Been called to court for punishment? or other redress of grievances? - no
- Been part of a court 'shtick?' - yes
- Done something while watching court, e.g. embroider, if so what? - yes, drink
- Had a royal comment on what you're doing? - hmmm, not that I'm aware of.
- Have awards from more than one Kingdom? – Well I got my AOA before we went Kingdom, but I'm pretty sure that doesn't count.

PENNSIC
- Have you ever gone to Pennsic? - Yes
- Ever done Zero Night? - what is a zero night??
- How many Pennsics have you gone too? - just the one
- Ever Taught a class at Pennsic? - no
- Taken a class at Pennsic? - yep
- Gone to Opening ceremonies? -yep
- Been a waterbearer? - no
- Worked a shift at Chirurgeons Point at Pennsic? – No
- Worked a shift as security at Pennsic? - Yes
- Volunteered in any other capacity? – no
- Ever merchanted at Pennsic (we'll take shopping as a given)? - No
- Gone to the swimming hole Classic or family? - No
- 'Trolled the Bog for parties?' - yup
- Hosted a party at Pennsic? - no
- Been part of a 'Pennsic building project'? - no

TRAVEL IN THE SCA
- Ever traveled more than 8 hours each way for a one day event? - yes
- Gone to a different Kingdom for an event? - Yes
- Lived in a different Kingdom? – yes
- Have trailer hitch and trailer, mainly because of the SCA? - Yes
- What ridiculous lengths you've gone to get to an event? – paid for armour to be posted from Oz to UK so that my boy could fight in a castle a week before we were leaving after living there for a year.. Wish we could have paid for both :-(

THE MUNDANE OF THE SCA
- Run out of closet space because of garb/gear? – yes
- Ever crammed more than 4 people into a hotel room? – no - we just do not do that many hotel events
- Met your future spouse at an SCA event? - Yes
- Met most past significant others in an SCA setting? - no
- Have better research books than your library? - probably
- Is your tent bigger than your first apartment? - not yet...

You Are An ENFJ

The Giver You strive to maintain harmony in relationships, and you usually succeed. Articulate and enthusiastic, you are good at making personal connections. Sometimes you idealize relationships too much - and end up being let down. You find the most energy and comfort in social situations ... where you shine. In love, you are very protective and supporting. However, you do need to "feel special" - and it's quite easy for you to get jealous. At work, you are a natural leader. You can help people discover their greatest potential. You would make a good writer, human resources director, or psychologist. How you see yourself: Trusting, idealistic, and expressive When other people don't get you, they see you as: Bossy, inappropriate, and loud

It's been harder to keep my journal updated this past 6 months than I had imagined. 2008 was so full of stuff that I just never seemed to have the energy to do anything more than stare blankly at the TV screen in the short time I had to relax, it's taken a couple of weeks of holidays to feel almost normal for the first time in ages!

The year started with unky Ps death march (A ride of about 20 kms that we did on New Years Day. It was 32degrees and I hadn't been riding that much for some time, I enjoyed myself but boy did it hurt. A lot!). It was a year full of both magnificent and terrible things. So, in summary

- ( We bought our place )

- ( Got Monty, my gorgeous thoroughbred )

- ( Survived my first year at the ACT ALP and an ACT Election campaign )

- ( Went to too many funerals )

- ( RTV and I got engaged )

So that pretty much covers 2008. 2009 has started well so far, and has again included a start to the year with a long bike ride (although not so much of a death march) which was HEAPS of fun and very ouchy. My only real goals are to enjoy myself and my friends, have a fun 30th and wedding and get fit. Hopefully they wont be too hard to achieve :-) TTFN.

Merry Christmas to you all. I hope that everyone has a place to be where you are loved, good food to eat and gifts that makes you smile.

How's that for contradictory!

It's been a bit of a weird couple of weeks really. The election happened and we have now finally found out that Labor will be forming Government. Being involved in the campaign was amazing, I really enjoyed it although it was long and hard and sometimes disheartening. I found some new skills and learnt a lot and I am already missing the excitement and close sense of camaraderie we built particularly during the final couple of weeks. There were at least as many days when laughter filled the day as those when I just wanted to kill someone throughout the whole campaign.

Since the election there has been this kind of void in my days, a sort of vacuum that has been sucking my motivation to get back to the everyday mundane tasks of the office. Oh well, I'm sure it will pass in time. Our little team will change over the next couple of months and I'm going to miss Mr J who will be going very soon.

Apart from that it has been great to be able to get back to some semblance of Real Life. I spent Sunday last week cleaning, before decending into a pile of snot and head cold badness, and I really like the result. I managed to clear out the front end of the house, and do a real spring clean. Now for the back end, which is a much more mammoth task. But, it needs to happen, so over the next month I will be steadily plodding away at making our spare rooms a livable space.

I've also been able to spend a little more time with Monty, which is awesome even when he's being a crazy horse, and I've started an embroidery project which I think will take me until sometime late next year to complete but I'm enjoying it none the less. I've started a horse/sca projects/fighting blog at cheval_blanc. It is intended to be solely for me to put stuff on projects and my training with Monty and fighting stuff in one place. I will still be primarily using this blog, with updates on life, the universe and everything.

Anyway, still getting over the headcold so I am going to go for a nana nap.

Your result for The Cowboy-Ninja-Pirate-Knight Test...

a Knight Captain

You scored 8 Honor, 7 Justice, 3 Adventure, and 5 Individuality!

Take The Cowboy-Ninja-Pirate-Knight Test at HelloQuizzy

It is over bar for the final counting..

The result wasn't as bad as it could have been, nor as good as we were hoping.

I'm not really sure what I feel now, or what's going to come next.

But today, I'm going to sleep for a while.

It's been a pretty good day today. But most particularly, this evening has been magnificent.  I put the horse away for the night and then sat on our patio listening to the rain and soaking in the smell of wet spring for about an hour until the wind picked up at which point I took my book and glass of wine back into the house and lounged on the couch before heading for a long relaxing shower and now here I am in bed and ready to go to sleep at 9pm on the Saturday night of a long weekend.. I couldn't be more content.. Oh how life has changed...

OMG I'm going to be an aunt tomorrow!!! 

Can't wait to see the little ones.. 

Over the last couple of weeks, probably really stretching into months now, I have been a sour, cranky, whinging, bitching, crapola of a person to be around.

But, starting today that stops.

My job and my car situation aren't going as well as I'd like, but there are many MANY things I have to be thankful for.

So sometime ago, which I think was last week or the week before, but for some reason feels like a lifetime ago shu_shu_sleeps assigned me the letter L for this cute little meme. I think I might finally have a couple of minutes to give it a go.

The rules:
Comment and I'll give you a letter, then you have to list ten things you LOVE that begin with that letter. Afterwards post this in your journal and give out some letters of your own.

1. Life - through all it's frustrations and joys
2. Love - yes Mr Squish (who I don't think is on LJ, but oh well), I also " love to love"
3. Laughter - of which I'm not getting enough at the moment
4. Learning - any kind really, formal, informal, whatever. Just wish I could stick at the formal a bit more successfully
5. Letters - both in terms of books to read and stories to write, and those I might receive from friends and family. I actually miss writing letters by hand, I must do that again soon.
6. Language - Geeky I know, but I really do think it's fascinating to look at how we communicate. Oh and I love listening to people speak other languages, particularly French
7. Life of Brian - One of my two fav works of Monty Python
8. Long Holidays - I'm definitely due for one soon
9. Llama - It's not really the thing I love, just the word. Llama Llama Llama
And last, but not least
10. Launching down a hill on my bike. Whoosh..

Your result for The Let's Parler French Test...

86% LikelyToSurvive!

Take The Let's Parler French Test at HelloQuizzy

So, abeekay, your LiveJournal reveals...

You are... 9% unique (blame, for example, your interest in good contemporary art) and 31% herdlike (partly because you, like everyone else, enjoy singing). When it comes to friends you are normal. In terms of the way you relate to people, you believe in give and take. Your writing style (based on a recent public entry) is conventional.

Your overall weirdness is: 26

(The average level of weirdness is: 27.
You are weirder than 60% of other LJers.)

Find out what your weirdness level is!

So apparently the universe has it in for me at the moment.. 

Yeah, I know..  Sure the universe cares that much about an insignificant little dot on the face of a tiny planet like myself..  Stupid, but today I feel it.

It's been a particularly tough couple of months for me at work, but the past week has been something past crap.  More than 40 hours of work before I even got there on Friday.  All in stuff I have never had any experience with before and, with little support to deal with it, more than a little trying.  I gave myself an early (?!) mark yesterday and came home and slept for the later part of the afternoon before heading to The Viking and Ms R's place for a lovely dinner.  We came home at a reasonable time and I went to sleep quickly..  I woke up this morning still a bit weary, but more refreshed than I had for a while and had a lovely morning riding the Monty and pruning the roses.  I was actually in a fantastic mood, the first in a little while, and we went and met up with the lovely Ms A and Mr S, neither of whom I've seen for ages, for a drink at Edgar's which was fantastic.  Then Mr RTV and I went to see the Dark Knight, the first time we've been able to catch a movie in AGES, we've been trying to for weeks and it just never happened.  It was all going so well, I was actually happy, relaxed and really really tired by the time we started the drive home at about 9.30pm. 

But.. Soon before the turn onto Norton Road I noticed that my car was lagging a little bit.  Nothing overly noticable, but it just wasn't speeding up the way I would expect and then on the turn onto Norton Road I lost the power steering and all the scary red lights appears on my dashboard.  I was a bit concerned we were going to be stuck literally in the middle of Sutton Road, but fortunately we made it around the corner before it completely conked out.  Not very far around the corner mind you, it was a bit scary being broken down right on the corner of a couple of major roads in the dark  Not being a member of NRMA (Stoopid Alice, Stoopid) I paid the extra fee for immediate roadside assistance.  The guy actually turned up reasonably quickly, but by that stage it was 10.30pm and we were pretty bloody cold.  It became pretty quickly apparent that we weren't going to get the car started, there was some serious overheating going on and it looked like nothing was going to be able to be done before it cooled down and we could get some water in it.  So the NRMA guy, who I have to say was just awesome - kind and generous with his time, towed us around the corner, drove RTV home to pick up his car and then came and waited with me until he got back.  RTV had been low on petrol when he got home on Friday, so we had to go past the service station (about 20kms away from home) before coming back, feeding the poor cranky Monty and coming to bed..  I'm exhausted and cranky enough that sleep is at least a little while away.  And then we have to get up and try and get my damed car started in the morning.  Stoopid stoopid stuff...