From watching dancers with bell pads on their shins and building Lego mechs to getting slightly intoxicated with the Portuguese and protecting the world from an Ancient One, this has been a busy weekend.

Fun-Filled Festivities For the Family

1240 words about life — 19:50 · 7th May 2014

Somehow the expression “No rest for the wicked” comes to mind, despite the fact that it doesn’t really have anything to do with all the stuff we got up to this 3-day weekend.

Saturday

On Saturday we attended the Sweeps Festival in Rochester, were we—and lots of other people—enjoyed wild boar burgers, ales, live folk music and displays with Morris dancers.

A form of English folk dance usually accompanied by music. It is based on rhythmic stepping and the execution of choreographed figures by a group of dancers, usually wearing bell pads on their shins. Implements such as sticks, swords and handkerchiefs may also be wielded by the dancers. Morris dance

And maybe, just maybe, I was the one who mostly enjoyed that wild boar burger.

Morris dancers at the Sweeps Festival 2014, Rochester, UK
I’ve never before seen so many different people in so many different costumes, doing the exact same dance.

We walked around for a few hours, seeing some of the sights that we haven’t been able to make it to before, such as the Six Poor Travellers House, which is the house that inspired Charles Dickens’ short story “The Seven Poor Travellers” as well as Rochester Cathedral—the second oldest cathedral in England.

We have been to Rochester Castle and its Gardens quite a few times by now but decided to go there again anyway as there’s usually always something new to see. This time they had International psychic and clairvoyant Raymond, whom I sadly didn’t have to time to meet but I’m sure that would have been hilarious—being the vocally critical agnostic that I am.

Lucien, on the other hand, wanted to ride on the merry-go-rounds and who were we to deny him that?

Lucien riding a spaceship on a merry-go-round
His career as an astronaut might have been brief but it was glorious.

At this point we were getting quite tired and decided to start heading home for the day, especially seeing as we already had plans for Sunday.

Sunday

On Sunday, we had a Birthday party to attend but since it wasn’t until late in the afternoon, Lucien and I ended up spending most of the day—and a little bit of Monday morning—building our contribution to Lego’s Spring Fever Build Challenge “Build Green”.

Participants are encouraged to use their wildest imagination and submit a story behind the design as well, which is exactly what we did.

Every year it was the same story, as spring arrived the streets of Lego City needed a good spring cleaning. And the poor men and women of Recycling Unit 18 would always be understaffed.

To help her fellow co-workers, Oliva Smith, an employee with a background in Advanced Robotics, creates her Spring Cleaner Prototype, a environmentally friendly all-in-one cleaning solution. The solar powered bipedal mech is equipped with two front-mounted detergent sprayers, a rinse-and-repeater gun and a suction-cup hand for picking up things.

MOC Lego Mech
LE-05 Spring Cleaner, Prototype

You can check out a few more pictures and like—though obviously you don’t have to—our design, the LE-05 Spring Cleaner Prototype here.

The Birthday party was for Lucien’s friend’s little sister who turned 4 but seeing as I’m not comfortable sharing pictures of people without their consent I’m afraid I have no pictures to show for it.

But I’ll tell you this much, the Portuguese know how to throw a birthday party that children and adults alike can enjoy, and we could all stand to learn from some of their ideas, which mostly boils down to this;

A glass, or three, of Aguardiente—a 50% AVB spirit made from sugarcane—is a much better idea than it sounds.

Monday

And finally, Monday. The day when I realised two things;

Firstly.

I really need to start sketching more for the tattoo design, as it’s only about 6 weeks away.

Secondly.

Don’t bring a gun to a Cthulhu monster fight. Bring a double-barreled shotgun. And even then, you’re more likely to harm yourself than you are to harm anything that isn’t a Cultist.

Desperate man pointing a gun at his own head as Cthulhu prepares to devour his soul
“Take a boat trip. You’ll enjoy a change of scenery—”, Bob thought, cursing himself for listening to Alice’s suggestion.

I, in the wonderful company of Steve and a few of his friends, finally got around to playing Eldritch Horror, a game I been having my eye on ever since I attended the 24 hour board game marathon—

Well, actually… ever since Beije played and wrote about it.

Well, actually… ever since I first—years ago—saw Arkham Horror, its predecessor, and wanted to play that.

Eldritch Horror is a cooperative game of terror and adventure in which one to eight players take the roles of globetrotting investigators working to solve mysteries, gather clues, and protect the world from an Ancient One – that is, an elder being intent on destroying our world […] Fantasy Flight Games, Publisher

So, after all that wait, was it worth it?

In one word: Yes.

From desperately attempting to defeat the Spinner of Webs in Greenland, where my chosen investigator Diana and her pathetic Will ① was accomplishing absolutely nothing to the creature for multiple rounds, to trying and failing to close an otherworldly gate in San Francisco that almost drove me to madness, I had a lot of fun.

In the middle of a game of Eldritch Horror
We tried to prevent Yog-Sothoth, the fucking fuckface, from awakening.

Unfortunately, it was also getting late and after playing for about 5 hours we have to give up early. But it was probably for the best anyway as I’m pretty sure we would have gotten our asses kicked as Yog-Sothoth was about to awaken and I had been told that shit goes from “hitting the fan” to “smeared all over the walls” once that happens.

In conclusion, I enjoyed Eldritch Horror a lot and give it ★ ★ ★ ★ ★. I really want to play it again soon, especially after realising we had been using Epic Monsters together with the Normal ones—drawing either one–making the game much more difficult than it needed to be.

You’ve just read Fun-Filled Festivities For the Family.

In which, 9 years ago, I wrote 1240 words about life and I covered topics, such as: the abominable weekly update , lego , rochester , board games , eldritch horror , birthdays , and cooking .