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Friday didn't start off well, it turns out that while I'd remembered to set my alarm clock to the correct time (4.30am), I had neglected to turn the blasted thing on. Fortunately I was awoken at 5.00am by the sound of my rucksack falling over, so I wasn't too far behind time. Sadly, en route to pick up 
Tweedlesmart, my car decided to become broken and, in token of this, a big friendly light turned on with the word "stop" in big friendly letters ... so I did. Some time later, the breakdown recovery man tutted over the engine for a bit before informing me that my spare wheel was flooded, and towed me to a garage. Thankfully the garage were able to lend me a courtesy car1 which meant that, while I could go to Maelstrom, I had to move all of the kit from the Renault into the Ford, not being the lightest of travellers, this was a fairly onerous task. For the curious and petrol-minded among you, apparently the car had a broken oil pump (and a flooded spare-wheel) ... and is now ready for me to collect it (yay!) which means I have to unpack the car today (boo!).
So after a relatively uneventful journey we reached the site ... Drum Hill.
Now while I have very fond memories of Drum Hill, they are from a time when I was (relatively) young and fit. The current reality is that if there is ever an event there again (unless my ME miraculously goes away ... for which there is some precedent) I shan't be going to it. Even with the huge amount of help and support I get from everyone, the site is just a bit more than I can really cope with in terms of its geography. My enjoyment of the event was also rather spoiled by the trained monkey they allowed to do the site layout. Now of course I know that site layout is supposed to be an in-character decision by the host but the semi-random splurge we were subjected to was just dreadful. And as far as the argument that where you choose to place your camp is "an in-character thing" goes, pitching one's camp is not done in time in, therefore I'd argue that it's an out of character action. Possibly the glade-like nature of Drum Hill made a bad situation worse but things could have been (in my opinion) so much better. I have a great deal of sympathy for the OOC traders who I rather doubt had a great deal of passing trade over the weekend. Of course added to this, there was no event "flavour" whatsoever3 which did nothing to improve my enjoyment of it
Now I didn't have a miserable time for the whole event, and it was lovely to see folks, but to be honest I really wish I'd just bought a downtime ticket instead.
Then Sunday saw an IC bombshell drop which has made me quite cross OOC and which I shall be addressing in a (slightly flangy) semi-IC way shortly. Of course it's entirely possible that the "issue" was a result of player action, in which case it's cool ... but if it didn't originate with a player then I feel that my crossness is justified. Ah well, we shall (possibly) see.
Bright sides are that a character I've wanted dead (in two incarnations2 ... for different reasons) is now dead; rumour has it that PD won't be using Drum Hill ever again; and theJade Lotus People's Republic of South Kamakura are hosting the Easter event ... yay!
1 A Ford something-or-other, not quite as nice as the Scenic, but adequate to the task and not too uncomfortable for a shortarse like me ... thoughTweedlesmart had a rougher time of things.#
2 Though I never did anything about it in the current incarnation, I was just very pleased that it happened.
3 Aside from Pudding Night ... and the wasabi and chocolate steamed bun on Sunday morning.
Tweedlesmart, my car decided to become broken and, in token of this, a big friendly light turned on with the word "stop" in big friendly letters ... so I did. Some time later, the breakdown recovery man tutted over the engine for a bit before informing me that my spare wheel was flooded, and towed me to a garage. Thankfully the garage were able to lend me a courtesy car1 which meant that, while I could go to Maelstrom, I had to move all of the kit from the Renault into the Ford, not being the lightest of travellers, this was a fairly onerous task. For the curious and petrol-minded among you, apparently the car had a broken oil pump (and a flooded spare-wheel) ... and is now ready for me to collect it (yay!) which means I have to unpack the car today (boo!).So after a relatively uneventful journey we reached the site ... Drum Hill.
Now while I have very fond memories of Drum Hill, they are from a time when I was (relatively) young and fit. The current reality is that if there is ever an event there again (unless my ME miraculously goes away ... for which there is some precedent) I shan't be going to it. Even with the huge amount of help and support I get from everyone, the site is just a bit more than I can really cope with in terms of its geography. My enjoyment of the event was also rather spoiled by the trained monkey they allowed to do the site layout. Now of course I know that site layout is supposed to be an in-character decision by the host but the semi-random splurge we were subjected to was just dreadful. And as far as the argument that where you choose to place your camp is "an in-character thing" goes, pitching one's camp is not done in time in, therefore I'd argue that it's an out of character action. Possibly the glade-like nature of Drum Hill made a bad situation worse but things could have been (in my opinion) so much better. I have a great deal of sympathy for the OOC traders who I rather doubt had a great deal of passing trade over the weekend. Of course added to this, there was no event "flavour" whatsoever3 which did nothing to improve my enjoyment of it
Now I didn't have a miserable time for the whole event, and it was lovely to see folks, but to be honest I really wish I'd just bought a downtime ticket instead.
Then Sunday saw an IC bombshell drop which has made me quite cross OOC and which I shall be addressing in a (slightly flangy) semi-IC way shortly. Of course it's entirely possible that the "issue" was a result of player action, in which case it's cool ... but if it didn't originate with a player then I feel that my crossness is justified. Ah well, we shall (possibly) see.
Bright sides are that a character I've wanted dead (in two incarnations2 ... for different reasons) is now dead; rumour has it that PD won't be using Drum Hill ever again; and the
1 A Ford something-or-other, not quite as nice as the Scenic, but adequate to the task and not too uncomfortable for a shortarse like me ... though
Tweedlesmart had a rougher time of things.#2 Though I never did anything about it in the current incarnation, I was just very pleased that it happened.
3 Aside from Pudding Night ... and the wasabi and chocolate steamed bun on Sunday morning.
