Now for some photos

We arrived in Brisbane on Friday evening to be greeted by Adam's long lost twin brother...or maybe it was Joe, fellow Browncoat, organiser of shindigs and generally evil guy. When Joe was heading home on Sunday evening there was a brief "this jacket feels strangely wrong" incident :)



I don't have many photos from Saturday at Abbey, but Adam did take a fair few of us playing around at the archery range which was being run by the Companye of Northumbria. Here we have Caitlin in her very non-authentic outfit, it's a miracle that skirt stayed up all day, good thing she had her viking belt to wear with it.



And here's me trying not to be outshone by my own kids. (Thank you weather for not making the wearing of a woollen dress a completely insane idea.)



Tom was so fascinated by the lady doing back strap weaving that she eventually gave in and let him have a go - child labour, it's historically accurate! We almost bought him a kit so we could put him to work at home.



Later in the day, after we'd bought a couple of bows for the kids, David decided to try his hand at the range.



On Sunday we managed to arrive early enough to get ourselves seats in the grandstand to watch the official opening and grand parade. The jousters were first in line followed by representatives of all the re-enactment groups participating in the festival.



The New Varangian Guard



NEMAS



Prima Spada



There are more Abbey Festival photos on my Flickr account too if that wasn't enough pageantry for you.

Sunday evening saw us having dinner at a Vietnamese restaurant and then heading back to the apartments to sit around weaving tall tales about the fearsome and mysterious Sea Venison. Much silliness :D

On Monday we went shopping for woollen fabric and were able to buy 2 rolls of blanket type stuff. It's all very exciting if you happen to be a dark ages re-enactor living in Sydney because there is NO ONE in Sydney selling pure wool fabric at non-ruinous prices. The place we got it from is actually an equestrian supplies place - it's horse blanket material!

We then headed south stopping for lunch at Cabarita Beach where we took a few moments to get some sand between the toes and collect a shell or twenty.



We stayed the night at Aqualuna resort in Coffs Harbour and had dinner at a very nice pizza place in town which I now can't remember the name of and my googlefu isn't helping because the one possible result (Amalfi Italian Pizzeria Restaurant) isn't leading me to any reviews, maps or pics to confirm one way or another. Anyway, it was awesomely yum, and not too pricey.

At the breakfast buffet the next morning I was rather taken by the sugar packets, my favourite is the "With your luck, it's probably salt" one.



Tuesday morning was spent at the Big Banana, we did the plantation tour and watched the AV presentations, took the obligatory "big thing" photo and had a surprisingly edible lunch at the cafe before piling into the car for the trip back to Sydney.



Then we were home. And now there is laundry. And grocery shopping. And cleaning. Damn, holidays are hard work!