Marsden is Here

Which means housekeeping projects instead.

Paging Dndnites
The best information I have on the Deviance and Decadence party, circa early June

Event: Decadence and Deviance Party CHANGE OF DATE
Starting: 2008-07-19, the Evening of Saturday the 19th of July 2008
Location: Dunedin, Venue TBA

Anything else I should be aware of as I plan my visit?

lenfant_de_jeu has expressed interest in a group dinner on Friday - I'm up for that as long as somebody else organises it :D Due to travelling inland to visit family I don't expect it to be to pushing 6:30 or later before I reach Dndn.

It seems that both the Dndn KAOS first party and the first OURS tournament of the year are on the same weekend.

I'm assuming the usual format for the latter in making my travel plans, hoping to sneak in a game or two :D

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In other news, forgetting to turn on the element does not hasten dinner :(

Friday I drove doen to Dunedin and had a pleasant dinner with lenfant_de_jeu, salahdra and trashpants.

Saturday I packed trashpants & her life into my car and we made the trip to christchurch,
( Catherine contemplates desperate measures )

Put in an appearance at the uber birthday party of doom but piked fairly early on account of tiredness, despite sugar.

Today we complete the trip to Blenheim and unload, I stay there tonight and return to Christchurch tomorrow, whereupon I have to deal with a whole pile of work crap which has come in.

I don't recommend it. My passengers also don't need to know how many near-misses they slept through.

( Friday )
( Saturday )
( Party )
( Sunday )

Well that answers that :D My next trip to Dunedin is now scheduled for the weekend of the 23rd, all going well. I plan to make this a more leisurely visit than the past few, which have seemed to be downsaturdaybattlenapdinnerpartysleepbrunchbacksunday.

completely awesome.

Except for burning my tounge on a hot-chocolate. Not so good.

Back home now. Long drive.

Photos & stuff later in the week.

Going crash now.

The weekend actually started with a little bit of Dunedin coming to me, as Friday night salahdra visited on her way north.

The trip down was mostly uneventful. A detour through Geraldine for slothphil's cheese, lunch at Temuka, a half-hour stop while I had a fact-finding meeting with a work customer. Arrived in Dndn, delivered people to accomodation (thanks to quoth_ravynne and co. for the floor, slothphil for the airbed loan) and forced myself to take a nap in preparation for the party.

The party itself started off a little slower than I had expected but eventually built up quite nicely. xenogram had liberally sprinkled the playlist with songs to which I like to dance, unfortunately I wore out fairly quickly.

There was an amusing incident with an attempted gatecrasher (hereafter referred to as the "goatcrasher"). I picked up more or less where micheinnz left off when she was summoned to the dance floor and played door. The retreat to the gate when he challenged me to "step out on the street" with him and I, already taller and standing on the doorsill to boot, did my best loom and and asked if he wanted to take me on right there, was entertaining. I don't get to be intimidating very often.

It wasn't until Miche returned that he gave up trying to talk his way in though.

Ran a couple of carloads of people to various places, including one via a convuluted route which led to my pointing out to the navigator (who should have known this aspect of my familiarity with Dndn) "You could have just told me it was next to [x]'s place!" Finally got to bed about 3am.

Determinedly had brunch @ Capers the next morning before leaving. Had another work meetng on the way back - was asked by the client "are you related to the Xs from Y" . I get that question quite a lot, but it's not often I get to reply with "I am an X from Y!" Turns out they used to purchase rams from my grandfather. That extended the trip somewhat, and we got a trip out to see their deer (which I'm hoping slothphil will post photos of, as I neglected to take my camera out with me).

There followed the long, hot trip home, some post-trip phonecalls and a solid night's sleep.

Photos to follow, possibly tomorrow. A good couple of days work came out of the trip.

So after travelling to Dunedin in company of niennahirilfea on Friday, the purpose in making the weekend extended was revealed to have been invalidated. Fortunately this didn't really impact on my accomodation.

Saturday killed time until the Battle, which was very active but suffered a little from having three different groups playing slightly different games.

Cleaned up and killed time until the Deviance and Decadence party (which also had at least two other themes including being cthulhu_dream's birthday) and slave auction. Indulged in some retail therapy by continuing my semi-tradition of purchasing the services of Dictators. Got a real bargain :D Should have bid higher on some of the other lots I was interested in (but I really shouldn't have been affording anything).

Took photos, danced a bit. Couldn't really lift my mood enough to truely enjoy things.

After a midday breakfast Sunday returned to Chch with an extra passenger who had hitchhiked down.

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I am tired and my vision is going. I don't want to go to bed yet as I've damaged my body clock enough this weekend and I have to be up in the morning to help with stage II of shifting my grandmother. I intend to stay up long enough to catch Flashbacks on C4, assuming it's screening tonight.

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So, Dunedin...

Dear freakin' ghods, what a party. Hot chicks, great music, critical mass. Amongst other things some bastard lined up the unholy trinity (Constantinople, Farewell to the Crown, Rasputin (extended)).

I may not be able to cycle tomorrow.

Took many pics, will put a selection up in my scrapbook tomorrow.

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Recommend Velvet Burger as a place to get food. Gourmet burgers - I had the venison - divine...

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Struck it lucky at Nexus - Slayers Guides to Ogres, Giants amd Trolls $20 net. They also have dice cheaper than the last reports I have from Comics - I picked up a new set since people seem to keep borrowing my d20s these days :D

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Had a lovely couple of days of weather. Karma kicked in on the way home though - Dark, rain from the hills (as if that road wasn't bad enough @ night) to Ashburton, fog from Timaru to Asburton.

4.6L/100km :D

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I must crawl towards bed now.

Further to the weekend
Tee Hee Gossip.
Having a smoker as a passenger adds 30min to the trip.
Filled up just before leaving Dunedin and did the trip back at 4.6L / 100km. I <3 my car.
I may be getting fitter, but certain muscles still haven't been exercised that much in a while. As they are reminding me today.

Discovery of today
The Manchester St. parking building provides a free, undercover bicycle lockup a block from the new campus. Joy!

The new place is a little more ... cramped than the old one. I was even feeling somewhat claustrophobic, although the paint fumes may also have had something to do with that. There are however fewer stairs to deal with.