Subject: Okay, I may be able to do the Saturday ...
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Posted on: 2009-04-17 12:52:00 UTC
... Will have to show up early in the morning (staying over Friday night might be the obvious answer, I know a place I can go on shortish notice) and leave around noon. Will have to check train timetables to see if this is at all feasible. If it's not, I'll just have to wait for the next Gathering, no problem there.
Turns out there's an important family party on the Saturday evening, which I cannot miss on pain of being dismembered by outraged grandmother. This means I'll only be available for either the Saturday morning (so I can catch a train back in time) or Sunday after late-ish morning depending on train timetables. Which time would be more convenient for everyone else who's going?
(BTW, if we make the Natural History Museum, someone has to bring along a cardboard cutout chainsaw and put it on the statue of Darwin for a photo op. See here for why.)
Well, sadly, I won't be able to make it. Both sets of people whom I was depending on for somewhere to stay have made other arrangements for that exact weekend, and I just don't have the money to afford a hotel or a B&B.
*insert grumble about stupid benefits agencies not keeping on top of things and lack of work here*
So, unless I can somehow gain enough money within the next three-four weeks to pay for train fares, somewhere to stay and misc. other costs, I'll just have to wish y'all good luck and have fun, and then maybe try to arrange another Gathering some other time.
As previously mentioned there's the three-day birthday bonanza slash concerted effort to contract liver failure a few days after that weekend, and the first of the guests coming up for it arrives on the Friday. And we're probably off to a gig in Sheffield on the Friday so I couldn't come down that night anyway. There's also that whole recession thing - I and my twenty grand debts will be spending the foreseeable future on the dole, so I can't really go spending anything on frivolities.
Could always have another northern Gathering over the summer though. (Or even a Hull Gathering a week after the London one, if anyone fancies joining me in my descent into celebratory alcoholism.)
... if I skip this one and we do another one closer to home another time.
I don't really drink, though, so not sure if I want to come and join in the drinking spree. Maybe waiting till the summer is the best bet.
Since there seems to be a distinct lack of anyone being able to get to the London Gathering in May, unless there's a sudden upsurge, I've said she might as well come over to Bath and have a "Gathering" with Kaitlyn and me. If anyone is closer to Bath, and/or for some other reason would be able to do that but not London, they'd be welcome. And of course, if more people can do London, it's easy to switch back. Bath is mostly contingency after the number of people who can't come.
hS
both Bath and London are a bit far away and too expensive right now. If I can get a job before then that might change, although it's unlikely.
I can usually ask at work to arrange my shifts for the week so I have whichever day free. (Joys of working part-time.)
[Is confused]
hS
Thought you meant to meet up in Bath at a different time.
Fynn and I were discussing this earlier. He's quite happy to come to a summer Gathering if one can be arranged, and I'm more than happy to arrange it. :D
So we can discuss this another time, maybe?
So yes, keep it for another time.
Maybe if we have one in a few months I'll have had time to buy a whole bunch of orange fur fabric and make a Raketooth the Amazing Three-Armed Fox coat ... or maybe I should save that for next year.
I wanted to do that for this year's Gathering, too.
Go on, do it! And I'll have to make a few decisions... Agent!me, or Random!LOTR!Human. :P What's your thoughts?
Agent would probably be easier because you can just get a black T-shirt and jeans. Add black circles under your eyes and you're done ^_^
Does anyone know where I could find a pattern for making a fox costume? If I just use one layer of fur-fabric, maybe with a bright red lining if I have time, and an opening up the front, I could make it look like a pelt. Cut the edges ragged, tear out random clumps of fur, splatter red paint and maple syrup on it, and I'm done! (If anyone reading this isn't familiar with the mission in which Agent Laburnum acquires this pelt, odds are they don't want to know about the maple syrup.)
I still have my jacket from last year, the one with the DMS flashpatch. Remember it? :P I'll fix it up a bit (the patch is starting to come off) and come as an Agent, then. *glee*
And I reckon you could look in local fabric shops... or maybe Google for the pattern or something. If it comes to it, you could always just ad-lib. :P *grins* Ah, yes. The maple syrup. An essential part of the whole thing.
... or at least not to sit down in it on fabric seats in public, since the largest concentration of maple syrup and fake blood would be on the tail end, ifyaseewhatImean. (Hard to find fake blood out of Halloween season too, but there are costume shops and such which have it.) Hm. Will need a few yards of orange fur fabric, some white for the belly, and some black for the tail-tip. Buying black gloves and socks for the paws might be easier than doing the fiddly bits even if it means they aren't as fluffy as the rest - will have to remember to buy two pairs of gloves. Can cut up the unnecessary fourth glove for the nosetip and such. Some of that hard-drying modelling clay (what's it called?) would be useful for the claws and teeth. Not sure how to make the snout stay stiff, though - something to keep the snout sticking out and not flopping over my face would be useful.
You could just go to an antiques shop and look up - the furs I found in an antiques shop in Lincoln were all hanging from the ceiling. Whether you'd find foxes easily I don't know (I think mine are stoats), but unless you're freaked out by wearing something that died decades ago, might be worth a look.
It's a big part of the gag that Raketooth had an extra arm thanks to a misused verb, and I don't want to cut up expensive antique fur coats for cosplay. Nor do I particularly want to slather them in syrup ...
Any possibility of fake syrup instead? Otherwise I see plenty of comedy for your companions, but you yourself may object to being a) constantly sticky and b) chased around by demented wasps all day.
Fake blood isn't a problem, I can get that from a theatrical supplies shop, but I see what you mean about the syrup. Not sure what else there is I could use that would work ... maybe mix some brown food colouring into glue and let it set so it isn't sticky any more? That way it won't wipe off either.
Of course I'm still stuck explaining to family why I want to make a costume designed to look like the skin of a six-foot-tall three-armed fox that was sodomised to death by trees, but that's my problem.
Glue on a few leaves and wipe it in poo, for the truly authentic look.
No clue what you could use to fake syrup. Something that sets would be best in terms of it not wiping off on everything, but you're going to want something that looks like syrup still. Not sure white glue will, y'know, reflect the light and such in the right way. If you know anyone who works in a makeup department, could be worth asking them. Otherwise, good luck with the glue.
... could work. Or I could smear syrup on it then wipe it off, thus leaving it with appropriately coloured stains but hopefully a lack of stickiness. Hm.
And you don't necessarily have to explain the circumstances of Raketooth's... demise. I doubt they'd be impressed by that bit, but a costume of a three-armed fox just sounds slightly eccentric. :P
Would YOU dare to ask?
... we could only do the Saturday. Morning or afternoon.
hS
... Will have to show up early in the morning (staying over Friday night might be the obvious answer, I know a place I can go on shortish notice) and leave around noon. Will have to check train timetables to see if this is at all feasible. If it's not, I'll just have to wait for the next Gathering, no problem there.
Wow, a meetup not too far from my place ? Yay.
But I dunno if I can escape... lol, maybe next time.
As long as Dad doesn't suddenly refuse to take me up. Either time is alright for me, I think, though I'm a mere semi-lurker and am therefore inferior to people who post here on a regular basis. :P
Er, no offence meant. Sorry.
I wanted to know if it's still on and which day I'd be better off coming.
Well, I'd love to come, but unfortunately, I live in America, and this glaurunging recession makes it bloody difficult to travel out of the country. Not to mention the fact that my mother doesn't actually know I'm a member of the PPC, nor is she aware of the PPC's existence, or exactly what it is. I guess I'm outta luck, then..
But there's a pond between me and England. A pond about 4000 meters deep and 3000 kilometers wide. And I don't have a raft.
Here's a tall ship.