Out of the way

Today is finnish independence day. It was Granny's birthday too. And this week is unlike any other in my life...

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I've been offline for a while.

I went to Finland for Assembly. I went with friends to Estonia for a few days. I came back to Finland. I met up with more friends here. Gorm, Velmu, p01, Cooper's, Anna, Yitzhaq, Georgi, Detroit, Chou, Antti, Mediumgeek, Balder, thanks.

I ate raw cloudberries, drank them in cider, and in a strong liquor. I have only ever had them as a sweet liqueur before. I saw Suomenlinna, Tallinn's old town, three cemeteries in two countries. I realised I had never consciously looked through an islamic section in a cemetery before, and wondered why have a road between orthodox and other christian graves. I never quite made it to several beaches, but did dip my toes in various bits of the Baltic. I drank at an Australian bar, an "Australian-like" (how??) bar, and didn't bother paying to go into another one. I ate at an African restaurant and drank tonic in the Depeche Mode bar, spoke french in a finnish kebab house, bought a new Astérix (well, two - they were cheaper than I had dreamed of) and read old stories. I lit a candle in a hole in a rock, and was gladdened by one on top of a rock. I travelled by plane, train and car, by hydrofoil and ferry-boat, by tram and on foot.

I came here to sit in a yard in the countryside by a piece of rock, with a couple of friends and a few words. To pay a debt never contracted with a couple of coins, to have a quiet drink and see some flowers and trees.

I came here to see a place I never saw before, to find something new, to look for something I may have lost, to search for answers to questions left unasked.

I came here to work, to sleep, to wake up and talk to people and work until I slept again.

I've been busy for a while. Time to return.

Al-Hafla was the celebration of peace. Nominally, it was when the normans, the hospitallers, the people of antioch, the byzantines and various others came together in Kyneton for a small dinner (only about 60 people) cooked in roughly the style of antioch of 1100 or so.

It was the feast that dafinn had wanted to see, had encouraged, finaly brought to fruition. It was a passing of batons, a revival of an idea, an acknowledgement of what life means.

It was also a good feed, a fun weekend, a chance for a chinwag and catching up. And it was a success.

Fathma Nachiar was the real push behind it. Many people help, but it always takes someone to plant the seed and say "right, we water it or it dies", rather than wondering "what if...".

Music from LeMal, belly-dancing first from Maggie and then from almost everyone (yes, among other things I can be convinced to do it), food from MsHelle, me, Heather, and Fathma, recipes from other times and other places, venue from Rosie, logistics from Josh, big help from Ants, Georgi, Tommy, Wok and Linc, and pitching in from others around made a great weekend in the Australian bush able to bring out the magic that medievalling can provide.

One new recipe that I will do again, but differently. Basically fish cakes - cook the fish and spices, then bind it with egg, add more spices, and fry off again. Delicious, but picking bones out of a zillion pieces of fish to make fishcakes isn't my idea of fun.