Taminick Military Encampment 2005   After a slight delay in getting away Lon and I headed off to Taminick. The Volvomort is overdue for a service but he held up well inder the circumstances. Some 3 hours later we arrived and sought an appropriate amount of space for pitching the tent. I have now discovered that my guestimate of 2.5 metres for each guy rope to be rather short with a more appropriate length being possibly 4 metres. I shall have to replace the shorter ones. I also managed to rip one of the eyelets through the canvas which I'm going to have to learn how to fix. Once the tent was up and the car unloaded (and then driven back down the hill out of site) we got changed and proceeded to begin catching up with people. There were many familiar faces from previous Taminick gatherings. There were some I had only met at the previous Taminick and hadn't seen since but I was remembered. I think that's a good thing Had a chat with Andrew with the newly outfitted King's German Legion (KGL) and had a talk about uniform making and the upcoming KGL dinner. I had a long chat with Rob Ely who had phoned me about a week ago to say he was moving to Melbourne in December. This man had a serious collection of gear: two corslets (the back and breast armour), three helms, a couple of swords and three tunics. And seems a very nice bloke too. Spike (my Evil TwinTM) was there, as were Lee and Richard. Bill was playing a Frenchman this year (with an outrageous accent!) but Louise and Mary were playing for the Routiers. Our fearless Captaine was supposed to arrive that evening but didn't arrive until early Saturday morning. Dinner Friday night consisted of a Cabbage & bacon stew with lots of cheese, bread and alcohol. As the night progressed the clouds rolled over and a few spatters of rain started. In order to prevent rain Spike took matters in hand and dug a trench around the soldiers' tent. This of course meant it didn't rain. In a stroke of pure genius I elected to leave our tent trenchless in case it looked like it might rain on the Saturday night. Saturday morning broke with some burke in the Rough Riders camp(?) playing Rouse at 7:00 AM. Who was promptly told to stick a cork in it by a friendly neighbour who pointed out it that dawn was half an hour ago. About half way into cooking breakfast we were rudely advised that the morning parade had been allocated for 8 o'clock! This was followed up 10 minutes later with an apology and that the Officers' meeting was at 8 with parade at 9. Much better. Breakfast Saturday morning consisted of sausage, bacon, bread, & cheese with the occasional pair for something that wasn't dying in colesterol. I don't think you could survive as a vegitarian around this lot for long. After breakfast Robert & I were seconded to guard duty to await everyone for parade. "The Two Pikemen" A new comedy series coming soon to telly Pikes "at the Order". Gives you an idea of how tall they are. Pikes "at the Advance". Remember it's being held upright in one hand. Lined up for parade. The 95th Rifles march in Everyone loves a parade And the rest of them. 42nd Highlanders march past 78th Foot with 95th Rifles behind The Blue & the Grey Captain Von Clarke of the KGL Lunch! Fiddler Bob squeezing his box French, German and Scottish Hurdy Gurdy After returning to camp much discussion was had about upcoming events for the weekend. Of particular interest to myself was the drill competition. Having been drilling nearly every month in Melbourne (although usually with me giving the orders rather than carrying them out) I felt pretty keen to get out onto the field. Robert was up for it. We just had to convince our musketeers. That done Ross went down to register us. Ending up 4th of the list that gave us about three quarters of an hour to put in some practice as a group. Well we're ready Louise, our drummer Three "wise" monkies Doesn't matter where the party is eventually it moves into the kitchen All lined up "Charge your pike" "Charge for horse and draw your weapon" "Musketeers to your flanks" At the order awaiting entry to the drill competition. All lined up Being inspected Marching   Shooting   We came out feeling we had done a good job but it wasn't that great: Helmut's musket didn't want to fire and our pikes got a little wobbly towards the end. However once the scores were announced later that evening we'd scored second place! Even better we were only a single point of 1st (which the 40th snagged with 167 points)!! Just think what we could achieve with regular drill practice I got suckered in to pulling Erin and her friend Emma around in their wheelbarrow for a bit. Sort of a pre-electric Mad-Mouse. Roots and potholes work well as does random turns to the left or right. Got me completely knackered by the time I sat down for lunch. Lunch was a cold affair with more cheese, apples, pairs, carrots, some cold sausage, and bread. Erin seemed rather dumbfounded by the red leicester cheese I brought along. "But it's orange!" I dunno, kids these days. I blame the parents. I decanted my smuggled bottle of Pepsi Max into a black glass bottle and was able to get some caffeine in my diet. Most of the rest of the day was spent socialising and checking out the trade blankets. Seeing as we were the only English Civil War group at the event there was very little that I was interested in. Although I did end up buying a nice lace cloth which I think would make a perfect oversize lace handkerchief. Dinner Saturday night was the traditional loud (offkey) singing and food. Spike attempted to get people into the full seven verses of La Marseilliase but I gave up after the second verse I think. They tried to bring back an old custom of nominating a speaker to give an account of the time in war in character of the unit they represented. Mr. Gapps' New York officer suddenly developed a case of the Deep South. He was drowned out by the table rapps rather quickly. The various toasts to various Kings, Emperors and Parliamentarians was welcomed. The food was... lacking. It tasted nice but beef stew at $20 a head is a bit much. I did hear my favourite joke of the weekend though: Q: How many Frenchmen does it take to defend Paris? A: No-one knows. It's never been tried. Sadly I managed to drop my clay pipe and snapped the stem. Lon thinks he can fix it. We'll see how it turns out. Sunday morning service (scarily he's a real Dominican) Peter of the 95th & Andrew of the KGL Oscar Wilde (true!) The very gorgeous Heather Adrian and Abbey Saturday evening dinner Breakfast Sunday morning: sausages, bacon, eggs, mushrooms, black pudding. Definately no vegitarians among this lot! The Campsite   Things I have learned from this Taminick camp: I need to ensure my shoes can be made tighter. Blisters on the bottom of my feet are not fun. I need a larger area to set up the pavillion tent to make sure the lines on the guys ropes are out far enough. They call them tent flaps because they do. If you don't secure them of an evening they open up and let the cold air in. I need to get a linen napkin to dinner. The supplied paper napkins are fine but just don't have the right feel especially when you've gone to the trouble with getting period utensils. Don't wear your lace collar on parade. The pike makes nasty spots on it (though they thankfully wash out).