I really do like the West Country! They have some of my favourite things! Trains, cider, seas, gorgeous countryside and friends getting martried!

West Trek: The Motion Picture

It's a shame it's so far away but we have two people to share the driving and a Katiebug to keep us company. Plus we get to stop at Gloucester services and raid the farm shop! And so we did! We picked up a Katiebug at the station and headed south. Stopped at services. I was persuaded to have Fish and Chips. Not sure why... I should have waityed until we were in a coastal area. We did have to wait a while though. First there was a wait for chips. New chips were brought out, two people were served, and they ran out of peas...

But we ate. We continued onwards. Hermoine the evil Satnav decided to take us around the back roads of Ilfracombe to get to the hotel.

Nice hotel. Bit of a grotty area. The nearby boarded up hotels don't really add to the character. Tiny little room but it had 4 walls and a bed. And a window! And a nice bar. Although they didn't have any lemonade. Well, they had the dregs of a bottle but it was flat. Still, they served some nice beer. Went for a walk and saw the sea. Not really a swimming beach here, but a good place to get dashed against rocks. Apparently the beach is through the tunnels, but they charge admission.

West Trek 2: The Satnav Wrath of Catboy

We went to see the Aquarium. It's a nice little place, dedicated to showing off the local fish species, fromt he source of the river down all the way to the sea. That gives a remarkable amount of variety, inclusing starfish, dogfish and even an octopus!

Had a look at boats in the harbour. The boats were all sitting on the beach because this is low tide in a part of the country that gets some of the largest tidal ranges in the world. Had an ice cream because flickums  likes buying me ice cream. And went to see the lifeboat.

I've always liked lifeboats! The RNLI is an important institution for anyone who grew up near the sea. Flickums isn't interested in lifeboats, but I am and so was Katiebug so I had a friend to geek out with. There was a nice man to tell us all about the launch system, because the RNLI people love talking about their boats, and I like hearing about them. It's a Shannon class (The big RNLI boats are named after rivers) pushed out on a trailer by a tractor. There's a turntable for pointing it the right way. The trailer has hefty catapillar tracks. They also have a D class inflatable which is less impressive but actually gets a lot more use.

Went to the brewery where they made the nice beer I'd had the day before but nobody was in.

Decided to go to nice pub for lunch where I had a cocktail in a tentacle glass (Kraken Rum based hence the glass), and ordered food. Apparently they were out of ham egg and chips but weren't able to tell us whether this was because of a shortage of ham, egss, chips or a combination of the above. They also couldn't provide a bacon cheeseburger but a bacon burger or a cheeseburger were doable. Food took forever to arrive. We weren't all that impressed by the place.

Went to the beach. Surprisingly busy but it was a very mild October day and half term holiday. Plus it's good surfing beach, and British surfers are a hardy bunch because they really need to be!

Went for a drive to the Lynton and Barnstable railway. Hermione the evil satnav decided to take us through countless narrow country roads to get there before dumping us in the middle of Barnstaple. Rather foolishly I assumed that he Lynton and Barnstaple railway shop would be anywhere near the Lynton and Barnstaple railway. Apparently not. Also apparently it was too late by this point. Decided to chill back at the hotel.

It turned out Liam was arriving many hours before the other people he was sharing a cottage with, and the train arrived a long distance away from the place he was statying (at the wedding venue). Flickums - generous spirit that she is - volunteered to pick him up. I went along, largely because I had nothing better to do. The evil satnav got us to the station okay, and back to Ilfracombe, but decided that narrow country roads were still fun, and that the absolute best route to the venue was up a public footpath!

Decided that Google might have a better idea here, so reverse, went back to a main road and found the place along actual roads... And a long windy farm lane; but at least that was essentially the driveway. But we delivered Liam to the destination, said hello to several other wedding guests, and we were pelased to find Liam didn't need to wait for the person who'd booked the room and could get first dibs on room. This was a family owned farm/wedding venue/cottage so all handled pretty informally.

I helped with wedding prep by carrying cakes. Flickums wandered into the wrong cottage and tuirned around immediately. We were directed to "The Thtched Inn" for food where I had steamed mussels and was given a bucket with a cute lobster on it for handling shells.  Flickums was delighted by the lobster bucket. I was rather pleased with the cider, cream and garlic sauce they were cooked in! Liam treeated us because he was exceedingly grateful for the lift! I always think a good deed is its own reward but if a reward comes with it I'm not going to say no.

West Trek 3: The Search for - actually there wasn't much searching... Star Trek titles aren't really working here.

Alec and Fleur are a lovely couple! I don't know them that well, but Flick is friendly.

The ceremony was at a nice little venue by the promenade. Really nice. And a rainbow came out to celebrate! The weather wasn't perfect but it's October! The rain did decided to disappear in time for some photos.

Went to venue. Had cider. Had food! Listened to speeches. We found out what sort of a man Alec is!  There was face painting!  There was a photo booth! There was pressed apple juice from a local farm. We were seated near the photograpther and she was lovely! We also had an Auntie Fox, a Mr Fox, a Pete and Katiebug on our table!

Face painter painted a pumpkin on Flickums and made me look like a kitty cat!

We had a pub quiz. We won! It helped that the first round was a movie question, and Flick knows movie stuff!

It was fun. I ate too much food. I already had trouble squeezing into my trousers.

Flickums drive home and managed to avoid running anyone over despite the best efforts of the people of Ilfracombe!

West Trek 4: The Voyage Home

Couldn't park at the hotel the previous night, but streeet parking around the corner was free until 10am. That gave us plenty of time for breakfast (the hotel had a very nice breakfast selection - freshly cooked). We packed, picked up a Katiebug and this time we actually found the railway.

It's a really cute little narrow railway. A very short run unfortunately, because unlike most preserrved railways, there was no remaining track, so they had to bebuild from the start. The man in the gift shop had the sort of magnificent beard that you often see on railway people. I imagine he was also fond of either real ale, or - more likely in this part of the country - real cider.

We went on a train ride that terminated at nowhere in particular before turning back.

And finally headed home. A long ride but fortunately very little traffic.

So, nayela and lordofthewheel are now married.

This was a wonderful thing, not just because they're awesome and deserve each others awesomeness but because it meant that we had a party! I'd had a horrible time getting there (more on that later) but it was worth it!

So I arrived, found lordofthewheel's mum, who introduced me to other people who were there and I met some nice and exciting people. Strange and fascinating people. Honestly, the mad hatter's social group had nothing on this lot. The couple have a wonderfully eclectic mix of friends. Many of whom are larpers. Others are filkers and conventioneers. One of the results of this was that we had some fantastic outfits and costumes. I went for a fairly modest bright red shirt, burgundy waistcoat black trousers combo. Others went all out, including one chap in a full Napoleonic military dress uniform.

I was rather pleased to see Tristan - lovely chap who I knew from Bristol. More a friend of friends, so I've not been in touch, but I always got on well with him. As such I was pleased to be seated next to him, as he regaled us with stories of dancing, and other people at the table exchanged geeky conversation, and some lighthearted reinterpretation of our names. Also had a chance to reminisce about time in the games industry trenches with a couple of other industry veterans; one of which was still in the industry.

So anyway, we ate food. It was fine food. We had wine. It was fine German wine, supplied by the parents of the bride. There were speeches. lordofthewheel gave a speech in German, with some assistance from his bride. He seemed to do a remarkable job, and I'm sure it was appreciated by the German speakers there (I think it was just nayela's parents), then gave the English translation.

Best woman's speech ended with a toast in the form of a song. A filk of The Man They Called Jayne. Oh so appropriate in so many ways.

Evening entertainment ended with a ceilidh/masked ball. I had no mask so went for the avant-garde steampunk interpretation of a pair of goggles. The band was absolutely brilliant! First time I've ever heard a ceilidh band do a cover of Eye Of The Tiger!

Had a wonderful time. I'm sure the two of them will have a brilliant life together.

Wohoo!  25 squids on a new PSU and Angelus is right as rain. 

So that means I can upload photos of Tal and Dave's wedding.  They're on Picassa and on Facebook.

Okehampton.  Tal's wedding.  Was lovely to see Tal get married and to see everyone, but after that drive from Okehampton I'm totally knackered.  Will add details later.

Still got to sort out dinner.  Really not in the mood for anything. 

It's taken a while to get round to posting these.  Hope people like them. 

The Dave T Hobbit and Nicki Wedding of Wagneresque proportions

The Striking Wedding of Dominic and Lucy of the House of Bearcat.

And the geektastic Marriage of Kirsty to Phil. 

flannelcat 's stag do was made of win and awesome!

There was beer, then Moroccan food and then we went Camping, had Curry, sang songs. 

I think the Notorius Rum Rooster was a little too much for me to take. 

Hangover cure of fry up and tea and fruit juice worked wonders!