Weather cloudy and changeable. Jeff's riding Penny, a white spanish mare he's not ridden before. Apparently the new caparison fits her really well. he's using the cotton one as he had strict orders not to use the brand new silk one if it looked like rain! He says he and Penny are getting on all right but she's lazy and takes a lot to get motivated. The addition of spurs in the 11th hour made the last 2 passes go much better.

Jeff is jousting against Toby and Will West. At the end of the session Jeff had 7 points and Toby 6, which put them in the finals. There was some sort of behind the scenes shuffling and one of Jeff's passes was disallowed. Jeff and Toby talked it over with the Marshal but finally decided to drop it, as they decided competing honorably is more important than winning anyway. So Jeff was bumped from the finals, Toby and Will were in the finals and Will won the day.

Toby's still settling into his armour and Jeff said he spent spare moments during the day replacing popped rivets in Toby's harness. Jeff says the saddle is way cool and he likes it a lot. Jeff got to be the Marshal this afternoon in his new 15th C. smoking jacket and he said he looked mahvelous [dahling]. He got lots of comments on his outfit, so it would seem that my frantic efforts paid off after all. Yeah!

All in all a good start!

Looking good is just as important as doing well.

Style is everything

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Cheers

In addition to the new caparisons I sent Jeff off with a completely new wardrobe as well. Got a bug and decided to go a bit earlier and did 1430-40. Styles are really cool and noone's doing it so I thought I'd give it a go. He has a pourpoint taken from the Trajan tapestries in Bern, and a doublet and 2 gowns from Bibliotheque de l'Arsenal, Paris, Ms. 5070 (Bocaccio's Decameron). The wool one has a bunch of intricate dagging and the other is made of a drop dead gorgeous brocade lined in silk. He wore the pourpoint and brocade combo to Marshal and said he felt very regal in it.

Apparently he got lots of comments on the clothes and even The Man in Black™ was impressed. Jeff said the dagged coat was hanging up in the arming tent and a couple times Jeff caught Toby playing with the dags and saying "this is really cool".

I just hope the RA have a photographer there so Jeff can bring me some pictures!

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Edited to add Toby did email me to say that Jeff's hat had arrived; he dubbed it the "Hat of Vegetal Virility", because it looks like Jeff is wearing a cabbage on his head. I can't wait to see a picture.

Gwen

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It's 8AM here, so it's 4PM there which means things are wrapping up for the day. With any luck he'll call me in the next couple of hours when he gets back to his hotel and has a shower. I do know he's been sharing a tent with Steve and Will since Friday, so I imagine a proper shower will be absolutely essential as soon as he gets back to Glasgow.

I'll let you know when I hear anything.