October 2005

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Samhain is Upon Us

October 31, 2005 in Druidry, Random Wibblings | No comments

A whole year already, since last Samhain. Amazing how it snuck by so fast. Your parents always tell you that time moves faster the older you get, and you only realise how terrible time wasting can be, when you start wasting it.

In fact, it’s jumped up on me so quickly, that the only planning I’ve done has been quick moments caught here and there, ideas on what needs to be done and said. And to top it off, I go book a driving lesson and a dance class tonight, without even realising. Still, I’m sure I’ll be able to make time to visit a little place I have in mind.

Last weekend was fun :) We went to London with our next-door-neighbours, as we gatecrashed a work trip. We had a lovely meal at Loch Fyne Restaurant near Drury Lane. Before hopping off to the theatre to see The Producers. We stayed over in a nearby hotel, and came back on Sunday. Then we just veg’d out for the remainder of the day :P

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Frinking ‘eck! It’s arrived!

October 26, 2005 in Archery, Geek, Random Wibblings | No comments

First things first. Archery practise was good again on Tuesday. It seems there’s something very wrong with where I’m holding the stave in relation to my drawing hand. Plenty more practise should hopefully yield shoots that fall where my sight is at. It’s just a case of breaking a shallow habit.

Next up… I’ve got my iPod Nano! I’m very pleased with this little baby. As I ordered it from the Apple Shop, I also had a bit of engraving done to the back of it, “Athazagoraphobic… and proud.”

Flickr Photo

Next up. I like this picture by Kim Taylor, found on her site. I was searching for a Hawk the Slayer reference, to prove the fact that Madonna’s new song has NOT got a sample from Abba’s Gimme Gimme Gimme, but is in fact a sample from the Hawk the Slayer theme :) I’m still looking for evidence on that claim.

Flickr Photo

Flock! I’ve been playing around with a new Social Web Browser development release called Flock. It’s early days yet, and I’m not using it as my main browser for secure transactions, but its features are impressive, and worth tinkering with.

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First Archery Competition

October 23, 2005 in Archery | No comments

On Saturday, a mate and I went down to Chiltern Archery to pick up some parts for his compound bow, and to pick up a modern recurve starter kit for me. Following on the advise I received, to practise one year on a recurve, perfecting my style, before moving onto the Longbow.

My first friendly competition was today, shooting Worcester targets from twenty yards (or so), eleven rounds of five arrows, with only five practise arrows and a new bow with unadjusted sight. I got one-hundred and thirty-two, which I’m pleased with for starters.

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Archery – Back On!

October 18, 2005 in Archery, Druidry, Geek, Random Wibblings | No comments

Looks like the archery club that I was visiting back in June, has now moved to its winter premises, which is only two miles from where I live! So, that’s chuffed me up, no end. It also runs three times a week, of which, two are good for me. I know where I’ll be spending my Tuesday nights and Sunday afternoons.

What else is going on? Well, the soon-to-be Willow sickle handle is drying nicely. I got the remaining dozen of arrows back in from the garage, I’ve waxed them (and my bow while I was at it) and scrubbed (using wire wool) off the slight bit of rust that was forming on the tips. I’ve ordered some tabs, a stringer (fed up with using my spare string) and some additional fletching thread, so I can finally finish the twenty-eights.

Just checked my order with apple.com, and yes, my iPod Nano has been shipped! Alison should be getting her’s back soon… I kinda borrowed it, as I need background noise and music when I work, and the office here is just too quiet for my temperament.

Hmmm, must remember to salvage some dental-floss in order to mark the nocking-point on the serving of my strings. That could be a job for the weekend. I need to remember to check stave tapering measurements in my books at home, if I have them, it’s time to buy some raw staves and get started on the commissions :D
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Willow Trees

October 17, 2005 in Random Wibblings | 2 comments

I was perusing the Internet the other day looking for replacement sickles. I’d purchased one from an eBayyer once, and it just didn’t have the right feel, a nice blade, just doesn’t feel usable in ritual. Anyhow, I was chatting to a friend the other night about this, and it occurred to me (on looking at the blade again) that I could replace the handle with something of my own fashioning, and also replace the sheath with something more adequate. This would go a long way to personalising the item and maybe getting it feeling right.

So, Mrs. yibble and I took a stroll to some local felled Willow trees. We’d wondered why they were being felled and felt that perhaps we could salvage a piece for my needs. We discovered that the trees are felled and re-planted to be used in high quality cricket bats, resulting money is also used in other tree planting projects. We found an ideally shaped branch that had been spared the chipper, and rushed it back home. Where upon I fell about stripping the bark with my wood-axe. The branch is now drying in my garage until it’s fit for sawing, and I’ve saved the bark for later use.
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New Job!

October 15, 2005 in News, Random Wibblings | No comments

Well, due to the lack of progress so far, not with just archery or the craft, but just generally, I’ve decided to open this blog up for non-bowyering banter too, so expect many more random wibblings from my keyboard.

First off, I’m fixing aspects of my life that I’m not happy with, or have left by the way-side. First up, I was searching for a new job in June, as I was truly un-challenged and un-happy in the previous one. I started interviewing for a role as a Security Projects Leader, and as luck would have it, I was made redundant the day before the new job was offered to me :D So, I got paid to leave, when I would of anyway!

I’ve completed one week so far at the new job, it’s pretty good, lot’s of getting up to speed, studying product and technical documents, and just getting to grip with working for a large corporate again.

So what’s next on the list, well so far it reads: Get back on track with archery and associated crafts, start studying a second language (and see it through this time), start a University Degree via distance learning, continue writing my book (which has been in progress for yonks), and maybe start to learn a musical instrument, oh yeah, and start writing more articles for the DruidWiki, the more I learn, the more I’ll post. Quite ambitious, eh? Yeah, I don’t do things by half!

What else? Oooh, Mrs. yibble and I played host to a friend who was looking to chill-out last weekend. We had a great, lazy time. I think we needed the chill-space too. Was a great cushty weekend to psyche me up for the new job. I’ve added Rhapsody Earth’s blog to the blogroll.