Lou-quacious

I'm off for the weekend tomorrow, camping with a group from C House.  It's probably going to rain, but I don't care!  I haven't been camping for years and years and I'm really looking forward to it.  I've been wanting to go for ages, but didn't know who to go with or how to get there.  This trip solves both those problems right out of the box - I think there are about 15 of us going, in fact, which in its turn means no problem getting a lift from someone.  Also, I've volunteered to be one of the 'first wave' who'll go ahead to start pitching the tents (half the fun, hello!!) and get the site ready for those who physically can't do that stuff.

We're not going far, either, which means maximum actual camping time since we have to strike camp by midday Sunday.  We're just far enough away to be away: near the beach at Norman's Bay.  No internets, and I dunno what mobile reception will be like (although I suspect it'll be fine).  Regardless, I am taking my phone (for Twitter and text and oh yeah, phone calls if need be!), fully charged.  And my Palm with travel charging leads just in case there's somewhere I can plug it in should it run down.  What, it has a ton of ebooks on!  And my mp3 player and a CD player as well.  Yes, alright.  I fail at tech-free camping, but it's not like I'm going 'proper' hiking-camping this time.  I don't have to cart the stuff around with me that far, and I'm not going to be miles from nowhere.  In fact, I'm going to be only a couple of miles away from one of my cousins' houses, but that's not the point. *g*  Taking music and books (if in e-format) and knitting is still getting away from it all in my world.  And those are only really for evenings and after 'lights-out' if I can't sleep, or if the weather is too crappy to do the other stuff we've planned.  Which is nothing strenuous: daft games, walking on the beach, art and photography and so on.  Oh my God, did I mention that I'm really looking forward to this?

It's probably partly that I haven't had a holiday for so long.  The last one I had was for the LoM con last year, but that was pretty busy.  It's was brilliant and I had the best time, but it was a full few days! :-)  And before that?  Well, I've had visitors here, which has been lovely, but I think the last time I went actually away would be when I went to Germany to visit my lovely missnoxie and go to Ring*Con in '03.  (And then I was ill while I was there for some of the time.  Oh dear.)  So, yes.  HOLIDAY!  Camping holiday!  In my awesome purple and green dome tent!!  Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeee! :-D

Well, actually, I've been to Brough (which is about 10 miles from Hull, so near enough that I can justify that subject line) to visit Hannah and Craig, meet Scott, and see how well Craig, Scott and I can work together.  And the answer seems to be: pretty well.  So we did a day's work on Tuesday, and they have more for me to do next week as well.  With more in the future if all goes according to plan.  Hoorah!  Most of what I did on Tuesday was a design for their site, which at the moment is more of a holding page.  So we made it shiny, and validated, and DDA compliant.  Mmmmmmm.  It should be going up sometime soon.

I travelled up by train, and just to make the journey that bit more fun, I had problems with the St Leonards - London leg, both ways.  ( Bloody trains )  The Hull Trains service was lovely, though - they have even newer trains than before, with little stylised Humber Bridges on the seat covers, and plug sockets by all the seats for your laptop or phone.  Sweet.

But anyway, work = good.  And if I can keep my head from imploding on me, I should be able to build up to doing enough work to support myself.  Which would be nice.