Back from the real world

We're back from the Gathering and I would say it was as entertaining as any event I have been to. Usually the Gathering is cool because of the awesome scale and because so much is happening, but it can be a little dull because what is going on is happening across a huge number of people and not many individuals get involved in more than a passing way. This weekend we spent a lot of time around the faction which meant we caught up with a lot more faction plot. Maybe I haven't been paying attention in the past or maybe the way our group is aligned to the current plot means it becomes relatively unavoidable, but there seemed to be a lot more going on around the faction than I have noticed at past events (and in past factions) which makes it a lot of fun. In between the dramatic stuff, and Dave-o's comedy interludes, we pretty much made our own entertainment - when you have a combination of people such as those currently constituting the Academy and Shanks' crew it is actually pretty hard to be bored for long because people start thinking up stupid things to do and everyone else joins in. I have never been to an event where I can say gate-guarding was a definite highlight, but thanks to a couple of glove-puppets it rapidly became hilarious. It is possible that Gerschwal's demon-blood wine may also have contributed to that.

In spite of missing the battle altogether, it was a really good weekend.

Now I'm back to earth with a bump as I have to work out how I can go about handing in my notice at work. I'm not going into any details of that here, but I have had four good years with the company and I shall be very sad to go. I believe I have a very long notice period, however, so I shall still be there for a few months and it is a move I have been contemplating for a while. Hopefully I can do it cleanly and in a way that means we can still be friends afterwards. Me and work, I mean, not me and you, the reader- I'm sure we'll be friends always...