Waterwalls

Since Umberto and Bogdon worked so hard to put up walls, we were bemused to see the plumbers tearing out parts of them even more rapidly.

Toilet tank

The standard of plumbing here is that many toilets have a high tank that's wall-mounted over a pipe that's embedded in the wall or exposed. However, the modern approach is a little different: the toilet consists of the seat and the bowl, with no visible tank of any description. Flushing is accomplished via some push buttons in a plastic plate mounted on the wall behind the toilet.

Come to find out, the plastic plate is connected to a plastic tank concealed in the wall itself. Who knew?

More plumbing lines

Sewer vent stack. One of these is not our stack
but we had to reroute our downstairs neighbor's

We've gone with this system upstairs because it worked better with the look and space constraints in those two bathrooms, but this means that one of the walls that Bogdon built has had to be largely knocked out again to provide space for the tank. In answer to the obvious question, they couldn't just presume where the tank would be because these old houses have such weird angles and slopes that they couldn't predict exactly where the toilet would end up until after the wall had been built. No problem, though...a little hammer job easily knocks the hole where they want it.

However, it does pose a wee challenge for placing the shower valves and other associated plumbing, located just on the other side of the wall...

Wall plumbing

Love,

Alexandra

When you need more space, just
gouge out underneath!

BUCS

So, turns out BUCS is not what I thought it was; it is just a much larger university competition. BUCS also includes English universities, so we had some archers from Leeds. The other main difference was that the classifications for bows were: compound, recurve, barebow, and longbow.

We left Aberdeen at about 9:20 (it was supposed to be 9:15) and with a short stop to buy lunch, we managed to get to Edinburgh by a bit after twelve. Registration (basically checking id and checking your name off a list) started at 12:30. Since the morning people were still shooting, we put our bows in the sports hall and sat in the normal hall for a little bit. As soon as registration opened, we got our names checked off the list and set up our bows. We then had to have an equipment inspection to make sure that we were in the right category. Although my bow is a traditional, it does not classify as a longbow (it is too thin for its width, has an arrow rest, and doesn't have horn ends). So I was shooting barebow. 

I shot pretty decently and apart from a few annoying shots, had a very good competition. For the first time ever, I had to help with keeping track of the scores. I think I would rather not repeat the experiment if I don't have to. They were keeping two score sheets. One had 10 ends on each sheet of paper (there were two sheets) and the other was to be tallied up and turned in every 12 arrows. I was in charge of the second one and it was a real pain. But I still managed to have a good time. 

They published everyone's scorecards (http://ianseo.net/Details.php?toId=5150) Mine is on page 73... Sorry I couldn't figure out how to get just mine on here.

This Sunday was just the qualifiers, later, they will have more competitions to get to the finals. Anyway, we'll see how it goes, and have fun along the way.

Jutta, team captain. She shoots recurve

Team photo- one girl didn't want to be in the photo

Me

Amy, our compound archer

Photos courtesy of Malcom Rees


Ciao,

Florence

Hic Sunt Dracones

I'm having great fun exploring ebay and scouring the local antiques shops (local is a stretch, given that some are 45 minutes or so away, but that's fine...) for furnishings for the new house. The goal is to have things to move in at such a time as we actually have the house ready. Since we didn't move any furniture to speak of, my work is cut out for me!

While browsing the other day, I stumbled across a posting for a wrought-iron chandelier dating from the early 1800s. It had dragons! I was determined to get this item, despite not knowing exactly where it would go.

The dragon holds the light fixture
in its mouth, see the leftmost dragon.

From the photo, it looked to be about 40 cm in diameter, so call it the size of a largeish serving platter. However, I didn't really pay attention to that until Michael and Jeremy asked me last night exactly how large this thing was. "You know? I don't really know...." So I did the obvious and looked at the ebay description. "Grande dimensione" was the only thing it said. Criminy! The "boys" started laughing at me and ribbed me mercilessly all evening. I wrote in a panic to the poster, who declared that it was 60-80 cm in diameter. Phew!

Well, it arrived today, and their scorn notwithstanding, both Michael and Jeremy had to admit that it's magnificent!

It has pointy teeth! And a great supporting structure! I'm not positive yet where it's going (Jeremy has declared that the library is the right place for it), but I can't wait to see it in its new home.

Love,

Alexandra

Archery competitions

It has been quite a while since I last wrote, but I am still doing lots of fun stuff. Mainly archery. This year, I have been much more active in the competition scene and I have been to all of the league matches here in Scotland.

The league matches are put on for university students by a group that I am pretty sure is called the SSS or SSA... Not really sure, but they are fun and that is the most important part. Last term, there were two league matches and this term there were three (there will also be the championships, but I won't be going to that one). During each league match, you get points based on how well you placed, then at the end of all five league matches, you are given prizes based on how many points you have.

The first match was in Dundee towards the end of October, and the whole way there, I was thinking of the kids’ book The Lazy Young Duke of Dundee. The hall was quite crowded, and we had to put our bags in a little closet because there was absolutely no space for them in the hall. All the traditional archers were very happy to see another traditionalist since the clubs in the area do almost exclusively recurve and barebow.

Unlike the Italian competitions, these LM (league matches) are held indoors (there is also an outdoor championship- but that is for another day). When you sign up for the competition, you are assigned a number and a letter. The number tells you which large boss you will be shooting on (there will be 3 or 4 other archers shooting at it with you) and the letter tells you which target face and in what order you have to shoot. So if I were assigned 1A, I would shoot at the first target on the left-hand side, before the other archers shooting at the left target face. Which letters shot first was switched each end (an end consists of shooting whatever number of arrows you are supposed to shoot, scoring and collecting them). The target faces for almost all of the LM look like you would think they would: Portsmouth target faces (two gold rings, two red rings, two blue rings, two black rings and two white rings- of decreasing value). You never change bosses or targets. I think that the Italian competitions are much more creative.

The next LM was held in November at St. Andrews. They have a real rabbit-warren of a gym. It is an absolute labyrinth and it is hilarious. I was very sad though, because I didn't get to see any of my traditionalist buddies (the LM was held in two locations because there wasn't enough space for all of us in one gym).

LM3 was held on January 19th in the Heriot-Watt university's gym. This is where the LM all start blending together because they came one after another (I have been to a competition close on every weekend since then). I decided that it would be a LOT of fun to wear my costume to the competition (and with the permission of the organizer, I did). Everyone LOVED it. It was great. On the way to the competition, I was stopped three times just so that people could ask if I always dressed like that. It was amazing. Apart from the dress, cape and shoes, I also had my leather flask that Daddy got me for Christmas (thank you, Daddy!) and I had tied my hair back with a small piece of leather that had broken off of my cape (a happy little accident). The whole thing was great. Plus I REALLY amused people by actually drinking out of my flask (it did taste mildly of beeswax though). Plus I had a bottle of candy, so that made the competition extra fun.

LM4 was a bit special. It was a Worcester round. That means that the target faces are smaller and there are four of them per boss. You switch whether you are shooting at the top one or the bottom one halfway through the competition and you shoot five arrows at a time (you shoot three for Portsmouth). I did HORRIBLY on that competition. I was not in the swing of things. I got 97 out of the possible 300 (usually I get a little less than half the potential points at a competition). But it's all good.

LM5 happened just last weekend and we still don't have the results. The organizers are trying to build suspense before they announce the final results at the end of the championships, which are held on the 24th. I didn't do horribly, but I didn't do particularly well. But I did wear my costume again! It was awesome!

AWESOME OUTFIT!!!!

Team photo- but we have an extra team member: the guy with his arms out isn't in our team, he just wanted in on the photo because we are nice and well-liked 

This Sunday, I will be heading to the BUCS, which is an archery competition open to any archers in Scotland, provided you have shot a certain score, depending on your bow type. There was a bit of a problem with my bow because it has an arrow rest on it, which isn't allowed on a traditional bow, under BUCS rules. However, the judges decided that I didn't mess up intentionally and that they would let me shoot as a barebow since I had met the requirements for that category anyway. That was very nice of them and we will see how it goes.

Photos are directly from friends and from the archery club's twitter account, and they are used with permission.

Ciao,

Florence

Another Discovery

Today, I had the opportunity to discover another hidden gem in Todi: one of the local monasteries. One of the carpenters we're considering for some built-in bookcases has done all the restoration there, as well as bookcases similar to ones we're planning to have. Obviously, it made sense to show us his work, and the custodian was willing to let us in to have a look.

She was so excited that I was enthusiastic about her building, that she insisted on taking me on the grand tour when we had finished looking at the (beautiful) shelving.

I didn't want to be too intrusive despite the fact that it's an empty monastery, so I didn't take many photos. But I just gaped when we went into the main concert hall and begged to take photos (she readily agreed!). Since this is not a place that's open to visitors, I figured I'd share my experience with you:

The hall has two pianos; in earlier days, they had wonderful concerts

16th-century frescos

Closer up of the fresco over the main hall

Our carpenter installed the entire ceiling. The medallions were hand-carved by him.

This is the library! Ours won't be as big, sadly.

The level of craftsmanship is just breathtaking.

Love,

Alexandra