We arrived in Chepstow at lunchtime on Friday. After we’d settled into the hotel and had something to eat, we got changed and went off to explore. I checked out Chepstow Castle with my sonic screwdriver. As you do.
I only saw five of these coats over the weekend, including my own! This was a bit of a surprise, because I’d expected to see lots of people wearing outfits made from Simplicity’s steampunk patterns. Too obvious, perhaps? The coat is Simplicity 2172, and the skirt is Simplicity 2207. I learned the hard way that it’s not a good idea to walk around on wet grass, in the rain, in a floor length velvet skirt. By the end of the night it had soaked up what felt like all the water in Chepstow, and my shoes and socks were soaked through as well. The skirt still wasn’t properly dry when I brought it home three days later, but thankfully it seems to have survived a trip through the washing machine and tumble dryer relatively unscathed!
I also learned the hard way that when you accidentally drop your beautiful new sonic screwdriver onto the pavement, bits can break off. Oops…
My absolute highlight of Friday evening (and indeed of the entire weekend) was Morgan & West’s magic show. A pair of Time Travelling Magicians who’ve fooled Penn & Teller, they were extremely clever and absolutely hilarious! At the beginning of they show they explained that there would be a lot of audience participation (argh!), but promised that they wouldn’t embarrass or humiliate anyone. They were true to their word, and the show was funny, exciting, and extremely clever without ever resorting to being shocking, sweary or gory. (The only thing I didn’t like was the needle-and-thread-swallowing, but that’s just my own personal squeamishness.) I loved the part with the apple and the shoe, and the trick which looked as though we were being shown how it was done but we actually weren’t. I’m not sure how descriptive I can be about a magic show without venturing into the territory of terrible spoilers, so you’ll just have to believe me when I tell you that they were absolutely brilliant!
After the magic show we headed out into the rain to grab something to eat from the Strumpets with Crumpets (goat’s cheese and blackcurrant jam, yum!) and to watch the end of Boxcar Aldous Huxley‘s set in the bandstand. Any band with a french horn player usually gets my vote, but add a harmonium, saw, banjo and euphonium, and you’ve got a very interesting sound indeed!
We went back to the Drill Hall for the headlining band, Rogora Khart. A sort of bonkers Welsh Russian circus punk folk band, with clown make-up and a bellydancer. It took me a little while to get the hang of them, I must admit, but by the end of the evening I was really enjoying the music. Although Paul says I’m not allowed to learn to play the Bombarde. Meany.