It was another, average dull weekend here in Wellington. Except for the crown tournament, of course. This has been the albatross hanging about the necks of the Shire for the last few months as they prepared furiously for the big event, and it went very well.

At the event Tam and I met this American couple now living in Australia. In the “small world” department Siobhan was from York PA (which I have visited many times in the past), and her best friend lives in Wilmington DE! Small world indeed! Her partner, Siridean (pronounced “Sheriden” — these are their SCA names), ended up winning the tourney the next day, so he will be the next king of Lochac (Australia/New Zealand).

The Kidnapping occured after the event. Siridean and Siobhan dropped by to see the alpaca. They were just getting ready to leave when Vanessa arrived the with horse truck (we provide crash spaces for both people and equines, which is really convenient). At the top curve of the driveway the back wheels came off the concrete, and promply slipped backwards in the mud (it has been raining quite a bit the last 2 weeks) and into the drain. Stuck! Against the bank! And of course that blocked the ramp, so we had two horses stuck on board too.

Seeing how the truck was completely blocking the drive, we now had the Crown Prince and his Princess captive! Held up by the calvary no less!

We tried pulling them out with our neighbor Steve’s old powerpul Land Cruiser, to no avail. Eventually we managed to get Stuart, and with his mighty big tractor [a Sami –T.] we pulled them clear! Huzzah! The horses were fine after their hours standing at an angle, and the rest of us could start de-stressing about the whole thing. Oh yeah, Siridean and Siobhan could get away too, which was good as they had a rental car to return!