birthday time

So the other week, we discovered that most of the guys in our sword club have their birthdays in June. Weird, hey?
We have four people on the 19th of June, and between us, three 18th birthdays this year, in June.
Go Geminis!
So I suggested that we just cut our losses and have one birthday party for everyone in the club once a year, in the middle of June, or the closest Saturday thereto. That's in two days' time.
Of course, when there is a sword party, there has to be fighting first, and then drinking. So this being the first annual birthday party, I suggested that instead of our usual round robin, bring a quart of beer for entry, we just have challenges. I said, "Make a list of everyone you'd like to fight."
Floppy's list just said, "Everyone."
Go Floppy!
Now, when we were at IMCF in Poland recently, I became very attached to a certain ash staff which formed the primary medium for my polearm. I got it from Jack of the Irish team, and I did not want to go home without it. So this necessitated that I jettison some other parts of my armour. The corrazina went to the Irish team in return. I tried to sell it to one of them, but they were having none of it, so I forced it on them instead and took off with the ash staff and a grin, safe in the belief that I would make myself another cuirass as soon as I got home.
It's not often that things go the way I plan them, and if I don't watch them very carefully, they usually go off and do the complete opposite. That is what happened with my cuirass, which still has yet to be made. I'm waiting for money to buy steel, in case you were wondering. I'm not that lazy!
In the mean time, I was wondering what the hell I could use to fight in, since I really do want to fight on Saturday, and I can't let my minions down.
Then, my thought fell upon a relic of the past: my first piece of armour. The Battle Corset.
It is a leather and steel creation that took me weeks to complete, and I made it for my first ever tournament - Dark Ages - in Joburg. I'd been a member of DSSC from the second of May, and the tournament was on the 31st of July. Neither I nor the guys had any clue as to what to do for a girl in armour, so I got a pattern for a corset off a very dear friend and made it out of 5mm thick buffalo hide. Brian, our Marshall, dished the boobs out of 1.6mm mild steel, and I glazed them with sunflower oil and about two hours in the oven at 200 degrees C.
Over the years, the Battle Corset has been left behind, firstly by my first coat of plates, and then by my full plate armour, and then finally by my corrazina. And when I looked back on it,

preparing for the IMCF Champs, I felt a little embarrassed by my first attempts because it is so very FANTASY.
But I took it out today, and put it on and looked carefully at things like gaps, areas of protection and all that stuff, and actually, if I wear it with my bascinet and scale aventail and full arms, it will probably work just fine.
Yes, it has metal boobs, which will probably get all of the minions thinking about Xena and anime characters, but as far as armour goes for the sake of protection (not so much historical accuracy), it's actually not so bad after all, and that makes me very happy.
It's really nice to meet up with an old friend again after so long and realise that what you saw in them then still holds true today.