‘cos nothing lasts forever … well not when you don’t enjoy yourself anymore anyway.
Indeed, after some beginnings last week, there has been ends as well.
But hey, not all ends are a bad thing. This past weekend we (as in about 8 of us) drove down to Wales for what was to be my last SCA event.
It didn’t really start on a great note. Technically we were due to leave around 12-ish so I opted against going to work. However as our lift from Glasgow was running rather late
I decided to do some playing practice before Steph returns from work. I didn’t manage to play more than 5 mns before my jackplate decided it had enough and split in two 
. The trouble with electric guitar is that when you can’t plug it it doesn’t sound too hot when you play. Just when I was going to practice some new exercises as well… thankfully I have now ordered a new plate and a soldering iron (one of the connections broke 
) so hopefully I should be able to repair it tomorrow (5 days without playing…)
The drive down on the other hand went extremely well (though, please someone tell me that it is sometimes sunny in the Lancaster area… 
) but we got there so late we had to put up the tent in the dark. The rest of the weekend well, on Saturday we went shopping for lunch then I "hung out" as I wouldn’t take part in the morning fencing scenarii (I don’t like melees and my boots don’t agree with the slippery cobblestones). I managed to fence a little bit in the late afternoon but then it was the sca court thing during which I tried to keep myself occupied as no one else would skip it to do a bit more fencing. "Dinner" was ok but then again I really just walked about the place talking to a couple of people and after that when it started getting dark I tried watching the ball but I had no interest in dancing and was falling asleep I was so bored. The whole of Saturday really was just a succession of doing so little I actually fell asleep out of boredom.
Sunday could not come soon enough. I was going to take part in their fencing tournament in the morning but as I saw nothing to gain from it and didn’t want to be told off by some "marshal" that my equipment didn’t meet his requirements , I simply opted out. It’s odd that feeling that as the weekend goes by, these things one used to enjoy and yearn for feel totally alien now. I stepped away from the sca several months ago now but now the door is well and truly closed and I am not looking back.
In essence, I think I didn’t just grow "out" of it, I grew "up" from it. It’s a strange sensation when you realise everyone else must have some form of insanity to be part of this group, either that or a very child-like mind, no disrespect intended to my friends (and my wife) who are still affiliated with this organisation. For my part, I need something more historically accurate which is not run by a bunch of Americans. The hardest bit amusingly is to convince my wife that no I won’t in fact change my mind and come back in a few years maybe. It’s been getting gradually worse and worse over the last 3 years, it’s over now and I am all the better for it. 
I suppose for a few people now will come the test of real friendship. Personally I hope those who think themselves my "sca friends" will just continue to simply be "friends". There are many I have no doubts this will be the case (you know who you are) but others I am not so sure. Time will tell I suppose.