PAX 2024

Two of the most fun cosplayers of the event, these guys walked around with a boombox, dancing and handing out stuff.

What is PAX? It stands for Penny Arcade Expo, Penny Arcade is a web comic but the two guys who started it, plus some other guys, created this convention about all things game and comic/manga related. This means video games, board games, cards games, Dungeons and Dragons, model making, merchandise, hardware, software and more.

Trialing games and competing in tournaments

More than 80,000 people attended over three days in Melbourne’s massive convention centre at Southbank. I had never been before but some of my friends go every year, some work there too.

Izaac (my nephew), Nikki and Tim came down from Orange for the three days. Tim got a one day pass but Izaac and Nikki came to all three days. Kat kindly let us use her apartment in Fitzroy so we got to stay pretty close by.

This guy had made the entire outfit by hand and it contained a water cooling system for hot days

They arrived Thursday night and stayed at our place then I had a day of leave on Friday so we went into the city, dropped our stuff at Kat’s and then caught the tram to the event.

The event space was two aircraft-hanger sized rooms plus three big theatres and a bunch of smaller rooms. The first talk/panel we attended was called ‘Creating Games’ but it was more about creating interactive experiences and the people talking about how simple games can be and how they personally got into making games. It was ok, I think I found it more interesting because it was the first one.

Next up, Izaac entered a Fortnite tournament. It took a while to get started.

While we waited, I managed to have a chat to the guy in the armour who was with friends who were also in the tournament. Having previously made costumes, I was blown away by his efforts and the amazing array of costumes on display everywhere. His name was Lance and he showed us photos of other things he’d made. A great chat!

His gun had a secret compartment for holding his phone.

Izaac was hoping to come in the top 20 and ended up placing 9th in the tournament out of 66 people.

There were video game, board game, card game and DnD tournaments going on continuously throughout the weekend. Also Dodgeball in a big netted area with a touch sensitive floor. Very futuristic!

We ran into Twigz and Ash soon after, friends of ours who were in the play testing area. This is where people with new games can get people to have a go and get feedback.

We had a look around some of the stands. So many things for sale!

We bought a mystery box and so did Nikki and Izaac. Each box came with three games, one big, one medium and a card/tin-sized game. Our two boxes had completely different games in them. I didn’t take photos of many of the stall but they sold everything from dice to weapons, wigs to Pokémon terrariums.

Later that afternoon, Luke and I watched a TTRPG (table top role playing game) called ‘Call of Cthulhu Live’.

The story was about a mad scientist who had cut a body into pieces then brought it back to life, whereupon it had tried to kill him and the goal of the players (four others with their own back stories) was to capture the runaway body parts and try to destroy them or save them, depending on their own motivations. The person running the game did a great job of describing the gross aspects and the players were very humorous.

Most of the rest of the day was spent walking around taking photos of people.

I was so excited to see someone dressed as a video game character I actually recognised (from Luke’s gaming)

That evening we went out for ice cream on Brunswick St before heading to bed.

The next morning Luke caught the train home because I forgot to pack his bag… he had caught the train in early with Izaac and Nikki because I’d woken up with a migraine and threw up (which made me glad I already had the day off but also annoyed because I had fun plans) so Tim offered to wait for me to sleep some more then drove us both in. Somehow I managed to forget Luke’s bag in all the hurry, so he went home for it the next morning super early. I ended up heading into PAX by myself to let the others take their time getting ready, so I walked around alone for quite a bit of the day. I spent most of the time asking for photos of people and writing down ideas for future storylines.

On my way to PAX, having taken the wrong tram

The first talk I went to on Saturday ended up being the highlight of my festival. It was an introduction to Dungeons and Dragons for beginners. The speaker was fantastic – everyone in the room played along and he explained it all so well. I run games for my friend’s young daughter but I really have no idea about some of the key aspects of the game and this taught me how to run the fighting part of adventures. I’m pretty good at making up stories and including interactive elements like puzzles and challenges, but all the technical dice-rolling that is intrinsic to real D&D is a bit of a mystery to me.

I came away from the session buzzing with ideas and went to a nearby cafe to start writing them out.

After some more photo-taking I met up with Luke and we walked around some more.

Sorry about the blur! Pin collecting is a big thing at these events

We looked at lots of stuff, ate more food, then went to a panel called ‘Yes And – Why TTRPGs Should Take Improv Classes’, which really should’ve been called ‘why developing good social skills and confidence helps you be a good role player‘. It was ok.

After this panel we went to see ‘Trope RPG’, where a panel played a superhero based story. One of the people on the panel was a member of Aunty Donna, the comedy group. It was kind of funny but I don’t think watching people role play is generally that entertaining.

Well, unless it’s everyone in a huge auditorium playing ‘The Dark Room’

We had this show recommended to us earlier in the day and it was on very late – from 9pm to 11. Nikki and Izaac had gone back to the apartment for a rest but came back in for this and were very glad they did.

The host was a manic rock-god type personality and the crowd seemed to be mostly made up of people who had been there before. The host pulled people from the crowd and made them choose options from a screen with the premise that they had awoken in a dark room. Every time the crowd chanted ‘YOU AWAKE TO FIND YOURSELF IN A DARK ROOM’ and the choices inevitably led to the character dying and everyone chanting ‘YA DIE, YA DIE, YA DIE, YA DIE’ while violent red lights flashed. It sounds weird but it was really funny and madly energetic. Even the very laconic Izaac was waving his arms in the air, hoping to be chosen.

Needless to say, the room was dark so apart from the first photo I don’t have any others.

On the walk home Izaac wanted his photo taken. But not his face!

Sunday was a bit more laid back. Luke and I went in a bit earlier, grabbing crepes on Brunswick St.

The weather had been lovely throughout and Sunday was warmer still. We had a wander and tried out a new game from an Australian designer.

Despite looking like a game for little kids, it was quite strategic and challenging. Simple rules but an interesting depth of play was available. When it comes out we might buy it.

Nikki and Izaac also did some play testing.

One of the last things we saw was a live role playing game where there was no dice rolling, the people playing the game had to do a physical challenge instead.

Luke and I headed home mid afternoon, leaving Tim to drive Nikki and Izaac when they were done and bring the box of games we’d bought. Despite the weekend being kind of hectic I felt really energetic when I got home. Being surrounded by people with such positive vibes and enthusiasm for the things they loved was really uplifting.

Part of the enjoyment of the event was seeing how well it was run. Queues were kept out of everyone’s way, crowds weren’t too noisy and there were lots of food vans and everything was open really late. Even getting in was super quick, I don’t think I queued for more than 30 minutes for anything.

We loved it so much we’re already planning our trip back next year!

26May2023

Buttermere: Last Day!

by Miss Penny Black

Before I do anything else, here’s some pictures of the inside and outside of our little cottage.

Please note all doors and windows are 2/3 normal size.

The tiny windows and low ceilings definitely add to the doll house feel.

A bedroom that is barely big enough for one bed, let alone two. The beds are so small our feet hang off the ends!

Mark and Sue went off to climb Rannerdale Knotts, the home of one of England’s largest bluebell fields. Unfortunately the bluebells are mostly done here so the rest of us opted to dither around the cottage until 11:30 then walk to Buttermere for lunch.

We somehow managed to take the wrong track once again (a different wrong track this time) and had to jump the stream. It’s a track that’s about 500 metres long and we somehow are yet to find the right path.

Back to the same cafe as the previous day for a different type of pie and a different flavour of fancy lemonade.

Across the road from the Buttermere pubs is a walk that goes alongside a deep beck. We headed up and along, enjoying the shade on such a warm and bright day.

It’s (yet again) hard to capture but the side was steep and dropped away sharply. The path was fairly flat but narrow and I started to feel a bit of vertigo. It was annoying that, on such a straightforward path, I felt suddenly very anxious and had a moment of panic. Sometimes I wonder if I’d been more outdoorsy and comfortable with this sort of thing if I’d kept up the walking we’d done with Mum on our childhood holidays. We used to go to the Blue Mountains and climb down ladders on cliff faces ands scramble around. Still, I do what I’m comfortable with doing and that will have to be enough.

At the end of the path we went through a gate and onto the open hillside, just in time to see a jet zoom past.

A fairly awful photo of one of the fighter jets. I cropped a tiny section of a much larger photo so sorry for the quality but I’m amazed I got it at all.

Sometimes you don’t have to climb too high for amazing vistas.

Poignant feelings given it’s such a stunning day but also our last proper day here.

Eventually we walked the short distance down to the road and took yet another path back through the wood and field to our cottage.

We spied two little black lambs drinking from the beck.

We have really enjoyed being here in lambing season. From our sunny spot by the kitchen window we watching little groups of lambs climbing on logs, chasing each other and annoying their mothers.

Almost definitely the last photo of a person on a bridge.

A shaded wood with the last patch of bluebells.

Back to have a drink in the sun and relax before dinner.

Sue and I decided that if we ran a bed and breakfast she would do the greeting, the laundry and the continental breakfast, I’d do the shopping, cooking and gardening. That seemed to cover pretty much everything so we’re good to go!

Dinner was at one of the Buttermere pubs. I didn’t take any photos of food but here’s the actual, very last photo of our group and a bridge.

I talked them all into standing by the sign and then informed them that they’d been unwittingly lured into a final bridge photo.

Lea managed to finally post the card she had forgotten to take to the postbox for the last week.

A last look at the lambs on the way home…

In the morning there was nothing to do but pack up. Sue, Mark, Lea and Pete left just after 9:30.

Luke and I weren’t going anywhere near as far, so we hung around until almost 11 packing our things and using the wifi. We had a chat to one of the caretakers and she said the scratching Pete and Lea heard in the roof above their bedroom was a protected colony of bats! We’d seen them fly out the previous evening but they were so small and dark we thought they were birds.

We’ve all loved our time in the Lake District and felt very fortunate to have had such stunning weather. Blue skies every day (well, for at least part of every day) and only a spot of rain overnight.

I’ve really enjoyed sharing my favourite place with Lea and Pete and, apart from a few hairy moments, the walks have been pretty right for our ability levels. The food has been great and our accommodation, while quirky, has been perfectly located. Luke and I are looking forward to a better bed tonight though!

24May2023

Keswick to Buttermere

by Miss Penny Black

We had to check out of our lovely Keswick accommodation at 10am so there was time for a couple of hours of wandering around Keswick before moving to Buttermere, a lake in a valley to the west of Keswick.

Luke kindly let me drag him around a number of shops in which I bought nothing but we did pick up some fudge, a bottle of Kin toffee vodka and a Lake District book for Sue.

Chicken, chorizo and bacon pastie for breakfast.

A last visit to the cheese counter at Booths for supplies.

The next and last stop is Buttermere. Our house is relatively remote so we need to take everything.

Mark and Sue brought their car so they are taking the bags while the rest of us take the bus. We were hoping for a double decker but ended up with the back seat on a single storey bus.

Pete said it was the best bus ride he’d ever been on.

The bus finished at Buttermere so we walked the last bit until we saw the sign.

I picked a bunch of lilac for the table.

Our private gate down to Crummock Water.

I went for a little walk and found two smashed glasses by the creek so I picked up all the big bits and brought them back.

We came back and took the lawn chairs out. There is a building with a bed and breakfast on the property but I’m yet to see another person.

Once the wind got up we moved to a sheltered spot.

We finished off the evening with pizza, wine and Bananagrams. Sue won two, Mark won one, and I was just happy to play.

Then we were off to bed in our tiny little beds in our tiny little rooms. I’ll post some photos of the inside of the cottage tomorrow. Goodnight!

22May2023

Keswick: Ashness Bridge, Walla Crag and Castlerigg Stone Circle.

by Miss Penny Black

After realising last night that we were, in fact, not leaving Keswick on the following day, we decided on a plan. We were going to catch the lake ferry to Ashness Bridge and walk back to town via Walla Crag, a walk none of us had done and which seemed reasonably straightforward.

The walk from our apartment to the landing was short and we bought tickets (a steal at £2.70 each) and I took some snaps of the very photogenic row boats.

The boat ride was short but scenic.

We alighted at the first landing and walked the step road climb to Ashness Bridge. I’ve been there twice before, also on overcast days, so if my photos look very familiar that’s why. Or you’ve seen this bridge on the cover of a box of Derwent pencils.

There were a few people around but these girls had decided to have their meal break right in front of the bridge and get in the way of everyone’s photos, which was kind of annoying.

Still, the time of day and light was much better this time. Here’s my very shady photo from 2018.

We were a bit less organised today and Mark, who said he wasn’t in charge, had the route marked out on his phone. We decided to take the path that didn’t look very steep.

Through this harmless-looking, and therefore misleading, gate.

But then it got STEEP!

It’s really hard to capture steepness in a photo, but I had to use my hands on the rocks, the surface was loose gravel and there were blackberry canes, nettles and roses everywhere, which made it all a bit challenging. Mark and Sue leapt to the top like mountain goats while everyone else got caught up behind me. To be honest, if I’d been on my own I probably wouldn’t have done it but, after a couple of uncertain moments, we got up higher where the path levelled out.

Maybe, instead of anaesthetic, in hospitals they could save money and just show people photos of amazing views because it seems to make me immediately forget all the suffering I’ve endured.

Feeling the serenity. We did actually manage to hear a cuckoo today too!

From up high we could see the fell we walked yesterday.

We saw a bird of prey and our eyes could see more detail than this terrible image shows. We think it might have been a honey buzzard.

An unusual stile design to get to Lady’s Rake above Walla Crag.

Lea loves it when I take photos of her unawares.

The back of Walla Crag is a wide moor space that is very open and covered in heather. My favourite sort of landscape, it sweeps up to some higher fells and I was dying a little inside knowing that it will have wait until next time but I guess it’ll always be there.

After a while admiring the view we headed down again.

Past a field with some fell ponies and down a long hill.

After a bit of a sit at the stone circle (which I have also photographed before… by now you may be wondering why I’m even bothering to rephotograph all these places.

When we got to the bus stop Mark and Sue decided to walk back the 30 minutes while the rest of us waited for the bus. Which, in the manner of buses everywhere, failed to arrive.

Oh well, Luke messaged Mark and they were at the pub along the way so we joined them at the…

After a drink and toilet stop we walked back to the apartment for a late lunch bite and rest before dinner.

Mark was the taxi for the evening and, as there were six of us, had to take us in two shifts to a pub in the village of Braithwaite. The pub was Mark and Sue’s recommendation.

Always nice to see the pour over the line.

Cheese sauce with garlic mushrooms on garlic bread – I’m including this photo to remind me to make this at home.

Pork belly, or ‘belly pork’ according to the waiter.

Unfortunately our lovely dinner was ruined by Luke and I sharing the news that we don’t separate coloured and white items in our laundry and I’m not sure the conversation really recovered.

Tomorrow we check out at 10 and have three hours to fill before we can check in at our Buttermere accommodation. The next place we are staying is much more remote than any of the previous so we need to pick up supplies, with cheese and wine at the top of the list!

21May2023

Sale Fell And An Afternoon Tea

by Miss Penny Black

Today was the day! My guided walk for everyone up Sale Fell then back to the lake station cafe for the afternoon tea I booked months ago. I’d been keeping my fingers crossed for good weather but it was sprinkling just a little when I woke up.

There was one thing to do first: the presenting of the gifts!

If you have family overseas you’ll know that any visitor from home will be asked to bring food items when they come to visit. Luke’s uncle Mark had requested a few of his favourites.

Next we headed to the bus stop and finally managed to be first on and grab the seats up the top and right at the front.

The slight mist of morning rain had stopped and the day was clearing a bit and warming up.

We set off uphill.

And up.

And up.

If I didn’t explain fully yesterday, Mark is Luke’s youngest uncle (Luke’s mother is the eldest of nine siblings) and only three years older than me. Mark moved to the UK in his twenties, met Sue and settled in Essex.

Mark and Sue come to the Lake District every October with a group of friends for walking holidays. They are both very fit, Mark just completed a 100km walk around the Isle of Wight (in one go, not over a week like I’d do it) and Sue runs marathons. The rest of us were a bit concerned that our pace would be a bit painful for them but they magnanimously slowed down.

Well, mostly.

The walk was a long way to the top but worth it.

Sale Fell is a nice gentle hill with an undulating crown. Good walking for inexperienced walkers and families. Great views and no sharp edges!

Right at the very top are views to Scotland and, extremely faintly if you really squinted, Ireland and the Isle of Man.

Here’s Mark’s photo of ‘Luke and Lea looking like they’re loving life on the lakeside links’. (Say it ten times fast!)

We met a nice older man at the top who told us he’d heard cuckoos on the way up, which we completely forgot to listen for on the way down.

The walk down was lovely.

We decided to stop at the Pheasant Inn for a drink since we were too early for our cafe booking.

It was lovely sitting in the sun and the garden had a lot more flowers out since I’d last visited. All the azaleas and rhododendrons are in full bloom at the moment. Mum, you would have loved it.

But forget about a mere drink, afternoon tea was on the horizon!

The tables I booked were in the train cafe.

Apart from being stiflingly hot, it was delightful.

We weren’t sure how the waiters would fit food onto the tiny tables, but through sleight of hand, and possibly some actual magic, they did it with ease.

The food selection included tiny Yorkshire puddings and roast beef, delicious sandwiches, cheesecake, profiteroles, salmon and avocado mousse, deep fried Camembert and more! Lea had, rather unwisely, claimed at the pub that she would be capable of eating everything put in front of her at the tea.