Alfheimr Renaissance

Borgarsandr, day 7

Shits & Shopping

It's morning and Alith is in a really bad mood since she has diarrhea and is vomiting. It started during the night and she sits a lot on the toilet or outside with a bucket. I force everyone to scrub their hands after toilet visits, give warnings to Alith that she must not touch food or run around and touch things, and they should all avoid touching the face or the eyes etc, and Alith needs to drink water, which Ciara is boiling for her first. I too will just drink boiled water. Alith's vomit vessel will be thoroughly cleaned before using it for anything else, and they will leave it out in the sun for a few days so UV can help kill bacteria or viruses after being scrubbed with salt. One of the farm's slaves is tasked to clean the toilet etc, while a maid helps to clean the house's common areas, scrubs most surfaces with salt and washes the bedding. We check the food, but can't find anything wrong. There isn't much left in the food chest, so I ask them to throw it away or give to some slave, and then scrub the food chest too. It's all a bit incomprehensible why I want them to do all these things, but I say I will explain in the future.

So there is quite a lot of activity and scrubbing going on, and after that the others will go to the town and shop, visit the guild, etc. Alith becomes even more unhappy when she realise she can't come along, but I promises that they can shop for clothes for Alith in a couple of days when they will have to return to the guild. Bodil feels conflicted between staying here to protect me, or accompanying Iselin and Ciara, but I send her along to protect Iselin and Ciara. I'm pretty safe here, and even sick, Alith would probably defend me if there is a threat, which Alith eagerly nods to as she sits outside the open door. Kari offers to stay and teach, but I don't want her here alone when Alith is distracted, so I ask her to go with the others.

I increase Iselin's 'cash budget' with the small fortune of 8 ounces of gold, and tell Ciara and Bodil that they can shop clothes for 1 ounce of gold each. I expect to see some nice clothes but also at least two better everyday clothes and if they need something more durable get that too, as well as some kind of trousers for Ciara so she can borrow my t-shirt. If they want, they can include some small piece of jewellery or the like in their total, but I want them to spend the gold. Alith and Bodil are quite shocked that I just give them 2/3 of a year's salary to spend on clothes, and I do pamper them, but it's important to me that my guards look good, and they have sworn two years of service. Iselin can shop for 1.5 ounce of gold and she is flabberghasted and quite speechless, but very happy. I expect them to be back sometime in the late afternoon, and not before. Take their time.

I look forward to being alone in my room and being able to use technology, watch some documentaries and start filling the already purchased books with information from the tablet's PDFs. The tablet has quite a few books as PDFs from authors like Tolkien, Pratchett, William Gibson, Asimov, Gaiman and others, and many lesser known authors and pure fact books. I mostly bought the tablet to be able to read and use PDFs so it is quite well stocked with books, data sheets on components, wiring diagrams, etc. Quite a lot that isn't 'useful' here, like the Apollo project, Stuxnet analysis, lots of graphical novels, computer books about programming, TCP/IP, Linux, Zombie Survival Guide etc, and many that can be it useful as Sun Tzu, Clark's Ignition, Formula collection, Bowditch The American practical navigator, Perry's chemical engineering handbook, Math books, Swedish military survival handbook etc. Thank goodness I have a habit of saving something I once needed something from, simply because I might need it again. Books take so little space compared to video or even photos. It will take a long time to actually write down the useful ones. I also need to read through Perry's which I only used for certain specific things, but it is 2600 pages of chemistry even though much are tables... the shiver through my body is a good indication of my dread for that project.

It wasn't long until I found Alith pretty much completely knocked out. She must have had a far worse night than she admitted. So I helped Alith to her bed and ordered her to sleep, which she did most of the day. That was actually quite good since it gave me an opportunity to unpack my tent and let it air, wash some hiking stuff and hang it all up in the gardens sunshine to dry, before packing it down again. I checked in on Alith and woke her up as promised, but after 5 hours instead of what she asked me to, and ordered her to drink more water and take it easy, and she seems to be recovering. Alith feels a bit a shamed that she failed in guarding me and I took care of her, but I just said that's nonsense - she was sick and her body need to recover, so I let her. She will recover faster that way too. Neither she nor Bodil shall feel bad for missing their duty when they are sick, and I reminded Alith that they also can ask me for days off when they need to, but I don't want them taking days off due to being sick. Sick days are sick days, and days off are days off. I also promised her that I wouldn't tell the others that she slept.

It has been a productive and nice day as I got almost 8 hours just for myself before the others returned late in the afternoon. I consumed a lot of battery power but everything was fully charged before, and the solar panel has been full for days.

Beside other work, I've also started sketching on a simple stabilized ship compass, and I hope I can find a place that can cast parts in brass or bronze. Otherwise I will have to do it myself, and the more I can off load to a craftsman, the better and faster it will probably be. There are so many things I'll want to have created it's ridiculous, and brass is the most practical, and I know that exists here. I also know that there are different alloys where copper is the main part, and different metals as additives, and that bronze is copper and tin, while brass is copper and zinc. I think that a few percent lead makes brass more machining friendly, but that will hardly matter right now. Alubronze are copper with about ten percent aluminium, but aluminium is probably unknown here and an bitch to produce from ore. Alubronze would be valuable in the future. However, I find a reference in a PDF to red brass used for weapon parts is Cu85, Sn10, Zn5, and marine brass is Cu60, Zn39.2, Sn0.8. I just hope that if I find a craftsman, and that he's good enough in getting it right.

My company is over joyed with today's shopping. Iselin has as expected brought an agreement to sign, and negotiated 1/6 of the income from the sale of panties, and that they will get sewn models. Iselin has negotiated 1/10 of the income from dresses with slits, because they are much more expensive and more work to manufacture than bras and panties. Since everyone was involved, I give them 1/20 part each of the income, including Kari, which surprises her greatly and she declines, but when I insist that it is only fair, she accepts. It will become a little tricky when she leaves us in two weeks, but it can be solved by giving the guild the task of keeping it for her. I give Iselin the task to make sure that everyone gets the right share, and keep an accounting book of income and expenses, in the new number system so she can practice. If anyone complains, they should come to me.

As a good student, I practice language, read runes and do tests on words in the evening. I also get a lesson in the history of the kingdom, important noble families and we use the maps I made to try to place where they are, etc. So overall a good productive day. I have been able to use the tablet and the MP3 player. Iselin and others have arranged more income for me and some for them, and I have been able to make them happy and feeling spoiled. Ciara looks so happy and cute while she walks around all evening in simple pants and wearing my t-shirt. XL is so big on her skinny body, and although it is a bit sexy I don't dare saying that to her. Luckily I stopped her until she got pants, because that would have been sexier.

In the end, only Alith have had a shitty day. Literally.