Borgarsandr, day 7

Alith sick, Women shopping, Tablet

Alith is in a really bad mood in the morning when she has diarrhea and 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 that Alith must not touch food or run around and touch things, and avoid touching the face or the eyes etc, and she needs to drink water, which Ciara boils for her first. Alith's vomit vessel will be thoroughly cleaned before using it for anything else, and 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 allowed 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. Check the food, but can't find anything wrong. Not much left, so I ask them to throw it away or give to some slave. Its all a bit incomprehensible why I want them to do all these things, but I say I will explain in the future.

Its better that the rest take the opportunity to go down to the city and shop, visit the guild, etc, when they are done. Alith becomes even more unhappy when she can't come with but I promises they can shop for clothes for her in a couple of days when they will return to the guild. Bodils conflicted between staying here or accompanying, but I send her along to protect Iselin and Ciara. I'm pretty safe here, and even sick, Alith would probably defend me in case of a threat, which she 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's distracted, so ask her to go with the others.

I increase Iselins 'cash budget' with 8 ounces of gold which is a small fortune, and tell Ciara and Bodil that they can shop for clothes for 1 ounce of gold each, I expect to see some nice clothes but also at least two nicer everyday clothes and if they need something more durable get it too, as well as pants for Ciara so she can try my tshirt. If they want, they can include some small piece of jewellery or the like, but I want them to spend the gold. Alith and Bodil are quite shocked that give them 2/3 of a year's salary to spend on clothes, and I do pamper them, but its important to me that my guards look good, and they have sworn two years. Iselin can shop for 12 ounce silver and she is flabberghasted and quite speechless, but very happy for it. I expect they are back sometime in the late afternoon. Take their time.

I also 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. Has quite a few books in PDFs; Tolkien, Pratchett, William Gibson, Asimov, Gaiman and others, and many lesser known authors and pure factbooks. 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 Ingition, 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. Will take a long time to actually write down the useful ones. Also need to read through Perry's which I only used for certain specific things, but its 2600 pages of chemistry even though much are tables... the shiver through my body is a good indication of my dread.

Soon found Alith pretty much knocked out, so helped her to her bed and ordered her to sleep, which she did most of the day, and woke her up an hour or two before the others got back. 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. Checked up on Alith and woke her up as promised, but after 5 hours instead of what she asked me to, ordered her to drink more water and take it easy, and she seems to be recovering. She's a bit a shamed that she failed in guarding me, but I just said that's nonsense - she was sick and her body need to recover, so I let her. Neither she nor Bodil shall feel bad for missing their job when they're sick, and reminded her 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. Promised I wouldn't tell the others that she slept.

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

I have 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 craftman, the better and faster it will probably be. There are so many things I'll want to have created its 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 brass is copper and tin, while bronze is copper and zinc. I think that a few percent lead makes it 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 thats he's good enough in getting it right.

They're over joyed with today's shopping. Iselin has as expected brought an agreement to sign, and once again 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 its only fair, she accepts. It gets a little tricky when she leaves us in a two weeks, but it can be solved by giving the guild the task of keeping it for her. Give Iselin the task to make sure that everyone gets the right share, and keep a logbook of inputs and expenses, in the new number system so she can practice. If anyone complains, 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. 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 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 with my tshirt on. XL is so big on her skinny body but it makes it a bit sexy, but I don't dare saying it to her. Luckily I stopped her until she got pants. Only Alith who had a shitty day.

Literally.