Frocktober 2023 - Part 3

Here's the last two frocks from this year's Frocktober. They're actually similar; bad planning on my part as I normally put a bit of effort into mixing up colours and styles through the month.

Anyway, here's Frock Nine. 

And finally - Frock Ten. Once again I didn't let my being on holiday prevent me from finishing the challenge, even if it meant getting myself ready in a tent. 

For those that care about these things it's a vintage Laura Ashley and one of the favourites of my vast collection.

I wore it for a trip to Eden and the Beowa National park, which included this visit to Eden's whaling museum and this compete killer whale skeleton.

 So that's Frocktober 2023 done and dusted. You can still donate at the usual link: IT HAS POCKETS.

Frocktober 2023 - Part 2

I am continuing to raise money for the Ovarian Cancer Research Foundation here in Australia, through their Frocktober campaign and our team IT HAS POCKETS.

As with last year I felt that my opening offers were a little muted, so for Frock Five I went with something brighter. I did a trip up to Sydney to do some shopping.

I continued the colourful theme with Frock Six, a particular favourite of mine. This one I took out to our weekly trivia night, where we were able to add our moderate winnings to the charity total.

Frock Seven was this fun bird-print, which was wasted on a day working at home (not even a Zoom meeting to show it off on), and provided an incongruous backdrop for our game of Battletech in the evening.

And so on to Frock Eight, which I wore for a trip in to town on Saturday to celebrate a friend's birthday.

So I'm eight frocks in and only need to do two more to reach my goal.

Here's that donations link again: IT HAS POCKETS

Frocktober 2023 - Part 1

You knew it was coming is! The first Frocktober post of 2023.

As regular readers know, every October I go wild with the wearing of dresses in order to raise money for the Ovarian Cancer Research Foundation as part of their Frocktober campaign. Each year my wife, daughter and I set up a fundraising team called IT HAS POCKETS and demand money with sartorial menaces from people of social media.

And observe! There's a link in that previous bit.

The hardcore Frocktober participants will wear a different outfit on each of the 31 days of October. Some even do themed challenges. If you're on Instagram or Twitter you can follow the hashtags #Frocktober2023 or simply #Frocktober and see what they're up to, although the latter site is mostly full of hideous people these days so beware. My goals are more modest. Wearing a frock every day for 31 days isn't really viable for me (I simply don't have the energy, even if I do have the frocks), so once again I have set myself the challenge of at least ten frocks during the course of the month. In my previous four years of direct fund-raising I have managed over $3000 and worn over 50 different frocks. This year I will be attempting to wear frocks that I haven't worn in the previous five years. As I said before, I have a lot of them.

So on with the frocks. Frock One had sleeves, which is not something I do a lot of. I wore it for lunch with family up in Sydney ...

... followed by a trip to MOAB in the afternoon.

I returned to a more usual style for me with Frock Two, which was just for a day at work.

The weather had cooled down on that day, so I had to resort to a cardigan.

This swishy gingham number was Frock Three.

I wore it for a trip with Catherine up to Bowral to see the beginnings of the new botanical garden there, as well as some shopping at our favourite bric-a-brac emporium there - Dirty Jane's

And Frock Four brings us up to date (so far). Again it was something simple for work and a short shopping trip at lunchtime.

Thank you to everyone who has donated so far!

That link again: IT HAS POCKETS!

Frocktober 2023

It's that time of year again!

Yes, October is approaching an, once again, the Kobold household will be dragging out the finest frocks in our wardrobe in order to raise money for the Ovarian Cancer Research Foundation as part of their annual Frocktober event.

Naturally we have brought back Team IT HAS POCKETS for it's sixth triumphant year.

So if you'd like to slip us a bit of cash at some point, that would be grand! Thank you.

Frocktober 2022 - Part 3

I wasn't going to let the small detail of being on holiday stop me from completing Frocktober this year, so I packed all of the necessaries and did what I could.

Frock Nine was this light summery number I wore in the tropical heat of Darwin. A note to aspiring crossdressers who may be reading this; do not crossdress in Darwin in later October. You will melt.

Anyway, we managed a visit to the botanic gardens, and here I am on the back lawn of the Northern Territory Parliament building. This has a very nice, air-conditioned, library in which we spent a relaxing afternoon.

I had considered leaving my Frocktober there, and stopping at nine frocks. It's not an easy thing to do on a camping holiday when you're living out of a van in various caravan parks. But when we finally got to Uluru - our destination - on the last day of October I decided that I'd squeeze in that tenth frock. And here it is; my cute constellation print dress. 

We visited the beautiful Kata Tjuta ...

... walked a couple of the gorges ...

 

... and did Uluru itself.

A perfect end to this year's Frocktober!

(I actually fitted in one more frock the next day, but that was outside of Frocktober. However we were in Alice Springs and visited one of the locations from 'Priscilla, Queen of the Desert' and it would have been rude not to have dressed up for it).

You can still donate - for the next week or so I think - here: IT HAS POCKETS

Frocktober 2022 - Part 2

I am continuing to raise money for the Ovarian Cancer Research Foundation here in Australia, through their Frocktober campaign and our team IT HAS POCKETS.

I felt that my opening efforts were a little muted, so for Frock Five I went for something bolder, teaming this dress with a bright yellow cardigan I got from one of the Frocktober sponsors, Little Party Dress. 

The dress itself is unusual, in that the print is a pattern of courgettes. I can't for the life of me think of why someone thought that a courgette-print was what people would want, but to my mind it works surprisingly well.

Frock Six was a lovely Hell Bunny dress I picked up from a local retro-style store last year and which hasn't had enough exposure since then. So it took it down to the beach when we all dressed up to go to ...

... a local hotel for ...

... the the traditional Frocktober High Tea. This year's was to celebrate our friend's birthday.

Frock Seven was bright and cheery and maybe a bit much for just a day at work.

But it dressed up nicely in the evening for a trip to the theatre to see comedian and musician Bill Bailey in concert.

And so I bring things up to date with Frock Eight - more yellow I'm afraid (and there's more yellow to come after this, possibly).

So I'm eight frock in and only need to do two more to reach my goal.

Here's that donations link again: IT HAS POCKETS

Frocktober 2022 - Part 1

 And here it is! The first Frocktober post of 2022.

As regular readers know, every October I go wild with the wearing ow dresses in order to raise money for the Ovarian Cancer Research Foundation as part of their Frocktober campaign. Each year my wife, daughter and I set up a fundraising team called IT HAS POCKETS and demand money with attractive menaces from people of social media.

Oh look! There's a link in that previous bit.

The hardcore Frocktober participants will wear a different outfit on each of the 31 days of October. Some even do themed challenges. If you're on Instagram or Twitter you can follow the hashtags #Frocktober2022 or simply #Frocktober and see what they're up to. My goals are more modest. Wearing a frock every day for 31 days isn't really viable for me (I simply don't have the energy, even if I do have the frocks), so once again I have set myself the challenge of at least ten frocks during the course of the month. In my previous four years of direct fund-raising I have managed over $2000 and worn over 40 different frocks. This year I will be attempting to wear frocks that I haven't worn in the previous four years. As I said; I have a lot of them.

Frock One - a bold print dress from Dangerfield was the perfect way to start this  year's fundraiser. I wore it to MOAB in Sydney.

For Frock Two I went cuter but more subdued. 

On to Frock Three, which was a retro-style cherry-print I wore for a trip up to Sydney to see a wildlife photography exhibition.

And the last one for this post - Frock Four was something nice for the office which, oddly enough, is where I wore it.

And here's that donation link again: IT HAS POCKETS

MOAB 2022

I paid a visit to MOAB yesterday. It's the first time it's been held since 2019, so it was nice to be back.

Most of it was competitions. There didn't seem to be as many traders present either, although those that were there were interesting enough including Aetherworks, Olympian Games, Eureka, Slave 2 Gaming and a company which distributes independent games. There was one demo game (it looked like Team Yankee, maybe, but I didn't look that closely), and a couple of participation games as well, both of which were card/boardgames. 

I played one of these; a card-drafting game called Cosmos: Empires.

With an attractive epic sci-fi feel, the players purchase cards from a pool of eight every-changing options in the centre of the table, looking to maximise the revenue of their empire before their opponents do. Some cards act as multipliers based on how many cards you have fulfilling certain conditions, so the game is a balance between picking up expensive multipliers and collecting enough of various other card-types that those expensive cards bear fruit. You can also destroy cards in the centre to deny them to other players. It was a simple enough game, although I failed to grasp exactly what the victory conditions were until near the end of my first game. Despite that I managed to scrape a win, mostly via a lucky draw in the centre on my last move.

Here's the game at the end.

I played a second game later in the day, and was simply lucky not to come last in that.

Cosmos: Empires is a funded kickstarter, and will be available early next year.

I also played a card-game on the independent stall called Viewpoint: Revisioned, which is part of a series called the Viewniverse. It was amusing, but I only played two-player and I'm not sure the cut-throat nature of it worked so well. Maybe because it was my throat getting cut.

Anyway, this year's MOAB also coincided with the start of my Frocktober campaign for this year. Here's a taster:

I'll do proper, regular posts throughout the month, but once again we've set up our usual team: IT HAS POCKETS

Oh! MOAB loot? I bought a can of varnish. I did turn down the chance to buy the Ogre: Ultimate Edition (the one that's the size of a suitcase) for $75 on the bring and buy, but as attractive as that looked I wasn't sure that, for the size, it was a game I was likely to play that much. I like it, but to the level of wanting to store a $75 suitcase. One day I know I will regret this decision.

52 Games - Game 57
52 Games - Game 58