Happy Boxing Day

 I didn’t get a Christmas Day post up, so I’ll go a day late.  Had a busy day yesterday but looking forward to getting the brushes working today.

Visit to the UK Summer 2024

I am late on posting this of course, but my wife and I traveled to England for a couple weeks in July and August.  It was family centred visit, for a family week at a Caravan site on the Isle of Wight.  This is essentially the UK equivalent of renting a cabin at the lake for the week, but for us involved long flights and expensive airfare.  Three were 20 off family members there at the peak, and we were glad that we went as it will almost certainly be the last of the annual caravan vacations (we ended to go every second year our so due to cost and other plans etc).

On the whole a great visit but it was a short due to the heat of a strike by my faculty union (resolved just before we left).  My wife came down with COVID while on the Isle but I waited til we had been back home for two days before getting it.  On the whole a lot better than our trip two years ago, which involved me upchucking all over a Waterstone's bookstore, spending the night in Casualty, missing our flight and having to rebook and then fighting an insurance company for months to get reimbursed.

We spent a few days in London either side of our caravan trip.  Highlights included poking around, a visit to the London Transport Museum and seeing Hello Dolly with Imelda Staunton (Delores Umbridge from Harry Potter).  It's a great musical and well recommended.

It being the UK you can't go anywhere without running into history so I'll post some shots of some sites of wargaming interest in the next few days.

I Have been to the Royal Chelsea Hospital!

 

Blogging and gaming have been on hold due to a sudden influx of real life events, most of which were really good. But it did include a detour into an unexpected location in the form of the A&E at Royal Chelsea and Westminster Hospital.

My wife and I were in the southern UK for 3 1/2 weeks until very recently.  It was very much a family based vacation, seeing relatives, going through my dad's effects and catching up with our daughter.  All good stuff until the very last moment.  We started and ended with stops in London for a few days after arriving and departing via Heathrow.  On our very last day we were out on a walk through Kensington Gardens en route to Notting Hill Gate.  We made it to the history section of the Waterstones before my wheels fell off.  

I suddenly came on very dizzy and week, but it was a heatwave and we'd been out walking so I did the standard grab a chair and a drink of water and let things settle.  Only they didn't and I got a very nasty bit of Vertigo - room spinning, unable to walk and then was violently sick.  If you are in that particular book shop and it smells a bit off then blame me.

The bookstore staff were very helpful, ushering me not their staff washroom, calling an ambulance and staying onsite late until they got there.  The ambulance crew were incredible (as were all of the NHS folks I met) but gave me a real scare.  I was thinking heat stroke or food reactions, but they quickly went to stroke.  Nothing like that particular S word to shake you up, even if you are clinging to the floor and toilet unable to move a muscle without throwing up.

A night in hospital, a couple of CT scans, multiple IV drips and multiple visits with docs later I got a visit from the neurologist.  He did some checks and threw me around a bit (literally) and decided that it was most likely benign paroxysmal positional vertigo or BPPV and not a stroke (although he didn't absolutely rule that out).  By the time I was done, we'd missed our flight time.  But my wonderful wife had managed to cancel the flights in time to get a credit (we think), book a new room at our hotel and move our kit and caboodles between hotel rooms without a minutes sleep while I was incapacitation by vertigo or sleeping.

Flights were rebooked at considerably higher prices than we originally paid and we made it home two days late and thoroughly exhausted.  My wife tells me we're on a diet of rice and beans once we've eaten down the freezer and any new hobby projects are on hold for now.  But we are home, mostly healthy and had a mostly wonderful trip.  I post about some of the non-HNS related stuff in a while.

Merry Christmas 2021

 

Another COVID Christmas.  My wife and I had plane tickets to visit family in a Halifax, NS.  We cancelled out due to Omicron trends.  Seems like a really plan as it doubt we’d be flying back any time soon.  So we’re hunkering down at home.  At least I can get a start on painting for this years challenge.

Hoping everyone has a safe and Happy Christmas.

Sad Day

 It was my Dad’s funeral today in the UK.  With COVID travel restrictions, we had to watch over a video webcast from our couch in Regina.  Dad was 88 and lived a very full life.  He went into hospital at the end of September with multiple health issues and came down with COVID while hospitalized.

Dad joined the navy in 1946 at the age of 13, and served til the early 70s.  Not sure where or when this is from but it’s a good picture.  Take care of yourselves.

Merry Christmas Everyone

Hope that the day brings you everything that you expect!  My exams are marked and grades recorded in the system.  My daughter is home and my mother in law is visiting and we’re as set as we’re going to be.

New posts after Boxing Day once I get rolling on the Painting Challenge X.

Taking Time To Remember

My father who served in the Royal Navy in Korea
My great uncles who served in WW2, especially Peter killed in the fall of Singapore
My grandfather who fought on the Western Front in WW1
My great grandfather who served in the Tirah campaign on India’s north west frontier
And many others

Dutch Delights? A New Project

It’s been quiet on the blog over the last few months, because life has been busy other wise.  My daughter shifted Unis  across Canada, with most of August spent shipping her back to Halifax and most of September spent recovering from that while diving into the fall term.  October saw me on the road four times, Montreal, Banff, Prince Albert and Toronto.

There’s been gaming with the regular group including a WW2 naval and some General d’Armee and board games and much planning for the upcoming challenge.  Book purchases and blog readings (Barry Hilton being a particular bad influence)  lead me to the Anglo Dutch naval wars.  So to that end I’ve gone and bought two squadrons from TumblingDice 1/2400 range.  More on this to follow.

In the meantime I've been having a go at gaming by email using Barry Hilton's collection.  You can read an AAR of my first action here.  He gave several blog followers a point list and asked us to come up with small squadrons.  Mine is based on the squadron De Ruyter took to Africa and the New World just before the start of the Second Dutch War.  In the first action I sailed into a British trading post and recovered two Dutch Indiamen held by those perfidious Brits.  Pictures filched from Barry's site below - they make great eye candy and I hope I can do half as well.

I was given a photo of the game board with some details on the Brits and gave Barry a set of orders.  It all worked out rather nicely I think.

A Visit With the Uber Geek

Last week my academic travels took me south of the border to Baltimore, and the lair of the Uber Geek Miles Ready.  I always enjoy my trips south of the 49th parallel safety line, America would be a fine country if it wasn't for all of the Republicans (maybe the administration can build a wall of something to keep them out).

Highlights of my trip included

• Meeting Miles and his lovely wife Marybeth (no pictures, they move to fast to be recorded on camera)
• Eating Marybeth's wonderful food (including the crab above and others that Miles didn't want to eat) 
• Meeting Mile's friend Ed from York and his wife Theresa, and eating the crab that Ed didn't want to eat
• Staying at their Bond Villain lair in St Michael's MD

  

  Miles Fig tree.  I'll be interested in the AAR reports of Miles vs the local rodents and Raccoons

  
  
• A visit to the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum.  A great museum complex with charming gate staff, blow hard tour guides and a fine collection of traditional wooden boats.  The young lady at the ticket booth won Miles heart over by asking "perhaps you could check the board to see if you qualify for any of our discounts"  instead of "are you old enough to be a senior?". No pictures because it was raining.
• A game in Miles game room in his "closer to town" house, AAR with lots of pictures in a post to follow.
• A visit to the Radio control yacht racing shop close to Annapolis MD where Miles' banker friend Bob tempted him with a new form of crack.  It looked great fun, but I am already at full capacity on geek projects with my budget fully allocated.  Besides I couldn't fit a ten foot replica J class sloop in my luggage.
• Watching high finance unfold as Miles and his friend took conference calls in the front seat of Miles Tesla.  I quite enjoyed watching them as they essentially played buzzword bingo put the with the on mute.

Apparently this was a test weekend as Ed and I were the first gamers to stay overnight while MaryBeth was on site - always a stressful event.  We seemed to have passed the test, being judged as "not nearly as creepy as I expected".  I guess I'll have to try to be more creepy next time.  Of course, if Miles gamer friends are so sketchy that I was considered a safe bet, that's his look out.

Not Dead Yet...

Painting and gaming has just about ground to a halt here, although I did pick up the brushes last night for the first time in a couple weeks.  I’ve been busy but also been stupid.  I needed a reminder that standing up under a shelf that’s six inches shorter than me isn’t so bright.  Three stitches in the scalp and a lasting head ache proved a valuable lear8ng experience.  Stitches out, head doing better so pressing on but with a watchful eye overhead.

The article below was in my local paper today.  Hopefully I can visit this WWI bike before it leaves town.

https://leaderpost.com/news/local-news/first-world-war-bicycle-in-regina-to-commemorate-armistice

Back From the UK and Back on The Blog

Gallo The Chicken Headed Man mosaic from Brading Villa

I hadn't realized until this morning but I'd been silent on the blogosphere since the end of April.  It's been a busy summer but in a good way.  Ive been traveling a lot - Halifax NS, Portland OR, Toronto and then the UK- and am looking forward to a few weeks at home before the start of the fall semester.

Our most recent travels were to the UK for three weeks.  We joke about this trip being the world's most expensive cheap beach vacation.  Every year my dad, step mother and step siblings plus kids and hangers on spend a week in caravans at the Isle of Wight in August - an inexpensive week away for a Briton.  But throw in three transatlantic flights at high season, a stay in London (because if we're going to the UK...), meals out and a rental car - ouch!  My wife, daughter and I used to go every second year but it had been 8 years since the last trip - looking at the credit card statements and I know why!

The trip was family centred so little of gaming note to report.  I think about trying to link up with British blogging/gaming contacts but didn't get my act in gear this year.  Highlights of the trip include.

• Surviving the Trump protests in London.  We didn't see the Baby Blimp 😂but crossed Regent Street just in front of the crowds.  This was a particularly hot day in the City and the crowds plus Trump 'copter made it hotter.  Fortunately we found a friendly pub for lunch and a very nice Italian place before the theatre that night.
• The Monet exhibit at the National Gallery - plus other cool stuff like Canalettos and the like.
• Really, really good theatre.  The Book of Mormon in the West End - very funny, very off colour, done by the Southwark creators.  A play about English Quakers in the Georgian age at the Chichester Festival.  
• Best theatre of all - Sir Ian (Gandalf) McKellan in King Lear in the West End.  Amazing stuff!  This was our last night in the UK before flying out - really nice dinner, great play then back to the restaurant for desert.  Best way to end off a trip.
• A trip to Margate to visit my sister in law.  The train trip was really interesting taking us past the Medway, Chatham and Rochester Castle (which fell to the French in King John's day - stuff you don't often read in British history books).  Plus an ex-Soviet submarine in the Medway - yes I googled it it's ex-Soviet!  WTF?
• Really really good food (yes in the UK!).  Best of all was the allergy knowledge and labelling.  I am coeliac and my wife has a dairy allergy so this was key.  We went three weeks without a food reaction and ate damn well the whole time.  Well done to the EU for proper food awareness.
• Swimming in the ocean.  Three swims in the North Sea in Margate's retro tidal pool and three on the beaches on the Isle of Wight.  I did think about swimming in the Serpentine in Hyde Park - the facilities looked really good, but it opened late and there were too may waterfowl sharing the waters for my tastes.
• A visit to Canterbury Cathedral - a first for both Lynne and I.  We didn't get to see the alter where Beckett was hacked down because they were using it for Convocations that week.  But the sound of the brass quartet and choir echoing through the Cathedral was wonderful.  Plus Dad had warned us not to be too disappointed that Beckett's blood had been washed up since the 12th century!
• Driving on the wrong side of the road!  This was the first time I'd rented a car east of the pond in nearly 30 years and the last time was to drive around Ireland.  No damage done to vehicle of family mental states!
• A visit to Brading Roman Villa on the Isle.  Out of the way unless your on the Isle but well worth a visit.  Had me think about Dux Brittanarium, the Barbarian Conspiracy and ogling the MDF Roman villas available via Sarissa, War Wases etc.

Updates on a Couple of Fronts

Schnellenbach Campaign
The campaign is underway and we have seen Cavalry patrols from both sides meet just west of the key bridge over the Schnellenbach.  See the map below (North being the right hand edge), the bridge is in square 14 and the patrols met on the road in square 11. 

 

The Wine Debacle

I took the car to an auto-detailing shop on Tuesday (Monday being a holiday) and they were able to remove the last of the stain and the odor for $40 - money well spent.  A reprinted pdf of the Sharp Practice  rules is awaiting pickup.  And my gaming messenger bag has a stained interior but no exterior marks.  This is good news as it was a present from my daughter and is made from the sail from a Soling sailboat used in past Canadian Olympic trials - the Dacron being resistant to both stain and water damage.

Wargaming Wine Dos and Don'ts

This Friday night I set off to Curt's to play out our first table top encounter in the Schnellenbach campaign.   Unfortunately, things did not go to plan and the mini game was scrapped.  Yes there was wine involved.

Having placed my figures and terrain carefully in the car and the messenger bag I use for other wargaming supplies on the passenger seat I set off.  After half a block, the car's idiot light came on to tell the passenger to buckle up.  I figured my bag was heavier than normal and lifted off the seat to move it to the back seat.  It was then they I found that the bottle of  red wine had lost its bottom and spilled its contents into my bag until it overflowed onto the car seat.

Full damage report as follows.

• One IPad cover in the bin - fortunately my IPad appears unaffected
• One bound copy of Sharp Practice 2 in the bin.  I could have salvaged it potentially but wine had hit every page and the front cover was do badly soaked that if curled into a tube.  Luckily I have an ebook form do can get a new copy printed.
• One deck if SP2 cards in the bin -  I tried to save these but they were wet enough that the laminations were separating.  Not a huge loss, as we tend to use wooden chits instead of cards.
• One upcoming trip to the auto shop to get the seats thoroughly cleaned so the car stops smelling like stale wine.

So, don't do what I did.

• Don't put your wine bottle sideways in the same with stuff you value.  Do keep the wine upright in a separate plastic bag
• Don't put your wine on the front seat.  Do find a secure place in the trunk.
• Don't put the bag containing your wine down in your concrete driveway while loading other things.  Do put if safely and gently in the car first.

Back from the UK

My wife and I just came back from a two week visit to the UK.  This was an almost exclusively family and couple based trip with little of wargaming interest.  We visited my Dad near Southampton, (who I had not seen for two years and my wife for six years), and my wife's sister in Bedford who we had not seen in six years.  We also spent some time in London.

Wargaming events missed while in the UK included Partizan, a Jutland centenary re-enactment game and likely many other chances to catch up with UK based gamers I had met through the inter web.  But we were in the UK for two weeks and well family trumps gamers.

One of the highlights for me was a three day sailing trip with my dad, almost certainly the last one before he sells his boat.  We went from the Hamble River to Yarmouth on May 24th, to Leamington on May 25th and returned to the Hamble on the 26th.

Waypoints marked with stars.

Yarmouth Castle From the Harbour Entrance

Yarmouth Castle was built late in the reign of Henry VIII, but lacks the distinctive round style of the other Henrican Fortifications along the South and East Coasts of England.  It was used until 1885, it's purpose of course being to scare off the beastly French.  I did not go into the Castle this trip (I wanted to but missed the entrance before closing) but have in the past.  It is a classic small artillery fort that would be a feature in a small war-games action, on land or by se or both.

Yarmouth Harbour Marina

Book Tour and Signing

The past week my better half and I did one of our infrequent fliers up the road to Saskatoon (a 2.5 hour drive each way).  Unlike our typical "god we need to get out of town" trips, this one came with a specific purpose.  One of our favourite authors Guy Gabriel Kay was at our favourite bookstore  for a reading and signing.

Kay is a Canadian fantasy writer who writes very very good books set in alternate worlds that close follow our own histories.  This are not slash and f*ck novels, but wonderful thought provoking books that are also great reads.  And yes there is some S&Fing in the process and tons of inspiration for any historical gamer.  The Lions of Al-Rassan (go read this book for El-Cid inspiration, it got me hooked!) for instance parallels el-Cid and Al Andalusia, Under Heaven mirrors Tang dynasty China etc.  His latest is Children of Earth and Sky is in a  Renaissance Venetian Empire themed setting.  It was published on May 10th, and Kay was doing his signing in Saskatoon two days later.  In a case of serendipity, I had a meeting set for the afternoon of 12th, but this was cancelled freeing me to take the day and to do the junket.

Kay was a very funny and interesting speaker and we now have a signed copy of his brand new book.  I am looking forward to reading it once my wife finishes it.

Silent on the Blog but Not Inactive!

Forgive me father it has been six weeks since my last posting.....

It's funny how one can blog in great spurts and then completely get off the habit for a while.  I had a big flurry of posts over the Winter tracking my activity in the Painting Challenge along with a few game reports.  The last one was dated March 31, as I posted the last of my Painting Challenge entries.
And then April hit...

April brought end of term, a series of term papers to mark, a business trip to Toronto and final exams.    And then my daughter returned home for the summer from University leading to another flurry of activity. Oh I am trying to get our garden in...

So while I've been battling an acute case of REAL LIFE, what else I have been up to?

• A reasonable amount of painting - some Great Italian Wars and more Seven Years War.
• Several game nights with our regular group, though not at it's top of form weekly rate due to my schedule.  IIRC there were two games of Zombicide, one of Zombicide Black Plague, a lost game of Black Powder Peninsula War battle and a game of the Eldritch Horror.
• Planning for a new project, more to follow.
• Lots of looking at rules, scenario books and uniforms guides

Holiday Greetings

A belated Merry Christmas and an early Happy New Year!

It has been a busy time at the Admiralty, with business travel (3 days to Florida to mark actuarial exams), final exams for the Fall Semester and Christmas.  Now with that all out of the way, I have picked up paint brushes and reference books for Curt's annual painting challenge.

Yesterday we took my mother in law to the airport for a 6am flight and then my wife, daughter and I saw the Star Wars film in IMAX.  Our local Science Centre has the only IMAX copy of the film in Canada, which was to our good fortune.  I am not a Star Wars geek loud some, but it was a very entertaining afternoon at the pictures.  Space Opera with great action scenes and pretty good characters, what more could you ask for?

Grog, the Civilized Version

We are having the hottest weekend so far this summer, with temps at 30C with the humidex at 36C and now a Tornado watch.  For those of you still measuring distances in medieval Kings' body parts and temps based on sick Germans, I don't know the translation to Farenheit.

So we went for the modern reboot of18th Century Naval Grog -Mojitos.  Actually the recipe is not that different: rum, sugar, soda water, lime, mint.  Very refreshing, and the mint camefrom the garden.

Merry Christmas Everyone

This Year's Painting Challenge

So I signed myself up for the 5th Painting Challenge with a target score of 1000.  So far I have finished bugger all and I'm not expecting to get my first entry in until after the 25th.

For some reason Curt insists on starting this thing at a time of year when only a complete troglodyte would have any time to paint.  Now I may fall into this category, but it also coincides with the end of the academic term (i.e. my busy time at work).  So while others are joyfully painting figures, I will be marking final exams from 130 first year students who don't want to take statistics.  Plus getting ready for Christmas with my daughter coming home from Uni and my mother in law visiting for the holidays.