A bit about my Christmas

Christmas day spent at my mums, but apart from my sister my other 2 brothers and kids did not stay for Christmas dinner which was traditional turkey, brussels etc. why don't we eat brussel sprouts more often they are a fine vegetable.

Although my brothers did not stay we did open all the family presents at my mums which is a little tradition, still possible because we all live within 30 minutes of her, my nephews got a remote control helicopter each which they flew round the house, my mothers cat could not take her eyes off them, pupils fully dilated she occupied the high ground wherever the helicopters flew although the kids had stern warning to keep them away from the cat.

I bought my mum a learn to paint kit and make your own doll, something to do now she has fully retired, at this moment I'm not sure if they are a good idea or not I will only find out if I see them used. I also bought the same make your own doll kit for my friend Deb which did get appreciative comments.

On Boxing day (the day when we make boxes and have boxing matches of course its a Family thing *wink* ) I went to Andy and Linda's, I spent the afternoon at a football match Derby County v Liverpool and then went back for tea. I saw their son fellow larper Christopher for the 1st time since he went university, but didn't have chance to speak since he was going out with his girlfriend. I bought his sister Katie a silly hat for one her present unfortunately it actually suited her, dam I had accidental taste, but the one I bought Linda was silly enough to get me in trouble.
I left Andy and Linda's early evening since a cold was brewing and my brain had switched to standby mode, so I never got to play Kill Dr Lucky, which I was hoping to do and went straight to bed with a lemsip.

Thursday I was knocked out and did very little except sneeze and wipe my nose, I couldn't read or do anything so just focused on the telly, Friday I was meant to be at work, but woke feeling dreadful, and that combined with the time of year I decided not go in, but I'm now feeling reasonable, so tomorrow I may venture outside the house.

Oh and Jasmine had a strange scary glove bought her photo below which she loves.

Its not long to Christmas now...who's excited?

On Saturday night I went out with my super hero friends 'The Whistler Killer' with side kick 'Soft Lad' and the unstoppable 'Squeaky Brat Boy'.We went to busy pub that has lots of quiet rooms no large screen TVs, no pub quizzes, no steak nights (that I know of) called the Dead Poets because it walls have photos of dead poets on them. We learned mainly of Squeaky Brat Boys tangled loved life which is far too complex to explain in less than 2 very thick books. A most enjoyable evening The Whistler Killer silence a few whistler while Soft Lad ran to the toilet every so often since he has a weak bladder. The journey home was only memorable because of the thick fog and poor directions mainly consisting of take the next t..... yes that one we have passed, once would have been acceptable, but reversing up dark single track roads 3 times was a bit much.

By the way I can't tell you my super hero name since those of reading this may know me and therefore learn my alter ego.

Sunday I woke up sure I had a cold, I had aching legs a sore throat and felt cold, but by lunch all the symptoms had left apart from thickly cough, colds don't go that quick so who knows what was wrong.

I spent the evening a Ste & Debs ordered in a Chinese meal and watched American football which Ste is addicted to while we chatted.

Today well for some reason I found myself buying extra presents even though I had everything bought and wrapped already, nothing much those fun under a tenner stocking filler gifts that are more for the humour of gift than the gift being actually wanted, a spent a couple of hours chatting to my friends A & H in their shop, then visited Jock and Bridgette who were each in separate rooms of their house wrapping each others presents before returning home to wash the car and watch the film Lemony Snicket's.

That's my weekend, it now Christmas eve evening, so best wishes for Christmas to anyone who has the time to read this and everyone else for that matter.

PS Not sure I like having all this time before Christmas, much prefer to work Christmas Eve

Richard

Photos from the Dad side

My Dad (the one with the pipe) with his brothers and a Aunt.

Great GranddadH with a lump of coal for carnival guess the weight compitition.

my Dad's dad, GrandadH in the army

Great GrandmaH during the war as a untilty driver

Great GranddadH on his land

My dads other Grandma, Great Grandma T.

Where I was born, land workers hut, me & parents lived totally in the one room hut on the left, (I was to young to remember) one of my Dad's Uncles had the caravan on the right.

GrandmaH the one circled.

There lots more photo's in my online album but you will need to ask me for the link and password if your interested.

Trip into family past

Last night my Dad made his annual visit to see me and brought with him as well as Christmas presents to exchange and pile of old photos.

My Dad had decided as eldest son to hand on to his eldest son loads of family photos, death certificates and other papers, so we spent a few hours going through his memories, a photo of Kenneth his brother who died aged 7, he told me of my Great Grandma who was re-married after my great granddad who shot himself with shotgun, she had 15 children but only 9 survived.

Both Granddads were miners, but apart from that my father side of the family were farmers and I was born on a farm, so it was nice to see some good picture of the farming activities, plus photos of various great grandparents & grandparents during the war my granddad on horseback, my great grandma driving a very old car in some short of war support service (she never had driving licence but didn’t need one then) a uncle who was eventually torpedoed in the war, some good photos which would look good framed (I may scan some and put them on this blog).

I also now have a family tree from my father side; my mother side had already been plotted by one of my Aunties.

He also left a large antique framed photo of my Great Granddad that I will find somewhere to hang in my house.

My 1st Cat video

A Winter Solstice party

Not the longest night of the year but Sam's Birthday party who was born on the 21st, arriving mid day I joined several others who had arrived either Friday night or even earlier Saturday morning, although the majority of people did not arrive until later.

I'm not a party fan but should have remembered Sam's is organised and with her mixed guests from Ascendancy, Karate and Family she had organised fun games for us all which made the evening fly by, so we passed the parcel, hunted for fairy names, worked out the puzzle of the blanket I came second but could have come joint 1st if I hadn't wanted to be silly with Sam. We played various other games, murder in the dark, some word and forfeit games and then invented our own game of each of us telling a story one word at time in turn, which was ridiculous did not work but highly amusing to drunk among those there.

Food was a plentiful, since Sam and her mum had catered for double the number of guest since Tony and crowd from Birmingham, plus some karatiers didn't turn up, RichardS phoned for help, Mike turned up a hour later to eat his way through 2 or 3 peoples food allowance.

During the evening I won a Gorilla soft toy which party people named Zelda after Terrahawks for some reason, and while I was in the loo she was kidnapped and a ransom note left on my chair, after pleading for Zelda's life offering a small fortune in cakes and fairy names the kidnappers denied all knowledge and suggested I come back with a better offer. I left to the kitchen and when I returned Zelda was found gagged, sellotaped, blindfolded and hanging by noose. Zelda has now recovered from the trauma and is currently making friends with Jasmine who is not sure if she should attack Zelda or run away from her.

We had RichS, Heather, Colin, Amy, Mathew, Mike, from Ascendancy, Sam's Mum and husband Ron, her Brother and wife, and a couple from Karate, plus a KathrynR Sam's best friend from reenactment, who came dressed in skirt no wider than a belt, well usually we get some sort of PVC number, she also didn't play strip table tennis as she did at the last party I went to.

I went expecting to leave by 11pm, not drinking alcohol, but enjoyed myself so much I didn't get home until 3am Sunday.

Christmas is getting closer

I put up my 6ft Christmas tree tonight and a giant cat attacked it, see the picture below, I dread what will happen when I put up a bigger one :-S



I completed my shopping a few weeks ago, I've done all my wrapping, put up the decorations, now what do I do with my weekends, I'm sure I should be squeezing around the shops and doing more, Christmas feels early this year.

Still before Christmas does arrive I've got a multiple Birthday party, a lunchtime works Christmas meal, and night out with some friends in a quiet pub if we can find one, how will I fit it all in between reading this book I'm enjoying, its getting hectic this year :)

A photo from our wargame

photograph from our war game last Saturday, taken from the Chimera blog where you will see several more.

The Players Guild

This weekend I returned to an old pastime, hobby of shorts that of display gaming.

Many years ago me and 3 other friends built a display game for a local wargame competition and on the table next to us was what was Citadel Miniatures entry, later to become Games Workshop, well our display was infinitely better than their’s so we asked them if for free figures we could make a better job and do Citadels display games so was born the Players Guild.


(Turreted sea vessel attacking, volcanic island with Orc spotter ballon)

Receiving the draft copy of Warhammer we set out to teach the world how to play, paint and build displays, and won everything we entered for 3 years until they banned us from competitions because they thought it unfair we were getting too much sponsorship from Citadel. Games Workshop by then were even paying us a thousand pounds a display, but the crowds and attention they were getting was well worth it and powered the game into mainstream better than any television advert.


(a display for the Toy Fair)

We were the 1st to paint orcs green, traditionally orcs at that time were a short of ochre brown, only goblins were green, we invented lots dwarf machines, hand gliders, flying machines, ballista, goblins on wolves and a assortment of other things I can’t remember now.

We carried on doing display games for the realese of 40K, blood bowl, and Judge Dredd all over the country including Hamley’s shop window, 5 day toy fairs and many other venues, articles in White Dwarf, although after a while we became disinterested and by then Games workshop wanted employed full time people to display builders, we all had other good jobs so stopped.


(one of 1st displays based on Citadels castle logo)

Thursday this week Jock one of the Players Guild came over to re-learn the latest rules of Warhammer 40,000 in anticipation of doing a low key display game for Chimera shop.

The rules were digested, armies picked and cups of tea drunk, Jasmine my cat decided 12 sided dice are best, 6 sided don’t role well, and 20 sided role too well and end up lost under the sideboard.

She also decided 40 K figures fall off the table if you pat them and Jocks fingers bleed because he was too slow removing them from the hole in the cardboard box.

(Wizard Castle as used for one the Ascendancy buttons)

So today was full day starting early I played a wargame with Jock, and some other local players, one arrived with his own army, and talked to a assortment of shoppers about Warhammer, painting and terrain building, who knows if we encourage anyone, you never can tell, but at least a few stopped a while to ask good quality question, rather than the old what colour do you paint your orcs, well green, or what do make your rocks out of, well rocks.

(Blood Bowl display at Games Day, London)

A good day was had, I lost my first battle to the visitors, and won my second against Jock, it is a game however that is dependent a lot on luck.
Heather took some pictures perhaps she will display them.