Battle Day

On Friday I took of a heap of war games models to the Ascendancy shop to set up for the battle, this took a good hour, afterwards I went to back to Andy & Heathers where we watched big brother, chatted and I ate a fine desert made by Heather.

Saturday was battle day, unfortunately I have no photo's but I'm hoping Julie or MM will have some I can use.

The Ascendancy battle was split into two, something I don't think I will do again because I struggled to keep an eye on what was happening, luckily Jock was the General on one the battles and played more than fairly helping out his opposition, leaving me to concentrate on the other which unfortunately was not so well mannered, since uninvited help showed up to help Mike that was little aggressive in its need for the undead to win and it did go down well with either General on that battlefield. DaveP who travelled up from with Julie who acted as scribe again (many thanks to you I hope the refs appreciate your effort this time) was extremely unlucky the 1st turn, I would have given up with the dice rolls he made and what happened as a result. I could not believe it had gone so wrong and after that Dave chances of victory dropped to near zero, so the uninvited opposition insistence on checking stuff was little over the top.

Sam played the other battle along with Gareth and Jak, that one went fine, and looked fun what I saw of it, and Sam won.

We all then went for meal along and met up with Carol, Mike and Kev old Shards players that have tried Ascendancy which is the new name Shards and seem to have liked it. The bad news was Andy and Heather had to leave because of problems with their children and baby sitters, they were not happy since it was one of the few nights they had chance to get out together, without kids and socialise with friends.

We all had a decent meal and stayed a hour or chatting about larp afterwards before heading off home, Dave and Julie via my house for cup of tea. They had earlier in the day left me a birthday present of Cranbery & Sanguinello Orange tea, Sweet Fennel tea and couple games.

I've just finished my write up of the battle since it had to be done as will not be able to do anything next week due to training course.

Castle walls

I visited the pub twice on Friday, one to see off a work colleague after work the other later in the evening for a friends birthday, not that was drinking anything alcoholic all I had was 3 or 4 pints of J2O juice. I had a good night went to great pub I'd not been too for a very long time the Abbey pub at Darley Abbey, built in old medieval building its a pub with character that's not changed since I last visited, I suspect it's listed and not allowed to.

Other than that I had a quiet weekend, I planned the latest Ascendancy battle which involved reading plenty of emails to see what players wanted to do, discussing outcomes with head ref Andy of player requests for aid and then converting it all into Warhammer.
With this being a follow on battle left me virtually nothing to paint so I finished off a bit of wall and a castle keep.

Photo's below and nothing else.

Undercoated

Finished

Other than that I did next to nothing and had no time to do it in.

I was in somewhere near Southampton

On Monday I went to Southampton for a training course for work, travelling down at lunch with some other of our firms employees, the journey was completed in less than 4 hours without stops, and since I had back seat I struggled to get out the car at the other, both knees having seized up.

The Hotel was very nice, who ever made the bed must have used some industrial tensioning machine machine since the sheets were that tight to bed not only could I not initially get into bed, I then struggled to pull the sheet out from under mattress, I thought it was me, but comparing notes the following morning its seems we had all had the same problems. After going for meal and changing a flat tire, well not me I watched the car owner do it, offering those irritating hints of that don't help.
Back at the hotel I was just getting to sleep when other unknown guests became a little rowdy and insisted banging doors and running down corridors doing who knows what, still did get to sleep eventually.

Nice course, did feel sleepy through, even if the air conditioning was on freeze and the only beverage was coffee.

The course did not finish until quarter past five so it was quite late by the time I got back and we did not stop for meal, only at the garage for fuel and mars bar, still least I wasn't driving and traffic was good at that time of night.

I got a little wet

I blame God(s), fate, the weather men or my stupidity but I decided to bike ride to work Saturday just to get a feel for the journey time, it was a lovely day, a few clouds, but dry, half way there the sky went black and then it rained cats and dogs creating in minutes deep puddles on the road, I was in a tee shirt and jeans, so got drenched turned around and headed home, back up the big hill, which I walked my bike up only to find it totally dry by the time I reached the top, the main road to my house had not seen a drop of rain, so looking and feeling like a drowned rat I peddled the last mile home to get another shower, a warm one.

I spent most of the rest of the weekend between building terrain and looking for a new car.

The terrain piece I started is gateway into walled city and will be a backdrop for next Ascendancy battle, the photograph below is from Saturday, I've done slightly more since then.

Car wise, my existing car is due its first MOT on Thursday and the 3 years manufacturers warranty runs out at the end of the month, so I decided with all the transmission and clutch issues I had that have been fixed under warranty that I wanted to change the car before the end of the month, and before my larp life gets busy again. After some Internet research I decided to go back and upgrade to a Freelander 2, a diesel which does at least 10mpg better on urban runs than my current 26mpg which will more than make up for the higher diesel cost. Armed with all the facts and figures I went to the garage and got better deal than expected, not only the best discount off the price list I could get (which I would walked away if not recieved), but also Land Rover manufacturing were doing a fifteen hundred pound giveaway to old Freelander owners that bought new cars in June, that combined with GMV (guaranteed minimum value) on my existing vehicle which is twelve hundred pounds more that What Car online suggested my second hand sell price would be, meant I had saved several pounds, it also meant meant a new car was considerably cheaper than buying a the equivalent 1 or even 2 year old second hand car. The unexpected bonus and land rover new car finance was 6.7% APR better anything I could see around sealed the deal so I have now placed my order and will hopefully get my car in the last week of June.

I did also buy some magic cards from Heathers shop, I do hope I've not become addicted again after not buying any for years.

Sand Conga

I was at Ascendancy again this weekend, but now we have 5 week break and as a fellow player said to me at the event, I will miss not playing Ascendancy in two weeks, but I will now have chance to catch on other things since I spend the weekend between event preparing for events, I can only agree.

The event went well and the creep to total nocturnal events was well and truly halted with Heather rallying the refs at 9am and the refs rallying the players the events got started by 10.30am. In fact on Sunday after we called time out after quite busy mornings of play I was surprised to discover it was only 12.30 and if I had made haste and not stopped for lunch and a natter I could have easily without rushing left site by 2.00, I still left at 3.30 and was home by 7pm when I'm usually home for 11pm that's quite a difference.

One of the highlights of the event was 20 people doing a conga through the sand for whole 2 hours, clinging to each other for safety, perhaps not to everyone taste and not something I want repeating, but by the time we had traversed a sand pit about 20 paces wide everyone was thoroughly worked up and scared, I did gain a little thanks for carrying a large treasure chest on my own which severely unbalanced me and made me a easy target for the sandy crew as I walked the path of doom, HeatherRef's constant smile as she picked her next target trying not give it away and poor Amy who must now have a very good digestive system with the amount of sand she swallowed.

I camped at this event on my own since my usual companions had abandon me for Maelstrom and Cat sitting so I got to try out my tent as a cooking area and it worked well, easily put up on my own, I fitted in my large camping table and chair in the porch with all my other bits and felt very happy with the set up and pleased with the tent.

My new character came out to play for the majority of the event, now in full length trousers since the white socks and breeches attracted far too many insects bites on my calves, the trousers worked a treat, I have only 5 bites this time all on my hands and wrists.

The weather was good as well, the ideal temperature, perhaps midday was little sweaty if you got into fight, but not too bad.

A good weekend

Hedges, thieves and weddings

I'm just back from my mothers were I've been fed Snickers cake with strawberries which was so yummy I went back for 2nds, 3rds and crumbs. While there I was told I was invited to my cousin Katie's wedding. Katie's a doctor and marrying another doctor I understand although I don't keep in touch with Katie or my Aunt and Uncle her parents and his family which are from India have insisted everyone attends, including me, apparently their will be over 250 guest which sounds ginormous to me. Its not until next May so plenty of time yet and it will be nice to see family not seen for ten years or so, in fact most not since my Grandmother died.

It was a busy weekend, although not with stuff worth writing about on a blog, I reduced the height of my privet hedge by a foot a major task which took about 3 hours, although I wish I'd took another foot off, I poisoned my back garden which needs serious attention more than I'm prepared to give to get it back into to shape, other than I popped about all over the place, I didn't do the intended ride to work and back on my bicycle, simple because it rained today, although I did get out on Saturday for a ride.

My neighbour was broken into again Friday night, while I was asleep, they broke a tough double glazed window with a hammer as well, I was dead to the world but do remember some sort of falling pebble sound in my semi-conscious state. The thieves were caught though, a 30 year old who said it was his mate, and another 20 year old who blamed the 30 year old and said he was at his girlfriends all night, when the police checked his girlfriend spilled the beans, I'm given the ages since my immediate conclusion while listening to my neighbor relay the tale was it sounded like a couple kids, not grown up thieves. They had attempted to break in the previous night but only got though the 1st pane of glass before setting off the alarm, I was out at the time playing magic cards in Andy's shop so again unaware of what happened, a guess the return visit was what led to one of them being caught as the other made off.

That's it folks hope to try and make, paint or do some more interesting stuff for my next entry.