War gamers and reenactors

After all my previous weekend that were hectic, I had a really quiet one which was welcome, the only thing I did of note was go to a party in Nottingham at my friend Dave's.

He had got together lots of people I knew from the past for what ever reason not quite sure, re-enactors and war gamers, quite a few Games Workshop staff where he works in the design team and also does his own war games figures.

One of the Perry twins was there who I had just brought figures off by mail order and John Stollard who I went to Paris with to play Warhammer for the French in 1980something, he now runs his own war games company, Warlord Games.

Most people I knew even if a few names did not come straight to my mind, I suppose once in a decade its nice to see old acquaintances.

They say never far from a rat, well this one lost a argument with my car as I found it flattened on my drive, I say rat because of it size which was about 250mm excluding the tail, so I think just too big for mouse.



I think rats can be cute, but all I thought about was disease as got the shovel to carry the corpse to the bin, especially with the hundreds of flies buzzing around it.

Two Birthdays and a Battle

This post covers last weekend as well as this, I started to write last weekends blog entry but never got to finish it.

Anyway last weekend we had the battle of Blackrock a table top war-game set in the Ascendancy world, Sam and Jack came to play the good gu...well the players side and old gamer John came to play the same side, I quickly convince him he needed to play the Lizardmen or Saurons and left him to read up his play sheet, while I set up the terrain consisting of some native straw thatched huts and some new Jungle plants scratch built by Mike, Andy's resident helper which gave a good feel of jungle to represent Frontier.

Battle photos

I brought my Lizardmen and beastmen, all my old models since I was saving the new ones for the next battle at Fort William, Sam brought her wood elves and I provided an extra scratch built treeman built a long time ago by my friend AndyH. After that I explained all the complexities of the defending tribal forces to Sam with a rundown of what the players wanted to do, the battle ended up being quite stressful mainly because both Sam and John did not know the rules well enough and I kept changing things with the wind, still luckily for the players it all turned out well in the end, John even said he would come back for next game despite all the Larp special effects I added.

After the battle it was Chinese at Andy and Heathers with Sam and Jak, where we watch some really hypnotic children telly before N and I went to bed. Young Gabe stayed up while we played another game of magic cards, Andy having created 2 new players in Sam and Jak who have now purchased their own cards, unfortunately from their own town not Andy's shop.

Last sunday is a blur; I think I spent most of it on Ascendancy website and forum stuff, but any that was a week ago.

This Saturday was Doug’s 3 decade birthday, so I called for DaveP and we both went to see him at his house in Swindon, where we well fed and entertained.

It was mainly Larp friends, Diane without Liam, Gareth the tall one on high of skittles and orange Fanta, Lotti, Colin, Matt & Sam, not forgetting Doug’s other half Iszy. All sorts of crazy past events and stories where dragged up alongside lots of crazy over the top conversation going off at right angles which made the time fly by, even if personally I did shrink into the background with so many outgoing people, well compared to me anyway.

Iszy provided me with some lemon sherbert tea which was nice, as well as some lovely cakes, although the chocolate birthday cake arrived with Diane.

Today it was my brother Stephen's chance to celebrate his 40th year of existence, I picked up my sister and mother and we went for meal in Cromford, a little restaurant 13 quid for a 3 course meal including wine or soft drinks and coffee, not a bad price, but the food was not very impressive, so I won't personally be recommending it. The restaurant was full mainly with the over 70's, possibly they couldn't taste how overcooked all the veg was or preferred it that way, my mum enjoyed the food and she is of that age.

Stephen, girlfriend and Mum

Birthday boy Stephen and Mum

My other brother Robert with Micheal

During the meal I mentioned Scarthin Books which a few pace's up the road and discovered my mother an avid reader had never heard of it or been, so we took her there and she purchased a pile of new and old travel books. I bought an OS map of North Yorkshire moors for use when on holiday.

With the sun bringing out all and sundry the roads around Matlock and Cromford were heaving with cars and motorbikes so I took a scenic route back testing my knowledge of all the back roads successfully avoiding the jams.

Christmas to New Years Eve

I've had a busy Christmas, at least busy in the sense I've been out of the house a lot.

Christmas day was spent with AndyT and Linda and Boxing day with Julie and DaveP, Sunday I went for a meal war gaming at DaveA's who now lives deep in East Nottingham, Monday I travelled even further way out to Louth on the east coast of Lincolnshire to meet up with Pete and Barbara who I had lots of stage and reenactment adventures with many years ago, and last night I was at AndyL and Heathers for New Year Eve, inbetween all that my mother came back from her cruise and I've met up with brother Robert, done a bit of shopping and stopped AndyL playing Warhammer Online in the Shop for several hours. So apart from my friend Steve's Birthday at the weekend when the plan is to go for Chinese I've done going out, I can now watch telly and perhaps even do stuff around the house.

Mums Cruise went from Acapulco Mexico in the Pacific through Panama Canal to Barbados in the Atlantic Ocean. She and my sister both enjoyed themselves getting very wet in the jungle excursion and eating lots on the ship, but neither want to be away at Christmas again.

Since they finished up in Barbados they brought me back a Rastafarian hat complete with dreadlocks modeled in the photo below...

...a tee shirt to suit a very fat American (not modelled), I think to make up for last holidays tee shirt which was too small, my mum also bought a herself a animatronic singing rastafarian lion as video below, the song Don't Worry, Be Happy does succeed I felt happy after watching this. I did chop out quite a bit of the video clip since the lion sings the full song and the clip was over the 100MB limit, 130 MB I think now compressed, cut and reduced 7MB



My trip to Pete and Barbara's was with Jock and Bridgette on the way we called in at Horncastle for a spot of lunch which was horrid I ordered a small pizza thing which they emptied a jar of dried herbs on top of, the Coffee house was however better at its drink having the one of biggest selection of hot drinks I can remember seeing, I ordered a black tea blended with wild cherries which was lovely despite no lid on the tea pot because all the staff were off and they had no one to wash up.

Once at the small village just outside Louth were Pete and Barbara live I got to see their mud and stud house for the 1st time, a house built in the 16C from mud and straw, with a timber frame. When they bought the house they had to replace a collapsed wall by digging fresh mud from the garden. The house has no straight or level walls or floors, I not talking a few inches more a few feet here and there, the Kitchen cabinets seem to lean at strange angles but are I'm told the only straight and level item in the house. The bedrooms each have independent stairs to them that are more like ladders and one of the beds has a 8" block to level it a one corner. I was going to take photos but forgot, next time I'm there.

Yesterday apart from quick visit to the shops I stayed in since it was bitter cold -4 deg C and the frost was blowing around like snow, even Julie's hat did not stop my head feeling cold.

Last Night I spent my evening a AndyL and Heathers with various people I know and a few I didn't, Mike, Rich and Leah Andy's shop staff, Matt and Apryl local friends who left early and Heathers old school chums Liz and Jackie I think were their names, who where very friendly. Most of the guest were staying the night, I however like to get home to my own bed, rather than drink so drove home about 2.30pm after playing a game of 3 card brag which AndyL inevitable won since he plays it a lot at events.

That's my week, happy New Year to everyone who reads this.

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.