Holiday in the North York Moors

We went on holiday last week, we being me, Julie and Dave, it was for all of us the first normal holiday for many years at least 12 in my case and possibly much longer for Julie and Dave, so it was a holiday well deserved.


Despite the weather and a few other things we made the best of the time we had, visiting Robin Hoods Bay, Whitby, Eden Camp, Pickering, The Moors Centre at Danby, Boggle Hole, Middleborough, The Hole of Horcum, Goathland as well as walking the moors.

I think I enjoyed Robin Hoods bay best, although Eden Camp was very interesting and great value for money.

At Boggle Hole Dave went fossil hunting and nearly got crushed to death when some of the overhanging rock 10 yards from him fell down with a bang, I ran the other way while Dave ran towards the fall looking for fresh fossils, which he found.


During our sunny walk (the only day we needed sun cream) from Robin Hoods Bay to Boggle hole we had to cross a small steam, Julie and Dave didn't want to get their boots wet, me I just marched through the shallow bit.


The valley we where in called Glaisdale was good 25minutes car drive up and down small steep and windy roads from the nearest main road across cattle grids which kept the sheep and lama's in. The area was full of wildlife from rabbits to deer, all of which especially the birds didn't seem to understand cars were dangerous, see the squashed snake photo.





This is the set of cottages we stayed in, very nice, even if lacking a decent sharp knife and oven that would cook anything in less than 2 hours.


We also visited Whitby or Goth land vampire land, didn't enter the Abbey, although I'm sure English Heritage probably made the ruin worth its 6quid price tag.

While out on the moor we saw lots of cotton grass, which is apparently good for stuffing pillows and making dressing for wounds out of.

Picture of eroded grave stone in Whitby.

My Snow Pictures

I took a couple of pictures but when you only see daylight on the way to work you don't chance have to pick and choose good subjects to photograph.

8am the snow has only been falling few hours and is coming down heavy


The road to work normally lined with parked cars it seems many decided to stay at home although I was surprised how many actually made it in considering all the slipping and sliding I witnessed.

Gentlemen do silly things.

During the Christmas break I treated myself to a Elderflower juice drink in a fancy bottle, however I didn't get to drink it during the holiday, last week I poured myself a big glass full and it was horrid really bitter, but I hate wasting stuff so persevered and drank the glass and left the rest in fridge, later I had a headache and wondered if the drink contained something that didn't agree with, that's when a read the label Elderflower Cordial dilute 1 part to 10 parts water, yuck, its actually quite nice once diluted.



Facebook came alive last week with a big bunch of old friends from my past medieval life finding me, its quite good really since its nice to hear from them and see the old photos they have dug up of me. I think of Facebook as a lightweight fun place to keep in touch with friends ( and provide sellers with information about me to pop adverts at me ) not a place do anything else with, but it does let you link up with and find old friends simply because its so popular, something that Friends re-united never was.

Talking of old photos here are few from Gentlemen of Honour a reenactment group that only lasted year and involved me travelling to London several times for rehearsals, the group would have gone far and was very popular with English Heritage unfortunately the majority of the group based in London wouldn't commit to another year and so the organiser couldn't commit to EH so the group folded just like that. I did get to use the costume a few years later for LARP though.

Photos of me sporting a pony tail and firing a real antique black powder pistol



Me and Barbara chatting about the period in front the audience.


Setting the scene.


Me and Captain Pete

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.

Catch up post and

I have been so busy organising an Ascendancy table top battle that have not had time to post this week? last week, does the week end on Sunday?

Last weekend I had great time at a Ascendancy LRP event, good weather, good company, good event, I had really enjoyable encounter with one of AndyL Npc's together with Julies and Dave pc Mr Flay, and had plenty to do despite the lack of crew. The only bad point to the weekend was the M1 being closed Friday adding an hour and half to my journey and the A42 shut on the way home adding half an hour to that trip.

On Wednesday a early trip to London left me shattered and I fell asleep during a TV series called Lost in Austin, which as somehow kept my interest in previous weeks, but now I've missed a episode I will no doubt not watch this week.

I went out on Thursday night, a big round trip picking friends up to meet up with my war games friend DaveA who now lives in Nottingham, it took me an hour & 3/4 to pick everyone and not far off on the return trip. It was nice to see everyone, DaveA, AndyH and Jock.

Friday I was also invited out by Jock to meet Pete and Barbara from my Knights Errant days, but it was one evening too many when I was busy with other stuff.

Saturday I spent the day out with AndyT and Linda, 1st going to watch a Football match and then back for tea and bit telly watching, including the X-Factor which was funny, Simon Cowell rolling his eyes at some appalling acts, they must put on for a laugh.

Anyway to the battle so far 152 emails including my replies plus the several phone calls, forum posts and several hours talking to AndyL have filled in the my week, I'm not complaining since I'm enjoying it.

Below is couple of pictures of character models I been putting together and painting for the battle, one Izzanbard is a work in progress, the Von Dumas flying platform is complete.

Preparing for war

I spent this week and weekend hermit like preparing for the Ascendancy Wargame, next weekend. Through living close AndyL, and my own interest I've ended up as deputy organiser and GM, Andy tells me the battle story and background, which NPC (non playing characters) will be there, and then leaves me to work out the details under his supervision.

The Battle planning started the last day of the last LRP event with me picking up a pile (literally) of figures from DaveP, these were a assortment of High elves in various states of damage and unfinished paint jobs, I must say upon opening the box it didn't look too bad, but once I dug a little deeper I realised that a lot of paint had worn off, and a lot of figures had not only unfinished paint jobs but unfinished or broken figure conversions and many units only had 5 out 20 figures anything other than undercoated.
DaveP does a lot of excellent conversion to his figures so I chose the best 6 units and set about repairing and painting them, given the time scale they won't be receiving good paint jobs, since the exercise is quantity over quality for this battle. I'm nearly finished and very grateful for DaveP letting me have these figure to use, since starting totally from scratch would have taken 3 times as long.

One the other tasks I undertake as Andy's deputy is write ups on our forums to motivate and inform players what is happening, this being a very complex battle, I also roped in DaveP's other half, my good friend Julie to do a bit of creative writing on my behalf, she as also volunteered to help me with the actual battle, which is excellent news considering I would have needed 2 me's to keep tabs on this very large battle with lots of complex player involvement via their briefs which have kept my email inbox full all week.

My next task having found out Monday in AndyL briefs was to built a terrain feature to represent the Hive Mind Nexus, that's also built but not painted, currently it looks a like a tiered cake, not quite the effect I was looking for but I think painting will rescue it.

I'm currently typing up the play sheets, event list (a list of things that happen each turn) and character stats, but need a break since it's mind boggling getting it all to fit nicely, which I know it won't anyway since this battle has nice character in it, a man who appears to like Port from what I read called Grendal, oh and very random mega cannon anti story device thingy and fractures....oh and....help!.

Angry Men

I’m struggling to concentrate since I have a cold, which is at the dribbley, sneezey stage, so I’m writing this which I hope will make sense when I read it back.

This week I’ve had a driving nightmare on the way home from work possibly due to dark nights and snarled up traffic.
On Tuesday I was queuing on a main road and driving slowly so I was not stop starting all the way up the hill, when the car behind jumped the queue and made up a place, swerving past me into the small space I had left for no good reason. I hooted him (I admit several times) for the very cheeky manoeuvre and he objected to this. He showed his bad mood by stopping in the middle of the road putting on his hazard lights then when I tried pass him he shot forward then proceeded to slam his anchors on several times, which you can imagine did not go down well, not wishing to escalate the situation I however did nothing more. However at the next bend he pulled over, letting me pass, shot out between me and the car behind me and followed me home, I decided not go home not wishing to meet a road raged maniac outside my house so drove around the housing estate until he gave up. Not pleasant, next time I will keep my displeasure at being overtaken to myself.

Then Thursday I watched in disbelief when after letting someone out of a side road, I moved forward, but someone else decided they wanted out this side road as well and could not wait their turn, spun their wheels shot out causing me to brake, did a u turn around me and then had stop for traffic coming the other way blocking me until someone on the other side of the road let him out as well.

Its now Friday and I’m still not sure I’ve recovered from Tuesday, I’m still expecting a car to turn up behind me and a man with shotgun blow me away for daring to express my displeasure.

Wild night out?

On Thursday I went to Derby to socialise with my friends, Jock real name Andy, Assy real name Andy, Andy real name Andy, and Ste, all mates since school.

Assy and Jock shared my hobbies wargaming, table top roleplay and reenactment although neither are into Larping my current main pastime, Jock gave it a go and Assy can't get past mild mockery, although I think he might enjoy it.

Andy and Ste shared my interest in comics when I was younger, but are my oldest friends, I'm blamed for getting Andy's lad Christopher into Larp and Ste drags me along to Memorabilia.

Anyway since we are now spreading out (not just our waistlines) and no longer all live in one town it takes a good 2 hours plus for one driver to round every one up and hour and half to drop everyone off, that's when you don't stop quick natter with the your friends wives. So setting off at 7 means and couple of hours in Derby and before you have said hello its nearly midnight and well gone 1 before your home.

So while I drank my orange and passion fruit J2O we talked about Assy's dangerous motor bike trip to Himalayas from which he brought me a excellent hat (see photo below, click for lager image). We chatted about other strange topics American Football which I'm not into, Kids which I have none, but twas a good night out.

I mentioned Facebook and blogging which they don't do apart from Assy who has dipped his toe onto Facebook and they don't get it. For me its essential social interaction, since most of my current network of friends don't live closer than a hours trip away, and my cat Jasmine doesn't understand me.

As for wild night out with the lads no it wasn't, but we didn't talk about favorite jams and marmalade's.

My week

This week started with a trip to friends on Monday evening, a trip to South Wales for work in tiny Peugeot 207, new roadworks just before A449 joins the M4 at Newport delayed my journey since I hit them a rush hour.

I went to see Bourne Ultimatum at Derby and did enjoy it, much of the same thing as the 1st 2 movies in the trilogy but it works and story was concluded, it would take a very warped Holywood mind to make another to earn a few extra dollars.

Other than that I had record (for me) 4 meals out, 1 on Monday, 2 on Saturday and 1 on Sunday, spent some dosh on nice new coat, doodled with the web site since its all done (I will put a link here when its officially released), read the web site blog as Julie wrestled through the problems with forums, and finally watched the new Casino Royale DVD.

That's it, not really a week to remember.