25 Jul 2015

Where are all the posts now?

Hi guys,

I finally managed to break a radio silence! When I started working on my blog I had a fantastic idea of blogging two times a week, which was then downscaled to realistic once per week and by now to an irregular posting that started to annoy me.

I have great ideas for games, but the problem is working them out. I need to work on terrain, which somehow doesn't appeal to me at the moment for various reasons. Apart from all the fantastic ideas I shouldn't get into (WW1, Fantasy to some extent, Medieval...), I would really like to carry on with my moderns campaign. By lowering my expectations a bit, it should be doable.

As the Zabadak Joe mentioned, I managed to escape lovely 30 degrees we had in Slovenia to visit England again this year (yay!), mainly to participate in the excavation of WW1 training site near Durham. I was a bit disappointed in English summer at first (especially on the day that we had 10 degrees!), but I wish I was there now that I have been roasting at 35-40 degrees back home for two weeks since I came back. We were excavating a large house that was offered to 18th Durham Light Infantry Battalion for training purposes. The house was eventually found too small to house all the soldiers, so additional huts were constructed on the premises and there were even practice trenches dug. We didn't manage to find the latter unfortunately, but excavating the remains of the house proved to be just as - if not more - interesting. I was working on a part of the house shot below, my "personal project" being the stairway to the cellar. The shots are from last day, so it is a bit hard to imagine, but the stairs were burried in rubble. Should you be interested, we found a lot of animal bone, nails and some pottery in the rubble. From the finds certainly belonging to the WW1 soldiers, we found a (!) part of the heel of a military boot (period). There was a lot of remains from Victorian era, however, so while it was not what I expected it to be, it was still a fantastic experience, but I do hope to get a chance to dig on a proper WW1 site in future.


 I am forced to  mention that I starred in a local newspaper article. Apparently everyone loves the idea of international cooperation and no matter how British I wish I act, the way I speak is always a bit of a give away!

As I was "in the area", I prolonged my stay to stay with Joe for a few days - Thanks again! I even managed to persuade him to take me to Scotland (yay!) and while I only just made it across the border, it is a step further up north from the last time I was there.


The real gem that day was a visit to Berwick, a lovely border town with very well preserved
renaissance city walls (and best fish and chips I ever had!).
 On our way back we stopped at the area of Dunstanburgh castle, mainly to hunt down the pillboxes in the area. As it turned out, the accurate maps and directions I had with me turned out to be...less helpful. We did find what we were looking for eventually, which is good. The bad thing, however, is that this is also the point where screen on my camera broke and from here on, my photos were all shot blindly.



 Some anti-tank cubes down below:



Later that week Joe's son put a game of Saga up for us. It was a game set in the age of Samurai, which had a nice feel to it and what Joe forgot to mention is he absolutely shattered me. Fear not, this is how most of my games end, so I barely noticed it!

I also managed to visit Vampifan Bryan, albeit just for a day and we played a few games Super Dungeon Explore. I have no photos unfortunately, but I can tell you - it's a great game!

Afterwards I went to Durham again, so here are some awful photos of that. While I did climb the tower and enjoyed the view, what I really liked was their LEGO cathedral. By paying a pound for a lego brick, visitors can help construct it, which is a fantastic way to fund yourself. The thing looks fantastic already, and it still has a long way to go!



I also go a chance to meet with Squeaky Pete again, my go-to man for military history chit chat!

I came back full of enthusiasm and ideas, but unfortunately also a week late to an internship I got just before I left, so I am spending a lot of time working, catching up, working on my article, working on my new research idea and while I am bragging - I was filming a short part about local pillboxes for national telly today. All this leaves little time for hobby, but I am working on something neat for my moderns and I can't wait to share it with you.

Should all go as planned, I hope to play at least one moderns scenario every month to slowly get my campaign going. I have the next one all planned out, as I have the idea of how I want my moderns to be played.

I also hope I can put a bit more time into reading other people's blogs now - I do apologise for the lack of attention lately!

Thanks for reading,
Mathyoo


20 comments:

  1. It sounds like you had a worthwhile and entreating time. Great that you caught u with so many friends too. Looking forward to the new moderns too.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Michael - They are really spoiling me and now I can't ever leave for a trip without meeting at least someone to make it worth visiting!

      Delete
  2. A good visit then and a chance to meet up with those soft Northerners again :) Nice pics still despite the camera malfunctioning. I have become irregular myself lately mate I wouldn't worry about the frequency of posts glad to still your still about.

    As for Terrain yeah Its time consuming but worth it in the end. Perhaps set yourself the target of doing one piece every month or so.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ah, yes, I think it is the summer - it is a repetitive problem, isn't it?

      The time is not really a problem, nor is the enthusiasm for building terrain - I really can't put my finger on it, but it stops somewhere. I should just go work on something and keep at it for a while I suppose.

      Delete
  3. Great up date all the same, Work has been killing my hobby mojo as of late to so don't feel to bad about not having regular postings. At least your work seems to be more entertaining then mine.
    Now to the important stuff. How to get that scale model of the cathedral home with out any one noticing its missing.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Haha, it is a fantastic piece, isn't it? I have a soft spot for LEGOs and I really liked it.

      As for how entertaining my work is, internet has ears but let's say it is diverse :D

      Delete
  4. It seems strange to me that World War 1 is now a target for archaeologists - it's (just about) the time of my grandparents!

    I also have difficulty in finishing wargames terrain, which is especially frustrating when I see how much effort some people put into it :-) . Ah, well!

    Yes, Berwick is nice, but it's worth travelling further into Scotland than that! Of course, it's worth visiting many countries in the world, but realistically most of us cannot catch them all :-( .

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The justification there is that "everyone" taking part has now died so it is a fair play. It surprised me as well when I first heard about it, because it is so well documented, but this is what makes it that much more interesting.

      I agree - everyone always says how nice this or that place is, but which one isn't? I will see if I can get myself to Edinburgh or somewhere in that area next time I will be visiting! :)

      Delete
  5. Very nice report and also nice to read that you met the blogger Joe.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Great to meet up again- thanks for the shout out too. Glad you hada good time- why not put a link in to the newspaper report too.

    Cheers,

    Pete.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Haha, I have to dose my fame, so I don't get tramped by all the attention! :P

      Delete
  7. Sounds great and joe is a good guy. And yes....Please put a link to the newspaper up mate!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. :D

      I'll find you on facebook if I don't forget and send you the link :D

      Delete
  8. Your English is certainly better than my Slovenian, but I'm betting your 'Geordie' twang didn't help.
    You also failed to mention that we forced you to walk to Scotland on our day out! C6 is also correct, Scotland is a wonderful place too, almost as good as Northumberland (teehee).
    My place seemed empty after you left and it took quite a while getting back to what passed as normality for me.
    Pleased you intend to get back into gaming and putting up some more blog posts too.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Well, English and Slovene don't really stand on the same level globaly, so it is not a good argument :P. Luckily, I learned my lesson when we went to Alnwick last year, so I always have an example to boast myself with!

      Oh, so you are calling me fat now? :P On the serious note, thanks again, I had a great time!

      Delete
  9. It is clear that you have a love of history and an enthusiasm to match. Do not worry about your English it is already better than many in this country. And as we are a lazy nation we will not speak another language. (Just English louder and slower if we are not understood the first time.)

    I am glad you had a good time and I hope it serves you well in the future.
    All the best mate.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Interesting times Mathyoo.

    ReplyDelete