All Quiet on the ... Saxon Shore

Things have been quiet here on the wargaming front recently. Distractions at the sporting level and unseasonally good weather have stopped all play in the wargames hut.

However, things are still moving in the background.

I recently purchased Dux Britanniarum by the Two Fat Lardies and have been nibbling away at creating forces for a game.

http://toofatlardies.co.uk/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=21

I'm trying to collect suitable figures, on the cheap, and will report as such in a later post.

Meanwhile, here is what I'm supposed to be doing.

Maybe a Generation Thing

We were out for dinner with friends last night at a local restaurant.

http://www.birdcageeskmills.com/

The waitress (young) took a drinks order before the meal and I asked if they had cider.

Yes, she said, we have flavoured cider, peach, pear and apple!

Is it me or is it a generation thing?

Please don't tell me that as you get older you also get old fashioned. I've heard about the 'grumpy' bit.

The meal was excellent by the way.

Mouldy Old Mould

Well, hopefully not!

I have an internet chum, Bob Cordery, who amongst many other things has an interest in 54mm wargaming. Look at Bobs blog for information.

http://wargamingmiscellany.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/send-another-three-and-fourpence-better.html

I thought I had a Prince August mould buried somewhere in my lead mountain so I offered it to Bob, assuming I could find it. Not only did I find it, there was not one mould but three, the instruction sheet and the original box. Now, how often does that happen?

Here is the box lid.

And the instruction sheets.

Close inspection will reveal that both a standing body and a marching body are included as well as arms for a sword armed officer and a rifle armed ranker. Various heads will allow guardsmen in bearskins (please don't call them busbies), home service and foreign service helmets and a peak cap.

A conversion to a standard bearer would not be difficult.

I'm sure that Bob will be able to make good use of them.

Meeting an Old Friend

I had an opportunity during this years American vacation to visit a very old friend whom I hadn't seen since 1980, yes that's 33 years ago.

Back in 1980 I was the Chairman of my wargames club (SESWC) and the Secretary was a keen young chap called Eddie Harding. Eddie left the club that summer and with the rest of his family emigrated to the USA and we never heard from him again.

To cut a long story short last year I managed to make contact with Eddie although he has matured into Ed now. We made arrangements to meet up, in Chicago, next time we were in America and that meeting took place last month.

We met in the bar of a very busy Chicago restaurant, the Gene and Georgetti Steakhouse 'http://www.geneandgeorgetti.com/'  and I recognised Ed by his eyebrows, they had not changed one little bit although Ed had a few wrinkles and a few grey hairs that were not there in 1980.

We had a long long chat over a fantastic meal and I managed to tell Ed of some of the club stories although one evening is far too short to cover over 30 years. I presented Ed with a club T-shirt on behalf of the current club, a Runners-Up medal for Renaissance Wargaming which Ed won during the year that he left (I would have presented it to him at the 1980 AGM had he been there) and a unit of Dixon 7YW Prussian Musketeers.

All in all it was a very pleasant evening, both our wives were there though who knows what they spoke to each other about, Ed and I were too busy reminiscing.

I am hopeful that Ed can get over to the Old Country sometime in the next year or two as I am sure that there are still a good few of the 'old dogs' in the club who will remember him.

Vacation Highlights

Since the main purpose of my vacation is largely Rest and Recreation I have very little to report but here goes.

We spent most of our time at the poolside but we did venture out to a neighbouring city for a change of scene. The city we chose was St Cloud which is largely residential with a bustling main street and a lakeshore boulevard which is nice to walk around.

On our lakeshore walk we came across a small alligator (2 foot long) swimming along a drainage ditch. We paused to watch while a local girl out walking her dog spoke to us and asked if we'd like to see a bigger one. Yes please we said and she pointed out the location of a "huge alligator, at least 6 foot long, sunning itself on the bank, and it won't be frightened of you".

Being a fearless soul I thrust my wife in the general direction of the "huge" alligator and followed her at a short distance. After walking for nearly 15 minutes finding nothing much we retraced our steps and spotted another 'small' alligator at the waters edge. It was about 4 foot long and obviously cautious in its own right as it swam off. I wonder if that was the 'huge' alligator of the dog walker fame?

 



I know that some people are prone to exageration but if I was told that the local snails were also "huge" I would have to believe them. We found an empty shell.

We stopped off in a small park just off the bustling main street as it appeared to have some military connected memorials.

There is more information at this link:

http://www.scv.org/

Scattered around the park were a number of memorials, a truck, a helicopter and a couple of guns.

This truck, known as the Deuce and a Half came into service in 1951 and as far as I can tell is still in service although this particular model won't be going far.

The chopper is a Bell AH-1 Cobra of Vietnam fame.

I was quite pleased with myself as I declared to my wife that these guns looked awfully like British 6 pounders and I was surprised to see an acknowledgment beside them that their development was indeed from a British design.

We are away up North to Chicago tomorrow so we may be out of touch blogwise for a few days.

Shining Knight on a White Charger

Sorry, no Shining Knight but at least I have a Charger although it is Black!

2.7 litres of V6

No Damsels in Distress either.

Not much of a vacation so far but at least the sun is Shining.

Vacation Absence

I am away on holiday or vacation as our transatlantic cousins will say.

I'm off to the Sunshine State with a sidetrip to the Prairie State.

I should be back in blogland by mid-June.