So it begins.......
I started a blog over a year ago to try and document what I was
doing hobby wise. I lasted about two weeks and then haven’t touched it since. A
year later and what has changed? Well lots really. New job, new house, lots of
new animals. Those are the reasons I am using to justify why I so quickly gave
up on the blog. I also lacked the motivation and discipline to sit down and
type up what I was doing. I’ve been plodding on with various projects, flitting
between them, finishing some and starting far too many at one time. I’m going
to make more of a concerted effort to finish off some of the things I have
lying around before I start new things. But before I stop starting new things,
I’m starting this new blog. Probably not just a wargames blog but we shall see
how it goes.
Getting back to what has happened as it does inform the “why I am
back on this blogging thing” picture. I moved house, well actually we (The Girlfriend
and I) moved house and bought a house together. I was squatting in her flat
after finishing up my time in the army, and in that first year out my list of
wargames projects extended rapidly as I started playing with Ebay (a bit
dangerous at times). I filled up too much space in the flat and ended up mainly
sorting and repacking it all to fit into the small space rather than doing much
hobby type stuff. This isn’t the reason we moved, but I have benefitted
massively by the move. I have my own space (for now) to work in. We moved into
a small cottage with a bit of land and some outbuildings. I am currently using
the garage as my crafting area although I will be getting kicked out of that
soon to allow some upgrading to happen. So I am now spread between the garage
and a stable. TGF has a horse and a pony which was one of the driving factors
for the move, this “delightful” cottage has a stable block which was ideal. As
was the price because everything else was way out of our budget. I have also
been promised my own shed/garage/workshop space which will be for both my
crafty/wargamesy hobby and my Heath Robinson woodworking hobby. I enjoy
woodworking, I mean I am no good at it but give me a piece of wood and some
nails and by god I will thump the nails into the wood with glee.
Back to the narrative then, I had just finished a temporary
contract as we moved house so I spent the first months fixing up some of the
problems with the property (it had been unoccupied for over two years) and
getting it ready for her horses and such. Well unemployment lasted a lot longer
than I wanted, and while I was unemployed I didn’t really feel like I could
spend time on a hobby, so it very much sat on the back burner (rightfully so).
After Christmas 2017 I managed to get some temporary work as a labourer to keep
some cash coming in, needless to say even if I had time to craft I didn’t
always have the energy. Thankfully I managed to get myself employed in Spring
and with the job secured I had a wee treat (which I had lined up earlier just
in case), I went to Deep Fried Lard 2018.
This was a fantastic event; I’ve never been to anything like it
before so it was a whole new experience. Now this is more due to me being an
absolute wargames newbie, I’ve popped along to Carronade twice and that’s about
it. I got to meet loads of folks who loved wargames and Lardie ones at that.
Now I’m already a self-confessed newbie with coming up three years in the hobby
and I came to Lard, or Chain of Command really, about a year into that so it is
still all rather new to me. Anyway I met some great folk, managed to get a game
of What a Tanker, hosted by Richard Clarke, and a SCW game of CoC, where I was
thoroughly dismal but loved it anyway! I watched the end of another CoC game,
an early war one which was great fun, and generally just sort of bumbled about
occasionally chatting but mostly watching quietly from the side-lines. I loved
it. I want to go back next year and I’d love to host a game in the future but I
am a bit far away from that just now!
So that is why I am back on here, I got inspired by that Lardy day.
I’m not a member of any wargames club, I don’t know of any wargamers nearby or
within my circle of friends, I’ve got a mate who I have coerced into playing Chain
of Command with me (and Bolt Action before, he is a thoroughly good bloke!),
and luckily he has enjoyed it and is willing to have a go at a campaign. The
games will not be regular, between his calendar and mine we have to fight to
get a slot to game, and his preference is usually computer games (as was mine
once) so it won’t always be a wargame session when we do get to meet up. That
is probably the most difficult part, not having a regular or semi-regular game
means I spend most of my hobby time preparing terrain, models, reading rules
etc but largely in a vacuum. I mean it probably doesn’t help that I am
somewhat anti-social, I don’t mean I hate people but the thought of walking
into a wargames club where I know absolutely no-one and hoping someone has similar
interests in terms of rules is rather daunting. It was why Deep Fried Lard was
so great, it was Lardy rulesets and Lardy fans, it was still quite nerve
wracking walking into the venue, thankfully Derek is a fantastic host and
friendly bloke.
I suppose I hope that this blog is an outlet for what I do with my
hobby time, although realistically it is a bit like talking to yourself, I
doubt there will be a trickle of traffic let alone streams! But at least it
will be out there, and perhaps someone will stumble across it and enjoy it.
In addition, with a few months of being in employment, I’m more
comfortable spending time crafting, although having said that I have also
expanded my responsibilities at home with some cats, chickens and just over two
weeks ago, pigs. Yes, I fancy myself a bit of the River Cottage life too!
So with all this going on I should be able to have some content to
put up each week, and I think being a bit more disciplined about it may help me
focus my hobby work much better than I have so far. I’ll have some dip-checks
at various points (New year, Deep Fried Lard 2019 perhaps!) to see what my output
and direction is going like.
