So it begins.......

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.