The Postman Rings Twice

Yesterday, with great timing, the postman rang the doorbell just as I was stepping into the shower. I am pleased he did as he had several goodies for us.

We are planning a trip to Northumberland (or Northumbria - I don't know the difference) to have a look at a few historical sights and some nice scenery. This includes Hadrian's Wall. A lot of readers of retirement age will remember Haynes Maintenance Manuals for home car maintenance. When I was in my teens and younger I recall many men would handle basic routine maintenance themselves at home and would have a Haynes manual for their car. This hobby has now collapsed so Haynes have had a makeover and a repositioning in the market.  Now the hobbyist can buy a Haynes Manual for the Tiger tank or a Lancaster bomber or even:-

The second item was an EBay purchase of a Warlord Games Ravelin.

Just right for an Old Glory Ottoman Siege Cannon, Old Glory & TAG crew

The third item was more Ottoman cavalry, another E bay purchase, this time of Essex Miniatures.

Now I need to get some stuff onto EBay for selling, to provide funds for the next lot of purchases.

My partner, B, also had a parcel, something for her horse, I'm not sure I understand it....

Aah - there you are

I have just realised that it has been almost two months since my last blog entry so here is a very quick catch-up, in no particular order.

Uni of York Lifelong Learning Courses. I have finished two courses. For five Saturday mornings I went to Cityscreen Cinema in York for this four film course

This was a great, fantastic opportunity to see classic film on a big screen, maybe not to everyone's taste, but I loved it. "Tokyo Story" is one of my top ten greatest films. So, why five weeks to see four films - well - on week three we had taken our seats in the cinema when they announced that there was a problem with the projector in that Screen so the film "When a Woman Ascends the Stairs" would be delayed by a week. It was worth the wait.

The other course was on the Dreyfus Affair. This has provided the material for me to chop down to a 100 minute talk.


Trips. No outings or excursions to report, except that I went down to London Docklands for Salute 2019. I met some very nice people, such as the wargaming group called "the friends of General Haig" who were there with TYW game, we had a good conversation about Douglas Haig and why they chose the name. Also chatted with "The Continental Wars Society", a group that studies the European wars from 1815 to 1900 (excluding the Crimean War which gets plenty of coverage already). I bought a few things - some flags and pennats from The Flag Dude, a flat pack building from Supreme Littleness Designs, some Ottoman Tufeckci musketeers from Warfare Miniatures and a Kleist Frei Korps band from Foundry because they are dressed in the Turkish style and have Turkish instruments. All in all - a grand day out.

Mentioning Ottoman - my project continues its slow progress. I have purchased two temporary tables, advertised as picnic or barbecue tables.

These fit very neatly into the conservatory with plenty of room around them. I looked at some scenery mats at Salute but did not see one that I liked, but I think  a mat will be my next purchase. The Ebay purchases continue, I have to be careful with these, I am starting a small Turkish metal mountain, but it is hard to resist a bargain.