PS...

Happy Queen's Birthday to all 10 who follow this sparse blog! Long may she reign over (most of) us!!!

Rodents in the House

Over the last few weeks we have had two rabbits in the house. One is Josephine's and it is called Holly and the other belongs ot Victoria and it is called Button. Over the course of the last few weeks, I have also discovered that the little buggers shit all over ther the house. The girls like to keep them inside and play with them after school and the rabbits seem to take the opportunity to deficate in as manu parts of the lounge and kitchen that they can. The carpet is constantly strwn with hay and rabbit pellets and there is a pervading "petshop" smell arounf the house. I secretly long to have a hungry cat to solve this problem that we have created...

Nothing much to post

Well our school was audited a week back and we guess it went pretty well. The report won't be out for another couple of months. Most of my meagre blogging seems to be on Facebook since it is more convenient than Blogger. Not sure what I will do with this blog. It might just end up being a repository for my war game pics. Anyway....I'll post a few more pics of my rapidly expanding British Peninsular War army in the coming weeks. I am about 70% finished my 2nd batch of 200 figures. This means that by August I should have about 800. At that point I think I will take a rest from the Brits and move on to Portuguese or Spanish. The Portuguese had very similar uniforms to the Brits so I might need a few more boxes of the Peninsular War Brits. The Spanish aren't due out till next year but I still have plenty to keep myself busy. I am going to start on some artillery before the end of the year and I still have a pile of light cav to get started on. Endless painting for year to come!!

Ok, here one for my friend Kevin!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWnt2qwwWQY

Victoria gets 3 minutes of fame!

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10150861210728718&notif_t=like

First Cold Snap of the Year

We have both of our heat pumps on tonight as well as our electric blankets. Although it is not extremely cold (8 degrees) it feels  a lot colder becuse of the great run of weather we have been having. We have placed an electric Korean floor blanket as an electric blanket for Josie's bed and it seems to be working really well. Luckily Mari's sister left it behind when she went back after her visit a few years ago. We have prepared for winter by buying a few metres of wood as our main buring material and a few loads of pine for fire starters. I am not really planning on using these until June?? if I can help it but knowing the fickle nature of the weather this far down the island we could be forced to use it at any time. I walked down to school today in a heavy jacket and woolen hat. The wlak didn't warm me up enough to take off either of them. This doesn't bode well for the coming week.

Painting Frenzy

My figures arrived on Tuesday and this is how far the first batch has come.  I fell upon them like a famished man and have been happily spending hours at the painting table ever since. In three days I have done the red coats twice, white trousers twice, flesh and guns. This is on 8 sprues of 24 figures by the way.  I have examiner training tomorrow which is going to seriously cut into my painting time but I am pretty sure I should be able to fiish all of the black on the figures by the end of Sunday. I still have another 16 sprues eagerly waiting for me to get my hands on them out in the dun porch. By the end of the next three months my Peninsualr army should be marching!

Zen and the Art of Toy Soldier Painting. I am not the best painter and I am always happy to admit it. One of the reasons I paint is the chance for relaxation and reflection. My wife meditates to conect with spiritual yogis and other new age hippy things but at the end of the hour or two per day the only thing she really gets is a sore arse. I also get a sore arse but I also have a little and pretty project just that little bit closer to conpletion. Many an hour I have spent pondering life whith paintbrush in my hand- what a pleasant way to spend an evening!