A Real Hotchpotch Of Bitter, Sweet, Happy, Sad & Old School Geek
It's been nearly two weeks since I wrote anything here, and it's about time I resurfaced and updated this blog.
On Friday 31st of May, my wife was rushed into hospital with what the medics thought with 90% certainty was sepsis.
She was completely out of it when she reached the admissions ward and was given a battery of tests, drugs, drips and scans. For my part I spent Friday night laid in bed thinking what I'd do if the worst happened, and all those things you normally, simply don't think of.
Well, 'luckily', it was a combination of 3 infections and a massive retaliation by her immune system, and so she was fragile but deemed able to be released on Saturday the 1st with a bag load of medications.
As I type, she's back at work, but on a reduced working day, as she recuperates. As it happens, her grade allows her to work from home for 99% of the time, so that means she does not have to add a commute to her day.
As you will have seen in my previous post, the bloody expensive vintage Dark Elf army I bought, arrived beaten up beyond belief. I raised it with Paypal, and escalated it. It was a crystal clear case of the item being piss poorly packed and thereby getting beaten like an egg.
A few days passed, and the decision came back unbelievably in the favour of the seller, who had been seemingly accusing me of 'altering the item after delivery'
Well, just a fucking minute, I'd gone over to the depot that morning, paid a fair old sum on customs fees in advance of the demand arriving and with my wife in hospital, to avoid it being held in a depot over a 3 day period, so sure, I'm going to do that and then knock the crap out of a vintage army.
So, I had to make a few calls to Paypal, explaining the implications of the decision and as I had got through to the E.U call centre, they understood very clearly where I was coming from and thereby re-opened the case, requesting that I completed the appeal process.
So, I spent a couple of hours presenting a case, in the way I was trained to do, back when I was a government wage slave, took several videos of the unopened parts of the order being unwrapped, photographed everything and filed it all away, pending some repair quotes I needed.
No sooner had I done that, my email chimed and I was shocked to see that Paypal had found in my favour and refunded me in full, and told me that the goods were mine as they and not the seller had made the refund, because let's face it, when your decision maker, get s a personal and does so inaccurately, there can be some serious repercussions. And besides, my claim was 100% accurate and the seller had blatantly lied.
As someone once quipped to me, 'A dance is fine, but a fuck is out of the question'.
I was also offered a load more of the pre-slotta undead collection of the late Joe Dever, author of the Lone Wolf books. Well, as I already had a load of them, it was imperative that I added these to my collection. Now, I knew that these were fragile and rare models, so imagine my pleasant surprise when Dave Ryan at Caliver Books delivered them to me beautifully wrapped and without damage.
I had to rebase them, and two were affected by lead rot beyond redemption, but the fact that I was able to restore and take ownership of some truly iconic models was a fantastic feeling, akin to being 12 again and first finding the Fantasy Tribes range in the cabinets of GW.
This is what arrived:
All very nice indeed, as I am sure those of you with taste and acute aesthetic sensibilities will agree. I look at these and I remember so much which has passed. I remember the threat of nuclear annihilation, excellent music, great friends both living and passed on, fantastic shows packed with manufacturers rather than two bit tat touts, all night games, being immortal and the sense that we were kings of our world on the cutting edge of something which was a lifestyle choice, not a mere hobby.
And that in turn got me all depressed, because it seems so fresh in my mind, but is out of reach forever. BUMMER!
My old compadre with whom I spent some of the best times of my life as a teenager, Roger, has decided to become a golf coach at a monastic retreat, and so decided that figures were to be sold. I rather rashly suggested that I may be interested, as I'd sold him my own 28mm Renaissance collection a while back, and he, being the same kind of addict with a penchant for the colourful feather, slashed doublet and proud codpiece had added it to his own collection, then increased the whole shebang again.
Well, we had a little chat and an agreement was made. On Saturday last, I had the pleasure of not only taking ownership of a lovely collection:
But what was much better, was that for the first time in decades, I got to have a couple of hours chatting with Roger, who I have always found funny and sarcastic in a combination I find most pleasing. He's one of a scarce few people who will tell me without fear of conflict, exactly what my shortcomings are and how he feels, and that is something special.
I can think of perhaps only three other people who can do likewise, and they are all people who I wish I could see more of, but whom when I do, I find it easy to simply pick up as if we'd just popped out of the room for a few moments. It's a rare thing, so if you know people like that, cherish them and savour those times together because they matter.
We talked about this and that, and my good lady wife saw the rarest of sights - her husband being gregarious and light. I'm no misery, (OK I am) but I do not let my defences down with people very easily at all. She heard a few stories she'd never heard (and she has heard and played a part in many over the last 3 decades).
I confess, that I didn't even pay much attention to the boxes at the time. I just paid the bill, handed Roger a coffee and got on with the serious stuff.
Anyway, it did me a world of good, and I genuinely ache to have another chance to get together again, because no matter how austere and serious we may want to be, I do think that underneath it all, we are the same rock obsessed chancers we were 35 years ago - in a good way.
Roger first got me listening to Jethro Tull, and as I type I am listening to 'The Flying Dutchman' with a moist eye. I am not ashamed to cry these days. It does you good, and if you can cry when you think of good times, then you know they really were good times.
I have so many ideas and thoughts about my past piling up in my head of late, but no time to order them and lay them down in type. How can you convey feelings in a way that those who were not even born when you were playing your first Warhammer games or learning the WRG Renaissance rules - and who style themselves as 'old school' gamers?
You can't because they did not have the sights, sounds and worries which were the backdrop to the golden age. As soon as I think I can somehow do justice to those greatest days of my generation, you'll be the first to know.
*sigh*
Well, let me round off this update with my latest purchase which undoubtedly makes me king of the geeks or maybe just a sad old bastard (you decide - I don't give a toss).
My wife joked that I could do with a bead spread made of old White Dwarf covers.
I thought that it was a splendid idea and managed to commission a quilted throw in exactly that vein...
How awesome is that?
And on that note, I shall bid you farewell.
TTFN
On Friday 31st of May, my wife was rushed into hospital with what the medics thought with 90% certainty was sepsis.
She was completely out of it when she reached the admissions ward and was given a battery of tests, drugs, drips and scans. For my part I spent Friday night laid in bed thinking what I'd do if the worst happened, and all those things you normally, simply don't think of.
Well, 'luckily', it was a combination of 3 infections and a massive retaliation by her immune system, and so she was fragile but deemed able to be released on Saturday the 1st with a bag load of medications.
As I type, she's back at work, but on a reduced working day, as she recuperates. As it happens, her grade allows her to work from home for 99% of the time, so that means she does not have to add a commute to her day.
As you will have seen in my previous post, the bloody expensive vintage Dark Elf army I bought, arrived beaten up beyond belief. I raised it with Paypal, and escalated it. It was a crystal clear case of the item being piss poorly packed and thereby getting beaten like an egg.
A few days passed, and the decision came back unbelievably in the favour of the seller, who had been seemingly accusing me of 'altering the item after delivery'
Well, just a fucking minute, I'd gone over to the depot that morning, paid a fair old sum on customs fees in advance of the demand arriving and with my wife in hospital, to avoid it being held in a depot over a 3 day period, so sure, I'm going to do that and then knock the crap out of a vintage army.
So, I had to make a few calls to Paypal, explaining the implications of the decision and as I had got through to the E.U call centre, they understood very clearly where I was coming from and thereby re-opened the case, requesting that I completed the appeal process.
So, I spent a couple of hours presenting a case, in the way I was trained to do, back when I was a government wage slave, took several videos of the unopened parts of the order being unwrapped, photographed everything and filed it all away, pending some repair quotes I needed.
No sooner had I done that, my email chimed and I was shocked to see that Paypal had found in my favour and refunded me in full, and told me that the goods were mine as they and not the seller had made the refund, because let's face it, when your decision maker, get s a personal and does so inaccurately, there can be some serious repercussions. And besides, my claim was 100% accurate and the seller had blatantly lied.
As someone once quipped to me, 'A dance is fine, but a fuck is out of the question'.
I was also offered a load more of the pre-slotta undead collection of the late Joe Dever, author of the Lone Wolf books. Well, as I already had a load of them, it was imperative that I added these to my collection. Now, I knew that these were fragile and rare models, so imagine my pleasant surprise when Dave Ryan at Caliver Books delivered them to me beautifully wrapped and without damage.
I had to rebase them, and two were affected by lead rot beyond redemption, but the fact that I was able to restore and take ownership of some truly iconic models was a fantastic feeling, akin to being 12 again and first finding the Fantasy Tribes range in the cabinets of GW.
This is what arrived:
All very nice indeed, as I am sure those of you with taste and acute aesthetic sensibilities will agree. I look at these and I remember so much which has passed. I remember the threat of nuclear annihilation, excellent music, great friends both living and passed on, fantastic shows packed with manufacturers rather than two bit tat touts, all night games, being immortal and the sense that we were kings of our world on the cutting edge of something which was a lifestyle choice, not a mere hobby.
And that in turn got me all depressed, because it seems so fresh in my mind, but is out of reach forever. BUMMER!
My old compadre with whom I spent some of the best times of my life as a teenager, Roger, has decided to become a golf coach at a monastic retreat, and so decided that figures were to be sold. I rather rashly suggested that I may be interested, as I'd sold him my own 28mm Renaissance collection a while back, and he, being the same kind of addict with a penchant for the colourful feather, slashed doublet and proud codpiece had added it to his own collection, then increased the whole shebang again.
Well, we had a little chat and an agreement was made. On Saturday last, I had the pleasure of not only taking ownership of a lovely collection:
But what was much better, was that for the first time in decades, I got to have a couple of hours chatting with Roger, who I have always found funny and sarcastic in a combination I find most pleasing. He's one of a scarce few people who will tell me without fear of conflict, exactly what my shortcomings are and how he feels, and that is something special.
I can think of perhaps only three other people who can do likewise, and they are all people who I wish I could see more of, but whom when I do, I find it easy to simply pick up as if we'd just popped out of the room for a few moments. It's a rare thing, so if you know people like that, cherish them and savour those times together because they matter.
We talked about this and that, and my good lady wife saw the rarest of sights - her husband being gregarious and light. I'm no misery, (OK I am) but I do not let my defences down with people very easily at all. She heard a few stories she'd never heard (and she has heard and played a part in many over the last 3 decades).
I confess, that I didn't even pay much attention to the boxes at the time. I just paid the bill, handed Roger a coffee and got on with the serious stuff.
Anyway, it did me a world of good, and I genuinely ache to have another chance to get together again, because no matter how austere and serious we may want to be, I do think that underneath it all, we are the same rock obsessed chancers we were 35 years ago - in a good way.
Roger first got me listening to Jethro Tull, and as I type I am listening to 'The Flying Dutchman' with a moist eye. I am not ashamed to cry these days. It does you good, and if you can cry when you think of good times, then you know they really were good times.
I have so many ideas and thoughts about my past piling up in my head of late, but no time to order them and lay them down in type. How can you convey feelings in a way that those who were not even born when you were playing your first Warhammer games or learning the WRG Renaissance rules - and who style themselves as 'old school' gamers?
You can't because they did not have the sights, sounds and worries which were the backdrop to the golden age. As soon as I think I can somehow do justice to those greatest days of my generation, you'll be the first to know.
*sigh*
Well, let me round off this update with my latest purchase which undoubtedly makes me king of the geeks or maybe just a sad old bastard (you decide - I don't give a toss).
My wife joked that I could do with a bead spread made of old White Dwarf covers.
I thought that it was a splendid idea and managed to commission a quilted throw in exactly that vein...
How awesome is that?
And on that note, I shall bid you farewell.
TTFN
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