Well, I have realy tried to stay away from my studio whilst I am on holiday, but, I've had three days working on basing my completed ECW units and painting the 7 field pieces. I now have 2 regiments of horse, 2 of dragoons, 2 of foot, 5 staff groups and 7 field pieces. I'm waiting on 10 units of foot, 10 of horse and have to paint a couple of Robinets myself. One of the units is missing an ensign, which, I hope will arrive with this months batch from the painter. I've also started reading 'Designers & Dragons' which is a truly engaging and seriously crunchy look at the early years of the RPG industry. I'm pretty au fait with the history, but I've learned a lot that I didn't know. Right, if you will excuse me, I need to go and shower, eat a curry and watch an 80s film... TTFN

Well, I woke up this morning, checked the pulse, made sure I could move and breathe, fussed the puppy who licked me awake and rejoiced at reaching my 52nd birthday. As is the norm, I have pardoned my enemies and released the slaves from the pits, albeit with a strict lecture on social distancing, issuing each with shackle sanitiser and a strip of hemp to cover their face with. Celebrations began with a grand parade of terriers on the local hill followed by a return to bed with a copy of 'Napoleon's Beloved Egyptians' a fine book by Yves Martin. Thence I bathed and robed and partook of a breakfast of two soft boiled eggs, orange juice, toast and marmalade before reviewing the ECW figures I based yesterday who were arrayed in the Dark Tower. So I have 8% of the infantry finished, 20% of the artillery positions and 20% of the horse & dragoons I then did a little more work on a few more artillery bases before a ham sandwich and a cup of tea, followed by a snooze...

Well, it's been a long and odd year so far. I've been really busy, which is of course good, but I am ready for a break. The last week has been mostly 15 hour days to ensure I met all my commitments before closing my doors as it were on Friday at 9PM. I'd got everything ship shape, gone out for a bit of late night grocery shopping, and was waiting in the car for the memsahib to fill the car ready for the first day of our holiday, when we were to go over the Pennines to Preston in Mordor, when I heard on the news that Preston was to be locked down at midnight. Now, we were going over there to collect our new Scottie pup, Maggie, so it was not something we were going to be able to just reschedule. Well, I was calling the breeder (a very charming lady and the best breeder I've met) and the memsahib was driving as fast as legally possible, to get home, drop off the shopping, grab the box of money for Maggie from the safe, and hopefully (based on the outcome of my cal...