Vistas New?

 With 306826 viewings of this blog, it's obvious that my opinionated rantings and whistful looks back in time, have had an audience. That's been a great thing to see.

However, we were sitting in traffic on the way to the vets with one of our Scotties, and I was mulling over where I am with my hobby, with the memsahib, who is my sounding board when I am troubled.

The vet bill, by the way is £3000.00+, as it appears that on her monthly visit to the grooming parlour yesterday, young Maggie managed to snap her cruciate ligament, and will need an operation next week costing £2900.00 with a consultation and pain relief bill of £120.00 last night.

Thankfully, we were able to just shift the funds from the surplus pile into a current account so, Maggie's paid for, but 3K is not to be sniffed at.Oddly, I didn't convert the sum into figures, as I used to.

But, I digress...

I was mooting closing down my gaming room - a converted garage to the rear of the house - because it is no longer going to be needed for multi-player games. Sadly, it appears that two people I enjoy gaming with, no longer want to do so. Thus it seems illogical to me to have a room equipped for such large games.

I'm not talking about my own interest cooling, but more that I enjoy multi-player games, with lots of figures. I can game one on one, in the conservatory (I made sure the dining table we bought was a large one), so why maintain a dedicated space. We don't generally use the conservatory for dining, being just the two of us, so games can be left in situ. 

I suggested setting the room up with a casting machine, but the memsahib won't hear of it. So, I informed the memsahib that I intended to start boxing up the terrain that isn't already in Really Useful Boxes next weekend (too busy with Vapnartak and prepping stuff for painting, this weekend) and then cart them up to my studio.

Then, I said, I'd be moving on the figure shelf, which is a lovely wooden beast and the cabinet which is stacked with Grand Manner scenery. The coffee machine could go into the roof crawl space along with the radio. The memsahib was not happy about this and argued that she has an equal stake in the room. This was when the memsahib used strong language and the tone which tells me, I went too far.

I sometimes forget that I'm a lucky man indeed to have a wife who has been in the games industry and whom, is a face on the circuit. I usually remember when I commit a gaming heresy in the eyes of the memsahib.

She does understand how I feel, particularly after I trimmed back the Christmas 2021 game from 8 guests to two, essentially snubbing 6 old gaming buddies who were looking forward to a game, in favour of a more intimate gaming session. Life lesson, learned. Lying to 6 old friends is not something I am proud of. I was eager to meet the expectations of a few at the cost of a majority.

Anyway, I may possibly finish the revision of my book and possibly begin the second part, combining it with and splitting the original 388 pages to cover things that I was unable to, back in 2022. There were some things that I couldn't revisit, that I now feel I can in detail, lurid and explicit. It's been on the cards for about 5 years but I've been busy doing gaming related stuff.

So you would think that my love of the hobby is waning, but in actual fact, it's not. Rather I am going to step back and look at what parts I am most interested in. Shows are less of a 'thing' for me nowadays as I have already opined, so the number of shows will probably drop to 3 or 4.

I've been buying armies in matched pairs for a while, so that means I have no wasted models and no pile of shame, because I don't hoard stuff. If I am not using it or it doesn't meet my needs or expectations, it goes out the window. Having loads of unused crap does not make you a better gamer than the next man. It took me a long time to realise that and it was liberating to do so.

All my armies are with, or on the way to my painter and I am really happy with what I have , so the big one for me, is to stop being drawn by armies I'll never use or use very little. Every gamer knows the perils of seeing some eye candy and investing in a folly project. Thankfully, I don't buy wargames magazines anymore, so my exposure is much reduced.

My wife asked what I was going to spend my money on, and when I suggested getting back into marine fishkeeping, she was quite firm in the negative. Oh well... And yes, I suggested turning the game room into a model railway room or a fish room, both of which were 86'd by the lady of the manor.

To be fair, she's right, because she also pointed out that the table in the gaming room is designed to break down into two individual tables, allowing two 'club' sized games to be set up simultaneously in there. And here you see, is why I have these long and serious converstions with the memsahib.

I have no interest or inclination in returning to organised club wargaming. It bores me and local club politics make the Borgias look like Camberwick Green's Women's Institute. I can play the game, but I really cannot be arsed.

I am also thinking seriously about hanging up the keyboard on this blog. If I do, I am not saying it will be a permanent thing, but in doing so, it frees up more writing time, as well as allowing me to do a 'deep dive' on a few things which either piss me off or interest me, but which I never get the time to go into in enough depth and detail. So, if I don't update the blog for a while, you know why.

Adios, amigos...