All Good Things

So, after 16 days of leisure, it's time to return to one's place of work for a resumption of  the daily grind. What have I learnt during this unparalleled period of rest? Well, I've come to understand that the body can absorb light to moderate alcohol intake everyday for 16 days with only slight psychological, mental and physical wear. I have also learnt that the 9lb of weight that I lost over a period of 3-4 weeks prior to jetting off was pretty easily supplanted by a 10lb gain in little over 2 weeks. Back to the regime...

I learnt the pain that a factory reset to a smart phone causes, especially when contacts are not backed up to a SIM. I discovered a street food event thanks to some returning buddies who rode the Cardiff Velothon, but sadly it was only last night and now I'm feeling the effect of Pipes' Bohemian Pilsner. But most of all, I truly learnt what holiday blues feel like. I'm not a great holidayer in the main, but this time - for the first time - I got really emotional about having to up and off back to Wales, shit weather, hay fever, socks and so forth.

Looking ahead, I am now booked to do the 3 Peaks Challenge next Friday. Dear god, what foolishness! As well as that I'm looking to try to get to Bring Out Your Lead 2015, but my main plan of attack fell by the wayside yesterday. Need to try some other avenues.

Anyway, work beckons. Off I go...

Ginger For A While

Clipping my hair in the bath tub on hols (enduring image, etc.), I popped out to check on my progress. Upon confronting my now bronzed reflection I was shocked at finding my head looking even more bronzed than the rest of me. Or indeed coppery. Panicking, I beckoned my wife to view the situation, imploring that she find what could only be a little cut or nick that had mingled with the sweat upon my cranial zone and somehow spread all over my head leaving me looking a little like Wes Brown without the footballing talent. There was no injury apparent. So what caused this wondrous transformation? Well, it was rust. My clippers had reacted to the warmth and wetness of these foreign climes and started to suffer for it, leaving me with a completely ginger crew cut. No photos unfortunately, but believe me when I say I lived the dream for a very short while. Not many can say that.

Hard Times

Life has taken a turn for the worse this past week: I was forced onto a plane at Cardiff International Airport and, after a couple of hours air-time, released onto the party island of Ibiza. It's been tough, but after several attempted escapes I have accepted my fate and allowed the routine to take me over. We swim at 9am, have brekkie, wander down the shops, pop to the beach to bask for a couple of hours, eat lunch at 2pm, return to the beach to sun ourselves and doze, go back to the apartment for a shower and a change and then pop out for supper. It's a brutal regime, but a necessary one as the good lady wife tells me each day. Something about de-stressing and all that jazz. The longer I'm here the more I see her point of view.

Here's hoping the boy hasn't burnt the house down yet 😐.

Combat Card Joy

Picked up another bit of eBay joy this week in the shape of 8 sets of Combat Cards. I was already flush with Goblinoids, Spacewar and Chaos, but to pick up the rest (including some duplicates of what I already have) plus the newer Space Marines and  double set of Epic Battles (not my bag but gift horses, etc) for £6 is a massive win. There are up to 2-3 cards missing in some cases but I'm no perfectionist. I treat these cards as eye-candy, and for me they are the best way of appreciating the painting of the golden era. My set is the bottom row in this shot. Quite a bargain for the rest:

eBay Cock-up

Quite hilariously I won an auction for four cute little gobbos the other day. I paid up and sat back satisfied that I'd put it to the man and got a hell of a deal:

All was smuggly brilliant until when looking at eBay again last night I spotted the same ad. Two of them in fact. It was at this point I realised that my £2.50 for four gobbos was actually £2.50 for one gobbo. And it wasn't even my favourite of the four. Gutted. And a lesson learnt.  Here's an ever so slightly advanced shot of my ongoing WIP. It's going pretty badly to be fair. But at least I sat down for an hour or so. These old Skaven are iconic but their garments are utter misery to paint well. For me anyhow:

Adrian Chiles in Utterly Uninsightful Personal Experience Religion Article

I had no idea how facile this guy is until I read this BBC article:

http://m.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-32849125

Homebase Goodies?

Bank holidays are days that require an outpouring of our devotion to Mammon, or so is my understanding. Whilst buying a can opener in Homebase earlier (yep, I'm singlehandedly helping George Osborne and David Cameron get this collection of countries we call the UK back to the good old days) I saw some interesting guff on the paint section. It would be good to give them a whirl, but I'm a cautious man. Anyone ever seen them and regretted/enjoyed doing so?

Also, here's a picture of my niece looking like Elton John: