TSM Geek Jul/Aug 2022 – The Solo Meeple

Hello! Yes, it has been some time since my last post, but I’m now ready to get back to something approaching normality.

What’s been keeping me away? Well, a continuation of what I used to be talking about in my last Geek, the garden. Pressure was on to get it to a useable point for a family party we were hosting mid-August. By useable, I mean the gravel needed to be down so it didn’t look such an eyesore and the bottom wouldn’t turn right into a swamp should it rain (fat likelihood of that because it happened!).

After my tiller went up in smoke, I had to interrupt up the clay by hand after which flatten it out, a number of good old sweat and tears! I then put the primary level of beds in and levelled the realm for the shed base to go on. Next, I built some recent steps as much as our veranda. We’d never been completely happy with them coming off the side and wanted wider steps straight into the garden. The steps were easy enough to do, the handrail, nonetheless, caused me a couple of issues with getting the angles right and understanding an order in assemble it – I’ve currently only done one side, barely enough to maintain everyone protected on the party, and I still need to box in the edges of the steps.

We then decided to place in an irrigation system, and it made sense to run the pipes underground, so I dug the trenches and laid pipes to every bed and a pair running to the rear of the garden ready for once we start that next 12 months.

9-tons of gravel! I had put 2-days aside to maneuver it from the front of the home and lay it, but actually, it only took me just over 6-hours, which I used to be well happy about!

It was then only a case of tidying things up, staining the decking, and, whilst things weren’t yet finished, we were at the least ready for the party.

The party went very well, and a couple of days later we were off on a brief vacation to Norfolk.

We headed back to Norfolk to point out Yasmin where she was born and the places we took her when she was a wee bairn. I also desired to revisit a couple of old haunts, namely RAF Coltishall’s heritage centre. We stayed in a beautiful place called the Honingham Buck, just outside Norwich, and had a beautiful time.

We visited the old RAF Coltishall site, most of which is now a jail, and popped into the heritage centre. It was a blast from the past bringing many completely happy memories back of my time on 6 Squadron there, working on the mighty Jaguar aircraft. The old Squadron hangar looked in a tragic and sorry state, though there was work occurring with the prospect of turning it into something useful again.

After leaving the heritage centre we bimbled across the old married quarters, finding the home we used to live in and where Yasmin spent her first 10-months. We had many completely happy times at Colt, and we were glad we’d decided to revisit the place – Yasmin was intrigued to see all of it, as she obviously had no recollection of it, and we filled her in with stories of our life there across the time she was born.

We filled the remainder of the time with a day’s shopping in Norwich, a visit to Blickling Hall, and a night on the seaside in Wells (complete with fish and chips in fact!).

That brings me just about as much as present day, with only a pair more things to say before I move on to the geeky stuff. Yasmin got her exam results last week, AND SHE NAILED IT! She did very well and we’re mighty happy with her. In any case the labor she put in she deserved such good results. Well done, Yas!

The opposite thing has to do with me, or more precisely, my hands.

Mid-July, my hands began to ache, especially within the mornings, and I had problems gripping until they’d properly warmed up. I knew what the issue was, all that constant gripping of tools, each at work and to do the garden, had taken its toll, and being ambidextrous I used to be getting it in each hands, as I’m at all times swapping from one hand to a different. Nonetheless, I desired to get the garden done, so I took some anti-inflammatories and cracked on.

By the beginning of August, it was at the purpose where I used to be getting finger lock. I couldn’t open all my fingers properly very first thing within the morning, and once I finally could, they’d get to this point then pop into place. Obviously, this restricted the things I could do. I couldn’t type for greater than a couple of minutes at a time and using the mouse caused my little finger to lock! It also meant I couldn’t paint, which brings me to the distinct lack of geekiness that’s about to follow…

Games

Time has been the limiting factor here, but during the last week I even have done something I never thought I’d do, I’ve let Yasmin play Gloomhaven!

Every time I get a game out Yas will wish to play, so my solo campaign hasn’t been advancing any and I so dearly desired to play the sport again. I made the choice to start out afresh and peeled off all of the stickers (I’d bought the reusable set as an addon), then reset the sport as if the box had just been opened.

Yasmin selected to play the Spellweaver and Cragheart, and I went with the Tinkerer and Mindthief – I had decided that the Brute and Scoundrel would stay in retirement from my earlier games. We’re now on our sixth scenario and things have been going well. All characters have just reached level three and are beginning to feel like a team, thought Lucifer, The Vermling Mindthief, is clearly out for himself!

We’ve had some right down to the wire finishes, which I feel has drawn Yasmin right into the sport, especially when she pulled one win out of the bag for us all on her own, as my two characters were exhausted mid-game and I believed we’d had it of course.

It’s been interesting to this point, in that the sport has progressed in a special direction to what I’d played before, and we’ve already played a few scenarios I’d never done before. We’ve also yet to drag a road or city event card that I’ve seen before, and it makes the sport world feel huge and ever changing; it truly is the closest game you’ll get to a full-on RPG.

Aside from that, I’ve only played Magic The Gathering: Arena because I can play it on the iPad and sliding cards around doesn’t hurt my hands! I’m planning a couple of posts on this digital game, as I even have to confess, I’m hooked, so more of that to come back.

Painting

I accomplished Viper a while ago, once I first began having issues with my hands, and realised I couldn’t hope to do any more until things began to enhance.

For the reason that party I’ve tried to keep away from anything that involves holding tight or squeezing and things have slowly got quite a bit higher. Last weekend I got out the airbrush and primed a few of things I’d prepped, resembling the Russian soldiers, among the MoM characters, and half-dozen Walking Dead minis. I then had a go at painting Rita Young, one among Yasmin’s favourite MoM characters. Holding a brush doesn’t half make my hand ache, but I discovered that if I painted for ten minutes or so after which rested a bit, I could make some decent progress. Here she is to this point; flesh and hair just need ending.

Screen Shot

We’ve been watching the Mission Not possible movies. Surprisingly, Yasmin had no real interest in them, so it was quite nice for me and Sue to back with a glass of wine or two and watch the flicks on our own.

They’re all good, entertaining movies, but the primary two, I felt, do show their age, and the third might be my favourite, I believed it was darker and grittier than the others. Fallout, the sixth film, had some really good cinematography that made us feel like we were right in the midst of the motion and has made us wish to see the upcoming seventh film on the cinema.

Between The Sheets

I’ve read next to nothing, possibly half a book, which I’ll speak about next time… if I finish it!

Hobby Goals Update

Well, these have gone down the pan haven’t they!

Here’s my progress on this 12 months’s Hobby Goals. It isn’t looking good…

1. No less than 70 posts – That is my 28’th, nowhere near where I expected to be at this point of the 12 months. I’m going to need to go some to hit this goal!

2. 10 Reviews – Three… Doh!

3. Complete my Mansions of Madness miniatures – I’m going to get near this if I can up my painting, and it’s going to be my principal focus for now as we wish to play the sport again soon.

4. 8 More MCP characters – Five down, three to go, but I still haven’t bought any more yet!

5. Paint and play – Bolt Motion – Unfortunately, at the least for me, no likelihood of this, though I’m hopeful in having at the least a unit or two done by years end.

6. Finish painting my Scythe factions – Back seated this one, just because we will still play the sport with all of the factions I even have painted. So, one for next 12 months methinks.

7. Paint at the least three major pieces of scenery – Not more likely to do that one now either, but you never know, I just need to drag my finger out… Ouch!

8. Paint one miniature to the perfect of my ability – Now this one I even have made some progress on. I’ve prepped and primed a large from Blacklist miniatures. It’s a pleasant figure that ought to push my skills, which is what I’m in search of. I doubt I’ll get it finished this 12 months but just making progress will likely be enough for me.

9. Post at the least three Battle Reports – Rattling, this one is slipping by and it’s one I really need to hit as I would like to get those ships on the table. More effort required on my half.

10. Assemble and play at the least two games of Shadows of Brimstone by end of Feb – I can finally say I’ve played a game of SoB, and it was over far too quickly, as we got massacred by hordes of monsters. I would like to play again before I put out my first thoughts, as we were bimbling through the principles and I feel we were a tad unlucky in among the cards that were drawn, which meant we were thrown in to the deep end for newbies to the sport – it really didn’t end well!

11. More solo content – More content full stop required for the time being, lol!

12. Back a maximum of 1 crowdfunding project – Success… Not one backed to this point, yippee!

So, that’s the last two months in a nutshell, a small, very dull nutshell!

Nonetheless, things are looking up, as my hands are improving each day and typing this has caused me no trouble in any respect, so I can start catching up. I even have at the least one, ‘One-year-on’ post that’s overdue and in addition to a few painting posts I can prove. I’ve just got to get back into the swing of things so far as sitting down and writing something is anxious.

I also have to meet up with what everyone else has been doing, it’s like I’ve been on a special planet for a few months.

Anyway, that’s it, let normal service resume!

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