So Long To 2016... PLEASE!
I am really beginning to think that the sooner 2016 is out of the way the better.
Real life keeps rubbing up against my hobbies in a none to friendly manner, and I confess it's beginning to really piss me off.
Exactly a week ago now my wife's car was hit on the M1 between Leeds and Sheffield by a large articulated truck delivering to Aldi, which, carried her 100 or so yards along the motorway, spinning her sideways and depositing her into (and thankfully there was one) the hard shoulder.
The driver accepted responsibility at the scene, and the police informed my wife that they did not expect her to be found alive, but, thankfully she was saved by being in a Skoda Yeti. She spent the next day at the hospital and was not brain damaged, nor was she a 'walk talk, die' case, but she is internally battered about and quite severely whiplashed.
Let me tell you, relieved at her survival is not the world.
And so, as she was not fit to make it on Saturday and had to also deal with the paperwork for upcoming court case, I went to a wargames show on my own for the first time since I was 12, and made the journey to Pudsey by train on for Recon, a show I had thought long extinct. It was a nice parochial show with a good vibe, but I tell you, I was lonely. I had never quite fully realised just how much my wife's company contributed to the basic enjoyment of my hobby. I'll not voluntarily repeat that.
I was in low mood, still contemplative and certainly not conversational with the few people I conversed with. I left after 2 hours which is no reflection of the show.
I must state for the record that Recon is back on my radar. £6.30 got me in to the show, an excellent sausage sandwich and a large, fresh cup of coffee, so that even with my return train fares, I spent under £20.
My only critical comment would be that the organisers should cut down on the number of re-sellers peddling the same two or three ranges and trying to cute their profits to get a sale.
On a personal note, I have managed to contract a respiratory infection which was exacerbated by a day of travelling in the cold, when I was already a little frayed. Now, 10 days before I close for Christmas I am trying to work against the clock whilst being in rather severe discomfort.
To cap what was frankly a shitty week, I was informed the other day that an old gaming buddy had passed away. We wee both about the same age, band although we were pretty good mates in the mid 80s, the late 80s saw us go our own ways after an event which I could not forgive until about 2011. We last met whilst at the Christmas 2014 gig by former Marillion front man 'Fish', where we hugged, wished each other Merry Christmas and called each other names in good humour. Paul's last words to me were 'Merry Christmas you miserable old bastard.'
Those words I will always recall with a smile.
I wish that we could have undone the knot that was tied a quarter of a century earlier, because I think that things would have been so much different. A mutual friend told me at the weekend that Paul would have given anything for it to never have taken place. So would I.
It's funny how you just carry on with arguments and grudges so often, until something causes them to be put into actual context. I have focussed for so long on the dark part of what transpired, but on the up side, without that, I'd have not in a roundabout way have met my wife, raised a daughter or written a book.
Rest in peace Paul, and if we do meet again, let's talk more...
TTFN
Real life keeps rubbing up against my hobbies in a none to friendly manner, and I confess it's beginning to really piss me off.
Exactly a week ago now my wife's car was hit on the M1 between Leeds and Sheffield by a large articulated truck delivering to Aldi, which, carried her 100 or so yards along the motorway, spinning her sideways and depositing her into (and thankfully there was one) the hard shoulder.
The driver accepted responsibility at the scene, and the police informed my wife that they did not expect her to be found alive, but, thankfully she was saved by being in a Skoda Yeti. She spent the next day at the hospital and was not brain damaged, nor was she a 'walk talk, die' case, but she is internally battered about and quite severely whiplashed.
Let me tell you, relieved at her survival is not the world.
And so, as she was not fit to make it on Saturday and had to also deal with the paperwork for upcoming court case, I went to a wargames show on my own for the first time since I was 12, and made the journey to Pudsey by train on for Recon, a show I had thought long extinct. It was a nice parochial show with a good vibe, but I tell you, I was lonely. I had never quite fully realised just how much my wife's company contributed to the basic enjoyment of my hobby. I'll not voluntarily repeat that.
I was in low mood, still contemplative and certainly not conversational with the few people I conversed with. I left after 2 hours which is no reflection of the show.
I must state for the record that Recon is back on my radar. £6.30 got me in to the show, an excellent sausage sandwich and a large, fresh cup of coffee, so that even with my return train fares, I spent under £20.
My only critical comment would be that the organisers should cut down on the number of re-sellers peddling the same two or three ranges and trying to cute their profits to get a sale.
On a personal note, I have managed to contract a respiratory infection which was exacerbated by a day of travelling in the cold, when I was already a little frayed. Now, 10 days before I close for Christmas I am trying to work against the clock whilst being in rather severe discomfort.
To cap what was frankly a shitty week, I was informed the other day that an old gaming buddy had passed away. We wee both about the same age, band although we were pretty good mates in the mid 80s, the late 80s saw us go our own ways after an event which I could not forgive until about 2011. We last met whilst at the Christmas 2014 gig by former Marillion front man 'Fish', where we hugged, wished each other Merry Christmas and called each other names in good humour. Paul's last words to me were 'Merry Christmas you miserable old bastard.'
Those words I will always recall with a smile.
I wish that we could have undone the knot that was tied a quarter of a century earlier, because I think that things would have been so much different. A mutual friend told me at the weekend that Paul would have given anything for it to never have taken place. So would I.
It's funny how you just carry on with arguments and grudges so often, until something causes them to be put into actual context. I have focussed for so long on the dark part of what transpired, but on the up side, without that, I'd have not in a roundabout way have met my wife, raised a daughter or written a book.
Rest in peace Paul, and if we do meet again, let's talk more...
TTFN
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