Copplestone Castings White Russian Lancers in Chinese Service

Although I have, for me, a reasonable number of painted Chinese Back of Beyond figures I haven't done any for years.  When these came out just before Christmas, however, I knew that I had to get some for my Chinese warlord army.  

It's a very small unit but then they were just bodyguards for the warlord Chang T'sung-chang.  They were armed with Mauser automatic pistols, Da-Dao swords and bamboo lances.  The Copplestone figures don't come with lances but Foundry do bamboo lances so I got them from there. At present Copplestone don't make a command pack so I chopped off one of the lancer's hands and replaced it with a hand holding a Mauser pistol from one of my Bolshevik command figures. 

I actually had the relevant Osprey, Chinese Warlord Armies 1911-30, so painting reference was not a problem.  The only issue, really, is that my existing Warlord army is the one of Wu Pei-fu, the bitter enemy of Chang T'sung-chang, so now I will have to paint a force for Chang.  His provincial forces wore blue rather than the normal grey, grey-green or khaki so they might be a bit more interesting looking.  I have four unpainted foot soldiers I have just based but have run out of the model filler I use on my bases, annoyingly.  Off to Modelzone next week I think!

Not much progress on painting but more shopping...

The view in the Legatus's road last Friday afternoon

I realised that I haven't posted for three weeks and in that time everyone else whose blogs I follow seems to be turning out stuff at an amazing rate.

Two things have stopped me progressing on my painting.  Firstly, both my wife and son have gone down, at different times, with some of the nasty viruses around at present so I have been running around looking after them, getting medicine and plying them with drinks (they both got very dehydrated).  I'm not feeling too brilliant myself this evening and I had a nasty fall at the weekend on the ice underneath the snow in our drive. I've been limping around for nearly a week and literally bumped into local WAG Louise Redknapp today in the doctor's surgery car park, as my ability to change direction rapidly to avoid other people is much diminished.  Although if you have to collide with one of the neighbours...

The question tonight, therefore, is what is the best way to treat pain and a cold:  Lem Sip, Rioja or a Vodka Martini?  All three, I suspect, may not be a good idea.

We haven't been hit as bad as some parts of the country with the snow but four inches was enough to bring most of the transport to a halt here for a day at least.  The Legatus lives on a cul-de-sac so we don't get enough through traffic to clear the road of snow properly.  At least we didn't end up with a BMW in our garden like the family at the top of the drive. Rear wheel drive cars are rubbish in the snow!

The second thing that is taking up my time is work.  I am dealing with an imminent visit from Colombia which means that stuff keeps coming in until about midnight, so I am tapping away doing emails instead of painting.  I did get some painting done at the weekend and at least the snow helped provide rather brighter light than of late.

British base in Waziristan (well, actually, Yugoslavia)

Actually, I have nearly finished a small unit (8 figures) of Copplestone Back of Beyond cavalry.  I'm hoping a bit of work this weekend will see them finished.  I think the Russians I did a few months ago have got me interested in the period again so I might prepare some more during Dancing on Ice on Sunday.  Added to this are the new Empress "Jazz Age colonials" which currently only consist of three packs of Afghan tribesmen.  I picked up the widescreen (as opposed to the dreadful pan and scan) DVD of the Tom Selleck film High Road to China this week.  This rather underrated film, slated at the time for being sub-standard Indiana Jones (Selleck was Spielberg's original choice for the part), features a British camp in Waziristan, Waziri tribesmen (led by Brian Blessed!) and a final battle between warlord Chinese forces. It is very unlikely that you will ever get a more Back of Beyond film than this!  They even got the five coloured star on the Chinese officer's cap right! Painting these on 28mm figures has proved something of a challenge, I have to say.  All this has got me thinking about Waziristan so I hope Empress eventually produce some suitable British, Indian Army and Gurkha troops.  Copplestone make them but they come from the period when his figures were huge so I don't think they will match too well.

Matabele!

I've been buying a few more figures (as if I need any more) and today this whopping box of Matabele arrived from North Star (there is nothing like a big heavy box with a Nottingham post mark).  These are entirely Giles' fault and there looks to be about three years worth of work in here.  I also bought some Perry French Napoleonic light infantry on eBay as well as, at last, my second Copplestone elephant which I need for my stalled but not forgotten Zambezi campaign.  Or, as my particular friend Sophie pointed put the other day, Zambesi if I want to adopt period correct spelling.  The rest of my Crusader American Civil War regulars turned up (North Star is not the place to go if you want instant gratification - unlike Copplestone, for example) and I based those but ran out of spray undercoat.  This has now been rectified and I plan to move them along after my Back of Beyond cavalry.

I also based some of my Empress ECW cavalry figures and was surprised to find that they will work perfectly well with my existing Renegade figures.  They are delicate, however, and I broke one of the horses off its base but Empress came to the rescue with replacements so I took the opportunity to pick up a few pikemen.  I haven't looked at these compared with the Renegade figures yet but, again, they look quite large (although slimmer than the Renegades and with smaller heads).

Finally, today, I picked up the Black Powder supplement on the Peninsula War which is filled with the most delicious looking photographs.  I must not get distracted from Waterloo and Quatre Bras, however.

So, I think my cold is getting the better of me and I will retire and hope I feel up to finishing my cavalry tomorrow!

First figures of 2013!

Well, I have finished my first figures of 2013!  Only three of them but they are enough to complete my unit of Dutch 27th Jäger.  This is my first completed Napoleonic unit in 28mm and I am delighted to have achieved this given the amount of work in uniforms of this period.  The only downside is it's taken me just a week over five years to paint them!  At this rate... No, don't even think about it!  The only good thing is that I have done eleven out of the 25 figures in the last seven weeks.  More about the 27th Jäger on my Quatre Bras and Waterloo blog which I now feel is a bit more respectable as a result!

Now I feel enthused to finish my Prussians who probably only need a couple of weeks concentrated effort to complete.  Next I have a battalion of French already based and I've even painted three of them.  I can use the same French against the Prussians and Dutch with just different flags, of course.  

Alongside the Prussians on the workbench at present I have a small Back of Beyond unit for which I received the final four figures from Copplestone Castings yesterday.  It's only an eight man unit but they are cavalry.  Still, I am enjoying painting them.  Other than that all the other figures (other than a few one-offs) are for my Argonauts project.  I will try and only keep three periods of figures on the workbench at any one time this year!

Resisting Temptation Part 2

So, here is how it goes.  As expected, as I looked at the North Star sale, various armies on (really quite big) discount floated across my still somewhat addled post Christmas-consciousness,  Why not get two 1866 armies?  How about a big batch of Louis XIV French?  I could use them for North America!  But, as I had hoped, the voice of measured reason floated up from the antipodes in the Middle Earthian shape of Scott. Everything he said in commenting on my last post was spot on. Phew!  Saved again.

Then, however, sitting on my other shoulder was Big Red Bat whispering about the French.  Now just looking at his excellent blog has me searching around for ancients to paint: I've just found some Macedonian pikemen to base as a result of one of his recent posts.  So I don't really need any more temptation from him!

All was well.  I looked at my half finished Prussians and moved on. This morning, however, Giles posted about the big Matabele impi on sale.  I'd completely missed that one.  I've been wanting to buy these since they came out.  Darkest Africa figures are the first metal 28mm soldiers I bought!  I could use them in my Zambezi campaign (well, not really).  I bought Zulu and Matabele: Warrior Nations by Glenn Lyndon Dodds  and enjoyed the novel The Shangani Patrol by John Wilcox.  Oh dear!  Temptation given in to once more!  At least it was the cheapest of all the options I was looking at (by £3).

I'm sure I will get on to them after I finish the 200 Zulus I have to do.  And the Ngoni.  And the Masai.  And finishing my Azande....

Resisting temptation...

Resisting temptation is not one of the Legatus' key characteristics.  Indeed, my particular friend Sophie always maintains that my epitaph should be "Oh, alright then...".

Now, although I am very busy at present (I actually had to contribute to a brief for the Prime Minister today at ridiculously short notice) I have been trying to do a little bit of painting every day.  So collars, cuffs and turnbacks on my Dutch Jaegers today.  Not much but enough to move them along a bit.  Now, given the enormity of my lead (and plastic) pile and the geologically slow rate of my painting it would be palpably insane to be considering buying large numbers of new figures,  Today, however North Star have announced a sale.  Now there isn't very much there to tempt me except they have several deals on big collections of figures. 

A third of my painted French infantry

In particular, a force of 69 foot and 20 mounted of the Copplestone (mainly) sculpted Glory of the Sun/1672 French for £93, down from £156.  Now I should bear in mind that I have painted exactly three of these figures in the past few years, mainly because I have no idea as to how they fit in a wargaming/historical context.  The promised historical information on the Copplestone site never materialised.  But it's such a good buy!  I have always had this urge to get some figures from the 1650-1770 period but didn't want to do WSS (mainly because many people do it at Guildford already and I am contrary by nature).   I recently bought some British from this range but I can't find anything that shows the British fighting the French on land for the Dutch Wars.  In fact we were allies of them at some point.  Hmm.

The next offer I was tempted by is even more insane: two armies, Austrian and Prussian, from their 1866 range.  99 Prussians for £75 and 96 Austrians for £70.  This is for a range that is hopelessly incomplete as well but I have always had an interest in it because of the interesting uniforms and, perhaps, my Austrian heritage.   But given the pickelhauben hatted infantry at the top of this blog do I really need another bunch of pointy-helmeted troops?  If I want to do something from this period shouldn't I just do ACW?  Hmm.

The third temptation today (don't they always come in threes?) came about because I was searching for something else.  I can't even remember what it was now.  Anyway, there was someone selling Roco Minitanks.  My father used to buy me these in the early seventies and I loved their orange boxes and exciting blister packs that let you see the complete vehicle.  It wasn't some kit that would take hours to assemble; it was ready to go (on little wheels too!).  I may even still have some up in the loft.  It isn't the WW2 tanks I am interested in though, as I had a lot of these when I was younger.  I had the Minitanks catalogue and it had in it all sorts of exciting modern (at least in 1972) tanks in it.  I wanted Pattons and Chieftans and self propelled guns with really long barrels.  Maybe I could do some 1970s-set WW3 (like Team Yankee but 15 years earlier?)  I really liked the painting of the Centurion at the Imjin River on the cover of the catalogue I had.   Maybe Korean War?  Hmm!

Sometimes only a very big bottle of wine will do!

Well, the only solution is to have a glass of claret or three and wait until these feelings go away.  Just think of all the other figures that I really, really do want to paint (such as my Perry Cuirassiers) that I already own!  I have also been very impressed by everyone else's well thought out plans as to what they are going to paint this year, so I really don't need any distractions.  Hmm.

2012 Wargaming highlights and lowlights

Wargames played

My last wargame - in 2010!

Well, the first thing to note is that there was no wargaming at all.  In fact it's now two years since I had a game.  I thought my Belgians v Azande game was last November but it turns out it was November 2010.  I really don't know where the time goes!  My last game at Guildford Wargames Club was September 2010!  Must play something next year!

Figure painting 2012

A rather disappointing 107 figures in total this year, which is the lowest figure ever and about 50% down on last year.  The main reason for this is that my wife has taken on a part time job so has less time to do domestic things.  When she has spare time, therefore, she doesn't take kindly to me sitting around painting when she is doing the washing, stacking the dishwasher, helping the children with revision etc.  Fair enough really, so I have had less time and also want to avoid the evil eye form the old bat (as her sister calls her - it's not just me who finds her a nagging old boot).  In addition, there has been a huge amount of letters and university application stuff to do relating to the children and my wife cannot type, which means I often spend an hour or so an evening writing to the dyslexia psychologist and such. This all means I can really only paint when she is out, which is pretty much only Sunday.  Also the weather has been so bad this year I have struggled to paint in what passes for light.  I have two daylight bulb lamps on my desk but can't do shading under them only base colours.

The most figures of one type I painted were, surprisingly, Back of Beyond Russians, especially as they didn't figure in my 2012 plan at all, and Darkest Africa, which did.

Main categories painted:

Darkest Africa 21

Back of Beyond 21

Zulu War 18

Napoleonic 15

ACW 14

18mm Fantasy 8

Argonauts 6

I'm quite pleased with progress on the Zulu War and Napoleonics.  I totally failed to move the Indian Mutiny stuff along though and the Argonauts project has not gone as I had hoped, although I have 25 figures on the workbench at present.  I must say I live in awe of people who paint hundreds of figures a year.  They either have a lot more time than I do or they paint faster (or both!).

Figure Painting 2013

Trolls in progress

I need to finish the last three Dutch Jaegers to complete my first Napoleonic unit.  I did some on them today so hope they will be done in a week or two.  I also need to finish off my Prussian line infantry.  I want to do some figures for The Hobbit and worked on the trolls my daughter got me for Christmas today.  I need to finish some more Darkest Africa figures for my Zambezi campaign as then I will have enough for an initial game, if I can persuade Guy, who since our last game has become totally addicted to Xbox.  More on the Argonauts is called for too, especially as you can play a Tribes of Legend game with just ten figures.  I want to paint some of my French & Indian war figures from Conquest (now Warlord too) and have one test figure which is so close to being finished it might even get done by next weekend.  I want to get some more of my Copplestone 18mm fantasy figures done too.  I have some WW2 British well under way which would be good for Bolt Action.  My target for January is to finish 24 figures (my old monthly target).  It's possible if I don't have to go to Turkey.

Oh no!  I'm typing this while listening to Respighi and now I pini della Via Appia has come on and it always makes me want to paint Romans, especially as I sold all my painted ones to Big Red Bat!

Figure Acquisition 2012

I haven't owned one of these for some time!

Oh dear.  I really have no idea how many figures I bought this year. Hundreds certainly.  Perry American Civil War (3 boxes of plastics and about 50 metals), Empress ECW, Perry Napoleonics (metals and plastics), Perry Wars of the Roses, Crusader ancients, Foundry Tribes of Legend and Darkest Africa, A pack (well 60 figures) of Gripping Beast Skraelings for Saga, Warlord Plastic Zulus, Crimean War etc etc.  New ranges include quite a lot of Crooked Dice's not Captain Scarlet figures and then some die-cast vehicles off eBay to go with them.  The sad news about Gerry Anderson (who I was lucky enough to meet a few years ago) has got me wanting to paint a few of these sooner rather than later.  SIG!

Rules acquisition 2012

Musket and Tomahawk, looks interesting, and now the Conquest figures are more easily available via Warlord I might get some of these done to try a small game.  I bought Bolt Action and like the look of them so will try and get some early WW2 figures finished.  Other rules I bought include The Devil's Wind, Mutineer Miniatures Indian Mutiny rules, War and Conquest and Pike and Shotte.  I think I got some of the Hail Caesar and Black Powder supplements too.  I also bought Matakishi's Crom rules for Hyborian skirmishes which I thought would work with my Coppestone Fantasy figures.  I played  a game of Prehistoric Settlement with Matakishi once at Guildford and he is an amazingly focussed fellow as regards projects.

Scenery

I'd like to get started on this Grand Manner traders hut

One of the reasons I don't play any games is that I haven't got enough scenic items.  Well, I have them, I just haven't painted them.  I'm starting small at present with a tree holding the Golden Fleece.  I really need to finish my GW Battleboards for a start as I have only done one out of six.  So, more scenics in 2013.

Big things of 2012

My "little boy" Guy, surrounded by bleached blondes as usual, gets his Olympic hat signed by some glammy Team GB sailorette at Cowes Week.  Girls can really mess up your wargaming!  I should know!

Well, I am rather distanced from the wargames scene but it's clear that Saga and now Musket and Tomahawk are making an impact. Laterly there is a lot about Bolt Action too.  Let's hope I can persuade my little boy, Guy, to try a game of one of these as a way to get him off the Xbox and stop him mooning over Bobby Davro's daughter, who is in his class at school.

Magazines

On the magazine front I am enjoying what they are doing with Wargames Soldiers and Strategy, which is now my favourite magazine.  Well not  actually my overall favourite, I probably enjoy Decanter and Airfix Model World more and even Playboy has smartened up its covers a bit in the latter part of the year.    White Dwarf started to really annoy me when it mentioned the Lord of the Rings on the (increasingly sealed in plastic) cover and yet had no LotR content inside.  

Speaking of magazines, I  forgot to mention in my non-wargaming review that a significant part of my wargaming purchases this year have been funded by the fee from an article on the history of Playboy and Penthouse which I was commissioned to write for a new, arty men's magazine.  I've never made any money from wargaming.  On the contrary, it's like having a mistress in that all your spare money just disappears:  meals out, afternoon tea in five star hotels, Champagne (vintage, of course), expensive lingerie, tickets to the ballet, two day trips to Paris, coffee table books on fashion, etc.  No, not wargaming, of course.  A mistress.  I would imagine. 

Most annoying things...

Paper? Schmaper!

I can't finish without having a moan, especially after two thirds of a bottle of Chateau Giscours 1979, So what aspects of wargaming have annoyed me this year?

A really bad one is the increasing tendency at inane attempts at humour in some of the articles in the wargames magazines.  This is very difficult to do well and very few can manage it.  Thank goodness Steve Eardley was terminated from Miniature Wargames earlier in the year.  I actually enjoyed Dr Phil Hendry's article on basing in one of the magazines recently as he managed to inject some levity without it sounding like a Maths teacher trying to make a joke at the end of term (there is, after all, nothing funny about Maths teachers).  I have a friend who is very clever (he is an actuary) but has no sense of humour whatsoever; yet he constantly tries to tell jokes and make funny comments because he feels he ought to.  Hmm, something about Maths, perhaps?  Some people don't have a sense of humour in the same way that some are useless at Maths, languages, music or art.  If you can't do it don't force it!  I am well known for not having a sense of humour at all.  I therefore find other people's attempts at humour particularly tiresome.

Another pet peeve (and I also hate people who write cliches like "pet peeve") is the increasingly common "news" reports on The Miniatures Page advertising paper scenery, vehicles or troops.  If I see the word "cardstock" (what's wrong with just "card" anyway?) one more time I am going to scream.  I know it is a sign of the times but there is something just sad about paper wargames stuff (I can just about see it for buildings).    I wouldn't mind if any of these paper troops looked any good but they all seem to have been produced by people with the artistic sensibilities of John Prescott.  Before you produce paper figures (I positively detest the American term "minis", by the way) find someone who can actually draw and paint (or the digital equivalent).

Do not even get me on wargames companies who have Facebook or Twitter pages.  I really can't see the point of either, as most of the content on your page seems to come from other people over whom you have little control. Who wants to be "friends" with  a model soldier company anyway? Tragic. I bet Bobby Davro's daughter (she is an extremely attractive young lady, we have to say) wouldn't be impressed.

One final point is that some people are following this blog and I have not reciprocated.  I apologise for this but this is something to do with those who use Google Friend Connect for followers which I do not have as it sounds far too "social media" for me and it won't let me follow under this incarnation.

Anyway, the Legatus wishes all his readers a very happy New Year and would like to thank everyone who has read some of my inane ramblings and looked at my blotchily painted figures. I would particularly like to thank those who take the time to comment.  I continue to be inspired by everyone else's efforts so hope I can paint a bit more this coming year.  Now off to see Britt Ekland at Windsor pantomime later today!

2012 non-wargaming highlights...and a few lowlights

Olympics!

Well, it's still too dark to paint properly (although I have just undercoated my trolls from The Hobbit) so I might as well sit down and ramble away on the blog for a bit whilst listening to some defiantly non-Christmas music. Today we have Russ Garcia and his Orchestra's groovy Fantastica: Music from Outer Space.  Garcia, a prolific arranger and conductor also did the striking soundtrack for the original film of The Time Machine  (1960).

Wargaming highlights will be next but lets look at the non-hobby year first. Oh no, I'm starting to sound like that Meeples and Miniatures chap! 

Best Book

I've bought a lot of books this year and have no idea where to put them.  I wanted to put some more bookshelves up but my wife, who doesn't read anything except the Daily Mail, thinks they "ruin the look of the wall".  I'm seriously contemplating putting all my paperbacks on Kindle to gain space even though I don't like the look of the Kindle machines as their pages don't hold enough text to look like a proper book.  There's no doubt about my favourite purchase though: the monumental Ray Harryhausen: Master of the Magicks Vol 3: The British Films.  Well worth £100 (especially as they are now selling for £149 on Amazon).

Best Film

Berenice Marlohe in Skyfall

I didn't get to the cinema much this year and think I may have only gone to Skyfall, which was truly excellent although a James Bond film more in the nature of John Gardener's new novels in the eighties (which is a good thing).  It shows what can be done in giving Bond to a proper director and not a former second unit stunt director. John Glen, who directed five Bond films (badly) nearly killed off the whole series in the eighties by not understanding the essence of Bond at all.


Best TV show

This has to be Game of Thrones.  I think its older than 2012 but I only got it on DVD this year as I don't have Sky (as I refuse to give any money to Rupert Murdoch if I can possibly avoid it).  I haven't read the books (although one of my young ladies is urging me to) but it was great to see fantasy done in an adult way rather than the sort of Xena/Hercules approach usually seen in the past.


Best Musical discovery

I bought 1147 tracks on iTunes this year, it seems, plus quite a few CDs as well but probably the most unexpectedly enjoyable were Laurie Johnson's two orchestral jazz pieces: Symphony (synthesis) and Concerto for Trumpet, tenor saxophone and orchestra from The Musical Worlds of Laurie Johnson.  Johnson, of course, is better know for his groovy sixties and seventies TV music (The Avengers, The Professionals, Jason King as well, of course, as the theme music for This is your Life and Animal Magic).  

Best encounter with a fashion model

Coming across the winner of Britain and Ireland's next top model, Letitia Herod, on Oxshott station one morning.  It turns out she lives here and she certainly improves the scenery on the platform compared with my usual fellow travellers who include:  Mr Public Sector Cardigan (men shouldn't wear cardigans to work-it's not the nineteen fifties - also, don't wear your work ID badge around your neck before you get to work), Mr Nineteen Fifties Hair (again, it's not the nineteen fifties - no more Brylcreem) , The Grumpy Frenchman (cheer up for heaven's sake), Big Ugly (a bolt through your neck might actually improve your appearance), Once was Handsome (the bouffant Patrick Mower look is well past it's sell by date, as are you, I'm afraid), Madame Witches Hair (women in their sixties should not have long hair; especially long, frizzy grey hair.  Being French is no excuse),  Takes her Coat off Girl (actually we don't mind her), The Old Codgers (stop sitting on the aisle seats of the train when the inside ones are empty - it's not going to stop people sitting next to you), Mr Argy Bargy  (the ageing tango dancer look doesn't go well with your pin stripe suit), Slutty the Schoolgirl (goodness, you have grown out of that skirt haven't you?) Mrs Blancmange (you really shouldn't be eating chocolate for breakfast), Porridge-eating Baldy (you really shouldn't be eating porridge out of a Tupperware box on the train - get up earlier!), The Evil Twins (Do you know the Midwich Cuckoos?  That's you that is), Mr Broad-brimmed Hat (it needs a clean and it doesn't make you look like Terry Pratchett) and Mr House of Blues (you really are too old for that jacket).  

Best foreign trip

The Battle of Bunker Hill monument in Charlestown

Not too many this year, thank goodness. Mostly B's this year: Bucharest, Belgrade, Boston, Bogota as well as Dubai, Houston and...Edinburgh.  Most enjoyable trip was to the splendid city of Boston as there was some good military content, a superb art gallery, excellent food and the presence of my particular friend Sophie from Vancouver, who was single-handedly trying to re-energise Boston's retail sector.  Also I felt very intelligent giving a talk at MIT!

Best Artistic Experience

This one was also from Boston with the very rare opportunity to see all of Renoir's great dance paintings in one place at the Museum of Fine Arts. Dance in the Country and Dance in the City were brought over from the Musée d'Orsay to be shown alongside the Museum's own Dance at Bougival.  All three paintings were produced by Renoir in a frenzy of activity over three weeks in 1883 but they don't look rushed, just full of movement.


Best Exhibition

Warner Bros Harry Potter Experience was utterly brilliant even for someone whose interest in the series starts and finishes with Emma Watson.

Best Olympics Experience

Wiggo on the Portsmouth Road!

I've always enjoyed the Olympics although the closest I had got to them until now was competing in the Olympic trials for archery back in 1980. To have the games come to London and discover all the cycling events were coming through my village was doubly exciting, therefore. I remember I was having tea in Claridges with the Egyptian investment minister (as you do) when everyone started cheering and that's when I discovered that we had beaten the French (again).

Although I enjoyed my two visits to the Olympic stadium  to watch the athletics (I went to the rowing and the fencing as well) nothing really beat the sight of Bradley Wiggins at full pelt carried by a positively peristaltic wave of cheering as he powered down the Portsmouth Road to take gold at my birthplace, Hampton Court.


Best Olympic Party

We're all quite relaxed by this point

The one I attended at Canada House with an increasingly "relaxed" silver medal winning ladies rowing eight. Good fun was had by all!

Best Martini

Surprisingly, it was the one I had in the bar of the Howard Johnson hotel in Bucharest.  Really cold and with just one olive.  It was by far the cheapest too!  Excellent!


Best Wine

Probably this bottle of Château Prieuré-Lichine 1995 which I had in the Tate Gallery restaurant.  These can be a bit hit and miss, I gather, but we had a good one.

Best New Beer Discovery

A Harpoon I had at lunch in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

This would have to be Harpoon I.P.A. from Boston although it was best on draught at the trendy Hotel Marlowe  in Cambridge, Mass.


Best Meal

 Prosciutto San Daniele con Burrata Pugliese e inslata mista

 Ravioile ripiene di Taleggio, bieta e noci alla maggiorana

Controfiletto di manzo arrosto

My overseas eating experiences were disappointing this year and although I had some good solid peasant food in Belgrade my best meal was in the ever reliable Latium in London accompanied by a former PA of mine.  It's the only place in London that cooks my beef the way I like it too!  The wine list is fantastic: their Casale Marchese Frascati is the sort of wine I used to drink in Rome when I worked there and bears as much relation to the Frascati you get in Tesco's as Kelly Brook does to Ann Widdecombe.


Worst meal

Eats shoots and leaves

I attended some Olympic-linked business events run by the government in Lancaster House in London. I went to the China day which had a rather weird fashion show attached to it but I was very disappointed with the food.   Frankly, I don't consider a glass tumbler containing a few bamboo sprouts and leaves as lunch! However, looking at some of the Chinese models they look like they eat exactly that all the time.



Best wildlife

Eats shoots and leaves

My view tends to be that the only good animal is a cooked animal but I was rather taken by the pandas at Edinburgh Zoo.  They are just so ridiculous!

Worst Jubilee nonsense

Not the BBC's coverage of the Jubilee sail pass (although that was so bad my father in law, who is involved with the Dunkirk Little Ships organisation, got engaged in a long correspondence with the Director General of the BBC).  No, it has to be this little display my wife put up in our front garden for the Jubilee period.  Gnomes !  Argh!

Best Discovery

The Legatus with V in Brasenose.  Splendid girl!

A tea chest full of old letters and photos from thirty years ago which reminded me of quite how many girlfriends I got through at university and how many I had completely forgotten about in the intervening three decades.


Worst discovery

 One of M's mugshots

M at my City leaving party in 2008

In trying to find her contact details finding that one of my friends M, a beautiful, classy and well-educated woman, who used to work with me in London, turned up on US mugshot sites having been arrested three times for trespassing, disorderly conduct and resisting a police officer.  I wish I could contact her and find out what's wrong.

Next time we'll look at the wargaming/military side of things.