As you will have gathered by now, I was due to attend a Waterloo game this weekend with friends in the lovely Cotswolds village (town?) of Northleach, with myself taking on the role of his Grace the Duke of Wellington. However after attending a weekend holy communion for my wife's God daughter, I started feeling rather iffy yesterday and by the evening I had all the symptoms of Covid, but tested negative. Feeling even worse today another test came up full blown positive. The good Lord giveth and all that...
So as a result I will be missing the game which I was really looking forward to, unless by some miracle I suddenly feel better and test negative a few days in a row. The chance of that are very, very slim. Bugger!
At least I have been able to keep myself sort of occupied, by flitting between reading the superb 'Red Storm Rising', watching Amzon or Netflix and surfing the internet. Thank God for these choices as given that the weather has been superb today, I would have been bouncing off the walls otherwise.
In anticipation of the game and to improve my general knowledge, I have been watching the battlefield walks 'The Waterloo Collection' on Amazon, which comes highly recommended. This is the second time I have watched it and given my prep for the game, things made a lot more sense. I also ordered 'Waterloo, Four Days That Changed Europe's Destiny' by Tim Clayton, as it was a steal at about £3.50 and looks to be good. I am eagerly awaiting it given my current situation.
I have been pondering which forces to go for, or more honestly add to, my planned Cold War forces, given that the main protaganists will be Great Britain vs the Soviet Union, both sides fielding battlegroups in one form or another. The Dutch look interesting given my family have a direct link back to circa 1580 when they came over to drain the Fens. I still have family living in the same village that they settled in way back when, which is pretty impressive. Plenty more planning to be done, once the old noggin is less fuzzy and painful.
I have also been thinking about a rather drastic thinning my lead mountain. In reality so much of the stuff i bought over the years is unlikely to ever see the light of day, given my role as a parent/carer and my ever degenerating shaky left arm, which makes painting something of a challenge. Since playing with my Commission Figures Red and Blue forces, which I am very fond off, I have thought why not use them for most of my Black Powder games, as they work for me and are very easy to paint given my current predicament. I need to have a long and hard think about this, but shifting some more stuff will be rather cathartic and allow me time to try and focus on finishing projects and ultimately get more games in. Watch this space.
I'm hoping I don't feel too bad for too long but currently am feeling like I have a really, really bad case of the flu. Fingers crossed. I am now semi isolating in the house given that our son is CEV and will not venture out until I feel fine and have tested negative two times in a row. hopefully that will be sometime next week. So if you don't hear from me again, maybe the it's not 'Au Revoir', but 'Goodbye!' Watch the following superb sketch to get my drift😁:
Too bad, Steve. Hope COVID does not lay you low for too long. I suggest delaying action on thinning the collection until the illness has passed and your head is clear.
ReplyDeleteGet well!
Thanks Jon. It seems to hit oyu hard for a few days and then the unknown is how long before you're back to normal. I'm hoping that by being relatively fit, it should not be too long. I won't thin my lead mountain just yet as I haven't the energy to collate everything I've got!
DeleteGet well soon, such bad timing to succumb just before the Waterloo game.
ReplyDeleteThanks Peter and the timing could not have been worse. Maybe the other players are quietly counting their lucky stars that I will not be at the ball;).
DeleteGet well soon, hope the symptoms dampen down quickly. It is a real shame about your Waterloo game.
ReplyDeleteThanks Norm. A very rough night with little sleep and I hope by sitting outside to get plenty of fresh air will help speed up the recovery. Shame about the game as it's always good catching up with the chaps:(.
DeleteOf all the times to catch Covid, Steve, how bloody irritating for you! I can imagine exactly that sort of thing happening to me ....probably, we will FINALLY manage to arrange our wargaming week away, and the day before we are due to set off, I will catch the bloody thing....that is the kind of luck I normally have!
ReplyDeleteIt is rather irritating Keith! Touch wood the rest of the family is clear and I hope it remains so. It's always Sod's Law that when you arrange something, the God's will do their best to put a spanner in the works.
DeleteI’m sorry to hear you’re “under the weather” with the dreaded Covid 19 Steve. I hope you are soon on the road to recovery and that the rest of your family manages to avoid it.
ReplyDeleteSadly a significant portion of society have little or no recollection of the recent GLOBAL PANDEMIC and are just wandering around without a care - and, more specifically, without a mask. Fair enough, I don’t always wear a mask but I’m hopefully sufficiently savvy that when places are busy/crowded there is likely a greater “risk” and that a face-mask if probably appropriate.
Thinning your lead mountain? That sounds far too radical to me. Your 10mm AVBCW collection is impressive - it’s a shame I’ve just picked up a small (in more ways than one) AVBCW collection in 6mm at the Joy of Six show.
Take care, get better and hopefully enjoy a nice day in the garden.
Cheers,
Geoff
Thanks Geoff. We still wear masks when goign shopping or anywhere where it's a bit crowded. Watching Wimbledon I can't but help thing that an awful lot of people are going to catch Covid whilst there:(. Touch wood the rest of the family are OK at present.
DeletePre-pandemic I had planned on thinning my collection to forces and periods I know I will play. As stated given the current travails with my arm, this may be more radical than initially envisaged.
Doors and windows are wide open to try and ventilate the house to minimise the risk to the rest of the family. It's also nice to get a good dose of fresh air to help ease my headache and aching sinuses!
Hi Steve....Well that's bad news all round. Getting the C19 is bad enough but missing the game is really bad. I really hope you recover very quickly with no ill effects. Best Wishes.
ReplyDeleteThanks Tony. Well two and a bit days of this and I am feeling really, really bad. Hopefully by tomorrow things might begin to ease a bit, if I can break the fever...
DeleteGet well soon and enjoy the reading time - I'm sure you will enjoy the Tim Clayton Waterloo book - I enjoyed it so much I also bought a hardback copy and took my paperback with me on my last walk around the battlefields - sad or what?
ReplyDeleteTried a few more suggestions on fixing my Google issue but still can't comment on Grymauch's blog. probably just as well as some of the outrageous dice throws involving French cavalry in his latest post have to call into question his impartiality!
Thanks Rob and a good idea re: having two copies of the book. I look forward to reading it soon.
DeleteBlogger is a strove cove for sure and the die rolls where extreme to say the least, but then I'm rooting for the Prussians, so was happy to see that. Still all finely balanced though.
Really sorry to hear about your predicament. Get well quickly. In the meantime take it easy and look after yourself.
ReplyDeleteThanks Richard. This has hit me really hard and now into day 5. Getting there slowly, but I dread to think what it would have been like without the vaccinations.
DeleteAll the best people have their wargaming plans disrupted by Kung Flu. Get well soon!
ReplyDeleteThanks Jeffers. I finally feel I'm on the mend, albeit slowly, so fingers crossed it carries on this way. Oh and now I have Carl Douglas' song as an ear worm!!!
DeleteOh dear Steve just catching up on posts, hope by now you are starting to feel better 👍
ReplyDeleteI'm on the road to recovery, or it feels like it, but still have aches in my back and can't quite get warm enough at present. So even yesterday standing in the sun on a very warm/hot day, I was still shivering at times! Day 7 now and frankly getting a bit bored isolating in the house from the family and being stuck at home. At least I can wander about in the garden a bit.
DeleteI'm behind on posts catch up due to the Covid, which is a shame, but hope to make some progress over the next few days or so.
I'm very sorry to hear about the bout of Covid, Steve, and your missing the game. Incredibly frustrating. Hope you recover soon and good luck with rationalising the armies - not a job I envy you!
ReplyDeleteCheers,
David.
Thanks David. I'm pretty, much recovered, but just a few lingering after effects which may be down to Covid or the heat we are having. I'll now better by tomorrow when things are due to cool down to a nice low 20's here in Bristol.
DeleteThe rationalising I've been musing upon and will probably start on in earnest once Autumn arrives. But if we have some iffy weather, maybe even before that.
Glad to hear you think your bout of Covid is largely gone now. The heat is certainly pretty intolerable today, isn't it? Like you, I'm hoping we'll have a return to more sensible temperatures tomorrow. "Iffy weather" - = wonderfully cool and even wet weather! Sounds marvellous. I do hope we have some this summer! ;-) We certainly need the rain; it's completely parched round here (and in much of the country, I gather). It may well impact crop production this year so, if we like to eat (and who doesn't? ;-)) then we should be praying for a lot more rain.
DeleteCheers,
David.
You know the weather has been too hot when you are hoping for some rain and cool weather to allow the body to reset. The farmer's certainly need the rain as the crops will be very stressed at present. I imagine they have been given emergency extraction licenses to take water from the rivers to keep the crops alive.
DeleteI expect the rivers will probably be suffering from overextraction very soon! I know the ground water (the aquifers) has been overextracted for years and not recovered. It is an irony that a relatively wet country like ours is very likely to have water shortages as we have taken water for granted for so long and wasted (and continue to waste) a lot! I confess I've always preferred cool summers and know a fair number of people who agree... We are thinking of moving back north for the climate as much as anything; I'm originally from Yorkshire so it will be heading home from my Midlands exile. ;-)
DeleteCheers,
David.
Bummer that you had to miss an apparently highly anticipated game. Getting sick while you have plans always feels like some sort of wicked punishment. 😀
ReplyDeleteI’ve down sizer my lead mountain a couple of times. It’s a liberating experience.
Thanks Stew. I aim to do a post on downsizing etc soon'ish, as the enforced rest has given me plenty of time to think about my wargaming and what I really like etc. Watch this space...
Delete