Blather, Waffle and Poppycock!

[Matt J]

SteveJ

Yep student loans company system is pants I have trouble with it every year.

[mmcv]

SteveJ

Yep student loans company system is pants I have trouble with it every year.

I remember a couple of years back trying to find out how much I had left to pay and it was an absolute nightmare. You'd think that information should be easy to access. I think in the end j just found an old statement and used payslips to calculate that I still had a fair whack to pay...

[Last Hussar]

If ABBA had been inspired by the start of the ACW, not the end of the Napoleonic one.

"Centerville, it was confused, you start the war,
Centerville, I promise to fight for a year or four
Centerville, Beauregard couldn't pursue if he wanted to
Centerville, it really was a sort of draw."

I couldn't get Manassas to scan.

I'm already wearing my coat...

[lowlylowlycook]

I'm already wearing my coat...

Not really advised while it's being chewed...

[FierceKitty]

If ABBA had been inspired by the start of the ACW, not the end of the Napoleonic one.

"Centerville, it was confused, you start the war,
Centerville, I promise to fight for a year or four
Centerville, Beauregard couldn't pursue if he wanted to
Centerville, it really was a sort of draw."

I couldn't get Manassas to scan.

I'm already wearing my coat...

Find a way to fi it into a Simon and Garfunkel number. They NEVER let scansion get in their way.

[Last Hussar]

Tried to find hard copy of Blucher in UK.

Nope.

Sam's site – $40.00 USD – £34 GBP after exchange, BUT £27 GBP to UK.

Bought PDF ($20/£17)

Quoted £34 GBP to print professionally.

Guess what I found on 'Sally 4th' for £33 GBP?

Just imagine rest of screen is filled with bleep icon...

[Last Hussar]

Doctor Who tweet alongs are a lot of fun.

[fsn]

I've been ruminating about the past few weeks. I am much more aware of the natural world around me ... I think I just had more time to watch it. Yesterday I watched to magpies torment a cat on my back wall. Good sport they seemed to make of it too. I've also found that direct human contact isn't that important to me. I'm quite happy just watching people on a screen. At least you can always press the "end" button when they get really annoying.

At the start of 2020 I said it would be the year of Napoleonics. Well, that hasn't happened. Anne Hathaway in her Centurion (see "Not for Orcs" thread) convinced me that it was time to review my 1944 WWII Western Europe forces. Given that most of it is 5 years old or so, it was a legitimate comment. (Well said Anne.) I have learned more about the Guards Armoured and Panzer Lehr 130 Divisions and so have updated and upgraded these. Added JagPz IV and Sherman ARVs for example.

With that out the way ... well, it will be when Postie decides to come down my street again ... what next? Obviously back to the Napoleonics? No. OK, there's those English Flodden to complete. No.  Finish off those ancient Greeks? Nah. Finish off the Dark Age Arabs? Pshaw!

Anglo-Saxons.

Anglo Saxons? That lot that has been sat in your lead mountain for ages? Yup.

The bright side is that I think I've actually cracked irregular armies. My technique is to prime a unit - say 4 sticks of 10 figures each. Then spray each stick with a base colour. I use three different sprays - white, tan and brown. I then use two shades of a number of colours - say a pale blue and a dark blue. Since this is the "blue" unit, I make sure at least half the unit has some blue on them. I'll do dark blue, then pale blue, then mix whatever is left on my pallet to get a few colours in a third shade.  Then do the same with red and a purple-red, but only 25% of the figures. Ditto green, and pick up anything that looks odd with white or a golden brown. The differing undercoats give slightly different shades of the block colours. I can also pick out a unit by colour without it looking too obvious. Spears and belts are painted the same colour for all, to bring it all together. Woks for me anyway. I've also decided upon "fyrd" colours and "huscarl" colours. For example, I don't use a pure red for the fyrd, more a brown-red. Makes the different classes look a bit different.

I've also managed to get some games in. Had a few days (or possibly weeks, who knows?) on Battle of Britain and regrettably the bomber always gets through. Unless they're Whitleys in which case they seem to fall out the sky at the sight of a black cross. Cleared the blue skies away now, and am looking to the Medieval Skirmish for my next set of games.

 

[mmcv]

As my office is now my kitchen and I've a nice tree out the back the birds like to visit I ended up buying a few different bird feeders to attract different birds. Today a magpie decided to try and claim all the food and chase off any other birds but some nippy wee tits were able to get in and out without him noticing. My wife reckons she saw a goldfinch this evening. Never had much interest before but it's nice to watch.

Loving working from home, so peaceful.

Well except when kids start knocking the door and running away... 

[FierceKitty]

Oh dear...One for sorrow....

[mmcv]

There was another one further up the garden. And maybe one or two more. Depends what version of the rhyme you subscribe to.

[Ithoriel]

One for sorrow,
Two for mirth
Three for a funeral,
Four for a birth
Five for heaven
Six for hell
Seven for the devil, his own sel'

[Last Hussar]

How many for a midnight visit from Jenny Hanley? (1970s Jenny Hanley - just found she is 22 years older than me, which is fine when you are in your 20s, but not when you are in your 50s)(I wasn't in my 20s when it was on)

[FierceKitty]

One for sorrow,
Two for mirth
Three for a funeral,
Four for a birth
Five for heaven
Six for hell
Seven for the devil, his own sel'

I've been told (it was in Sussex) that you can avert the ill-fortune foretold by a single magpie by gripping your collar with the opposite hand,and hanging on until you see a second.

[Techno]

No, No, No, No, NO......If you see a single magpie you have to wave at it and  say "Good morning/afternoon/evening (as appropriate) Mr Magpie...How are you today ?"

There are dozens around Techno Towers. Every time I fill up the peanut holder, for the wee birds I end up spilling a few of the nuts on the ground.
Soon as I go back indoors there are up to four magpies that come down and filch the lot.

They TRY getting the nuts out of the holder (with not a lot of success).....In that they're beaten by smaller birds, a woodpecker, a couple of jackdaws, and very occasionally, a jay.

Cheers - Phil

[FierceKitty]

For the apotropaic greeting, I was told it had to be "Good (morning...), Mr Magpie. Give my love to your wife and children." Which posits so many gender assumptions that I'd rather avoid it.

[Steve J]

I've never worried about the whole magpie numbers thing, but last week they caught two young sparrows and my wife was not impressed. A permanent fixture in our garden now and one is sitting on the fence as I type.

[fsn]

Definitive.

No. That's it. Discussion closed.

Jenny Hanley said ... so it must be true.


Don't think these are Magpie era photos, but I think the point in made. 

[mmcv]

I always heard one for sorrow, two for joy, three for a girl and four for a boy...

Like Steve they've become a fairly permanent fixture in the garden now, sitting on the fence, attempting to get food out of the feeders, or else hopping about in the jungle (garden) looking for worms.

I'm not superstitious and confess after seeing a particularly plump one had a Google to see what they tasted like.

Not very nice apparently.

Last year we were woken in the early hours of the morning by the sounds of two magpies pecking to death a third outside. Vicious. They're practically human...

[Orcs]

I've never worried about the whole magpie numbers thing, but last week they caught two young sparrows and my wife was not impressed. A permanent fixture in our garden now and one is sitting on the fence as I type.

There is a method you can use to solve this problem.Provided they sit still long enough.