Loose Ends

I like to have something going on in the background when I paint, when I was offshore I had a small television in the cabin and I got used to popping the earphones on and sitting comfortably for a couple of hours, I painted loads of stuff offshore. We had Sky TV and with the continuous repeats I found I was an expert on dinosaurs, sharks, submarines and suffering from combat fatigue.

Now that I have been banished from the dining room table I have the computer in front of me and can once again pop programmes and headphones on to while away the time. However it is getting harder for me to find anything, I am waiting none too patiently for the new series of The Veep, Silicone Valley, Hell on Wheels. Better Call Saul and Daredevil. I have put the white flag up with The Flash and Vikings, sorry, only so much trash I can swallow.

With BBC iPlayer seemingly almost completely void of anything which upsets the apple cart and pampering to the 'yoof' audience I am saddened that the only thing worth watching on there is coming to a halt tonight, the exceptional 'Line of Duty', at least I think it is, it usually concludes with episode 6. I have been driven to give Grimm another chance, it's on the fourth season, maybe I got something wrong the first time ...... no, it's still rubbish. For the same reason I am tempted to try Arrow but having seen the same block of wood appear as a guest in The Flash I don't think I will bother. So I am floundering about with the odd fix of Modern Family and Gotham. I was quite enamoured of Chicago PD, but tough sergeant Hank Voight has been noticeably reigned back from his usual underhand attacks on the bad guys to the detriment of the programme.

I am also having trouble with books, I always have a book to hand but having said that I am not reading as much as I did. My main problem with this is that I now have the wife's old iPad and I can continue to research WWII stuff while lying comfortably in bed rather than having to sit up at the computer, I also need a good hour or so to check all the wargame blogs/groups I like. So when I do pick up the book it ends up hitting me in the face as I doze off.

I am reading about the fall of the Ottoman Empire during WWI and it is a good read, I have got as far as 1915 and the British have suffered two disastrous defeats by the Old Man of Europe, Gallipoli and Kut, both due in a large part to under estimating the enemy. On the book pile I have Napoleon the Great, A Spy among Friends, The Sword and the Shield and a collection of Deadpool comics. I also have Stout Hearts a book for which I drew the maps, started and then put to the side, with a renewed interest in Normandy and WWII due to Bolt Action I am going to pick that up again.

On the map front WWI and the Somme seems to be the main thing at the moment, I was awash with Normandy projects last year but that has changed, I have completed at least three memoirs or regimental histories this year and have one more in the queue. I may have mentioned I am working on a very interesting book on South African armoured forces at the moment and have some of the text, the battles and action in East Africa in 1940/41 are incredible and are calling out for a wargame campaign. Also backed up is the Eastern Front, Somme, WWI Naval and the second volume of the WWI air attacks on Britain, a busy summer ahead.