Leeds Armouries

I rose to a beautiful day today and if I did not do something the missus had plans for the garden, I helped out yesterday and did not fancy it again, despite the promise of doing so. So off we went with the roof down to Leeds and the Royal Armouries. About half an hour from Leeds we started to freeze, the weather in Yorkshire was not as fine as Lancashire, so we pulled in and put the roof up, I have a dread of being caught in a rain shower with the roof down. Anyway we arrived and we, or rather I, stood out like a sore thumb, shorts, summer top and white socks while everyone else had wind cheaters, jeans, jumpers and scarves. I never learn, what would it have taken to throw a jacket in the boot.

Anyway the area around the Armouries has seen a shed full of redevelopment over the years however it still gives an impression of being empty, despite the new flats and attempts at shops, the scaffolding that was there a year ago doesn't help.

My main reason for going today was to see the Agincourt diorama and the Siborne Waterloo model and of course to get out of the garden.

Hall of Steel.

Nice statue of a jousting knight.

Charge of the British heavy cavalry at Waterloo, Siborne.

Attack on La Haye Sainte.

As a wargamer I was intrigued by this book the subject of which I knew nothing about. Captain William Siborne took leave from the army to research his project and the thousands of figures were put together piece by piece as they had separate arms and legs to make them unique. Siborne was promised that the government would pay and of course they reneged as governments do. He also, according to Hofschroer, upset Wellington by showing the Prussians on the battlefield as it reached its climax and was told to remove them. Siborne's research into the battle was epic in scale but may have given a different impression than that Wellington had fostered. The presence of the Prussians was diplomatically scaled down for the final model.

Battle of Pavia.

 The Perry's battle of Agincourt is fantastic, a tour de force, I could sit for hours with a bottle of wine and stare at it. I particularly like the English deployment, none of those implausible multiple herces sticking out from the lines but a very commonsense take on their array. There are a couple of points I am unsure of but it would be churlish of me to moan about such a wonderful exhibit. How could you possibly fight such a battle with skirmish rules and forty figures after seeing this.

And just to round off my exciting day I wandered into the museum shop and saw this!

Thanks to modern technology a couple of texts reached their targets and Mum bought Dad a Hanomag and M3 for her sons to give as Fathers Day gifts. Result! Thanks boys.

Salute 2016

Right, I am off to the Smoke for a long weekend tomorrow which will include Salute, the largest wargaming show in the UK, which I last attended 25 or so years ago which coincidentally was probably the last time I was on a train other than the Tube recently. I am letting the train take the strain tomorrow as I have had enough of the road journey to the far south, is this wise, not sure, we will find out, certainly cheaper for one of a mature age like me.

I will be staying at my sons so I plan to visit the British Museum on Friday then meet up for what would have been a few pints but now will be more likely to be 0% alcohol, although as I have not had a drink in nearly two weeks I might be tempted with a couple. Especially during dinner as we have booked Veeraswamy, possibly the oldest Indian restaurant in the UK, which my son and wife have already enjoyed. Really looking forward to that.

I don't have a huge shopping list for Salute and will just see if anything takes my fancy, I do hope to get some terrain, I also hope to meet up with some friends and have a word with the Helion crowd who will be sharing the Bicorne Miniatures stand, possibly even buy a book.

 No 'View' this Sunday as I don't get back until Sunday evening, which is a shame as I had plenty to rant about with Mr. Cameron's leaflet and the dire warnings from the IMF. I am home alone for at least two weeks so no break from the PO but plenty of time for getting through that list of stuff the missus no doubt wants me to do, although what's left is beyond me. Main thing though is to get everything ready for my upcoming Bolt Action game and to actually read the rule book!

Date Night

I knew my birthday was this week but had not registered which day, so as I came too on Monday morning I realised I was not going to make the Sudan game at the club as the wife had booked us into a 'French' restaurant for my birthday feast, the same one we had enjoyed a week or so previously pre Storm Desmond.

In the words of the insufferable Craig Revel-Horwood(?) the dancing judge, it was a 'disaaastor darling'. The place was fairly empty being a Tuesday night except for a huge office party of 17 or so, I immediately thought the kitchen would be overwhelmed. We were pointed to a table in an alcove and I had to squeeze myself in and then move the table to get some leg room, the wine arrived and was simply poured out, not a great start.

The scallop popcorn appetiser was very nice, my wife's soup when it came was lukewarm, you never serve soup lukewarm to a Scot, my own rabbit and chicken confit was the size of a main meal and contained stuff which simply looked and tasted horrible, which was a shame as the confit was nice. As the menu was uninspiring, very unlike the week before we both went for the confit of duck, that being the only thing we fancied. Neither of us liked it, my wife especially, I at least managed the duck. I also made a mistake and got their parmesan and truffle chips, someone had merely thrown a large handful of parmesan on top of the bowl and completely ruined the chips. My wife of course was under orders not to annoy me as it was my birthday, but the look said it all.

I then mentioned that I thought they said they would do something special at the table as it was my birthday, I looked around and lo and behold the two half deflated balloons tied to my chair and the 27 silver stars which were scattered around getting in to everything was all for my benefit as a quick scan showed no other table had these tasteful decorations. So, no more Quite Simply French for us, and as the chimes hit midnight and I was 63 and a few minutes the truce was up, "why on earth did you pick those chips ...................!