Hospital Blues

I had a stellar game of Runebound lined up for 7 o'clock this morning. I woke up, actually I hardly slept a wink due to lack of alchohol and a midnight addiction to In Our Time, and went to thumb scan in at the school. Riding back in glee for an impending game, upon arrival my wife said she was sick and had to go to hospital. Argh!

All is well. It's flu, and Grace who I picked up at 3:30 and took her to see her mum, then got sick too, with a temperature and is staying the night there too.

I got home and attempted to make the best of this dreadful day.

Some beer, Jimi Hendrix and PaulWeller can raise my spirits.

I'm also almost sitting on 12 beautifully painted kobolds.

I'm so in love with Bron/Broen, I'm not sure what to do.

Nuclear Throne dominates my PC game time. How if I could reach there!

My ereader broke. I am broken. I was venturing into ancient Fafhred and Gray Mouser tales lost from memory. I had just reached the edge of my mind. Fafhred taken down to some undersea kingdom, where some horrible giant octopus lifted some spell which sent the water crashing in as Fafherd escapes to join the Gray Mouser on the sloop, all others drowned. I must secure a replacement, so I can continue on the astral adventures of these heroes.

World News? No.

 

Bron/Broen

This show is really, really good. I want to pack my bags and move to Denmark. OMG!

I've watched a lot of good shows this past couple of years. Some of the best shows ever made, I am sure. Yet, I am bewitched by this one. I'm holding off from watching the last series. It must be relished.

I found a website of all these Nordic novelties, which I intend to delve into.

The world appears to roll itself in pain. News is awful.

We've been gaming in Chumphon for 2 years now, and it's been a lot of fun and the focal point of my week.

Otherwise, life is as being a father and a husband and a good guy. Tougher than it sounds. I find solace in beer.

My job is fine. I enjoy the company of these brave, young teenagers.

Globally, it is appalling. Everything is corrupt. The situation unmanageable. One can only attempt to enjoy our time that we have. It would seem that we all now believe the lie. And we are doomed because of it.

Whatever....

Return

It's been a long time since I posted on my blog, but I have been thinking about it of late. These days I generally use Facebook, but it does have its limitations.

Back to school tomorrow, and it's a daunting prospect. In truth though, too much time on my hands has me reading all sorts of unhealthy news items which start to play havoc with my brain. So, I feel it would be a good thing to get back among the living. The school timetable is pretty hardcore however, and with the ridiculous 50 kid class sizes, I come home bloody knackered.

The hols have been great and I spent very relaxing days watching TV and eating. I got through all of Black Sails and all of The Wire. The latter being particularly fantastic. Someone said if you go through life not having seen the Wire it's a sad thing.

Managed to play games every week. Last week played Eldricht Horror at Harry's and Ascension Dreamscape and Imperial Assault skirmish at mine. Jon and Colin play fairly often. Arun plays now and again. Sadly, Brian moved away. He was a reliable player and enjoyed the company.

I have no camera and not really any intention to buy one, so there won't be many photos from home at the moment.

Grace and Oi are fine. We had a little break at Khao Lak, which had a beautiful beach and restaurant. We got to a couple of national parks, one was great, the other sad.

Oi works all the time, but it appears to be what she wants to do, so best let her get on with it.

The world? What a shit storm. Barely worth talking about.

PC games? I was enjoying Star Wars Battlefront until I suddenly stopped playing. I tried Fallout 4 on maximum difficulty which is great but it became like work. At the moment, I enjoy the quick 5 minute twin-stick shooters. Nuclear Throne takes first prize.

Books? Well I am reading albeit very slowly. Right now a return visit to Swords Against Death. I am still in total awe at these stories nearly 40 years after first reading them.

Summer of the Games

With all my friends away, I have been gaming a lot, physical and PC based.

LOTR Card Game has been great, though I am desperately trying to get passed the third Adventure pack in the first series, "A Journey to Rhosgobel". I thought it was going to be a breeze. How wrong I was. However, it has forced me to examine my player deck very carefully to try to optimize my chance of success. Soon, I hope to get passed it and continue through the campaign.

I have also been able to spend time organising my other games. Battlelore is all painted, and Harry and I had a great day of gaming before he left. Zombicide base set is all painted. X-Wing I have been organising it and laminating cards ready for the next season. The new faction, Scum and Villainy, is ready to go. Imperial Assault remains to be examined and painted, though one stormtrooper and one rebel fighter are nearly complete.

On the PC I have been playing World of Tanks and, newly acquired, GTA 5. I was hoping to leave PC games behind, but it hasn't happened. I do now though, however, only play a very limited range of games, as I find many of them just don't do much for me. Gracie and I though have had a hoot on Skyrim and we have been progressing a character. I also upgraded my RAM from 4 Gig to 8 Gig and what a huge difference that makes. I am also about to upgrade my graphics card to a NVidia Ge Force GTX 960 which should set me up for a couple of years and allow me to play the approaching Witcher 3.

Friday

Here we are. Home, slightly inebriated and very relaxed. We all got trapped into working an extra 2 weeks but its not so bad. Everyone one is tired and wanting to sleep so the pressure to teach is not there. I do a bit in the morning and take it easy in the afternoon class.

Saturday Night, Getting On.

All the crew are down the pub, but I chose to stay in with Oi and Grace, Even though, I just got trashed in my den, it is good to be close and we cohabit quite well.

I got some wine. It serves well.

Summer Holidays

Well, it's kind of here. Yesterday was the last day of term, though I still have exams to check in on, and mark, and we (Harry, Kate and myself) have all been roped into doing another 2 weeks of a private course, for no extra pay. I will try to resist.

I celebrated by purchasing some choice ales from the fish-bowl booze shop in the town. Bloody lovely they were too, and I got a special free glass. Later I went to Pete's restaurant and had a good time with the lads here; Jonny, Arun, Harry and Brian are all excellent company, and we have a real giggle.

I am slowly making my way through painting all the miniatures to Battlelore, a 2 player fantasy war game I am dying to have a crack at. Star Wars Imperial Assault is next in line for a paint job.

Gaming has been on Thursday nights and once a week. More than this and Oi starts making grumbling noises. So best to keep her happy. We have been working our way through the Descent campaign and it's nearly finished. Zombiecide is a popular favourite, though I want to get X-Wing back on the table but it is a bit more of a thinker, and set up can be quite long as there are a plethora of upgrade cards to consider when constructing one's fleet. Very tense game though. Love it.

Grace is fine and enjoying her young life. Her two rabbits are fun and I find myself growing quite fond of them. Never had a rabbit before.

Walking Dead and Vikings are back on the telly and I am sure will be great fun.

I try to play World of Tanks regularly too, as it is such an excellent game.

The garden is looking lovely and the house is an excellent place to relax, which is what I like to do most of the time.

Enough.

Post Christmas

I was really sad Christmas was over. I hadn't watched enough movies or listened to Silver Bells enough. I felt much sorrow as I took down the decorations.

The New Year brings the beckoning of the Summer Holidays. Just a few short weeks away. I was determined to keep the inertia going at school until the end of term. My first subject, "Plate Tectonics" bombed. No one is interested in more, or any science. I quickly changed to, "The Vikings" which has had moderate success. I played a few documentaries with warriors attacking monks etc. and it seemed to catch on. My assistant said, "Vikings are cool." Next week, The American West.

Games dominate every waking moment. I have got seriously into painting the miniatures following the success of Zombicide with the Drinking Crew. There is about 90 zombies that need funky clothes, and I can provide. Painting is very absorbing and relaxing and the results are a blast. Today, I was washing the virgin figures in soapy water before drying and applying primer in spray form. The base coat went on a dream. It was like touching silk....

Card duel game Blue Moon Legends has been surfacing late. I have laminated three more decks from the recommended starting two. We will squeeze a game in some where.

Thursday, a second gaming group is forming, in the guise of Karen ('Sisco) and Phil (some sort of Kiwi sailing vet). The game is Carcassonne, for a more discerning, mature player of casual games. I love Carcassonne. It's possibly the sweetest game in the world, where ones aim is to complete a monastery in a field. And with expansion names like, Hills and Sheep its for a select audience.

Christmas is Coming!

 Well. it's about three days to Christmas and I am feeling quite festive despite the lack of evidence. The living room looks very nice and I have bundles of Playmobile to bestow upon
Gracie. I did quite well. Last year we got her the doll's house and all the different rooms. To be honest she hasn't touched it.

She is really into My Little Pony, fairies, unicorns, princesses etc. So I got her a range of all that and two knights and a dragon to boot. So I am fairly certain these toys should verily catapult her into a fantasy world of fun. Whether that is healthy or not, I am unclear.



(How is it that when I click to watch a song on Utube by oh-so cool and indie band, Hefner, I am forced to sit through an agonizing Thai advert for Oil of Ulan in loud, shrilly voices, for fuck's sake?)

Initially, I was jubilant at the start of this present leisure break. I fear, I overindulged heavily, and felt like fucking shit for about 4 days; fat, dying, useless. Then last night I got out to a secret game night at Jonny's which was a blast. Today, I got up and did a bunch of exercise and seem to have my mojo back. It's great! I had a peaceful day of feeling good about myself. I know it's the 30 minute bike ride at the start of every day that can keep me feeling good.


So, there is a Christmas dinner at Pete's restaurant booked and I am sure a game night soon. Actually, I have a new Imperial ship, The Decimator which I am dying to try out. The Imperials normally get whacked (only once have they won, with Harry and Jonny in command), so I am keen to balance the game.


Merry Christmas, one and all.

Gaming!

 It's the lead-up to Christmas and I didn't need much encouragement. Today, I looked to Toys4Thai on the Net and ordered a bunch of Playmobil for Gracie. I got unicorns, princesses, knights, dragons, fairies and Santa and a snowman. It's a nice bundle of everything,

It's Saturday and I had a peaceful time at home. I do a lot of stretching right now pretty much throughout the day. and I continually drink water.

However, with every quaff of beer, my girth doth groweth.

I did 10 mins on the exercise bike today.

Coming into a pleasure storm of days off, what with English camps, exams and New Year coming up.

I am in much need of rest.

Today, I laminated a ton of LOTR cards and could for the first time build my fabulous Silvan Elf deck and play the first set of adventure packs, The Hunt for Gollum" for the first time. The decks are rad, and the process of learning a deck is a weird experience. "Hey! I know this card. It does this!"

Pete's last night and lasagne and chips with a bunch of imported ales; German light and dark and a couple of Aussie Cooper's Stout. Good night and great to see the friends I have here. They are an excellent lot, up for laughs and merry making. Jon, Pete, Brian, Harry, Arun are all top notch people abd we've had some right laughs already.

The game nights are surreal and awesome. Sometimes I wonder about myself, living in a tropical paradise, hosting cutting edge board games, as they are released, to a wonderful crowd of enthusiastic friends. It's quite a sight.

Descent. Dungeons and Dragons.

Star Wars X-Wing. Tense gaming.

Happy people enjoying fun company time friendship together,

Navigating through the asteroids was never his strong point.

'Sisco friends so cool. Hippy happy hap wipe days of leisure with the dreamy soperific Carcassonne.

The Crew.

Zombies

 Everything is zombies right now.

I just finished watching all of The Walking Dead. It took me about three weeks and was a lot of fun.

Added to this is my latest game, which was recommended by someone at Battlefield Bangkok, the game shop in Bangers. We played our first proper game last night. Well, almost. I overdid it on the wine and fell asleep about halfway through the game, but what we played of it was epic fun. I think I was so overjoyed at not being the evil overlord that I play every fortnight in Descent, that I got a bit carried away. A damn shame because it was great fun. I can see this coming back to the table very soon. Arun, Harry, Brian and Jon all come over for the game.

The gaming area is now on the balcony at the front of the house. I got a light put in so we can play into the night. It works well so far.

 I definitely need to cut back on the booze, as I really feel my age now and I want to live as long as I can. I have been using the exercise bike and I did a mean green juice two days ago. I mean to continue and get healthy. I have managed to get to the local market on my way to pick up Grace from school. It gives me just enough time to get there, buy the veggies and get to the school. It's the way to go.

School is winding down a bit now with exams approaching and we will get a much needed few days off. I need a break and to do nothing for a while.

I am onto The Two Towers now and the bit with Pippin and Merry with Treebeard. It's great stuff.

Grace and Oi are both fine and we exist happily in our little bubble in Sunnyview.

Let's hope it continues.

Hills and Sheep

A week before a fall off of work as we are due for some days off from school.

It's quite welcome, as I need a rest.

Life has been quite good though. Got a game of Star Wars X-Wing in last Saturday which was great, and D&D style Descent is still in full swing and all of us are getting better at it.

Carcassonne Hills and Sheep arrived yesterday. Apparently it's spiffy, so I'm looking forward to trying it out. In fact, a game is scheduled for this Friday with San Fran pal Karen and some lucky other people.

Grace is great but still very full-on.

Both Oi and I have been wonderfully engrossed in The Walking Dead TV show. I'm nearing the new episodes having ploughed through 4 seasons in about 2 weeks. But, what a trip! It's a great story.

I'll be looking for something new. Harry recommended WD.

I bit to busy to play LOTR after work. Too tired really, and would rather rest. When holidays come I shall get going with it.

Listening a lot to David Bowie.

Chicken Kebab

 

School in full swing and going well.

I bought an exercise bike so I don't have to go out on the bike and get bitten by a dog. I have been furiously cycling but the girth is yet to diminish. Sweat pours off in buckets however.

Talking of dogs, I rode into one the other morning on the way to school. Dumb fuck sitting in the road licking its arse when two other dogs started chasing it. It span around and went straight into me with a welp. I couldn't have given a shit, such is my conditioning here.

Gaming is steaming along and occupies a lot of my time. LOTR card game is just awesome and regular games with the fellas here are great, but life often gets in the way.

Grace is at a new school now - the catholic joint in town. Our daily patterns have had to change and I have to pick her up every day and Oi now works private class 3 nights a week. She does it because she wants to and enjoys it. Fair enough.

So we are pretty busy and trying to stay on top of things. Thanks the Lord I have my hobby room to chillax in.

I'm seriously into The Walking Dead right now thanks to Harry, and listening to a lot of Bowie - "The sun machine is coming down". Walking Dead is amazing. Best I have seen in ages. Actually the only ones I like is this and Vikings. Game of Thrones is okay but drags on a bit with endless conversations about nothing.

Friday nights everyone heads to Peter's restaurant. He's from Portsmouth, a teacher in my school, 3 kids and a restaurant. I don't know how he does it. Great food and beer though on a Friday. He does import beers so that's what I drink for my treat. Nice chicken kebab too.

Term 2

Here we are. Back at school.

It's good for me. To work. Stops me from killing myself with over indulgence.

Monday was hit and miss, but I came home and revised my lesson plans and had an easier time of it today, and that should set me up for the rest of the week.

Game nights have been on a back burner and has been playing on my mind. I have prepared my next quest in Lord of the Rings Card Game, Into the Pit. I took it into work today and had a quick play through. I got the gist and will go at it until I defeat it. These quests are a great challenge, and are no mean feat. This is all solo play, you understand. Anyway, it concerns traveling through the mines of Moria, if anyone can remember what that is. I did myself a great service by reading Fellowship of the Ring to enrich the experience. I am now onto The Two Towers, but it is the first book that I truly love, though Lesley and an Internet commentator spoke of the Hobbit war at the end of the story, of which I was completely unaware and was devoid in the movies.

I have about 7 games now, yet 3 remain unplayed. It is difficult to make the time, effort and gather people together. It's a slow process and I am in no rush, only to experience it.

It was good to meet up with my assistant, Port, who is a fine Thai fellow. I have injected a lot of humour into this weeks classes, with plenty of references to beautiful, handsome and clever students and making everyone suitably embarrassed. But I always pacify and reward, unless there is a cocky asshole who will subsequently take the full front of my verbal assault to the amusement of the class. No mercy to disruptive cocksuckers I'm afraid. Zero tolerance.

My first two subjects this term (self-chosen) were the Space Exploration Timeline and Water. Quite fun and fact driven. Perfect for exams.

Today, I got offered a 3 day job on an island! 1200 Baht an hour, 6 hours a day for 3 days. I can take Oi and Grace too working for the Thai government teaching local fishermen who operate a Homestay set up. Awesome, and even I can see this is a bit special. It's a tiny island in the Gulf of Thailand inhabited only by local folk. I said to Oi if she came along I would give her all the loot.

TV. Watching The Walking Dead and Transparent which are both great fun, but I deeply love Transparent. It's wicked.American Jewish Californian humour at its twisted best.

The End of the Holidays

It is the final week before going back to school and the start of the second term of the academic year in Thailand.

It has been a most pleasant time, and I have given enough time to idle pursuits.

Tonight, I'm listening to Lou Reed and a splash of Bowie from the early 80's.

Watch Human Universe with Brian Cox for awesome science.

Grace started at her new school today; Niramon. It's a catholic school and one of the best in town. It looks fine and she took full control of her first day. She's been great.

We had three days in Hua Hin 3 hours North of Chumpon. It's a tourist destination and suitably horrid. Expensive, people asking for money every five paces and rip offs galore. Still, we had an okay time and Grace got to ride on a horse a couple of times.  I think Thailand has lost the plot when it comes to tourism.

Lots of board gaming going on. Normally we will play twice a week. Either Star Wars or Descent, though Carcassonne has been creeping in lately. Several games lie waiting to be introduced; Dominant Species, Pathfinder and Blue Moon Legends. All of which are apparently fantastic. I take my time to learn the rules and watch multiple videos on Utube before I think about bringing it onto the table. Good fun.

It's been glorious and I have spent a fair time quite loaded this hols. I like to indulge and wander about the house, deciding if I should have a coffee, and then what movie to watch.

I finished The Fellowship of the Ring and have just started The Two Towers. I have never been so blown away by something like this before. I highly recommend a read. The movie missed all the best bits in the Bleak Lands, the Old Forest and Tom Bombadil.

Heigh Ho!

LOTR

I've been reading The Lord of the Rings. It is breath-taking. I kind of read it when I was fourteen, but I had no awareness of what I was reading. I could live in these pages. In fact I intend to, for quite some time. I loved it when they meet Tom Bombadil and then get caught by the barrow-wights. And the journey between Bree and Rivendell is spellbinding. I'm currently at the council of Elrond, but everything makes so much more sense when you know the whole story through the movies. The extra content is fascinating. A shame so much was left out of the movies.

I've spent days floating around the house, drinking coffee, tea, stepping outside to gaze at the jungle over the garden wall, reading, watching selected movies, cooking up huge spag bolls, and other leisurely pursuits. It's been grand.

Games

I haven't been active on the blog lately. I find I can put sporadic comments quite easily on FB for the most part. However, sometimes I feel reluctant to put something down as the wider audience may find offence, so I will save my more private thoughts for the blog. I am glad it still has a use. I will attempt to write more often.

Since I have been acquiring and successfully playing these board games I have been quite busy. All the cards involved need to be laminated and there are monster and hero figures to paint and rules to learn. It's been great fun and I am really pleased that Harry and Arun have taken to the games so well. Although the pool of potential players is relatively small, there is rarely a night when it is not a full house that someone is left out wanting to join.

Normally I will host twice a week. It's fairly demanding for me too, organizing and getting everything ready, but it  gets easier and easier as experience is gained.

The main games played are Descent and Star Wars X-Wing. Descent makes a great night of dungeon questing and a lot of grog is drunk before the end. Star Wars requires more thought. I made a huge star map board for it which looks a treat.

The other game which I play solo is The Lord of the Rings Card Game. It's a spell-binding game, but so hard!

Come September

It's been a long time since my last blog. There's no excuse, I just suppose life The building work, which did it's very best to destroy me is all but finished, though not yet, you'll be pleased to learn. Yes, the builders always seem to need to return for something, after days of absence. Fuck them. They had been ok, but nothing more. Gaming has been dominating my days. Not computer games, indeed they have diminuished almost to nothing, but table top board games. I am concentrating on only three; Descent, Star Wars X-Wing and Lord of the Rings Card game. All very different and intreguing experiences. Arun and Harry are big fans. We play Descent (Dungeons and Dragons (simplified) once a fortnight, and have just started X-Wing, but which we were all blown away after the first full scale game. Wow. What fun. I have 2 impressive fleets of Imperial and Rebel ships that go head to head in a grand dogfight. Mind-blowingly fun. The last game is LOTR card game. So far I have only played solo, and is very involved, difficult and strangely appealing. It's hard as fuck but I love it. The artwork is superb and the feel of the game is great. That's all for now.

Friday Comes Around

It's Friday again. It's been quite a fun week at school after a disastrous start. I made a lesson on The Hobbit which sunk like a leaden balloon. I had to change tact and switch to The Animal Kingdom which went down a storm. So strange how two plans made simultaneously had such opposite rections. But there you go. The building work is still continuing and although obviously great, it a bit of a pain in the butt. That being, the house is like a bomb site with stuff everywhere and no space to do anything. I keep having to go out to get away from the noise and closeness of people. Still, the end is in sight. Pink Floyd dominates my musical intake and wine has replaced beer. Cheap and not bad on the palette either. Lovely Lesley has been experiencing similar treats.