Remembering the world wars

Really enjoyed going to the Old ASDA building in Ballyclare to visit the Remembering the wars exhibition on Saturday with family and frineds.

Lots of photographs were taken and I hope to have them up soon, but in the meantime.....

I had lowish expectations as I was not sure how well the exhibition would be set up. Sometimes these things can be really cheesey and a big let down.

However, we arrived round the back where the car park is to find two "GIs" on guard and a park full of military stuff. I was in heaven. There was a Territorial Army 'North Light Horse' A.P.C., lots of jeeps, a couple of military lorries and re-enactors dressed as GIs, Russians and Germans. With all the appropriate kit. Fantastic. My eldest daughter, who is 2, and a real girly girl, much to my own chagrin, utterly suprised me by dragging us as fast as she could to the APC and wanted to get into it. I was never so happy to oblige so in we popped and then had fun waving to the rest of the family from out of the top hatch. Would have loved to have had a go driving it.

Inside the ASDA was an even bigger suprise. The place was fantastic. The exhibition was mostly British army from WWI to WWII. As far as I am aware most of it is from one man's collection who's relatives were in both wars. He did a guided tour and was excellent. Loads of photos taken - I am still in shock at how much stuff this guy had and a lot of his friends had given up their time to help out.

What was most suprising was that Newtownabbey Council had been working to provide funding for around two months and 12 days before the event they pulled out. I find this utterly bizarre and very sad that such an important exhibition has such essential funding pulled at such a late stage.

It is a real credit to the organisers that they were determined to go ahead and that the community of Ballyclare pulled together. I have heard lots of local schools have attended during the week. It has been so popular that the exhibition has been extended a week.

Really, I have to encourage you if you can to go. The exhibition will be on until 21 February 2009 in the old ASDA building in Ballyclare. It was not only great for a military geek like me but perfect for a full family visit.

I hope to have all of the photograghs up as soon as possible.

Stephen Fry blocks idiot

And i am that idiot in question.

Never had anything like this happen before and i am not sure whether i should be offended or feel like i have hit the big time of celebrity stalking.

Well that is if youconsider one tweet to Stephen enough to constitue a serious security risk to Stephen also given that he is in the US at the moment filming and i am in sunny Northern Ireland. I like QI but i am not mad enough to buy a flight to the US just to track him down.

All i tweeted was

"@stephenfry This is daft but... hello Stephen from Northern Ireland. Wife & I addicted to QI. If you ever visit NI i can put kettle on. "

So he blocked me.

I think my mistake was not to offer him some twinings tea.

Back again for more

Well i have not been the most regular updater of a blog, but at least it hasn't lain idle since 2005 like some.

I have some photos to upload and a wee report on the first real Games Workshop 40k tournament in Northern Ireland, which happened at Q-Con in Belfast. It were right bloody brilliant.

More 40k goodness has been happening lately as well and i have recieved my package - the gamers edition - with much delight. Not to mention the up-coming Apocalypse Reload book. Huzzah.

I have not been roleplaying or reading that much recently but i hope to get back into it again - just too many commitments with 2 kids a job a wife and numerous other things sucking away my time. Not that i mind too much.

I have almost finished painting my first Baneblade so will put up piccies as soon as posible.

Life ploughs on

Unfortunately i have not been able to attend TTN for a while now and am missing out on a good roleplaying session of superhero type goodness. Ah well, i may get back at some stage.

I want to host a few table top games at TTN, though i am looking forward to a massive space marine vs genestealer slugfest in April. The whole set up looks really good and it won't be using entirely Warhammer 40K rules and should be a good laugh. I will give an update and hopefully post some pictures of what happened.

Some friends and myself are getting ready for a big 40K game over Easter and i currently drawing up a scenario for it. Again i will update the site when the event happens.

Finally a new post

Yes, finally a new post.

It has been a whilei know - in fact it has been too long and this is not really good enough.

I will try to re-jig the blog a bit and start updating more regularly again.

I have been out of the gaming scene fora while and with a new baby and work I have not been gaming as often as i would have hoped.

However, I am nothing if not determined. I want to add a few more categories and jazz up the site a bit.

I am a lazy Bastard

Yes i am. It is almost Halloween. And i have not posted here for some time.

I have been doing many things, including playing Guild Wars, messing with google products, creating other blogs for messing around and becoming a dad.

I just could not be arsed writing anything on this blog.

I will try to get things together again. Soon. Very Soon.

Oh i like the blogger beta. If only they would do something about the Goggle webspace - it is really quite shit at the moment and really needs to have template access.