Much ado about not very much. And a movie

You can blame Steve for the title. I was inspired by/ripped it off from here: http://wargameswithtoysoldier1685-1985.blogspot.com/2022/12/all-quiet-on-gaming-front.html

The past few weeks have been rather quiet for me too on the wargaming front. Since the Battlefield Trust walks a month ago, I have 'only' taken part in one game. Mind you that was a corker, hosted by Jon, and enlivened by fellow participants Steve, Richard and Tony. Other than that, there's been no solo play, barely any reading and no painting.

The lack of wargaming activity isn't due to anything serious like too much work, or illness. It's not even the World Cup. I've only watched England v Wales and England v Senegal and 15 minutes of USA v the Netherlands when we got to a pub post match* last Saturday. I suppose that indicates a little bit of a reason for not doing much wargaming-related. Unusually for me I had 4 'social engagements' in a month., counting going to football and the accompanying socialising before and after. Which is actually a big part of the match-going experience for me. I saw and chatted to a lot of people I've known to varying degrees over many years and made a new acquaintance.

* i.e. Grimsby's defeat at Wimbledon. 

One of the social engagements was a cinema trip with Lincolnshire Tom and Mrs LT to the cinema (the Margravina being indisposed). The trip was to see the low-budget film on the right, Three Day Millionaire. The reason for going was 'duty', but the experience was much, much more enjoyable. The term 'Three Day Millionaire' was coined back in the hay-day of the fishing industry when the deep-sea fishermen of Grimsby and Hull** had a brief three days between trips in which to blow their wages. The film is set in the current day however, and therein lies the theme. Shot entirely on location (and using local resources as far as possible, whilst having recognised actors from outside***) you can see why I felt the need to go. It's sympathetic to the town, whilst not showing the 'prettiest' side of it, in a way the last big screen film with Grimsby in the title definitely wasn't. Incidentally THAT one was filmed in Essex! At one point I must have got some food stuck in my throat because I had a lump in it. It's odd because at that moment in the film wasn't particularly poignant, it was just the connections my brain was making to family members no longer with us. (Grandads and uncles were fishermen, dad worked in the dockside industry). People and places.

** the novel it was based on was set in Hull, but the director and main driving force behind it (the son of an exile) insisted on changing it to Grimsby.

*** Colm Meaney was quite a coup, along with a recent Robin Hood and someone off a soap.

Well this evening I reached the bottom of the trough. I experience this periodically when I have a spell of inactivity. I know I've reached the bottom when I get angry with myself. The anger is a sign that energy is beginning to creep back in.

So what comes next? Well I have the week off after Christmas Day, so there's plenty of time for some fun. One option is to use the French and British armies I painted for Fontenoy/Hastenbeck/Minden. Another is to resurrect the idea of the ECW mini-campaign I first floated 18 months ago. A third is to set the table up and use it for games in successive periods like I did before with the ECW/AWI and CW, except maybe adding the WAS/SYW as a fourth period. Whichever option, I have a couple of weeks to plan and get organised.

A bientôt!