Alex's even longer post thread.

[Alex]

The night out turned out to be a fancy dress night.

Shame no one thought to tell me, I'd so have went as Ro-Man. As it was I went in jeans and a nice tee-shirt. If anyone had asked me where my costume was my plan was to take my shirt off and say I was here as Jon Moxley.

Although he wishes he had shoulders as broad as mine.

Ash continues his streak of illnesses, this time with Hand, Foot and Mouth Disease, which I have never encountered before. His lower mandible is covered is small blisters, but they haven't spread to the other places it says they can crop up yet. I have taken a couple of days off just to look after him.

[Alex]

So Ash got all democratic with his virus and now we all have a bit. Currently, I have a face full of blisters (including up my nose which is really great), that has spread up the back of my head, down my shoulders, back and stomach.

If it gets me time off work then fine. Otherwise... well not so fine.

We finally got to take Ash out for his first trick or treating. Still stocked about that. We were going to dress him up as Miguel from Coco, but he did not want the face paint on. Luckily we had planned ahead there and had a skeleton costume to dress him up in.

[Alex]

Since the carol singers and what not I ordered back in May still have not arrived, I figured I should come up with an alternative plan for making an xmas diorama for Kristi this year. I quickly ordered a Dwarf santa with an axe, a Mr Claus handing out hot drinks and sweets and a Krampus figure that arrived this morning. It isn't as elaborate as my original plan, but it will have to do I guess. I've chucked in a small tree. I've been filing the base off the Krampus to fit into the street scene I'd prepared and my desk has so much white powder piled on it, it looks like it belongs to Tony Montoya.

Watching an old TV show that has been redone called Starhunter. Hadn't seen it before it had its update so I have no idea if this is a good thing or not.

[Alex]

I gave up on Starhunter about halfway through the season. I was having problems telling the difference between the characters with French accents. For some reason I found that irritating enough that it put me off watching anymore and I switched it off mid-episode.

Remembrance Sunday this week. I had volunteered for it, but having spent the past week sick I was unable to join in. We did go watch the parade through town, tolerated the speech and so forth. Ash wasn't enjoying it though. It might have been the crowds, or the noise of the band, but whatever it was, something was upsetting him so we left a couple of minutes early and went to a nearby cafe for breakfast/lunch.

He'd get a lot more upset after we got home and decided to cut his hair.

Watched a bit of the AEW PPV last night. I'll catch the rest of it tonight. Darby Allen vs MJF was interesting, although perhaps overly choreographed. It seemed like a better opening match than I've seen on WWE the last few times I bothered to watch that (paid for both nights of Wrestlemania, watched most of the first night, none of the second. Not tuned in since). From what I've seen people seem to be rating the rest of it quite highly.

My nights seem to be split between raiding in WoW (2 nights a week), and playing D&D (3 nights a week). In the Friday night game that I am running the party are currently on a side quest to hunt down a swamp monster that has been terrorising local traders and even attacked a settlement. They are somewhat annoyed that a convoy of Hobbits is accompanying them (the leader wants to have the creatures head stuffed and mounted as a tourist attraction). In the Saturday night game I am playing a somewhat selfish (read evil) rogue. While I am not backstabbing the party, I have been putting other party members in potentially dangerous positions, keeping any items of loot I discover that I consider to be of more use to me than other people. We are in the middle of a dungeon complex and had just got our way past a trap when one of the party members decided to set the trap off, just to see what it did. We are now stuck in a deep pool will a horde of demonic leeches. My plan is to cut the guy who set the trap off and then escape while the leeches feed on him. For the final game, I am playing a wizard who was brought up in a Magocracy. He is rather naive about the world outside and doesn't quite understand that the lives o non-wizards have value. Possibly he might learn that on his adventures, but we shall see.

[Alex]

Writing a session up for the next D&D game. The party are travelling through a dense swamp and are being attacked by the natives (a tribe of Lizardmen). They are going to be worn down in a series of ambushes and traps. For the traps, I am taking a lot of inspiration from things like Southern Comfort and all those cannibal movies I watched back in the late '70s/ early '80's.

Just goes to show all that time wasn't wasted after all. 

[Trevor]

. I've been filing the base off the Krampus to fit into the street scene I'd prepared and my desk has so much white powder piled on it, it looks like it belongs to Tony Montoya.

[Alex]

The figures I had originally ordered back in May turned up finally last week. This morning I got an apology from the company, which I am fine with. If they hadn't responded, I doubt I'd have ordered from them again.

Anyway, I have made a start on next years diorama, which will be the one I had planned on giving her this year. It will be a good bit bigger than my two previous efforts.

This was the first one, just a hamster in a Santa outfit and a mouse elf with anything else i could find that looked vaguely like it might work.

 

Followed by Krampus and Santa arguing over the fate of two children and Mrs Claus trying to calm things down with cookies and hot chocolate.

Scrooge meets the Ghost of Xmas Future (using a model of a Plague Doctor dressed as Santa that I liked when I saw it). Giving it a Dickensian theme.

 

The second one is Scrooge and Tiny Tim, the morning after his night with the ghosts. This is the one with the most to be added to it, some of which I am waiting for and other bits I'll have to look out for, I had some leftover figures so I've  done a street scene with a vendor selling roast chestnuts (wonder if they are any good, never tried them?). It isn't quite finished. Will need another coat of paint and then a varnish to protect them.



Now if I could just find a 28mm model of a goose or turkey, ready to be cooked...

[Alex]

So tonight in D&D the party face, not the BBEG (Big Bad End Guy), but certainly a BBG. Or in this case a crocodile. They have spent the past few sessions trudging through a swamp trying to hunt down a legendary beast. They have faced traps inspired by movies like Southern Comfort and the Cannibal films of the '70s and '80s, not to mention ambushes from poison using Lizardmen that has drained their strength. So far their attacks have been using hit and run tactics, leaving them worn down and frustrated, but tonight they have the chance to get their hands on a foe they can battle hand to hand (or weapon to teeth I guess?). The croc (who I have named Gustave after the man-eating crocodile of African lore) isn't actually as tough a fight as the group are expecting. What is going to make life a bit harder for them is that their guide worships the croc as the God of the River and during the fight will turn on them (he is roughly speaking as powerful as any single party member). The reason they've had such a hard time with the Lizardmen is that he asked them to attack the group (and not because they looted a holy shrine like the party thinks). He does however know these swamps very well and can use the terrain to his advantage (not to mention where he will choose to attack them from with his bow, he will be surrounded by man-eating plants for example).

If the party notices a cave on the map they can also find a fair-sized treasure horde from Gustave's victims. My money is on them missing it.

[Alex]

It is a rather windy and rainy day today. We'd popped into the cafe on camp for a team breakfast and it was a little bit blowy. By the time we'd finished and were heading back, it was a full-blown storm that caused us to struggle to make headway walking into the wind. We got soaked through too. Kristi sent me a video from the marina. One of the boats down there had been flipped onto its side, and that was without the sails up.

Helped a little with the shelter they'd set up for people without power or heating. They've set up a generator in the town hall. We gave them a loan of a DVD player to keep the kids amused. One of the local cafe's is providing soup for them today. Getting all sorts of random requests like someone looking for a oil heater to keep new born puppies warm. Fortunately our part of town wasn't affected.

So in last nights game of D&D, the party realised that the reason they kept on walking into traps in the swamp wasn't that their guide was useless. It was because he was actively leading them into them.

Of course, they only realised this when they were fighting a big bad, and he put two arrows through the chest of one of the party members, killing him. (hadn't meant that to happen, but sometimes the dice just work that way. Unfortunately, he was also the person who would have benefitted the most from the gear the guide was carrying, including his rather lethal bow but what are you gonna do?).

Still, it was gratifying that the party were taken completely by surprise with this heel turn. I could practically hear the jaws dropping over voice comms when he killed the party ranger. We were still talking about the game two or three hours after it ended (and only stopped because it was way after midnight and toddlers have no mercy when it comes to waking up early).

[Alex]

The storm has died off, but the clean up is going to go on for quite some time. In the middle of trying to coordinate the village response to it while it was at its height, Kristi was getting messaged, asking if she could go fix someone's fence.

Yeah, because while we are trying to sort out vital support for the community, we are going to go out in the high wind and driving rain to fix your bloody fence.

I did feel more for the people who were looking for an oil-filled heater to keep their newborn pups warm.

It was quite pleasant and quiet walking into work this morning. Had to step around the odd blown down fence. I didn't see any of the usual trampolines lying anywhere they shouldn't be. Normally every time it gets windy, anyone who hasn't secured theirs down properly discovers that as far as the wind is concerned goes, a trampoline is just a sail.

[Alex]

So Kristi was not impressed by me telling her I found her more inspiring than an '80s training montage from an action movie.

Seriously, what is wrong with women?

[Trevor]

So Kristi was not impressed by me telling her I found her more inspiring than an '80s training montage from an action movie.

Seriously, what is wrong with women?

She should be impressed: that's a huge compliment. 

[Alex]

That is my exact thoughts, Trevor. I have decided that any woman who doesn't appreciate that comment is defective. 

Good thing I am an engineer and am trained to fix things.

[Alex]

So I never knew Bungjeesus was a thing, but since I heard about it, I keep trying to think of who I could buy one for and they'd like it. I doubt Kristi's family would like it because they are religious, and I think it would be too religious for the other people I know.

Got home today after a quieter than expected journey. The concert was pretty wild. I can't help but think that the second band on the bill, blew the headliners away. Before we went into the gig I saw a massive guy standing outside wearing a tee-shirt that said "Pit Troll". He must have been around 7 feet tall and pretty damn broad too. I'd put him somewhere between 300 to 350 pounds and he decided to crowd surf. He was not easy to keep aloft and there were a few injuries (the girl who was beside me is still in hospital under observation for suspected concussion).

Back to the humdrum of work tomorrow, although it is a nice thought that at the end of next week I go on leave again.

There was a long, straight street leading to our hotel, and it was lined with plain white trucks that only had a small logo reading Panavision. Some other vans had logo's and advertising they provided on set catering. Looks like this is what they were filming.

https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/entertainment/batgirl-filming-gets-underway-glasgow-25597996

[Alex]

This is the 7-foot monster who was crowd surfing at the gig.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p079hhdn