The Finishing Touches

Well, as of yesterday i can finally declare the stormtrooper project finally finished !

It’s been a long road but i’m finally at the end (i will get a full build page up soon. There is quite a lot of content !).  Getting a costume cleared for trooping and getting it finished are two different things. You have to be happy with each and every part of the armour or it’ll annoy the hell out of you when you have it on for any length of time. That little pinch you feel at the back of the knee every now and again ? That’ll turn into a bloody mess by the end of a day’s troop. So not only must you get your armour suitably sized and screen accurate but you must also make sure it is comfortable.

Since obtaining clearance i’ve :

• Redone shoulder strapping
• Added poppers to belt
• Shortened and filled drop-boxes
• Restrapped and widened thighs
• Shimmed greaves
• Added detail to the lid
• Resprayed E11
• Obtained proper TKboots

Now i can actually say that it is the best i can make it. People who have not attempted this kind of build will never know just how much hard work actually goes into it. Not to mention time and money

My first troop in the new armour will be at the start of March for a Dave Prowse book signing in Exeter. Of course he needs a handful of imperials to keep the nerds at bay

Indoor Camping

Now i’ve always been a huge fan of camping. I think it gives the individual a healthy appreciation for modern amenities. It’s a great feeling (in my opinion) to have to ‘fend for yourself’ for a while. Call it character building.

However it’s not for everybody. BUT ! There is a happy medium.

I’m friends with a few chaps from one of the ‘survival’ forum i used to frequent. One of them mentioned about a possible winter mission up to Dartmoor. Yes please. The original plan was to head up to a camping site somewhere near Buckland. Throw up a large communal tent and light a fire. The usual stuff. Then we’d sit about in folding chairs, cook a little food, have a few drinks and chat the night away. However as the date drew nearer it became apparent this might not be viable. It rained solidly for the entire week prior. When the date came the wind picked up and the rain continued to drum down. We did however manage to rent out a camping barn in a nice area. What the hell is a camping barn ?

We were due to meet in a small village called Holne, just outside of Buckfastleigh. This is on the East side of Dartmoor. As it live in the South-West it mean’t a drive across Dartmoor. Excellent ! After stuffing some gear into a bag (rather hurriedly) i headed off at lunchtime. It was a good two-hours to get out of Cornwall and up onto the moors. The drive through the middle of the moors i’m very familiar with (Tavistock-Princetown-Two Bridges-Postbridge). However Holne is in an area i’ve been to before. This required a little map research before heading out. I’m pleased to say i didn’t need to use satnav to get to the destination. The drive across the moors is stunning. Once you turn off the main for Hexworthy the scenery is amazing. A long windy drive up a hill (that never seems to end) reveals a view from the top that i only wish i captured on film. You also drive across a rather old stone bridge that spans a reservoir. Then you get to Holne. It’s a sleepy village that comprises of a few small houses, farms, a pub, post office and tea rooms. It is also home to the ‘the stone barn’, our digs for the night.

The barn itself was surprisingly comfortable. Everything was hand-made from stone and wood. Yes it was a bit draughty and yes there were a few cobwebs but on the whole it was perfect. The upper-floor (attic)it empty so you just pitch your camp-bed on the floor. Downstairs there are a couple of picnic benches to sit on, wood-burner, fridge (meter), oven and sink. As well as a decent selection of pots and pans. The chaps were already there when i arrived so i quickly set-up my sleeping gear and pulled up a chair and got some tea on the go. One of the chaps bought a portable DVD player so we watched a rally interesting documentary on a group of people that took part in an experiment in the ’70′s. They had to live as an iron-age village for a YEAR. No big-brother stuff here. It was pretty hardcore.

We decided that the pub had to be sampled. So after cooking up a spot of food (washed down with a few glasses of cherry mead) we headed up to the pub. The weather was still foul and it was pitch black (no streetlights). The pub itself was a decent size and very welcoming. There was nobody else in there so we had the place to ourselves. The owner stoked the fire for us and poured out a few tankards of local ‘dartmoor ale’. It was gorgeous. I think we ended up sampling 6 or so pints. After a stumble back to the barn and a little more mead we turned in for the night. It was very windy outside but it was warm enough inside. I had a good nights sleep. In the morning we had a bit of a fry-up and tidied the place up before saying our goodbyes.

It was a good night and certainly something a bit different. It was also very cheap.

If you want to get out and see a bit more of the countryside but don’t want to stay in a tent then i would recommend these camping barns. You get all the modern amenities but still the feeling of ‘looking after yourself’. The area we stayed has to be seen to be believed. Perhaps you’ll join us next year ?

Move Along . . .

TK-8573 cleared for duty . . . It was hard work but we got there. I’ll put up a full build page soon

The Change

Luckily i’m not suffering from the menopause just yet. I do, however, refer to the change in the seasons. I always think that we get a very short Autumn around here. It tends to go from ‘nice and warm’ to ‘windy’ to ‘dark, cold and horrible’ in short order. I don’t particularly mind the darker seasons. On the contrary i like digging my thick winter jackets, warm socks and shemaghs from the wardrobe. The mornings however are enough to test any mans resolve. Dragging my tired old ass from my warm bed seems to get tougher every year i swear. Autumn/winter is also a tough time for us outdoor combat enthusiasts. The change in the seasons affects the vegetation on the site. We go from nice bushy, leaft plants and loads of ferns to lots of browns and fallen leaves. It’s very difficult to steal silently up on a flank when every step sounds like you have trodden on a pack of quavers. Also we need to change our camouflage. During the warmer months i wear predominatly greens (Italian vegetato). In the winter however it’s too green so i switch to MARPAT (Yank marine pattern) which is mainly browns. It’s obviously colder too. Remember how much it used to sting when somebody kicked the football against your thigh in school ? Yep. Now try having a small plastic BB fired at 300-odd feet-per-second smack you on the lip or fingernail. It bloody kills.

Winter does herald the arrival of certain fun times though. Firstly you have Halloween. A perfect occasion for dressing up and being a tool. Then Guy Fawkes night. Lots of beer, hot food and blowing stuff up (parliment anyone ?). Then of course it’s Christmas and new year. However it’s still a little too early to be talking about Chritmas in any depth.

In other news i have once again walked the long and arduous trail that is the ‘costume build’. Still staying with the Imperial soldiers of course. This time it’s a Stormtrooper build. Readers of my previous build (Biker Scout) will know that i decided against a Stormtrooper in the beginning. However i have changed my mind . . .

Expect a long and detailed page about that one soon. I’m hopefully sending my pictures in for clearance tonight. Wish me luck

Normal Service Will Resume Shortly

Keep calm and carry on.

A new costume build tutorial coming soon to a galaxy near you . . .

EMTF British Nationals

I’m still not sure why they are called ‘British’. We had Dutch, Danish and German clubs there ?

So last weekend was the EMTF British National competitions. Although i’m not really a big competitor any more i do still attend the British (and European when possible) competitions every year. It’s as much about the social aspect as competing. It’s a great way to get to know people from the other clubs and meet the chaps from the EMTF.

This time was my turn to drive. Unfortunately we got stuck in traffic twice on the way up (We decided on the M5/M42/M6/M1 route to Bedford as opposed to M5/M4/M25) which means the journey in total took 8 hours (including a couple of stops). Food that night was courtesy of the harvester next door to the hotel. A pint and burger taste so much better after a long slog on the road. Up bright and early the next day we soon realised that it was another hour on the road to get to the sports centre. More driving . . . The hall itself was a decent size. Enough for ten rings plus spectators. Although there wasn’t a dedicated warm-up space for competitors which was a bit of a shame. The other shame was the smell. The hall was next to a stable (agricultural college) so there was a constant smell of manure and urine for the entire day, not too pleasant really. Still, being a black-belt (god i hate that phrase) mean’t i was kept busy for the day. i firstly had the Pleasure of helping Master Uberlander from Germany run a ring for Hyungs (kata). It was also nice to note that our score were almost identical all the way along so i must be ‘seeing’ the same things as him. Later i helped Master Preston run a ring for sparring.  The day started in backwards fashion with the gup-grades first. There were a lot of gups from our club competing and nearly all (if not all ?) of them won something, whether for hyungs or sparring. Then we sat through the masters forms . Some great displays. Then lastly we got to the dan-grades forms. This was me.

I had decided beforehand to only enter two categories; Traditional (Japanese) and Chil-Sung (Korean). I normally enter chang-bong (staff) too but i didn’t really fancy it this time around despite it being one of my best categories. I was trying to do the weekend on a budget. I also was not bothered about winning anything. Normally people only compete with forms they feel very good at so as to have the best chance of winning something. This time around i fancied doing something different, a risky prospect indeed. For my traditional form i choose Jin-To. This particular form is great to perform but technically quite hard. It involves having to balance on a single leg with arms outstretched then snap the hips around 90-degrees and throw a (good !) front-kick. Not once but three times. Of course the risk is of loosing your balance or fluffing the kicks which is so easy to do. Especially on the soft competition mats (wooden floors are much easier for keeping balance on). The form started well enough for me until i got to the first balance point. As i pulled into the correct posture i though ‘Christ this floor is wobbling !’ Of course it was my legs, not the floor. This mean’t i couldn’t hold the positions for as long as i would have liked to. I also almost made a mistake towards the end. I managed to stop myself in time but i knew the judges would see the stall. With no fewer than 14 people in our category (unheard of) i knew it was not good enough. Still i took a risk and i enjoyed the performance, trophy or not.

Our second category of Chil-Sung was called immediately after. Once again there was a lot of us, 10 i think ? This mean’t once again we had our work cut out. The judges then announced that we would be performing one at a time (you usually go in pairs). Now i was crapping myself ! For this category i again took a risk with one of the Yuk-Ro (Joon jul) forms. Most clubs don’t know these forms so i was worried that the judges wouldn’t either. The form itself is quite complicated so required complete concentration from start to finish. To my surprise the master running the ring did indeed know the form so i was allowed to compete with it. Big sigh of relief . . . Having made a mistake in the first performance i was determined to do this one well. I love the form and wanted to do it justice.  The form passed in a bit of a blur but i had the feeling i had done reasonably well.  When the placings were called i had managed to scrape third place ! The master also called me over at the end and said a personal well done, this was just as good as getting the trophy.

Although in the past i have picked up golds and silvers this trophy was definitely my hardest won one yet. No i didn’t win any of my categories but i took a risk instead of playing it safe. It felt good. I’m very happy with my overall performance considering.

The competition didn’t wrap up until 7PM and by the time we all got to the restaurant that night it was 10:30PM before we sat down to eat. Most of had eaten literally nothing all day (I had three wine-gums i found in my car). We were all on our last legs. But MAN did that pint and Chinese buffet taste good ! After eating all notions of clubbing went out the window. We were all totally knackered. We stocked up on a few goodies from behind the bar and headed back to the hotel. I had planned to sit down and enjoy a quite cup of sake with a couple of the chaps. The next thing i know there’s 23 people in our room ! I get a bit twitchy around that many people in that small space so decided to sit in the quiet next door for an hour until they dispersed. We even found a novel way of heating sake in a hotel-room. Instead of using a hot-water bath like usual we simply filled the kettle up and hit the button ! Steaming hot sake in seconds, bloody brilliant.

For the trip home i planned to head back the same way we had come. Back up to Birmingham then down the M5. I basically wanted to avoid the M25 (in hindsight it was fathers day so any road would have been quiet quiet). This caused a slight upset as some others had to head a different way. Sorry about that. Still we all made good time so no love lost.

Looking forward to getting back to training now. Competitions always leave me feeling enthused and proud. Regardless of how i have personally done.

Hopefully some pictures to be added

Biker Scout V2

When i originally put together my Scout armour/outfit i managed to do the entire thing without sewing anything. The only exception to this was the 7 vertical lines of stitching that run down the front of the bund. I did these by hand. The hot-glue gun became very much my friend during those manic weeks. I used it for absolutely everything from securing the armour elastic to making the pouches on the bund. Of course a hot-glue gun isn’t going to give you a flawless finish, far from it. Luckily the Scout is something of a dirty character. They are not meant to be pristine like Storm-Troopers. This means you an add a bit of weathering to hide any unsightly edges.

Now. Recently i invested in a sewing machine. I decided it was about time i learnt how to use one. After all, having a sewing machine and the ability to use it is a pretty handy skill, no ? I wanted to go back and remake the parts of the outfit i rushed in the first place. There isn’t to be a hot-glue gun in sight.

The first thing i wanted to do was the remake the bund/pouches. This can be reasonably tricky. After all you are basically making an a tailored item of clothing from scratch. It has to be the right width, depth and made from the right fabric. A trip to Truro fabrics was in order. The first stage is to make the bund. This is basically just a long section of fabric that wraps around your middle and does-up at the back with velcro. This is simply a matter of cutting the fabric to the right shape (imagine making a pillow-case), filling it with wadding and stitching it up. Then the velcro closure is stitched on. The bund has seven vertical lines down the front, 1″ apart. Next you need to do the ‘cod’ (cod-piece). This is a triangular section made in the same way as the bund. It also needs to be filled with wadding and have two chevron shaped stitches running width-ways. Then you need strapping to make sure it stays put. You have a pair of elastic straps that go over the shoulders (like braces) and a strap that goes from the point of the cod, through the legs and attaches around the back to the bund. This now means the bund cannot ride up or slip down.

Then you have the pouches. These are a pair of rectangular pouches (7″x6″x3″) that sit on the front of the bund. They also have lids which are cut at an angle. Top make the pouches you first need a paper template. Much like you would if you wanted to make a cube from paper. You draw and cut you template and fold it all up so you know it looks right. This template then needs to be laid on top of your fabric. Draw around it and cut it out (cutting fabric is not as easy as cutting paper !). You then need to stitch all the sides together and turn it inside-out so the seams are on the inside.

Oh and remember to turn your second pouch inside-out twice as the lid is cut the other way (see the picture below). Once you two pouches are finished they then get stitched to the bund and you are done ! I went back around the edges of my pouches and added a line of stitching to really give them sharp edges. The pouches also need velcro closures. One of mine houses a speaker/amp. The other can be used for wallet/phone if you are on a night-out.

Next it was time to do the riding patches. Now these are not actually a requirement if you want to get your scout costume cleared with the 501st. However they were present in the film so if you want to be ‘screen accurate’ then you’ll want to add them.

I wish i could say there is an easy way to do these but it isn’t true. They are a bastard nightmare ! How do you sew patches on (using a machine) on the inside of the legs ? You can’t. You need to slit the stitching up the outside of the legs so you can lay the fabric flat on the machine. The fabric is a faux-suade and is designed to look like the patches found on Jodhpurs. The patch covers the inside and rear of the crotch. There is also two elastic straps that go around the legs.

Then you have the boots. My first pair were made from an old pair of desert boots and were a little rough & ready. I wanted to remake these with a new pair of boots. The boots themselves i picked up from ‘shoe-zone’ for about £20. They are not the best quality but then again im only going to be wearing them a few times a year so they should be ok. The first stage is to heat your vinyl to make it stretchy and pull it down over the toes. This is then pinned in place while it cools. Once it’s held the shape you need to use a leather glue to stick it to the boot. A small strip is added where the fabric meets the sole to tidy it up.

Then you need to make the calf sections. These are tubular section that start at the sole and go up to below the knee. They have a velcro closure at the back. You also need to cut out a little ‘dog-bone’ section to cover the join and glue it all down. The finished product should look something like this

The last job with the boots is to cut the soles. Again this is not a 501st clearance requirement but was done on the screen used boots. The chunks are simply cut out with a sharp knife

That is as far as i have got at the moment. I still need to finish the flight-suit as it’s massive on me (my old one was a little short). I’ll need to add the vecro patches and stuff. The last job will then be to tart up the lid. I have got some proper size bolts which will need cutting down and painting. I also need to lengthen the mic-cable as it was sticking out just below the neck last time. Stay tuned

MEM 2011

 This Saturday gone saw the 2011 memoribilia event up at the Birmingham NEC. This is an annual expo that caters for retro stuff such as films, TV, toys and games.

As a member of the UK Garrison (501st) myself and a couple others from Cornwall decided to travel up for this ‘troop’. The Garrison is invited back every year to these sort of events to add a little Imperial flavour to the proceedings. We basically mingle with the crowds and have a little fun with them : ). The garrison is also there to raise money for charities such as the make-a-wish foundation. We don’t get paid. We do it because we enjoy it.

We headed up after work on the Friday evening. Four hours from door to door, not too bad. Our ‘hotel’ was one of the motorway ‘welcome break’ jobs and was nothing to write home about. We asked for a triple-room and of course got a double and a single bed. So myself and Rob took the double as at this point neither of us really knew the other chap Mark. We were told there was a pub called ‘The Swan’ nearby that was used as a gathering point so we set out to find it on Friday evening. We found it ok but there was nobody else from the Garrison there which was a little odd. ‘No drama’ we thought, it is only Friday. After sinking a couple of bombadiers we headed back the the hotel. Now unfortunately i am a light sleeper and Rob snores like a bastard ! The result of which was that i only slept from 04:00 – 06:00. Needless to say with a full day of trooping ahead it was a rather inauspisous start. Still, after a couple of major caffine hits and some brekkie i was good to go. We headed over to the NEC, found the rest of the garrison and proceeded to check-in. We had been allocated our own hall to change in, it was MASSIVE. Bigger than a football pitch. We were provided with refreshments throughout the day, had our own toilets and a special wrist-band that gave us carte-blanche to walk into any of the expo’s going on throughout the weekend in the NEC. In short, we were treated very well. Now as a ‘new recruit’ this was my first troop. This means i had to do an ‘induction’ first. This entailed learning how to be a spotter for the morning. The troopers head out in squads (2-6), each squad has one or two spotters. The jobs of the spotters are -

• To be the eyes and ears, some of the costumes have very little visibility. You need to make sure nobody trips over anything or steps on a kid.
• To act as security for the troopers. Some people want to get a little too-close. Others try to nick bits off the costumes as you walk past. This happens very rarely though
• To take pictures for the public
• To give out garrison cards and explain to interested punters who we are and what we do

I spent the morning watching the ‘scanner-gate’ and the five troopers stationed there. This basically looks like an airport metal detector but is jazzed up a bit to make it look ‘Imperial’. As punters are leaving the expo we usher them through the gate. As they walk through the gate it going ‘bong’ and blue lights flash. However. One of the spotters has a remote which sets off an alarm and red flashing lights. So we pick our targets and buzz them as they walk though. Of course the troopers then check them for weapons or ‘rebel intel’ and send them back through again. We keep buzzing them : ). Eventually we ask if they have any change for the collection tin to ensure their safe passage. Most are good sports and play along giving a donation. I then spotted for a squad as they walked around the expo hall just to watch how they interact with the public.

At lunchtime there is the parade. All cosutmes are required. We line up in two ranks and march through the expo hall as they plan the imperial march over the tannoy. The crowds part like the red-sea and the flash-bulbs go crazy. It looks awesome. By this point i am dying to get into costume. The organiser gives us the nod and we are off (there are four other chaps doing their induction on the same day). Luckily the scout costume is pretty straightforwards to get on yourself so within ten minutes i was ready to rock. However before you go out you get ‘branded’ with the UKG decal to show you are part of the best costuming group in the UK. This is good moment for us chaps who have worked so hard getting our costumes in order. Then you are put in a squad, assigned a spotter and away you go. Interacting with the public is great fun. There is something about being in a costume where they cannot see you face . . . As an Imperial you can really mess with people. A couple of favourite tactics -

• Whenever you see a poster sticking out of someones bag you snatch it saying ‘Ahh the plans to the death star’.
• When somebody is bent over a table flicking through comics or whatever he is quickly surrounded by a load of troopers. When he looks up it’s “oh no !”
• Making people jump by creeping up behind them and turning your speaker up “HELLO MA’AM !”

If we don’t like the look of someone we arrest them. They are made to get on their knees with their hands behind their head and shout ‘I LOVE THE EMPIRE !’ as loudly as possible. We get them to do this about five times. If they refuse or get fresh with us we get them doing push-ups. Everybody watching cracks-up. It’s great having that sort of ‘power’. It’s only a bit of fun after all . . . One stall was selling retro star-wars toy. He had a life-size ewok on display (for £400 !). I was in a group of five scouts that walked by. As one, we all stopped and looked at it. The guy twigged and said ‘oh no’. We told him to move the ewok or we would blast it. He did.

At the end of the day we retired back to our hotel. By this point i was knackered. However we had to go out to ‘The Swan’ to meet everybody for drinks. So again we went back to the same place we were at the night before. Nobody else there ? How odd ? There were about 120 of us ! Of course it was the wrong bloody place . . . We found the right place and the party was in full swing. Now as a newbie i have heard tales of initiations. When i walked in smiles and whispers were exchanged. I got very paraniod and sat with my back to the wall while things were passed around under tables. Then after an hour or so everybody got-up and formed a circle. Myself and Mark (who travelled up with us) were told to take a seat in the middle. We sat at a table facing each other with our hands behind our backs. Then two rather large trifles were presented, with no spoon. Yes we had to eat as much of the trifle as possible in one minute without using our hands. And of course as soon as we went for the first mouthful our heads were rammed in. Now being rather competitive i wanted to win. I was also quite hungry so i attacked my trifle like a mad-man. At the end of the time i only had a small bit left. The whole thing was filmed too so i expect it’ll make an appearance at some point. I got a pint bought for me and wiped the trifle from my hair. It was rather funny i’ll admit.

Sunday was much of the same expect of course i was now a bona-fide trooper so could get straight into costume and go out. We messed with people much like we did on the first day. This time i got to take part in the parade too. It was pretty awesome being in the middle of loads of troopers and having everybody looking at us and filming. I probably had my picture taken around 200 times over the course of the weekend. I even got some taken with a rather swish 3D camera although i need some of those green/red glasses to see them properly. We left around 16:00 for the long trek home. I got home around 20:00. I was shattered

A great weekend ! Made lots of new friends. Had some great laughs and raised some money for sick-kids. Job done.

Looking forward to the next one ! Lots of pictures of the garrison at work -

And some of me !

Spell checker still not working . . .

Busy Busy

Yes it’s been one of those months so far and it’s showing no signs of letting up.

Firstly was the trip back to Amsterdam. Was it everything i expected ? Was it really as good going back a second time ? It most certainly was. The flight out was one of the best we have had. We timed it perfectly so that when we arrived at Bristol we only had an hour to kill before boarding. We left at silly-o-clock in the morning (02:30 ?) and were in Holland by 07:00. The gate opened on time, the flight boarded properly and the actual flight itself was pretty straightforward. It was however very misty that day so it was a little bumpy up there. I quite like a little turbulance. Keeps everybody on their toes. After arriving in Schipol we grabbed our bags (well, i grabbed THE bag) and headed downstairs to the railway. Within five minutes we were headed back to Amsterdam. Unfortunately the weather was a little gloomy for the first couple days. Mist and drizzle everywhere. It seemed to put a little damper on everything but not enough to make me enjoy it any less. We were lucky enough to have a wicked little coffee-shop (barneys lounge) near our hotel that served the most amazing tea and hot-chocolates. A great little place to pop into on your way out or you way back.

This time we visited a few different places to the first time we went (less than 12 months ago !). Madame Tussords and the Amsterdam dungeon. Both REALLY creepy places. The wax-works at tussords were ‘ok’, some we better than others to be honest. The best part was the ‘horror’ section you have to walk through. Pitch black, cages with either skeletons or actors in (ready to grab you as you walk past). Loud bangs, jets of cold air blasted at you etc. It was very cool. The Amsterdam dungeon too was really good. You are taken in, in small groups and let through different themed rooms by actors dressed in period garb. They show you methods of ‘inquisition’, torture and other nasties. One of the best rooms was a childrens work-house theme, where mills were operated, in the near pitch black of course. There are other wax-work kids standing around with heads down on their chest wearing white nightdress. Of course one of these is an actor with bloody good ‘dead’ make-up. Once you lights go out she starts walking around and whispering in your ear. Very freaky. Also freaky is the part where the large window crashes open and the curtains start flapping. Next thing some kind of bloody corpse thing is flapping about in opening. I loved it but i really wouldnt recommend it for kids. One of the last rooms a man tells you a ghost story by lantern-light. Once finished he places the lantern on a wooden table and disappears telling you to beware the ghost. After a few minutes of wondering what is going on the lantern starts moving ‘by itself’ around the table in circles. Then the lights go out and the room is filled with smoke. A 3D projector then projects the image of a ghostly woman in the room. It’s really weird but looks amazing (especially if you have been in the coffee-shop before hand). For the finale you are herded into rollercoaster cars which then whizz around a massive, empty, black church. It’s definately one of those places that wouldnt be allowed in England. Sometimes you have to really remind yourself you are ‘on a ride’ and nobody is actually trying to kill you.

During our stay we also found an Austrailian bar that served the most amazing bacon & cheese bagettes and massive glasses of ‘wicke wiss’. A German (i’m guessing) white beer for 3 euro a glass.

All too soon we were back to mundane life in the UK. We are already talking of planning a third trip, fancy it ?

What else is going on this month then ? Well it was my mothers birthday last weekend so we took her to a rather nice hotel in Falmouth for a meal. The same hotel i am (apparently) getting married in next year. More on that another time. This weekend just gone the gup-grades at the club had a grading, also in Falmouth. I also spent the morning down at KGB digging trenches for the second upcoming Vietnam game. It was a beautiful morning. Between four or us we easily shifted a couple tonnes of dirt. Bloody hard work. Then there is a KGB game this weekend too. I have changed my arsenal around AGAIN so am looking forward to playing with my new toys. A VSR bolt-action rifle, a new AK (spetznaz) and also a colt hi-capa pistol. Can’t wait.

Then next weekend i’ll be going to a ‘troop’ up at the NEC in Birmingham for the MEM spring sci-fi expo. The UKG (UK garrison) will be there in force, myself included. I’ll be travelling up with a couple others from Cornwall and staying in a hotel for two days of Star-Wars themed madness.

All in all it’s proving to be a very busy March

(can’t spell-check, so apologies !)

Back to the Dam

Yes it has been almost one year to the day that we last went to Amsterdam. Now it is time to go back once again

It’s the missus 30th birthday this weekend so we decided, what better to spend it than exactly the same as mine last year. So as of tomorrow i am on holiday from work for one week. I plan on doing very little for the next few days too. I will be either sitting in a dark room in my comfy clothes, drinking ale and playing ‘Bad Company 2′. Or i’ll be tinkering with one of my guns. On the whole however i’ll be doing very little. Then on Saturday we have an early start. Our flight to Schiphol leaves at 07:00 which means we’ll need to leave home at around 03:30. The flight over to Amsterdam is only one hour from Bristol which is really cool. It’s the same distance away from Cornwall as Leeds.

From the Dutch airport you can simply walk downstairs and catch a train to the central station. It’s not far. Then that’s it. It’s simply a case of grabbing you bag and heading down into the city. Personally i don’t like package holidays. I like to find my own hotel by using maps and satellite topography. It makes for a fun challenge. Especially in the canal district of Amsterdam where everywhere looks exactly the same. We are staying in a small hotel in the south that overlooks the Princengracht canal (there are three main canal that basically orbit the city; Herengracht, Kaizersgracht and Princengracht. Provided you know which canal you are looking at you can pretty much know where you are). It only has a few rooms and a small bar downstairs with a couple of sofas and stalls. It looks very ‘friendly’. That is a real buzz-word in Amsterdam; ‘friendly’. Pretty much everybody we met last time was really friendly, not just staff either, other tourists. Perhaps they are all just really stoned all the time ? It’s a distinct possibility.

Amsterdam must be the coolest city to walk around at night. It is like being on a Victorian film-set. Cobbled streets and wrought-iron lampposts. Small taverns lit up across the water. It’s great fun to simply walk about and stop in here and there for a pint or two. Yes, i am really looking forward to going back. We still have a couple of museums we didn’t go to last time. And of course the ‘Hinieken experience’. A quick tour of the facility followed by a ‘drink as much as you can want’ at the bar

My kind of place