This week, upon getting home, I set back out again on my travels and went to visit Megan’s nana with her and her parents.

She lives in a lovely little village and Megan has been showing me all the sites she loves in this rather picturesque little village, it’s no Sudbury, but it’s alright.

The Tuesday we got here I just chilled out and relaxed, we had a short walk round the village then I took a nap and we played a couple of games.

On Wednesday, we went to RHS Garden Wisley, where we met up with my sister Ashleigh and her children Freddie and Edith, Freddie should have been at school, but he was off as he had head lice! Ashleigh has gone seven years without them and gets them the morning we go down, but to be honest it was nice to see Freddie.

Wisley was lovely and the kids were great, Edith is so much bouncier and outgoing than she was the last time I saw her, and Freddie has grown up a lot. I don’t see my nephews and nieces other than Janes enough, and I really want to see them more.

Thursday we just stayed in the house, I did a little painting, but not much, the house is so very very hot!

On Friday we went into Oxford and I visited the Pitt Rivers Museum for the first time, truly fascinating place that I wish I could have spent more time in, but my dyspraxia was really bad and I kept falling over.

We then took in a bite to eat at Burger King and popped into Games Workshop Oxford to add to my tally of GW stores visited in the UK.

And then we returned to Pats and had a lovely dinner of cottage pie followed by apple crumble and then a trip to the pub for a quick drink.

Saturday saw us pop to Megan’s aunts where we met her, Megan’s cousin and her two children, and that was really nice, safe to say that Megan has some really nice family in this part of the world.

And thus Sunday sees us taking the journey home back to the north east.

What I am Modelling

I wanted to do a bit of painting down here and ambitiously picked out a few projects.

But Pat keeps her house very hot, at times the temperature in here exceeded 32 degrees, thus I was unable to paint in most of my spare time, and I certainly couldn’t paint the Death Korps, because the only spot I had to paint was right by a radiator and that part was utterly boiling, and no way was I working with resin there.

All I was able to do was put a few base colours on a squad of Plague Marines, not much else sadly.

What I am Reading

I was plodding on with The Lost and the Dammed for most of the week, mostly reading it in bed and I managed to get it finished, a great book, not quite as good as The Solar War but brilliant none the less, really like the way we got the perspective of the conscript and meet some characters we are already familiar with such as Captain Thane.

I have now moved onto Legends of the Dark Millennium: Ultramarines, which so far isn’t a bad book, but I am on the first story in it and only 18% through it.

What I am Playing

On Tuesday we played a few games, we stared out with Moon-Bots, which I think is an absolutely delightful little game, and Megan’s mum managed to win that one. Then we played a couple of rounds of Dice Academy, both of which were won by Megan, and finally we played Who Did It?, with me and Megan drawing.

On Wednesday night we played Dixit and Megan romped to victory, I really wanted to not let her win, because I knew what her card was and Jane didn’t, so I could have denied her victory for another turn, instead I chanced that Jane may have picked the right card denying Megan the points, but alas she didn’t and I ended up 4 points behind Megan.

On Thursday morning I taught Megan to play Keyforge, she absolutely kicked my bottom, she picked it up very quickly and whilst I went easy on her, she had no such restraint when dealing with me, not saying I would have won had I played tougher, but maybe it might have been closer!

Saturday morning, me and Megan whipped out Carcassonne and had a game with the base game, Abbot, River, Japanese Buildings, Labyrinth and Spiel Doch mini expansions plus all the Spiel tiles for the 2nd Edition apart from the 2019 one.

Of course as per normal she beat me soundly and scored 182 points to my 136 points!

That evening we played two games of Thunderbirds, the first one we lost in about five minutes, we rolled so many double Hoods!

The second one we won and were quite under control with everything never letting anything get out of hand, so that was a good game.

And me and Megan finished it off with a game of Anatomy Fluxx which Megan won at.

What I am Backing

Council of Verona 3rd Edition went up this week and at first I was reluctant as I have the 2nd edition, but the low price point dragged me in, it’s a great game and for the price, it’s really good.

Still backing Zombicide 2nd Edition, but finally a few things arrived, but not being at home I won’t see them until tonight.

Firstly, Dungeon Fantasy Magic Items 2 – Powered by GURPS arrived, this was sent to me by the ever amazing Helen, a friend who now lives in Texas, she wonderfully took it in for me, but I really need to get her box of sweets sent out to her soon! Was weird that I managed to get this quicker than Monsters 2 which is being sent directly to me.

Secondly, the Alhambra Designers Edition Mega Box arrived along with the Alhambra Special Edition Big Box, seems to be a common thing that some stickers are missing, so I will have to check that properly when I get home.

And lastly, my copy of Ember Trick or Treat and it’s wooden box arrived too.

Currently I am expecting five, possibly six projects to fulfil in the rest of the year, four of them are on their way to the UK right now, another has just exited manufacturing in Germany and the sixth is coming via the US, that being the only one which might not get to me before the end of 2019.

What I am Cooking

I haven’t cooked anything, but where I can, I am helping with drying dishes, not a lot because of pain, but I am trying.

What I am Spending

As little as possible, I have Blood and Glory next weekend, but I did treat myself to The Grymwatch for Underworlds from the Tottenham Court Road Warhammer store when I visited there on Monday.

In preparation for Star Wars Episode IX I finally got around to buying Episode VIII by getting it from the Sky Store where we had a welcome offer from our upgrade to Sky Q, plus £5.99 credit from some sweet packets from last years so the Blu-Ray and digital version cost me just £7.

When I visited the Oxford Warhammer store, I picked up a little present for Lindsay, and myself The Grymwatch Dice Pack, I have bought all of the dice for Underworlds so far, I don’t feel like I am able to stop at this point!

I also picked up a couple of bits for Christmas for my nephews and nieces.