And I am back….I would like to say new and improved…but sadly not.

My time as acting deputy head has ended – the six weeks flew by, I came out the other end knackered but a whole lot more confident… so confident in fact that I managed to get a headship in one of the west side schools. The interview was about an hour and a half long, but according to my initial feedback, I wowed the panel and it was a unanimous decision. I then had to do another two and a half days before the end of term. We made it… it was pretty close to a crash landing but that’s a whole other story.

So where do the migraines come in… on Monday I suddenly started having a weird blind spot in my left eye, it was as if someone had placed a sparkly c over my eye. I lost peripheral vision completely. Evidently it was an occular migraine (never even heard of one before) no pain, no yucky feeling, just a weird loss of vision. They last a while then go away, and it did indeed last a while and then after a couple of hours it went away.

As for the drains… hold your noses (luckily I have no sense of smell 😁). I decided to do my regular septic tank header check and it was in fact backed up… luckily a 30m long piece of 40mm plastic water pipe is ideal for shoving into the ‘water’ and with a bit of vigorous hoiking about it generally gets the message and drains into the tank as it should.

And trains…. I have somehow made it to 53 and with my birthday money I purchased Ticket to ride. 3 hours later I emerged victorious….

The kids very kindly got me a couple of pots of Contrast paint for part of my presents from them.

I decided to give it a go on some of my proxy MI. As it was going on (I shoved it over a grey undercoat) I was honestly not that impressed, but when it dried I could see what it was meant to do.

I then decided to have a go over a white undercoat, the only thing I had was an alien plant….

This is the same blue as the infantry, I gave the top a shot with some of the red. The blue works better, I think because there is more detail to sink into. I will carry on messing about with it before I decide whether or not I like it.

Before even opening the pot I printed off a paint holder….

I didn’t want to spill their presents all over the table.

Finally (you will be pleased to know) I managed to finish painting something…

I will try and catch up with whatever everyone else has been up to over the next little while.

Just before midnight on an overcast night and this is how dark it is…

The IPad doesn’t do it justice to just how light it still is. We still haven’t hit the longest day yet and it is still possible to read a printed page outdoors in the natural light. Up here they call it the ‘simmer dim’ or to anglicise it.. the ‘summer dim’.

I haven’t been on my blog much which is a bit annoying, the new job is great but I am putting in 10 hours a day at least and tonight I managed to get away at 18.45 after an 08.00 start. So much for teachers starting at 9 and finishing at 3.

I have managed a teeny amount of hobby time, I got a bit more done on my Fleet Rescue Troopers and also managed to put the metal bugs together.

They did not want to be glued, so in the end it was down to the Superglue and bicarbonate…

I am going to try to get them sprayed tomorrow. I was considering painting them mainly in inks, but I shall have a ponder and see what I come up with.

Hopefully I will get caught up with the backlog of followed blogs and get to see what people have been up to.

It is that time of year when I take a bit of time to contemplate on an awesome period of time I spent with some truly remarkable ladies and gentlemen. These Ladies and gentlemen were members of the Normandy Veteran’s Association.

I was doing my undergraduate dissertation and decided it would be on oral testimonies. So having an interest in WW2 and a local branch of the NVA I decided to put the two together.

I spent a couple of afternoon sessions with them which I will always remember with a great fondness as they took a kid into their midst and told me their tales, some had us roaring and laughing and others had us all in tears, the memory of the latter has me snivelling a bit as I type this.

Let us take a gentleman called Geordie to his friends, a nickname no doubt from his location of Newcastle (my neck of the woods as a youth).

His tale unfolded like this.

” I had to land on a beach called Mike Green, so I looked over the side as I came in and saw smoke everywhere, This navy guy shouts good luck lads and drops the ramp. Some bugger started shooting at us so I lowped (leapt) over the side hit the water and waded ashore. I legged it up the beach and hoyed myself down and started shooting at Germans. All of a sudden this medic appears and shouts ‘Howay son you goin’ home!’ ‘Bugger off said I, I am shootin German’s!’ He then said that with bullets whistling around his ears knelt up to prove the point. The medic pushed him back down and said look at your leg you daft bugger. He looked down and could see his thigh bone. As he had gone over the side he had caught himself a whallop on a metal tank trap. As he said himself, after seeing his leg he felt a little queer and agreed that off the beach was a good idea. At this point another veteran pipes up.. have you got a hole in your leg? Well Bugger me – so do I. At which point both gentlemen dropped their trousers and compared their war wounds. The second gentleman was “shot at by some bugger with a 37mm AT gun” that missed him, ricocheted off a cobblestone and came straight up his leg. These two had known each other for years and had never shared the information.

Another one promised his mother that he wouldn’t get shot so spent his first night in France asleep in a metal dustbin.

One mentioned a cock up of them almost landing on Omaha, but an admiralty barge came out full of wounded and ordered them to bugger off, turn about and head to their own bloody beach. He said he looked over the side and saw all this muck and shite flying into the air and thought ‘oh my god, what is going to happen here!’

Another gentleman landed with the paratroopers at Ranville. They met up at Pegasus bridge and was there to watch Lovett’s commando’s marching along the river, piper out front and all in their soft hats. The German’s started shooting at them and they tried to give cover fire. At 14.30 the first tanks reached them. They had been ordered to take and hold the crossroads a couple of miles beyond the town. His CO requested they stay as Jerry were preparing for a counterattack. The tanks refused and pushed on. He said there were three loud bangs in the distance and three columns of smoke. As he said himself ‘ A German Anti tank gun got them, knocked the three out and we couldn’t do a bloody thing to help them at all. Hopeless!’ Same gentleman explained that they were all in Stirling Bombers to jump out of as a way to confuse the enemy.

Another was somewhat miffed that his unit had been attached to the Canadians and had fought alongside them for the duration of the campaign and that The Canadian’s got all the credit.

The one thing that stuck in my mind was that there was no animosity towards the enemy even to people who had lost close friends. As one veteran of the 49th Division said of the Germans. ‘They were good…. bloody good fighters and we had a lot of respect for them as soldiers.’

A well known photo next…

Evidently the guy on the left of the photo facing the camera is a Shetlander… how bizarre is that.

Finally a photo of a photocopy of a photo…one of my relations in France.

The new job has been somewhat hectic and tiring for that matter. It has been all go, week two of six has commenced. This being a bit zonked has caused a bit of a lull in the hobbying.

However I have managed a smidge of painting, the troopers now have faces and visors as well as armour.

I also managed to get some more bugs. You will only find these in the animated series of the Roughnecks and definitely not in the film or book for that matter.

These were another find on eBay. Still sealed, but based on the lack of colour that they have been sat in the sunlight for a good while. It was rather a nice rainbow tonight, the stream is the one where the otter visits. It normally scent marks under the bridge.

I need to get the trail cameras set up again and see what they can capture.

Managed a bit of painting time tonight…

These are just about finished, to be honest I think I will repaint the bone coloured weapon strap, I wanted a contrast and managed to get one 😱.

I also managed to make a start on another five. I will count these as Fleet rescue too, hence the blue uniforms.

Work has been challenging, but in a good way, it is all go, but I feel good about things.

Hopefully I will get some more done tomorrow.

I managed some more work on my Troopers/mercenaries/security…

These are nearly finished, really just the sidearm and weapon strap on the middle one.

We also managed a game of unstable unicorns and then One Night a Werewolf

I started my secondment today, 6 weeks as acting deputy head in one of our high schools. Today was mainly sorting out supply cover for next week. It is a good experience for me .

Today has been hectic to say the least…

My good lady is under the weather and therefore I became taxi today. Firstly to pick up a giant animal run, this involved emptying the trailer of crap, swearing at the trailer as the jockey wheel was rusted down, so WD40 and a hammer later I was on my merry way. Back in, a quick turnaround and back out for my daughter’s riding lesson… back from there to turn around to take her to a birthday party. As she was having fun I was fighting my way around Tesco.

I managed to get my troopers sprayed a second time and made some progress on a couple of the larger worms and the ‘fleet rescue/ security’ troopers.

I was just thinking about going to bed when my youngest threw up all over the kitchen floor! 🤮