Project Damnation

a.k.a The Plastering of My Lair's Walls
     My Upstairs Lair is where all my books, comics, CDs, wargaming kit et al are stored.  Since before Easter it has looked like this:

Not very, ah, salubrious.  Not at all.  Not only that, with no wallpaper present any wind in the vicinity found a way between any cracks in the walls and lowered the temperature to Involuntary Muscle Spasms Centigrade.
     However, human beings - Hom Sap - are adaptable creatures and I've grown accustomed to those bare walls and lack of plaster.  Tomorrow, though, the plastering gets done.  So I've been hauling boxes of 6mm wargaming miniatures, trade paperback comic books and DVD stands out of the way.
     If Roy, the handyman, finds a bottle of Southern Comfort that's been missing in this Lair since December 2012, he is welcome to have it*.

     Eh What Say What?
Not very British, blowing your own trumpet, don't you know.  Not the done thing.  Bit boastful, mind.  Shy blushing and silence the order of the day, old chap.
     Ah what the heck!  In a short getting-to-know each other interview today, my new Team Manager showed me an e-mail detailing how a branch of <The Company I Work For> had said they were happy and even excited to get me on the phone when calling in to make changes in our <Enormous Yet So Far Anonymous> company's database.
     Small things make your day!  Hopefully this will partially protect my arse in future if I drop a massive clanger and blow up the company intranet, preventing 120,000 people from getting paid.

   Syria, France and The UK
Whilst BOOJUM! attempts to exist in a world entirely divorced from the squalid horror of the real world political situation, I feel that my interest in World War Two and the Eastern Mediterranean may be called forth here.
     72 Years ago, Syria was part of the French overseas empire.  The French had either followed or inspired the British habit of acquiring pieces of real estate abroad with a sunnier clime than the mother country.  In 1941 Syria (which included today's Lebanon) was under the sway of Vichy France, a proto-fascist rump state allowed to exist by the Nazis.  Smooth-tongued Free French persuaded the British Middle East command that a conquest of Vichy Syria would be easy.  Easy-peasy, in fact.  Easy-peasy-made-of-cheesy, in fact.
     Wrong!  It was a rather bad-tempered campaign, actually.  Eventually the mighty British war machine** triumphed and the Vichy regime went the way of the dodo, having fought rather harder for existence.
     Thus.  The Brits and the French have been there before.

So - Tanks?


Those stylish French - who else would paint a tank in a "Dijon Mustard" camouflage scheme?

Behold, a French tank of 1940 vintage that made mincemeat of German opponents.  Sadly for the French there weren't enough of them.  Thankfully for the British there weren't any in 1941 Syria.



*Said bottle went missing in January 2013 and has not been seen since
** Said with a touch of irony and homogeneity - there were a lot of ANZACs there, too.