The weekend beckons

A Truism, but still relevant
     A late start for tonight's BOOJUM! after a late finish at work.  It's nice to get a lie in when you start late, but when the office is echoing and empty and it's pitch black outside, a little of the joy in your life is subtly sucked out by circumstance (and the long dark walk to the car park)

Forthcoming events in the Upstair Lair
     Last night I got out a couple of paste tables, and this morning I put a brown sheet over them.  This will form the literal foundation for a wargame I intend to play this weekend, concerning the English Civil War.  The sheet is rather lined so I shall have to iron it before placing all sorts of boxes and containers of my Historical Miniature Replicas (that are so not Toy Soldiers) upon it.  You may get more photos as the weekend wears on.  Here's one for starters:

Logic puzzles and war-gaming.  What every middle-aged man aspires to.  Right?

Mussolini and Fascist Italy in 30 seconds
     One of our younger members of staff was asking why Italy, with it's Fascist heritage, wasn't hated/disliked/vilified as much as Nazi Germany had been post=war?
     Naturally Conrad leapt into the conversation.  In order to keep eyes from glazing over, and team leaders from interrupting, I did keep it brief - how the average Italian in the street might give lip-service to old Benny, but they had absolutely no intention of dying for him.  That Italy threw off the dictatorial yoke and joined the Allies.  That if Benny got involved in making any decisions about military matters, he inevitably got it wrong.

An M11/39 tank, in it's habitual format - i.e. destroyed.  The Trabant of tanks!

"Cockpit"
     No sniggering at the back there.  This same member of staff also enquired about the word "cockpit", and once again Conrad leapt into the conversation.  There is the vernacular description of a pit set into the ground, wherein fighting cockerels, equipped with steel spurs, hack each other to ribbons - hence "cockpit", and the reason that Belgium has been described as "the cockpit of Europe" ' every country in Europe since the year dot has sent armies over Belgium to loot and fight and destroy.
     This word suffered when heavier-than-air craft were invented, and their cramped and narrow area for pilots was described as a "cockpit".  Stop sniggering at the back!

Not much room for a couple of birds, eh?

As a Parthian shot it transpires that Wonder Wife does not like Key Lime Tart - of which Conrad has two, stealthily removed from the fridge - and thus they can be safely disposed of with a clear conscience.  Excellent!

What Key Lime Tart looks like to Wonder Wife.  Sad, sad, sad. 

Oh, is that a can of Old Golden Hen I espy?  Okay, time to log off and consume.  What ho!