Newcastle United

Oh But Yes!
Although firstly we have to come up with some diversionary photographs to ensure that the sinister world-spanning network of hamsters doesn't muck about with things and spoil the surprise on Facebook.
     

What's this?  O I thought you'd never ask!

      This is my works diary, with blog traffic numbers on the left-hand pages in red, plus any shopping I need to get done, what time my lunch is, my start and finish times*, and on the right hand side telephone traffic stats.  Because Conrad is a number-crunching crank like that, since you ask.
  Okay, I think that's enough to divert the hamsters, we can proceed with more relevant and exciting stuff**.

Doctor Who Calendar - My Fears Partially Assuaged***
As you doubtless remember, yesterday Conrad was ranting and tanting about getting a red Dalek.  Well, today Door Number 6 revealed - a Silurian.  Viz:

On the scene in Green

     She is a bit out of scale, though - she towers over the other characters, and the Cyberman is supposed to be 8 feet tall.  A ten foot humanoid lizard would have trouble blending in with human society, eh what?
     <hangs head in shame> I've also managed to look into a few of the other inserts behind a few other doors, and do you know they do repeat a bit - another Cyberman and another Dalek.

Old School Silurian

     The Silurians were one of the more tragic races to appear on Doctor Who. They were literally anachronistic^, being the survivors of a race gone into hibernation, only to awake to a world where they were distinctly in the minority.  They weren't simply monsters, either - at several points the possibility of a rapprochement^^ with Hom Sap existed, and they had factions supporting or opposing this.  Their unsuccessful attempt to kill off you humans with biological warfare didn't get very far, merely giving Hom Sap a reason to display it's military prowess.
     I say, we've gotten a bit reflective, haven't we!  Enough sense, let's have a bit of motley -

Date-Expired Food - A Challenge, Not A Warning!
As you should be aware, Conrad never turns his nose up at anything past it's sell-by date.  Last night doing the shopping I may have gone a bit further than usual.

Eleven of them

     There is more to come, but in a separate post.
     Yes, yes, we'll get around to Newcastle United, don't fret so!

Against The Day
O Noes!  I'd not paid attention and now discover that it's 1084 pages long, and there's me only up to Page 971.
     Conrad hasn't read a critical synopsis of the novel since starting it months ago, so he can't remember any clever analyses^^^, but as you surely recall, I did wonder if it wouldn't end with the beginning of the First World War.
     This is a distinct possibility.  Old Tom has now advanced the year to 1912, although he doesn't actually give any dates.  I know, I know, I can tell what you're thinking - but the Diet of Worms was a religious convocation not a slimming book - Oh!  Sorry, you were wondering how I knew the date?

No weightwatchers here!

     Because of the outbreak of the First Balkan War.  All the Balkan states essentially ganged up on the Turkish empire in Europe and attacked simultaneously in 1912.
     Thomas also shows he knows his light machine guns, mentioning the Madsen at length.
     This was a high-quality Danish light machine gun, one of the first of it's type, which came into use before the Great War.  It soldiered on in Denmark into the Sixties and is seen in scads in the pretty dire Danish horror film "Reptilicus", and I have even seen a favela gangster in Brazil flaunting one in the 1980's.

Old School Firearm

More Of Food
In this case, breaded mushrooms.

I could only fit this many in - there wasn't <waitforitwaitforit> much room!

     I turned several slices of gluten-free fibre bread into breadcrumbs, dried them under the grill, stalked and peeled the mushrooms, brushed with beaten egg and then hurled breadcrumbs at them.
     And they weren't bad!

Finally Found Them
After reading Niall Barr's epic account of the El Alamein campaign, Conrad recalled that he had a hex-and-counter wargame of "Operation Supercharge".
     "Why not," I asked myself, "re-read the book, but have the counters laid out and move them around according to how the book retells the battle?"
    "Because," I explained back to myself - as everyone does - "We don't know where it is."
     There thus ensued a long and fruitless search until I stumbled upon a box marked "Hills" and there were the games I'd wondered about.
     These include "The Cossacks Are Coming", which Conrad remembers reading about in a magazine review back in 1984, and "Gazala"; in the design notes of which the game-creator roundly lambasts South Africa.  This isn't mere invective, South Africa provided two divisions during the Desert War, and when the game was published the country languished under an apartheid regime.  And the Victory Games designer was a card-carrying Communist, IIRC.

There you go

     I did mention date-expired food, didn't I?  Upper right is a tub of olives from maybe Wednesday or Thursday - they'll be fine, it's really cold in the Upstairs Lair and that will preserve it - and on the mapsheet is a Terry's Chocolate with a best by date of October 2014 - I presume this is an item I bought for last Christmas that got left behind.
     Won't stop Conrad.

Stop Your Pathetic Whining!  Now Comes Newcastle United
Of course, "new" is all relative.  Firstly we have an old castle:

Rochester Castle, 1089

Now we have Krak De Chevaliers:

The KDC, 1140

     It has an inner keep and an outer wall, thus being united.
     What's that?  There's a football team with the same name?  Quick!  Art Department, we need a distraction -

     Tally ho!


* Yes this is all terribly mundane but you can't live life at fever pitch all the time. So.
** "Relevant" and "Exciting" being very elastic terms here.
*** Mister Hand translates from pseudery: "put to rest".  Probably has Latin roots.
^ Out of time.
^^ Getting along with.
^^^ Yes it is spelt this way - the plural.