Back With A Muted Pop

After A Long Day Off Yesterday
But first, an aside.  Yes, already!  Once again, whose blog is it?
     We shall once again yark on about the weather, that most perennial of ice-breaking topics here in the Pond of Eden.  Okay, this was written yesterday, so bear that in mind.
     Out of the house at 08:10 and it's raining.  The sky is what Your Humble Scribe describes as Uniform Grey Layer (never abbreviate to UGL as this can be misconstrued)

Hello MI5!  "Underbarrel Grenade Launcher"

     meaning the promise of endless rain.
     Perhaps it will have eased off by the time I reach Gomorrah-on-the-Irwell?
     O pious hope!  An hour and twenty minutes later and if anything it's worse.
     Perhaps it will have eased off by the time I change trains at Stoke-on-Trent?

Nope.

     Okay then, perhaps it will have eased off by the time I reach my terminus at Lichfield Trent Valley?

Still nope.

     I did predict this by writing down "Not counting on it!  This was written 12 minutes before we arrived there." How prescient I am.  So, definitely not.  I did also notice that every stream or river visible from the train was about to burst it's banks.
     After a 20 minute walk to the bus station I cannot feel my hands any longer.  Taking the bus does save me a good 40 minute walk, and it drops me off right on target, that being the Staffordshire Regimental Museum.  Art?

Tah-dah!

     A journey half done.  The reception staff are impressed when they find out how far I've come - but of that, more later.
     In the meantime, let's see how deep this mine-shaft is by dropping the motley down it.*

"British Embassy Staff Evacuated From Kabul By Air"
Don't worry, we aren't breaking that self-imposed rule about broaching either Current Affairs nor Politics here at BOOJUM! even if that title does sound like tomorrow's headlines.
     No, not at all, because this is the culmination of those articles I wrote about the Westland Wapiti and the Vickers Victoria, those biplanes of almost a century ago.  Let's see if Art can put down his plate of coal for a moment to refresh our memories -
                    
     You see, there happened to be a civil war breaking out in Afghanistan at the time, caused partly by the imposition of taxes <insert joke here> and Western dress, and by Ruffian pilots - this does sound contemporary, doesn't it? - and the British Legation was right between the opposing armies.  A plea for evacuation was answered by sending a Victoria, escorted by Wapitis, on 23rd December 1928, and this helped to evacuate a total of 586 people from the airfield at Sherpur.  
     This evacuation was the largest ever carried out at that time, and it reflects well on the RAF for managing it, and the Afghans for not really bothering to interfere with it.

The British Embassy in 1929

     There is a lot more to the story, which reads rather like a "Boy's Own" tale of derring-do and how it was done, and Your Humble Scribe can see it being made into a film.  Probably not on original location, however.

"LOW" By Remender, Tocchini And McCaig
You may remember me banging on about this comic book series, and how I'd got the first 4 trade paperbacks.  These came out in late 2017, and from checking on teh interwebz, it seemed that the creators were taking an hiatus.  It's been a long wait, though Your Humble Scribe is happy to wait if it means maintaining their quality.  The end of the last volume is quite - well, no, not a cliff-hanger, rather the exact opposite of just that, a cliff-ascender, as one of the two remaining submarine domes housing humanity's last survivors casts off for the surface.

Good news for me.

     It seems that issue 20 came out in January 2019.  I think their schedule is one issue every three months or so, so there may be another trade paperback by the end of 2019.  Whoopee for me.

In The Meantime
Conrad is cracking on with that jigsaw, O yes indeedy Ally Sheedy!  It's taking considerably less time to sort through all the loose pieces in their box as there are considerably less of them to sort through.  Art?

     Of course it has taken simply hours and hours and hours to get this far, and having got this far, Conrad feels he cannot give up, or even slacken off a tad.  Compulsive behaviour?  What's that?

Finally -
It is indeed a dismal day, being cold, wet, windy and raining to boot, and once again the skies are a Uniform Grey Layer.  Conrad, though, has a furry hot-water bottle -

- and an impressive paunch

     - though the furry hot-water bottle in question is equally grateful for her human-shaped cushion.
     Who is now off to do more jigsaw and get another cup of tea.



*  Don't worry, motley's bounce.