Thursday 31 December 2015

Happy New Year & All That Jazz


The Star Wars: X-Wing Empire models I acquired over the course of the year (click to enlarge).

This now marks the beginning of the seventh year of blogging and it has been a difficult one for me; a year where I haven't been able to post as much as I would like because I've not been doing much painting for the last six months.  I have a lot of things I intend to post but it means I must finish painting models and taking pictures, which I've singularly failed to do.

This has been down to two real life concerns.

The first a lingering injury in my right wrist that flared up after bad sprain and I was diagnosed with tenosynovitis.  Currently, I'm wearing a wrist brace.  It may also signify a flare up of rheumatoid arthritis or repetitive strain injury from typing. Whatever the cause it's a bad thing, but mustn't grumble, life could be worse.  The second concern is my work.  I'm writing and after three years I need to complete at least one of the novels and try to sell it.  This has caused me to fret a lot about work and not take time off to do hobbies.  On my other blog I've totaled up this years word count and surprised myself by how much I've done.

Still, all play and no fun makes for a dull life.

So, the plan is to do more hobby stuff.  This will include wargaming but also archery, which will get me out of the flat and talking to people who are not inside my head.  It will be good for me.  Looking at what I've blogged, I see a number of posts about BattleTech, Ogre/GEV, and Heavy Gear, which is not that surprising given my predilections.  Mustn't forget to mention Star Wars: X-Wing either, my recent passion.  The only games show I went to this year was Salute and afterwards I reported on my visit to see HMS Defender that was a lot of fun.

So, having seen Star Wars: The Force Awakens (review to come at the end of January to give everyone a chance to watch and not reveal spoilers), and after listening to the wonderful soundtrack from the movie, I've relaxed a bit and sat down at my workbench.  First thing I did was dust everything.  Then I started painting, and while I've nothing finished to show, I can report that paint has been applied and progress is being made.

At the end of the day it's all about doing stuff you enjoy.

That just leaves me to say thank you all for coming and reading my blog and leaving comments.  It's what makes blogging worthwhile.  Finally, I would like to wish you all a Happy New Year.
  

12 comments:

  1. Happy New Year Ashley, and hopr all your good wishes come true

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  2. Happy New Year Ashley. I hope this one gives you more scope for things you enjoy doing and less worrying about things you must do.

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    1. I hope so too, but being a writer is a thing. Like the Thing in the John Carpenter movie kinda of thing. ;-)

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  3. Happy New Year to you Ashley. I was diagnosed with Mild Left Upper Arm Dystonic Tremors (a real mouthful I now) a year or so ago, which basically means that I have a permanent shake in my left hand. Being left handed, at times it is a real pain. This has limited my painting time over the past year as if I use it a lot, which is hard not to as a modelmaker, then the shakes get worse. However I've learnt to mitigate the worst effects but painting is harder than it used to be. So I empathise with your situation.

    Definitely enjoy the archery as I love as and when time permits. If you can, take a trip down to Wye Valley Archery. I gaurantee that you will enjoy it.

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    1. Damn, I think that sucks. I get more shakes now due to being on low dose methotrexate for four years for the rheumatoid arthritis. It's never nice to have these things so you have my deepest sympathy. The archery thing might be the opportunity to meet up and hang out perhaps? When the weather is better though.

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  4. Happy New Year, Ashley
    Hope 2016 turns out to be a great year for you.
    /J

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    1. I hope so too. Have a good one and enjoy the holiday.

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  5. Happy New Year!

    "At the end of the day it's all about doing stuff you enjoy."
    I could not agree more Ashley!

    Best wishes for 2016

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    1. Cheers my dear. Have a good one down under.

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  6. Hope you've had some fun holiday celebrations. Nice to see that you've got an impressive mothership to add to the Imperial faction as well. You've got two blogs and you've updated one or the other regularly so I wouldn't get too down on your own progress as it seems like you've spent it well outside of blogging as well as had good reasons to trim it back as well. Hopefully you'll have lots more to blog about regarding Heavy Gear and the novel in the months to come!

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    1. I sure do. And we've partied like there's no tomorrow (or what passes as having lots of fun for women of a certain age) and entertained friends and been to parties.

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