Well its been a while...........

This is more a note,to show that I am still about;
The last few weeks have been quite stressful to say the least, retiring from a job I have had for 32 years, starting a new one, ending up in London sans the riots, becoming a grandfather again and having to make copious decisions about my new house, which is moving on at a fair rate of knots.
 Oh and apart from that suffering from a ricked back courtesy of a too enthusiatic desire to chop down some trees at my new garden.
 So where did wargaming fit into this? Well its been very hard. I did manage to purchase a lovely horse driven carriage for my SYW armies.I have always admired scenarios with a coach involved,and I couldnt help myself when I saw a Britains one for sale. The next question is, do I repaint it.
 John convinced me that we needed to exhibit a game at Newcastle on Saturday, so we will be trotting out an Italian/ British encounter in Libya,circa 1941, this will be followed at Smoggycon by two games, one being my SYW armies facing Colins horrible Prussians, so no pressure there then. Mind it is also about that time that I hope to move into my new home,so definately no pressure there.
 As a typical wargamer,even with the welter of things going on around me, I still managed to pick up some new figures, Minden Hamoverians, because I wanted them! even if they are well down the list of things that need painting.
 Why do we do this, what drives us to want more figures that we will struggle to paint and game with. The smart move would be to buy painted figures,but I have conflicting feelings about this. If I won the lottery,I definately would get someone to paint for me, but even then I think I would struggle to identify with the unit. Painting seems to bring the figures to life for me, probably because I have spent so long painting the things.Mind my favourite units always rout first,or never follow what I want them to do.