Sixth year anniversary

From a blogging perspective, 2012 was a disasterous year.  I barely averaged 3 posts a month and I seriously loss interest for weeks on end.  I'm still not entirely sure why.  Part of it was certainly down to losing the ability to create blog posts at work as a result of new anti-abuse software (yes, I know doing this sort of thing at work is an abuse anyway, but the result was that I couldn't anymore access photos, or sometimes even my blog itself), and finding it difficult to pick things up at home in the evening.  Part of it was difficulties in finding the right space to take photos in our new house, particularly given the lack of sunshine in the UK last year (from a weather perspective, 2012 is now officially the most dismal, wet, grey and generally depressing year in over 100 years). Blogger and Photobucket, with their endless tinkering, were a further problem; even now, I till find it difficult to post comments on some blogs - I write the comment, analyse and type the "prove you're not a robot" thing and then the comment just vanishes.  Finally, there was simply wavering interest: 6 years is a long time to run a blog and there were times when other things just seemed more important.  I'm very grateful for the readers who've continued to follow, and comment on, this blog despite it going awol for long periods.  I really appreciate the support.

Wargaming action was very light last year.  I can't now recall whether I had a game - if so, it would have been a 15mm Austerlitz game at Eclaireur's around this time last year, but that game may actually have been at the very end of December 2011.  I also attended only 1 show - Salute, it appears, will now be my only regular show attendance.  I did keep painting, however (which makes the last of posts even more idiotic), with units completed for all my core periods.  I'm currently trying to finish off some Perry French Napoleonic artillery packs (wip photo opposite), before launching into AWI highlanders for both my own collection and Bill Nevin's.

2012 tally, all 25mm:

- AWI: 8 foot, 8 cavalry.

- 1815: 50 foot, 5 cavalry and 4 guns.

- First Carlist War: 94 foot, 18 cavalry and 3 guns.

- ECW: 2 cavalry (I really must post about these 2 command stands I painted last January!).

- ACW: 120 infantry (I really must post about these as well!).

- Other: 6 foot.

That gives me 352 points, which is better than 2010 but 30 points fewer than 2011.  It's still miles away from the heady days of Life Before Children: in 2009, for example, I reached 524 points.  Still, the 2012 tally equates to 6.7 figures a week, which isn't that bad, I suppose.  I was pleased to have made some progress with my Carlist War collection and felt very virtuous at painting the 100-odd ACW figures from my leadpile.  I kept wargaming purchases to a minimum - the only figures I bought were those I acquired at Salute (admittedly a fair number) and a small Perry order for figures to finish off a couple of units.

2013 is going to be a good time to kick-start this blog, as it can't be long now until the Perry plastic AWI British infantry are released.  Alan is clearly working on the metal side of the AWI range again, and Bill Nevin of King's Mountain Miniatures has released his extensive highlander range with the teaser of new figures to come later this year.  I still have half a dozen Eureka American dragoon units in the lead pile, together with Perry French and a few other things.  So I anticipate that 2013 will see this blog return to the AWI is some style.  That will result in much lower activity on the First Carlist War.  My 1815 work is already largely contained by Perry Miniatures having moved away from the Waterloo campaign to the 1809-12 period; so I can concentrate on painting what I already have and not buying anything new.  Similarly, I have no ACW expansion plans at the moment.  Other bits and bobs will probably come and go - for example, I understand Empress Miniatures are going to release a third wave of NZ Wars figures, which might make an interesting diversion for a month or so.  All that, however, is subject to something else which I'm not sure I mentioned last year: the Kiwi and I are expecting our second child in about 5 weeks.  The due date has come around ridiculously fast, and I have no idea what's going to happen to my painting time when the little one arrives!  And talking of Kiwis, I can now look forward to another trip to NZ later this year (that will be my 7th visit - more times than I've been to Paris!).

Finally, because I know one or two readers are interested in such things, I thought I'd post a couple of photos of my family's Christmas Day drink selection.  Rather anally, I take photos every year but usually keep them to myself.  My father always provides the wines (I now provide all the wine for the extended family pre-Christmas meeting, which is in mid-December to celebrate Hugo's birthday).  The standard format is champagne, then white Burgundy, red Bordeaux and then "stickies" and port. 

Some years ago my father bought a case of Chateau d'Yquem 1997, considered to be one of the best vintages of the 1990s, and each Christmas we have 1 bottle.  It really is fantastic stuff, more luscious each year but never cloying.  Since 2010 our reds wines have been one or more clarets and then some wines from a boutique NZ producer, Puriri Hills.  Located in Clevedon, just south of Auckland, Puriri Hills is a winery that has a luxury cottage in which my parents stayed for a couple of days before flying back to the UK after my wedding in March 2009.  My father developed DVT on the flight over from the UK and he spent the week before our wedding in Auckland General Hospital. Judy and her team at Puriri Hills looked after my parents very well during their stay and my father has been a loyal customer ever since.  That's good news for the rest of the family, because Puriri Hills make absolutely top-end stuff.  The flagship wine, only released in exceptional years, is a Bordeau-blend called "the Pope" (named after a former winemaker, not the Pope).  This Christmas we finished off our last bottles of 2005 Pope and, as with last year, it knocked the socks of the (quite excellent) 2001 Chateau Chauvin from Saint-Emillion.  Pope costs about £100 a bottle, but it's one of NZ's best wines so don't ever pass on an opportunity to have some.

But even the Pope was denied gold position this year by the port, Graham's 1980.  For a 30-year old wine it still tasted very fresh and was wonderful.  The [ ] Hugel riesling, from Alsace, wasn't at all bad either; at the end of its prime, perhaps, but the acidity and sweetness were well-balanced and it made a good foil to the d'Yquem.  Lastly comes Louis Latou's Chateau de Blagny 2008, another white Burgundy that I confess I largely polished off myself whilst watching "Downton Abbey".  A 2008 Meursault is a bit on the young side now, but this was nonetheless excellent with a good life ahead of it.  I found out the next day that this bottle in fact belonged to my brother, who'd bought a case to be put it aside for investment purposes and for some reason kept it at my parents' house - how I came to have consumed this bottle is one of those mysteries lost in the haze of Christmas Day lunchtime drinking!

Happy new year, everyone.