A quick update as the weather has turned distinctly wintry with snow, sleet and rain and sunshine! An odd day of differing contrasts and definitely a day to stay in the warm. I have been working on the armoured car and the above picture shows a base coat of brush painted panzer grey. An accident with a small plastic bottle of grey paint led to this the other day...

That is the frantic efforts of a clumsy oaf attempting to clean up the explosion after I stupidly squeezed the blocked bottle. I briefly forgot the laws of physics and I will have to repaint the wall. Next time I will use a pin to poke at the blockage first!

The third photo is todays work with the airbrush and various shades applied for a modulated effect. Once dry, I will clear coat it and then add chipping and weathering effects with enamel washes, clear coat again and use oils to add further depth. It was a very cheap kit and a practice 'mule' for the various techniques and a bit of fun despite the modernist Banksy on the wall. I have stopped buying kits as I have more than enough to work on and it is paints, glues, thinners, etc...that I currently require.

It's taken five days off work to finally relax and stop thinking about work which has surprised me. I now realise how much stress there is at work and talking with a colleague who has just left the team, she confirmed how much pressure has been lifted from her shoulders as she had time off and moved to a less stressful lower banded post in another team. She suggested I make the move to their team and I suspect I might do this. All still in the same building but our manager isn't moving for at least another three years and I would like my last few years as a nurse to work in a better environment. This ties in with my decision to reduce spending on models and save more towards paying off the mortgage this year so that I can consider  my work options, possibly reduced hours at some point.  The well-being debrief with a psychologist last week as a follow up to the incident also helped because it brought it home that managers really don't care. There is a meme on social media that an advert for one's job would go out before one's obituary and that's very true!

Back to my books, a cup of Yorkshire tea and feet up with the cats as it's not very inviting outside. Stay safe and warm folks.

TTFN.

I finally managed to photograph three of the blighters in a no-food / kitchen scenario.

L-R Mindy, Watson and Sherlock. Maisie is missing as she has taken to sleeping in the sink!

 A brief hiatus from blogging as I had been considering whether to continue with this blog. Looking over the past year - eighteen months and it's either work or models and not much else. Last year with Sue's illness took up a lot of time but also a lot of emotional energy and everything's been a bit flat this year. Both of us happier with a quiet life and with spring hopefully around the corner there is a lot to do around the house and garden which we have neglected. There will be work to attend to in bringing things up to scratch and we are just awaiting some decent weather to tackle the garden. I have a wall to repair and the gate to replace as well as tidying up the garden and removing a lot of weeds and rubbish. Sue's still far from 100% and is easily tired so we'll be working slowly. Given this I decided I will continue blogging but it will be occasional posts for now and I will continue posting model builds. It's my big six oh this year and I am having a think about what to do for it. It might be that I stick with travels within the UK for this year and save up for a big trip next year as I am still saving to pay off the mortgage and I want that done and dusted this year. Another concern is that the critical incident where we intervened has left me with an injured back and right knee. The latter has taken me two years to get back to normal after I stupidly jumped a fence and five minutes has taken me back to square one. I have been referred for physiotherapy through work as it is a work related injury and they can damn well help me repair the damage.

                                    Latest acquisition, yet another flying boat.

                         Plus this tank which I bought in a proper model shop

I am currently working on two builds as the bus...

...Is showing some dreadful fit issues and I have to find a fix for that. It's a slow process painting the tiny figures but they are complete and it is just 'reshaping' the main body of the bus to fit.

The second kit is in a much larger scale and almost snaps together, hence my desire to have an easy build but then to focus on painting and weathering for a realistic look. All in all a relaxing escape from pressures of work and from the nonsense happening in the world today.

The weather has been wet, windy, wet and windy, wet deluge and blowy as fuck throughout the past three weeks. Floods in various parts of the UK with Wales giving every impression of sinking beneath the waves. Hence the garden left to its own devices these last few weeks although we were delighted to see four Snowdrops emerge. There is one place I visit where the person I visit has hundreds of snowdrops and crocuses and they said there will be a huge amount of daffodils. I enjoy visiting there as the amount of medieval pottery shards that can be found is astonishing. 

I have the next week off and I plan to crack on with some chores, some daily gentle walks to build up my knee again and just enjoying a break from the frantic nonsense that is work. A colleague at work has left the team and she has left a huge gap which can't be filled. I have acquired eight new patients on my caseload after discharging / transferring a few and on my return it'll be busier than usual. The rest of the team is experiencing similar joy and happiness plus the waiting list of new patients which isn't supposed to exist grows week by week. Apparently there was no available beds for a hospital admission throughout England earlier this week so when the media says all is well with the NHS...it really isn't. I have a beer with my name on it and a new book to read on the kindle. I opted to buy this one electronically and given the current state of politics and our potential political futures this book will be an interesting read.

p.s. Still no sign of Fluffy. I expect they have moved, rehomed him or he is alas no more. 

TTFN.

An interesting set of videos regarding the Corona virus, worth watching as there is a lot of conspiracy theories and nonsense out there.

Not the best of weeks as a critical incident at work, toothache , a cold and a temporarily missing cat all combined to make the past several days bloody awful. The critical incident I cannot say too much about other than myself and a good colleague intervened in time and helped the individual stay alive. Lots of kudos from senior managers for saving a life but the response from another team caused a lot of problems over the next few days. I have today off as I have accrued fourteen hours time owing and today it is sorely needed as  aches and pains from the incident plus toothache and the emotional impact is now hitting home. We have had a debrief and next week we have a further debrief from a specialist psychologist which will help.

Mindy was the missing miscreant and we have no idea where she hid out last night because we searched the house top to bottom and I was out several times last night in the garden. She's the smallest, youngest and far from from street wise cat and the weather has been very windy with sleet and snow. Hence the worrying thoughts of her wandering off but she turned up this morning. She probably wandered back in through an inter dimensional portal after consorting with unicorns somewhere!

I have finally booked a dental appointment, going private and ironically at the same practice which used to offer emergency appointments but no longer does so. It's an infected tooth so antibiotics and I guess removal will be required as I believe the tooth is beyond saving. It has even stopped me doing any work on my latest build although this morning I made some progress on the figures for the bus. Boy, are they small...

All in all an interesting week and food for thought as I am getting too old for these shenanigans and perhaps a move to another less stressful team may be required. For today, coffee, music and painkillers and I am looking forward to the dentist tomorrow.
TTFN.