Jill and Nathan chilling on the train ride to see Ivor.

It’s been a funny old weekend, as some plans fell apart, but all in all it was good fun. On Saturday, we took Nathan to his Waterbabies classes for the first time in 6 weeks due to holiday and his Chicken Pox, and it went well. He didn’t seem to be phased at all by the return to the pool and diving in etc. except for swimming on his back, which is one of those things that he’s never really liked. Good fun really.

In the afternoon, we went to the National Model Engineering Show at the Yorkshire Showground. This was a bit more machine tool and component driven than we expected, but – sure enough – there were a number of displays of trains and boats which Nathan loved. Suffice it to say that the Flip Ultra was used, and we now have a variety of train videos for him to watch rather than the two that he has had since the last show Jill took him to. I may post one to YouTube to give a feel if I have a moment.

One of the funniest things that happened involved ice cream. Now, Nathan is fond of ice cream, but he’s even more fond of the wafers used to make a cone. We usually get him a small tub rather than a cone, as the first thing he does with one of those is to invert it and eat the wafer. Well, we did this, and he was eating the ice cream well until he decided to blag his mothers (or should that be swipe it?) and the resulting chocolate ice cream face and grin were quite something to behold.

There was a cool little stall there selling candle powered tin boats. Wax, string and a flame was used to make a boat that is self propelled, apparently something that dates back to Victorian days. I can imagine it giving some people health and safety palpitations, but I think that’s an over reaction.

Sunday saw a trip to the Farmer’s Market – unplanned in my case as I was originally going to be at TomCon, the missing of which was the low I mention in the title – and Nathan swiping a chunk of a buffalo burger I’d bought. There was a cool cupcake stall and all the usuals. Mmm. Cake...

Also went to work to get some stuff sorted for the busy week which is about to hit...

Finally, I watched the recent film of “Beowulf”, co-scripted by Neil Gaiman, today and wasn’t disappointed. It was certainly above average, even with the CGI. It does take some liberties with the story, but it makes a more coherent narrative for the movie. And there are definitely things there to steal for RPGs. Hopefully I’ll finally ready the Beckett version this summer, something I keep on putting off.


Ivor the Engine at Embsay Station.


I’m not sure if I mentioned it before, but we had a fun time last weekend as Nathan was finally back to normal, and we went to see Ivor the Engine, which was great fun! It was cold and blowy, but far less crowded than the Thomas day, and a good return to normality for the tiny tinker. Although I’m not allowed to call him “Tinker” anymore. To quote; “No Daddy, I’m Nathan, not Tinker”.

Currently feeling: Content .
Currently listening to: Humphrey Lyttelton (Jazz, Nice...)
Currently reading: Hellfrost (Savage Worlds),
The White People and other stories (Arthur Machen/Chaosium horror collection)