Beltring 2007

[mingmerciless]

Gosh, it's been a while since I last posted. The big thing was Beltring last week - 25th anniversary of the War And Peace Show. Booked in from Tuesday onwards with Kate and Simon, doing the UNIT thing again albeit with me moonlighting in ARVN Ranger and Airborne kit from time to time.


Great week, apart from all the bloody mud when it poured down... Very boozey too, especially following on from the end of the previous week:

• Friday - client came up and asked if I fancied a pint...
  
• Saturday - Shakespeare Head pub meet
  
• Sunday - boss flew in and wanted to meet in the evening
  
• Monday - out with boss and client who forced me to drink pint after pint of Broadside

Sad kit bought:

• Set of Danish flecktarn - got a good deal on this after I got chatting to the dealer and discovered we were both CADPAT fans
  
• 5m of CADPAT material from the same chap. I have plans for a Nintendoflage duvet cover.
  
• Chinese clone Thompson electric airsoft. Actually, all three of us got one - went up to Ratty at the Airsoft Armoury stand and asked what he'd offer us if we took 3. By this time, last day, the price had already dropped from £150 to £130 apiece, we got them for £120. Coincidentally, there's a guy who's started selling replica WWII Kuomintang kit on eBay, including leather Thompson webbing...
  
• More ARVN t-shirts from Pascal. He's said he'll send me some spare buttons and an ARVN airborne beret badge from Thailand. The guy must also have one of the world's most impressive business cards - in metal, attached to a dog tag chain!
  
• ACU vest and helmet cover
  
• Olive drab sleeping bag
  
• Cheap Cyberman mask and remote control K-9 - slightly scuffed seconds from Movie Prop Store but only £10 apiece. Needless to say, bulk purchases by the 3 of us

Nice to catch up with a whole bunch of people too, both re-enactors (especially the Vietnam guys) and people who came up for the day, including Nick, colonel_maxim, Redcap and some of the lasertag guys. Shame I didn't realise tlanti was also up on Thursday :-(

Random recollections:

• I packed way too much crap. By the time Kate's kit was in the car, it was absoutely full, especially on the way back
  
• Real bummer about the mud: no posh kit night so I didn't get to trot out the Singaporean MP uniform I'd acquired
  
• Guess Kate's idea of doing an English Civil War kit night would have worked, given the weather
  
• The US WWII airborne guys' display gets more and more impressive every year. This year it was a full size V-2 rocket and gantry!
  
• Nice to see a Spitfire there
  
• Pretty impressive seeing that very rusty (and holey) Lee/Grant actually moving about
  
• Actually saw two other ARVN re-enactors (and Asian too!), part of a French group
  
• May have found something even more obscure than ARVN re-enactment - spotted a guy in Finnish Continuation War kit (he was astounded I recognised the nationality). Turns out, despite being a tad, well, white, he's fancied doing ARVN because of all the bling. He's suggested we could help each other out - he does ARVN, I do Finnish. He's also said he'll do me copies for Detling of 4 Finnish war movies everyone should see (well, actually 3 as I already have one of them!).
  
• I am *so* not impressed with Dutch rations. I'd chosen that as my Ration Roulette entry then discovered it doesn't contain any hot main courses, just 4 tins of pate and a load of biscuits. Fortunately, I'd also bought a German one. Much better, especially the South American chilli. Not as handy as British ones though - hard work getting into the foil containers (whereas the Brit ones come in packets you can rip the top of and eat from the bag if necessary).
  
  So, other stuff:
  
  • Picked up new work laptop from possibly the least accessible FedEx depot in the country
    
  • Have new digital camera, a Canon Ixus 950 this time - 2MP lower resolution than the Ixus 900 but with an image stabiliser and 4x rather 3x optical zoom. Bit gutted to realise what was on the old camera I hadn't downloaded yet - pictures of how my mother had set up the sewing machine...
    
  • Inspected brand new school hall in Marylebone for Poly Fencing Club. We'll be back in operation from 10 September!
    
  • Watched Doctor Who - Inferno. Yep, Brigade Leader Lethbridge-Stewart will be my Redemption 2009 Ruler of the Universe candidate. I already have the black side cap ;-)
    
  • Also been rewatching Allo Allo. Bloody Hell, I'd forgotten how funny the early stuff was
    
  • Had Peter and Rowena staying over a couple of weekends back, on the London leg of their UK visit - hadn't seen them since Cebu last year. Just hope Peter and I didn't bore her too much with our incessant SF/airsoft/military geeking. Even managed to organise a mini Team Sheep/DoG Team/Norfolkes drinks reunion on the Sunday evening
    
  • Great new second hand bookstore in East Finchley. Even managed to find a copy of Templer, Tiger of Malaya in there!
    
  • Last weekend: as well as attending the Shakespeare Head meet, aeshna_uk and I also popped along to Camden to see Jon and Peter's band. Most enjoyable performance, venue was a bit crowded though (upstairs room at a pub!). Great also to catch up with them and Liz.