Guns and washing machines
Thursday: both Poly and Saxon were out of action ie no fencing so I headed up to Whetstone to join colonel_maxim, caddyman and ellefurtle for the weekly pop quiz. Rather embarassingly, it opened up with a question I *should* have known the answer to - the title of the new Indiana Jones film...
Muster (Let's do the time warp again, part 1):
Had to happen - anxious to be away early on Friday afternoon to get to the muster and, sure enough, the weekly status conference call got delayed, not to mention a whole bunch of other stuff piling in (including month and quarter end stuff). Needless to say, a bit of an anxious rush to get home, pile kit into the car, pick up Kate and get to Sheppey. It would seem there's quite a few new roads round there as the GPS got somewhat confused, including showing us as being in the water rather than on a bridge!
Bit of a weird one, this muster. It was Anglo-Dutch Wars rather than English Civil War for a start, with the opposition ie the Dutch were being played by pirate re-enactors (no kidding - didn't look very Dutch...).
In addition, the gunpowder issued was a bit crap. Very coarse and, it would seem, a bit damp so very high rate of misfires. Hell, Frances and I both had a couple of instances where we could see the match go into the primer pan and have the match go out! Bah.
Still, a fun occasion, mostly. Shame that I had to head back Saturday evening to sort out a new washing machine (although handy for Kate who had work the next day).
So, a fun outing but a bit of a disappointment as an end to the season.
Sunday:
Did a quick traipse round the local electrical retailers then met mrmrsmith at the Tube Station to go see a couple of airsoft shops doing final pre-VCR Act Realistic Imitation Firearms regs Sunday openings.
First of all, down to Wolf where I put in a pre-order for another gas blowback Glock 18c (for that matching twin gun John Woo look) and exchange a set of ACUs (wrong size - forgot that US larger <> UK large...).
Next, up to Airsoft Armoury. Fortunately, no more gun purchases but did pick up a few silly accessories - a gas charger designed to look like a grenade, a pair of decent gloves and an AK47 sling (yeah, ended up getting one of the Cyma clones from WW2airsoft - remarkably, despite being UK-based, they were only a fiver or so more expensive than RSOV once shipping was factored in).
Is it so much to ask that something marked as an AK47 sling actually, well, fit an AK47? Seems the front sling attachment point is too small for the leather ends of the sling. Still, nothing that a spare D-ring and clip couldn't cure.
And even managed to confirm order for new washing machine after dropping Shaun off at the Tube station. I should be laundry-capable again Wednesday morning. Guess I'll pick up that parcel being held at the local Post Office then too (strongly suspect it's the Kuomintang kit).
Let's do the timewarp again, part 2
Learned from aeshna_uk it's sushi time again tomorrow. The reason I didn't know was apparently the email was sent to my old Cix address (which was cancelled back in Nov 2005). Also a bit of a small world surprise to learn aeshna_uk was on Cix too!
Let's do the time warp again, part 3
Despite much searching, it looks like, somehow, PocketLJ has launched a post I did about my Birthday into the void. Guess I'd better try and reconstitute it from memory.
Muster (Let's do the time warp again, part 1):
Had to happen - anxious to be away early on Friday afternoon to get to the muster and, sure enough, the weekly status conference call got delayed, not to mention a whole bunch of other stuff piling in (including month and quarter end stuff). Needless to say, a bit of an anxious rush to get home, pile kit into the car, pick up Kate and get to Sheppey. It would seem there's quite a few new roads round there as the GPS got somewhat confused, including showing us as being in the water rather than on a bridge!
Bit of a weird one, this muster. It was Anglo-Dutch Wars rather than English Civil War for a start, with the opposition ie the Dutch were being played by pirate re-enactors (no kidding - didn't look very Dutch...).
In addition, the gunpowder issued was a bit crap. Very coarse and, it would seem, a bit damp so very high rate of misfires. Hell, Frances and I both had a couple of instances where we could see the match go into the primer pan and have the match go out! Bah.
Still, a fun occasion, mostly. Shame that I had to head back Saturday evening to sort out a new washing machine (although handy for Kate who had work the next day).
So, a fun outing but a bit of a disappointment as an end to the season.
Sunday:
Did a quick traipse round the local electrical retailers then met mrmrsmith at the Tube Station to go see a couple of airsoft shops doing final pre-VCR Act Realistic Imitation Firearms regs Sunday openings.
First of all, down to Wolf where I put in a pre-order for another gas blowback Glock 18c (for that matching twin gun John Woo look) and exchange a set of ACUs (wrong size - forgot that US larger <> UK large...).
Next, up to Airsoft Armoury. Fortunately, no more gun purchases but did pick up a few silly accessories - a gas charger designed to look like a grenade, a pair of decent gloves and an AK47 sling (yeah, ended up getting one of the Cyma clones from WW2airsoft - remarkably, despite being UK-based, they were only a fiver or so more expensive than RSOV once shipping was factored in).
Is it so much to ask that something marked as an AK47 sling actually, well, fit an AK47? Seems the front sling attachment point is too small for the leather ends of the sling. Still, nothing that a spare D-ring and clip couldn't cure.
And even managed to confirm order for new washing machine after dropping Shaun off at the Tube station. I should be laundry-capable again Wednesday morning. Guess I'll pick up that parcel being held at the local Post Office then too (strongly suspect it's the Kuomintang kit).
Let's do the timewarp again, part 2
Learned from aeshna_uk it's sushi time again tomorrow. The reason I didn't know was apparently the email was sent to my old Cix address (which was cancelled back in Nov 2005). Also a bit of a small world surprise to learn aeshna_uk was on Cix too!
Let's do the time warp again, part 3
Despite much searching, it looks like, somehow, PocketLJ has launched a post I did about my Birthday into the void. Guess I'd better try and reconstitute it from memory.