But before that lets look back at what happened last year, 2016. It started with health worries that saw me start to get out more, to eat better and look after myself after years of... well not. Turned out I didn't have to worry quite as much as I thought (which was a relief!) but I did at least take on some of the improvements.
I get out and about more; I have found a real enjoyment for being outside and breathing fresh air and while I don't think I will ever run a marathon I can see me being a fair weather runner as well.
The return to painting has been great and I am really happy with the level of painting I have achieved and its really nice to look back at older models and see how much I have improved. More importantly I have really enjoyed it and the time I spend painting has really helped me relax. I still get distracted and don't manage to do as much as I would like but I can see it improving.
I started clay pigeon shooting (OK it was at the very very end of the year before but meh) and while I don't think I will ever win any trophies its another hobby that I enjoy, gets me out in the air and lets me completely switch off from everything else.
Work has seen my move from one corner of the country to the other meaning I am still lodging away in the week which cramps my painting a little. Perhaps one of the things for this year will be to come up with a mobile painting kit? Who knows.
Beyond me the things that influence me have been changing dramatically. Games Workshop! Oh my goodness but they have pulled it out of the bag. I had thought that ending the Old World and the start of the Age of Sigmar was the biggest mistake they could make. I loved the fluff, the stories, the history of the Old World and I saw GW as a mad man burning all that down. Now? Well I have had a little revelation.
The Old World is alive and well. Its still there. Its not gone. No more than any point in time is "gone". We (and I am generalising for the audience I think you are here) don't have any problem with the thought of gaming, painting, modelling and experiencing the American Civil War (ACW) period, the Napoleonic War, The Crusades, The English Civil War (ECW) even though they are long gone. Writers don't have any trouble setting their fiction in these periods and we love to read it. So why should the Old World be any different?
And that was all it needed in my head. The Old World is still that place of passion and joy I had known and because of that, The Age of Sigmar and the Mortal Realms could become something other than "the thing that killed my dreams". Dramatic huh?
I am still waiting on AOS providing me some of the things that show me how me a normal mortal fits into the world, culture, civilisation, trade, commerce and corruption. The farmers and builders need to be shown a bit more to give me a sense of conenction but apart from that I can already feel a draw to AOS and getting into it more than I perhaps did in WHFB the game and hopefully then the fluff as well.
I am going to leave 2016 there but to close I think its been a good year and I can feel 2017 going forward from it too.
The return to painting has been great and I am really happy with the level of painting I have achieved and its really nice to look back at older models and see how much I have improved. More importantly I have really enjoyed it and the time I spend painting has really helped me relax. I still get distracted and don't manage to do as much as I would like but I can see it improving.
I started clay pigeon shooting (OK it was at the very very end of the year before but meh) and while I don't think I will ever win any trophies its another hobby that I enjoy, gets me out in the air and lets me completely switch off from everything else.
Work has seen my move from one corner of the country to the other meaning I am still lodging away in the week which cramps my painting a little. Perhaps one of the things for this year will be to come up with a mobile painting kit? Who knows.
Beyond me the things that influence me have been changing dramatically. Games Workshop! Oh my goodness but they have pulled it out of the bag. I had thought that ending the Old World and the start of the Age of Sigmar was the biggest mistake they could make. I loved the fluff, the stories, the history of the Old World and I saw GW as a mad man burning all that down. Now? Well I have had a little revelation.
The Old World is alive and well. Its still there. Its not gone. No more than any point in time is "gone". We (and I am generalising for the audience I think you are here) don't have any problem with the thought of gaming, painting, modelling and experiencing the American Civil War (ACW) period, the Napoleonic War, The Crusades, The English Civil War (ECW) even though they are long gone. Writers don't have any trouble setting their fiction in these periods and we love to read it. So why should the Old World be any different?
And that was all it needed in my head. The Old World is still that place of passion and joy I had known and because of that, The Age of Sigmar and the Mortal Realms could become something other than "the thing that killed my dreams". Dramatic huh?
I am still waiting on AOS providing me some of the things that show me how me a normal mortal fits into the world, culture, civilisation, trade, commerce and corruption. The farmers and builders need to be shown a bit more to give me a sense of conenction but apart from that I can already feel a draw to AOS and getting into it more than I perhaps did in WHFB the game and hopefully then the fluff as well.
I am going to leave 2016 there but to close I think its been a good year and I can feel 2017 going forward from it too.
