So that was 2009...

So here we are, it's New Years Eve, and the only question I have is where the hell did 2009 go???!

It only seemed like yesterday that it was January 1st... the years get quicker and quicker.... I read a theory somewhere that they get faster as you get older as basically you have a greater and greater sense of your own mortality, and as a result you try to squeeze more and more into the same time - they may have a point - I seem to remember spending a lot of my teen years lying in bed and watching the TV, these days I can't lie in bed for more than 5 minutes after I've woken up before I've thought of something I need to do! Personally however, I blame the speeding up of life on mobile phones & Sunday opening.... don't ask... my friends have had to put up with my theory (after a few pints admittedly) far too many times!

It's not even as if I like New Years Eve - I'm convinced the world is divided into people who like Christmas Day, and people who like New Year - I'm definitely the former, and in previous years have been known to disappear off to bed at 9 on New Years Eve! Unfortunately the current Mrs Steve the Wargamer is in the latter camp...

So was 2009 any good??? Yes of course it was... in some ways...

Painting totals were well down (feel free to click on the graphics/tables for a bigger view!):

Only 122 points all year which, to be honest, is quite diabolical when compared with 2008's 473...! I'm not sure why the numbers dropped off, but for sure my painting mojo didn't burn brightly in 2009...

Thinking on it I think it may have been because I had a feeling that I'd hit critical mass on the Marlburian project, and I took the foot off the pedal... hence only 3 units got added this year. Time to reset that mind-set in 2010!

The same happened with the Sudan & AWI projects - I have enough to play most games I want to - the only burning requirements I have are for some Sudan (one?) riverboats, and should anyone ever bring out a decent 15mm Sikh figure suitable for the Sudan then that would definitely find its way to my paint table.. on the AWI front I recently got given some figures that originated from the incorrigible Lofty C's paintbrush - I'm going to use them as Queens Rangers, they just need a little touching up to repair some paint damage.

I can see 2010 being better on the painting front, however, as the ACW project is far from critical mass, two units in less than a month and another is about 30% completed even as we speak..

I always remember the wise words of one of the grognards on the Old School Wargaming group - keep a wargaming project, or period, alive by always making sure you keep painting new units for it, or adding to it!

To be honest though that was the only downside of the year...

We had 81 posts this year - which quite surprised me.. I hadn't thought I'd done much posting so there's the lie to that! Which brings my sum total to 296 posts since I started way back in February or March 2007..

The heart of any blog though is the readers - I don't ever expect anyone to come by this little corner of the web, they're a definite bonus though, and to say I'm slightly chuffed by the following would be an understatement of quite gargantuan proportions:


Not surprisingly the "active" projects are the busiest.... I really must get down to some WWII project updates soon!

...and what visitors... some amazing deeds of kindness this year which were really touching (& I mean that honestly - as an Englishmen we don't do non-cynical well! ) So in no order I'd like to (once again) thank ...

Prinz Geoffrey over at the Cavendaria Blog [click here] for Captain Lucien Verbeek, who will henceforth always be present on my Sudan battlefields... hopefully in not quite so many scrapes as he got into this year...

I'd also like to thank Sir William the Aged [click here] for a totally unprompted parcel of War of the Spanish Succession 15mm goodies that arrived in the post after I'd mentioned that I'd like to try a particular range of figures.... all the way from the US, airmail, and wouldn't accept postage....

...both our true gentlemen of the old school.

Everyone on the Old School Wargaming group [click here] for always informative chat, good manners, and the occasional chuckle...

..and not forgetting DG for some cracking games - both physical and virtual - good chat, and visits to wargame shows in 2009 !! Here's to more in 2010..

Last but by no means least, in what is turning out be some kind of hideous Hollywood thank-you-fest, let us not forget two other major events in 2009 - first, the arrival of "Papillon" which was the culmination of almost a lifetimes ambition, and which has caused me to learn many new things and to take me outside of my comfort zone a few times (which is always a good thing!)



...and second, the arrival of reading glasses in Steve the Wargamer's life () one can only hope that the lack of these is the cause of my painting butchery over the last year!

That's it - see you in 2010 - Happy New Year (he said through gritted teeth)