Thursday 2 April 2020

Lockdown Crisis

When I woke up yesterday morning I thought for a moment that the COVID-19 thing might have just been a colossal April Fool’s joke. But alas not so.

Day eight of the lockdown  has dawned as a stunning, sunny autumn morning with barely a breeze, as it has been all week. From my study where I am working I can see neighbours out walking, maintaining social distance of course, and the birds are flitting through the garden searching for worms and bugs. Everything seems blissfully calm and strangely at odds with what is happening on our planet. But today in our household we have a crisis.

It is not a crisis of food or toilet paper, but we have run out of wine.


There certainly isn't a shortage in the country, nor is their panic buying, but no supermarket near us sells alcohol due to licensing restrictions, although approved liqour outlets are open. So her indoors turned up at an approved outlet last week to buy a bottle or three on the understanding that she may have to queue up while only one or two shoppers were allowed in the store at once, which is quite reasonable. When she got there, there is no queue, but a Neanderthal on the door says “ no, you have to order online and pick up at prescribed times.” It would have been really nice if that process had been described  on their website...and five days later it still isn't!

Mercifully a local wine merchant is still open...by shear coincidence an email from him appeared in my inbox as I was still fuming over the Neanderthal’s words. I know number of conspiracy theorists would no tell me that this was no coincidence and it is all a plot by Google and big business to track us and control our purchases, but trust me as long as you keep wearing the aluminium foil skull cap you are perfectly safe. So a dozen bottles were ordered and further stocks, from another supplier, have also been ordered to see us through the lockdown. But they have not arrived! I rang the courier company who told me that they are having to deliver vital supplies first...am I missing something  here...wine isn’t vital?!!!!

Oh well I have officially clocked off now so its time for a walk around the park in the sunshine. Then maybe time for a Campari and soda before dinner.

STOP PRESS!!


The vital supplies have arrived!



Crisis averted!

On the hobby front things have been slow. In part because of the disruption caused by working from home and in part from a desire to preserve some of the lead mountain until there is a little more certainty around ongoing employment. Nonetheless I have completed another two Union dismounted cavalry units. These two, counting twelve figures each, I will count as normal sized units in my vignette based ACW project.





And here are all three units completed so far.


Another nine figures are finished, but I do not have the horse holders for them.

16 comments:

  1. Phew - for a moment there I thought you'd run out of figures to paint! Running out of alcohol is the next biggest crisis possible though! Stay safe Mark.

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    1. I have slowed the pace of my painting, to about half the usual rate to try to string out supply while employment is in doubt. I think I have enough t last into May, possibly June.

      The arrival of the vital supplies has put a smile on the face of her indoors!

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    2. Have you slowed the rate if drinking by the same margin??!

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  2. I am impressed by your creativity on these dismounted cavalry vignettes. So cool! Hope the wine supply holds out,

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    1. Thanks Jonathan. I have had a lot of fun with these guys. The secondary stock of wine has been despatched...I think we will be OK now!

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  3. Glad the crisis was averted, I've only 19 bottles of whisky in the cabinet so I'm getting worried too 😉
    Lovely figures, the vignette basing brings out the best of that set and poses. Very nice indeed.

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    1. 19 bottles is indeed looking dubious. Are you able to stock up online?

      It is quite a lot of fun to get the best mix of poses.

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  4. That must have been a truly frightening moment. I have woken up several mornings now and wondered if it all this had just been a dream as it does feel quite unreal at times. Nice work on the dismounted figures, and great to see you are restocked, with wine at least.

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    1. It was terrifying! Her indoors was quite depressed about it. But that first bottle of Grenache was wonderful...and consumed over dinner al fresco on a stunningly cloudless evening...could be the last time this side of December since daylight saving ends on Sunday...you’d never have thought that there was a hint of bother in the world.

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  5. The dismounted cavalry look ace and good to see crisis averted on the wine front!
    Best Iain

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    1. Thanks Iain. It is bad enough that we can’t go out to dinner, but to dine without wine when all this is going on...is just criminal

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  6. Very nice work on the union troops Mark...you are very lucky that wine EVER turned up....PBT FOR GODS SAKE...you do realise that stands for Please Break This!!!! The seller must be a real tight arse to be using them!

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    1. Maybe you had better put your best salesman jacket on and call on Jean-Christophe when the lockdown ends!

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  7. I am glad a wine based disaster has been averted...
    Fortunately I haven’t had much trouble getting the necessaries... I have even managed to get enough food...
    I have also discovered that the local brewery is doing home deliveries for 5 litre kegs of beer... ;-)...
    I may have to put in a test order....

    The dismounted cavalry look great... Wargaming with vignettes as opposed to a wargames vignette....

    All the best. Aly

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    1. Stress levels were very high yesterday, I can tell you. We aren’t having issues with food either, but then we tend to avoid instant noodles and such like that seem to be the most popular items. The big problem for me is that working from home I tend to snack more, so a weight increase could be the worst effect of the virus.

      I am on enforced leave from next Wednesday (that is leave whereby I am on call and have three “must attend” online meetings - so it is really a sort of working holiday with nowhere to go) and I intend to experiment with some more vignette work for the infantry.

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