Carn the Tigers

I'm not going to whinge about sacrifices I'm making to enlighten you all to my squalid little existence over here on the dark side of the world, because frankly, I'm not making any. Fuck me, what is it - at least a few weeks since I updated this?

Actually, I'll be honest. When I first conceived this notion of doing a travel blog, I never thought it would last this long. 12 months - Max. And yet I find myself still in England some 15 months after I first set out, and with just under 3 months left to go on this adventure. That's right folks - I booked my flight home today. 9th October I leave Heathrow behind, and shall arrive back in Australia on Wednesday 10th October at 7:25pm local time. For good.

However, between the time when I turf work on 24th August and 9th October, I plan to visit Eastern Europe, Gibraltar, Scotland, Paris and Ireland. Got my work cut out for me, but we'll see how we go. I've worked out I can fit in everything I want to do - there's also a ton of stuff I'll be doing over the coming weekends here in England, so now that I'm going to be travelling again, we might actually see some regular updates.

To the weekend just gone.

I went down to the Twickenham Stoop - not THE Twickenham Stadium, but rather a smaller stadium next door, which houses Rugby League. I do think it's a disgrace when the proper rugby has to spend time in a pokey little stadium while this so-called gents game gets the big stadium, but nonetheless.

I went there with a bunch of blokes from Wests Tigers to see the Huddersfield Giants take on Harlequins. Basically, a couple of ex-West Tigers players signed for Huddersfield, so they're like the unofficial home of Wests Tigers fans in London. So, I went to see John Skandalis & Shane Elford play, and also to drink with about 20 odd crazed Huddersfield fans who'd come from the deepest dales of Northern England.

Fuck Me.

I died the death last Saturday. I managed to leave the pub, fall onto a train to home and was staggered to wake up in my own bed having no recollection of getting there. I was even more astonished to see perfectly, until I realised that I'd left my contact lenses in overnight.

The hangover was crippling, and the day was magic. Here's the photos.


This is Sincas, Jason and yours truly respectively. Taken at the JD Wetherspoons bar in Twickenham, prior to the game.


Me, amongst all the other boys from Huddersfield and Leichhardt. It was a difficult experience to try and understand the Yorkshire accent after I'd had a skinful - I'm pissed to begin with, and so were they - once they started slurring the odd word it was almost impossible to pick it up.

Now for some shots from the game.


Harlequins on the attack - not that it did them any good.


A bit of cheerleader action.

The final score. Sorry 'Quins - better luck next year.

Nerding it up in Nottingham

Last weekend I made my way back up to Nottingham once more - those of you with long memories might remember that Dan, Nick and I wandered up that way in November last year, to visit the Ye Olde Trip to Jerusalem pub, and to partake of the ale therein.

This time though, it was business instead of pleasure. You see, Nottingham is also home to Games Workshop, the company that created the game of Warhammer, of which I am somewhat of a fan. At their office they maintain what is known as the Warhammer museum, which is basically a collection of various miniatures, which have been painted to the highest possible standard. All good stuff, for a Warhammer junkie like myself.

Not really much else to mention really - it's just a big collection of miniatures, and I spent most of a rainy and cold Saturday looking around them. Then went back to London.

So, how about some photos?

Let's start with the good guys first.


Here we have a random assembly of Empire heroes. These geezers represent one of the two human kingdoms, and are loosely based on the Teutonic kingdoms and the Holy Roman Empire of the medieval era.


Next up, we have the Bretonnians - again, this is another human kingdom, but one based moreso on France. They tend to focus on knights, knights and more knights, all on horseback. It's the sort of army for people who go all doe-eyed at the thought of a damsel in distress.


A very impressive terrain piece, namely the city of Minas Tirith. The model stands about 2 metres tall - it was very visually impressive. This is what Games Workshop is famous for - building the most obscenely excellent terrain pieces for gaming with.




An army of dwarfs, or stunties, as they are commonly known. Dwarfs tend to be the sort of army that doesn't do much moving once they've been placed on the board - they just stand and deliver, and defy any and all attempts to break them.

Now, for the bad guys.


First up, some Nurgle warriors. Nurgle is the Chaos God of death and disease, and so his soldiers always look like rotting diseased types, as shown here.


A Chaos Hellcannon. These, for lack of a better expression, are bloody unpleasant to have to fight against.


A few Orcses - everyone likes Orcses.


A Giant - the Orcs, for some reason, are particularly adept at getting these big bruisers to come and fight alongside them.

Now for a few random bits and pieces...


This is a Bloodbowl stadium - Bloodbowl is a rugby type game played on a game board. Obviously Games Workshop decided that a board wasn't good enough, and made a stadium to game in.


An enormous collection of Tyranid warriors. Think Alien.


The front of the Games Workshop office. The space marine is a bit of a giveaway as to what this company does for a quid.


Me with a friend.


And finally, the limited edition Bugman miniatures I picked up - one for me, one for Dan, and one for Justin.