Guest blogging

Some time ago I was asked by fellow blogger Antoine Vanner to write a blog post for his blog, THE DAWLISH CHRONICLES. (I wrote about the flakships used by the German Navy during the Second World War).

Asking another wargamer to write a guest blog post for this blog had never really crossed my mind until recently, but when Marc Pavone asked me if I would like to upload a battle report he had written to my blog, I immediately thought that it was an excellent idea … and it will be appearing either tomorrow or on Sunday … so watch this space!

Only five more sessions of radiotherapy!

I now only have five more sessions of radiotherapy to go before my treatment will end ... and I can hardly wait to get back to what passes for normal.

I seem to have lived the past eight weeks with what I can best describe as having my brakes on. The weekends have not been too bad, but during the week my life seems to have been dominated by the need to keep hydrated (which is essential for my treatment to be successful) and visiting the hospital.

Yesterday was a good example of a typical weekday for me. After getting up and eating breakfast, I did about half an hour renovating some 20mm Russian figures for my Eastern Front/Great Patriotic War project. It was then time to have a drink of water. Having consumed about 200ml, I then read and answered my emails ... and had another 200ml of water.

This pattern of doing something (e.g. thirty minutes of gardening, about the same amount of time watching the TV news etc.) interspersed with drinking water continued until lunchtime, after which – at 2.00pm – I set off for the hospital. I got there about an hour before my treatment session was due so that there was time for me to have my bladder to be scanned using the ultrasound scanner and for me to 'fill up' with more water should the need arise. As it turned out, I did need to take in more water.

In order to give the water I had drunk time to pass through my system, I went to the review session I was due to have with one of the senior radiotherapists. After that I returned to the radiotherapy area where my bladder was scanned for a second time. It was still not full enough, and I had to wait another thirty minutes before it was. By this time it was almost 4.30pm and I didn't actually get changed until 4.45pm. As a result, I did not get treated until nearly 5.00pm ... and it was close to 5.20pm before I was dressed and on my way back to my car to drive home. The traffic was quite heavy, and it was almost 6.00pm when I arrived home and had parked my car ... nearly four hours after I had left for the hospital.

By the time I did get home I was feeling very tired and had little enthusiasm to do very much. I did try to do some work on a talk I am writing about Sir Artur Conan Doyle, but after about half an hour I began to feel drowsy and stopped. I then spent the rest of the evening eating or watching TV.

I think that most people could cope with this sort of regime for several days or even a couple of weeks ... but eight weeks of doing this has proven to be very physically, emotionally, and mentally draining. At least I can se the light at the end of the tunnel ... and I know that it isn't a train hurtling towards me!

When Empires Clash!: Deal of the Day on Wargame Vault

From 10.00am US Central time today, WHEN EMPIRES CLASH! will be the Deal of the Day on WarGameVault.com for the remarkably low price of $1.24.

These rules were a forerunner of my PORTABLE WARGAME rules and contain some useful Army Lists that can be used with the PORTABLE COLONIAL WARGAME rules.

Toy Soldier Collector & Historical Figures magazine: October/November issue No.113

This is a magazine that I would not normally have bought, but this issue contains two articles that are of interest to me.

The first was written by Paul Wright, and is about the latest, revised edition of his book FUNNY LITTLE WARS. I’ve fought several wargames with Paul (including a refight of the Battle of Waterloo on the lawn of a large house in the centre of London) and played a small part in the process that lead to his book’s publication.

The second was an obituary written by James Opie about John Ruddle. I knew that John had been an avid collector of Britains toy soldiers and had used them to fight his garden wargames, but I wasn’t aware of his importance in the development of the BMSS (British Model Soldier Society) and the creation of a national toy soldier collection.

A slight bump in the road to recovery

My thirty-seven radiotherapy sessions should have ended on Friday 20th October, but the end date has just been put back to Monday 23rd October.

When I got to the hospital yesterday, I was informed that due to problems with one of the linear accelerators, today’s session was going to have to be cancelled and another added to the end of my treatment cycle. Apparently, whilst it was undergoing regular maintenance and recalibration, one of the main components was broken … and the replacement had to be sourced from Belgium.

Hopefully, the broken linear accelerator will be fixed by Wednesday … but if it isn’t, I might end up having my other radiotherapy sessions rescheduled and my treatment cycle might stretch well into the last week of the month.

This situation is unfortunate but also unavoidable. The staff are doing their best to deal with the problem, and I understand that they may have to work longer shifts and/or give up one of the weekend days off. There are, however, limitations to the number of hours the working linear accelerator can operate for before it will need routine maintenance, so a delicate balance has to be maintained between the demand to deliver radiotherapy sessions and the need to keep the remaining machine within its operating parameters.

John Ruddle RIP

It was with great sadness that I read that John Ruddle, the doyen of garden wargamers, died recently. Although I never met him, the photographs and articles about his outdoor wargames have inspired me over the years, and more recently spurred me to develop my Belle Époque project.

May he rest in peace in the great wargame garden above.

Ennui … and coping with it

The online dictionary defines ennui as:

'A feeling of listlessness and dissatisfaction arising from a lack of occupation or excitement.'

This is an apt description of how I have been feeling recently. I want to do wargaming-related things but feel little or no motivation to turn that desire into meaningful activity. When I ask myself why, I cannot come up with any reason other than I feel mentally exhausted and physically tired almost all the time.

Various online sources (including the NHS, Cancer Research UK, and Macmillan Cancer Care) all identify loss of concentration and fatigue as two of the common side effects of radiotherapy and state that they often begin to make themselves felt two or three weeks after treatment has started. This would seem to be why I am currently experiencing ennui. The good thing is that they also state that this feeling should diminish once treatment is over, and that sufferers should return to normal within a fortnight to a month.

So, it looks as though for the next two months or so I will have to do what I can on the wargaming front as and when I feel up to it. Luckily, at present my ennui has not stopped me doing a bit of painting, slowly making all sorts of plans, or coming up with ideas for my existing projects ... and I hope to be able to regularly share what I have managed to do with my blog readers.

---

It’s interesting to note that Big Lee has recently been experiencing health problems that curtailed his wargaming activity for a period, and his recent YouTube video discusses how wargaming has helped him to cope.

Nugget 356

I collected the latest issue of THE NUGGET from our printer – Macaulay Scott Printing Company of Welling, Kent – yesterday, and I will be posting it out to members later today.

I have sent the PDF copy to the webmaster, and with luck members should be able to read this issue online at some point over the next few days.

---

IMPORTANT: Please note that this is the second issue of THE NUGGET to be published for the 2023-2024 subscription year.

If you have not yet re-subscribed, an email reminder was sent to you some time ago with the relevant information you require to do so. If you have lost this and wish to re-subscribe or you are a new subscriber, please request a PayPal invoice or the bank transfer information from the Treasurer or follow the instructions on the relevant page of the website.

Halfway to paradise? Not quite … but certainly halfway through my radiotherapy.

This afternoon I will be undertaking my nineteenth session of radiotherapy … and I will only have another eighteen to do!

Being someone who likes to plan their time, I do find the fact that to date my treatment times have varied each day by up to four hours a bit difficult to plan around. I have to make sure that I arrive at the hospital fully hydrated, which means drinking at least 1.5 litres of water beforehand, and as it takes between twenty minutes and an hour to get there, I have to leave home at least an hour before my appointment. I have yet to be treated at the appointment time as even after hydrating as best I can, I usually have to ‘top up’ my fluid intake before treatment can take place.

The radiotherapy takes about fifteen minutes. Once I’ve been positioned on the treatment table by the radiotherapists, they leave the room and conduct a short CT scan, which they overlay on my original CT scan to ensure that I’m exactly in the right position. The X-ray treatment then takes place. This is performed using a linear accelerator, and once it is complete, I’m free to go home … usually after a swift trip to the loo!

To date, most of my appointments have been either early in the afternoon or later in the afternoon. If it is during the early afternoon, I either have to eat lunch before I go – which can interfere with my hydration – or delay it until I get back … which can be as late as 3.30pm. If it is during the late afternoon, my journey to the hospital often coincides with the school run and my journey home takes place during the rush hour.

To date, my worst experience was leaving home at 2.00pm and returning home just after 6.00pm, and on average the whole thing takes three hours. That said, at least I’m not having to travel up to Guy’s Hospital at London Bridge for my treatment, which would have taken far longer.

Nugget 356

The editor of THE NUGGET sent me the latest issue on Saturday, and I will be sending it to the printer on Monday morning. I hope that it will be ready to be posted out to members by the end of the week.

---

IMPORTANT: Please note that this is the second issue of THE NUGGET to be published for the 2023-2024 subscription year.

If you have not yet re-subscribed, an email reminder was sent to you some time ago with the relevant information you require to do so. If you have lost this and wish to re-subscribe or you are a new subscriber, please request a PayPal invoice or the bank transfer information from the Treasurer or follow the instructions on the relevant page of the website.