I'm Back ... Sort Of

What ho, chumrades!

I took a three week break from blogging and blog visiting and I’ve missed you all.  

Regular visitors here will know that I’ve been slogging away at my MA thesis as I get ready to finish a two study leave from the Canadian Armed Forces.   My fate would be dim if I had to go back to work in May and didn’t have a diploma to justify this paid holiday as a long-haired hippy grad student.  I’m happy to say that the first draft got completed and sent to my thesis director two days ago, after three weeks of long days, seven days a week.  Uggh.  So that’s done, and for the next week I’ll tidy it up and get it to the rest of my committee.  Hopefully a defence date in April and graduation in May.

It was on Tuesday, as I was driving into campus to drop off the thesis, that I started feeling jolly unpleasant.   Several days previously I had turned to Madame Padre and said, “I think my flu shot worked.  Winter’s almost over and I haven’t gotten sick.”   Never ever say something like that, chumrades.   You never know who’s listening.  I’ve only just started to feel  halfway decent today.  I was planning to spend yesterday in a day long painting holiday, but spend most of it in bed, alternately chilled and sweating.    Hopefully I’ll have the energy and inclination to pick up a brush soon. I did however get to play a bit with the Consim Press U-Boat solitaire game The Hunters and found it terrific fun.  More to follow on that.

I now have some idea of what my assignment will be when I go back into uniform, and I’m happy with it, but the downside is that it will likely be two moves in the next three years if the unit I’m going to moves in 2016 as planned.  Hard luck for the poor toy soldiers, not to mention Madame Padre’s plants.  Again, more to follow.

Among the many things I haven’t blogged about of late was a piece of very happy news thanks to the talented and generous Pete Barlow.

Back in January Pete ran a contest on his blog to name a very handsome Viking warrior he had sketched.  I was delighted to learn I was the winner, and that his name would be my late dad’s third Christian name, Sloss, which he was given to remember his Scottish (and possibly Viking) ancestry.   Pete and I agreed on a slight variation on the prize, and I look forward to saying more on that when the very kind and busy Pete can get to it.

I was also delighted to learn that the prizes from my Diplomacy game run last year have arrived safely.   Here’s one of them, now named “Bertie”, inspecting his new home in Australia.  Looks like quite a cushy billet if you ask me.

Be well.

MP+