MUSICAL MONDAY: Bangaranga (DARA)

Here it is: the winner of the weekend's 70th annual Eurovision Song Contest.

In the "home jury", both Rachel and I gave this one our top scores and so were delighted - and rather surprised - that the bouncy Bangaranga actually won the contest.

Our scoresheets for the evening - Rachel even made notes!

Sadly, the UK's Look Mum No Computer (which we'd voted into second place) ended up at the bottom of the 25 acts participating in the grand final, with just a single point.

In comparison, DARA scored 516 points - the biggest margin over second place in the history of Eurovision.

See below for the final tally, which includes both the international juries' and the public votes.

HEALTH UPDATE: If It's Not One Thing, It's Another

Image by Alfred Derks from Pixabay

The first - and best - thing that happened this week was rescheduling my steroid injections. This had been the primary motivator of my drastic diet changes and it paid off.

I rang the hospital, spoke to a lovely woman in the Pain Clinic, and told her my new blood sugar count.

She offered me the choice of going on a waiting list for the doctor I had seen previously or an early morning appointment at the start of next month with a different doctor.

What the phrase Pain Clinic always
conjures up in my twisted mind

I really wanted to stay with the doctor I knew (fear of change and all that), but I also wanted to get this matter resolved ASAP.

So, quite heroically I thought, I opted for the Pain Clinic appointment in June.

Hopefully, these shots into my lumbar facet joints will ease the extreme pain in my back so I can do more vigorous exercises to help keep the discomfort at bay for the long-term.

I should also point out that I made the call to the hospital using my mobile phone - like a real 21st Century person.

The night before I'd woken at about 3am in a panic about not having a landline for the foreseeable future and used my phone to log into my mobile account (which I'd never actually looked at before)... and found I had "free minutes" every month.

Yes, I knew about these mythical things, but always thought there was a catch. There isn't. A minute is a minute.

That's put me at ease about both my appointment at the hospital and using my phone in lieu of the landline.

However, that state of contentment didn't last too long as I was getting texts from the NHS eye clinic about my test the other week - but I couldn't open them, either directly on my phone or through the NHS app.

Then I got a severe-sounding message that said I needed to go for a new test at a different hospital... and I overreacted. To put it mildly.

Picture from Pixabay

Fearing the worst (i.e. I was going blind), I catastrophised straight from calm to Def Con Freak Out.

I called Rachel and she managed to talk me back down, then went off to get in touch with the hospital I was being directed to. 

[The extra embarrassing aspect of this was that I talking to Rachel via a video link and so her entire office could see - and hear - my rather lengthy emotional breakdown.]

It turns out the pictures of the interior of my eye that had been taken the other day weren't good enough and therefore I was being sent to a hospital unit with better equipment. 

Rachel was also told that the "portal" the eye service used to communicate with patients wasn't the same as the general NHS one that I was used to using, and could be a bit "temperamental".

As Rachel calmly explained all this to me, I could feel my mental dials turning down to a normal level again. 

I, honestly, don't know what I would do without my wonderful wife.

Annoyingly, my INR was up again (even higher than last week) which means the weekly check-ups will continue for a while.

And I'm concerned that, if it doesn't sink back down into my target range (through subtle changes in the amount of daily medication I take for it), that might also screw up my spinal injections!

I was specifically asked about INR when I rescheduled my jabs - and told I might need to be tested before the procedure could go ahead.

The fun never ends.

"Half a Year, Half a Year, Half a Year Onward..."

Photo by NASA Hubble Space Telescope on Unsplash

Apologies to Alfred, Lord Tennyson for butchering his iconic opening to The Charge of The Light Brigade for the sake of a cheeky headline.

This blog has now been on "active duty" for six months now... and seems to be ticking over nicely.

To be honest, it actually feels much longer, like the gravitational pull of a black hole warping my perception of time. On one hand life is racing by at an accelerated rate, while on the other the blog wades slowly through treacle.

I realise this iteration of my blogging 'career' has grown out of the detritus and chaos left by my previous near twenty years of blogging, but I somehow fooled myself into thinking that that would make it easier to stay focussed on what I wanted this new edition to be.

This has not been the case.

Of course, I wish there was more tabletop roleplaying gaming material on it, as that was one of the main reasons for returning to the bloggosphere and it's always been where, I felt, I was the most creative.

Previous blogs have boasted gameable material, monsters, magic, and houserules as and when such tickled my fancy or I was suitably inspired. But so far - for the reasons I mentioned the other day - there's been bupkis.

I also wish my health - both physical and mental - was in a better place, but ultimately that's all down to me ensuring I pull my finger out and take positive steps to alleviate those issues.

The erratic heartbeat of the blog's views/hit count over six months

Behind-the-scenes, a conversation the other month with Tim Brannan (of The Other Side) finally managed to rid myself of my obsession with "hits" and where they were coming from.

Looking at the views individual posts are getting also paints a very different picture to the occasional tidal wave of bots scraping the blog as a whole for whatever it is they think they might find here.

Each article gets a pretty consistent amount of visitors that I'm very happy with. When you look at the blog's widgets charting "popular posts" for the week, the "scores" that separate each are usually only one or two hits apart.

These days I'm much more focussed on getting comments - either directly on the blog or on Facebook (where I promote all my posts). Comments, for me, are the lifeblood of blogging and the best, most genuine, reflection of a true connection with your readership.

Obviously, I'd prefer more people left messages on the actual blog, but Facebook has the bonus that readers can simply react to a post without the necessity of sharing their more detailed thoughts on my nonsense. 

Maybe, eventually, I'll write something revolutionary and suddenly my site will blow up with large-scale, genuine engagement, but in the real world I'm more than content to just keep posting my posts for my circle of friends and acquaintances. 

As this new blog continues to grow, I would like to develop that hardcore band of followers - my posse, if you will.

My goal is for "quality" over "quantity". As I've just said, I'm not striving for hits and clicks. Just a coterie of readers willing to interact with my babble, offer constructive criticism, and engage in conversations.

Look to the right and you will see in the side column (below the current 'featured article') a widget entitled Join The Posse. Under avatars for my current Followers is a button marked Follow.

Simply press that and - all being well - your avatar will join the ranks of this group of brave heroes.

I do think you'll need a Google account for this to work (Blogger, after all, is a Google thing).

Not only does this mean that my expertly crafted prose will appear in your Google "Reading List" but it demonstrates to me that you're interested in my waffle and support what I'm doing (without having to part with a single red cent, sign up to Patreon, or back my Kickstarter).

Since I last brought this subject up, I've had two new recruits join our happy little party: my best mate, Paul, and my old online pal Ivy aka The Happy Whisk.

THROWBACK THURSDAY: Faking Family History

The brave solider poses with his gorgeous wife before heading off to war

Short of the amazing props made by people like the HP Lovecraft Historical Society and the contributors to the fabulous Propnomicon blog, old photographs are among the best tools to add an air of verisimilitude to role-playing games set sometime during the last century or so.

However, not everyone has a family history full of explorers, gunfighters and soldiers and this is where those rare photographic studios that offer 'olde time' pictures come in handy.

With a range of period props and costumes, you can create a slice of history - in sepia - that your family never knew it had... and then use the pictures as the basis for role-playing characters!

Timmy The Flea

Whenever I come across one of these studios, I like to take the opportunity to get dressed up and pose for an old time picture. Not only do these make for interesting 'conversation' pieces when displayed around the home (I'm beginning to sound like an advert!), but they are unique role-playing props.

It's not cheap (the last one Rachel and I had done cost £32 at the National History Museum of Wales around 20 years ago), but then again you don't find these specialist studios in every High Street or on street corners.

We're not talking about those online apps where your head gets badly Photoshopped into a fake film poster; this is the full works, as you can see from my examples above, and each one conjures up a string of stories and possible scenarios.

And I know these days you can do this via AI, but that can be very hit and miss - as well as being ethically dubious.

There used to be a photographic studio in the Trocadero Centre in London, which was stocked with Wild West and gangster costumes (Pete has a picture of him and some friends as 1920's Chicago gangsters in his stairwell), but that closed many years ago.

If you happen to stumble upon one of these places, and are looking for that special prop for your role-playing game, an 'old time' picture is a worthy investment of cash (obviously it doubles as an actual souvenir as well!)... and who doesn't like dressing up every now and again?

Timmy The Flea's Hole-In-The-Head gang portrait

Spider-Man: Behind-The-Scenes

After the record-breaking global success of Spider-Man: No Way Home, Spider-Man: Brand New Day marks an entirely new chapter for Peter Parker and Spider-Man.

Four years have passed since the events of No Way Home, and Peter is now an adult living entirely alone, having voluntarily erased himself from the lives and memories of those he loves.

Crime-fighting in a New York that no longer knows his name, he's devoted himself entirely to protecting his city — a full-time Spider-Man — but as the demands on him intensify, the pressure sparks a surprising physical evolution that threatens his existence, even as a strange new pattern of crimes gives rise to one of the most powerful threats he has ever faced.

More Blood and Souls For My Lord Arioch!

Michael Moorcock's Elric may not have been my (post-Tolkien) introduction to the sword-and-sorcery genre (that honour rests with Fritz Leiber's Fafhrd and The Gray Mouser), it was Moorcock's work that truly shaped my taste in reading.

I haven't read any Leiber in an age, but I often revisit the twisted, hallucinogenic, weird fantasy adventures of Elric of Melniboné and The Young Kingdoms.

There's something about the succinctness of Moorcock's early tales of Elric and his soul-devouring sword Stormbringer that I've always found more enchanting than the doorstop tomes so prevalent today.

It was after years of reading Moorcock that I instituted my "Moorcock Rule" (more of a guideline)  that stated that a book REALLY had to work hard to justify itself if it ran longer than 150-200 pages. 

That said, I've never used the Young Kingdoms - nor any of the trappings of Elric's adventures (even Stormbringer, itself) - in my own roleplaying games. 

I don't own a copy of Chaosium's Stormbringer/Elric of Melniboné RPGs (1981 - 2010). I've looked into it in the last couple of decades but those books generally command silly money on the secondary market.

However, in recent weeks, both Goodman Games and Free League have announced they will be releasing games based on this IP next year (after crowdfunding campaigns).

Goodman Games is planning two different iterations: one using Dungeons & Dragons 5e and one using Dungeon Crawl Classics. While I feel the latter system is probably more suited to emulating the demon-fuelled magic of Elric's world, neither of these systems really tickle my fancy at the moment.

However, my interest is well-and-truly piqued by Free League's offering, Legends of Stormbringer, which will run on the Dragonbane engine. 

I know I keep saying I'm out of the buying new games side of the hobby, but to quote Michael Corleone in The Godfather, Part III:

"Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in."

Dragonbane isn't a game I'm particularly familiar with, except from second hand accounts which are a generally overwhelmingly positive... with a few minor niggles about some of the mechanics.

A translated version of Drakar och Demoner, a game system played in Scandinavia since 1982, Dragonbane's definitely been at the top of my "must check out the starter set" list since it was first released in English in 2023.

This recent announcement might be the nudge I "needed" to pull the trigger on yet another game that I may - or may not - run for the Tuesday Knights.

You can read about Free League's forthcoming Stormbringer offering (and a bit about Dragonbane) here.

WHO IS HE-MAN?

Figuring Out My Mummy Issues

It's a definite truism - and a meme - that as you grow older people are less inclined to ask you your favourite dinosaur (it's a diplodocus, by the way) but I've realised the same is true for your favourite monster. Specifically the original Universal Monsters.

I've been thinking about this a lot recently. Not sure exactly why. 

I'm pretty certain my friend, the author Charles R Rutledge would say Dracula, but I really had to put my thinking head on before it struck me which monster I'm most fascinated by.

The Mummy.

Although my favourite old Universal monster movie is, of course, the marvellous Bride of Frankenstein, the actual Bride is only really on-screen for around five minutes.

However, The Mummy is ubiquitous in films, comics, games etc. 

I even did a whole series of Show Me The Mummy movie reviews... and am planning a second such collection of write-ups in due course.

The Mummy was also a key antagonist in both issues of my DIY comic, Monster Mag, that I created as a youngling. For instance, in the first issue it easily defeated the Hulk! You can find issue one here and issue two here. 

From the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons
Monster Manual, pg 72

And I've always been a fan of mummies as monsters in the old school Dungeons & Dragons games of my youth (really must bring them back at some point!).

There were some grand pyramid-themed dungeons in old issues of the Judges Guild magazines around at the time.

But all this has culminated in Rachel buying me a most incredible present the other day: the Ultimate Mummy action figure of Boris Karloff's portrayal in the the original 1932 film.

After thanking her profusely, I excitedly told her I now had an excuse to pick up the Ardath Bey figure and the sarcophagus accessory pack!

There is a rule (well, more of a guideline) in this house that my action figures are "tolerated" as long as they are not kept in their boxes, but put out on display.

However, at the moment, I'm so in awe of my Mummy figure that I can't bring myself to open it quite yet.

I also think I might have a new idea for a theme for my protracted castle tower project as well (inspired by the Egyptian Collection at Lord Carnarvon's Highclere Castle [aka Downtown Abbey])! 

SO MANY DOGS!!!

I love Newfies - I just wish they didn't drool quite so much! 🤣

A cold wind blew us to Hever Castle yesterday for the return of Castle Canines (formerly Paws At The Castle).

This was the first time the venue had hosted its dog show in over five years (apparently there's a new management team in charge of the site) and it was clearly much in demand as, it appeared, probably more than 50 percent of attendees had brought their own dogs along with them.

In fact, Rachel and I were quite taken aback (in a good way) by the sheer number of dogs wandering the grounds. Neither of us had ever seen so many pooches in one place... and yet Alice still managed to garner plenty of attention.

Our first stop was the 'meet and greet' with the giant Newfoundlands, who we would later see demonstrating their life-saving skills in the freezing cold lake.

Newfy water rescue demonstration

Then it was a general meander through the castle grounds, oohing and aahing at cuteness on display.

During our stay we spotted a former (human) participant in Channel Four's amazing series, The Dog House, as well as - no, honestly - an elderly duck that had appeared in the Disney live-action version of Beauty and The Beast. It was that kind of wonderful, very British, very random event.

The huskies were very chilled

The weather wasn't a friend to the poor people serving puppy ice creams and desserts

However, mid-afternoon, the heavens opened signalling a mass exodus from Castle Canines. We'd managed three hours though, with a lot of walking around and standing, and I'm pretty sure we'd seen everything we wanted to.

Hopefully next year the weather will be better for the dog show and it, once again, becomes a regular fixture of the castle's calendar of events.

It was also great to have simply gotten back to Hever Castle, having missed all of last year's events because of my stupid back problems.

A family portrait

HEALTH UPDATE: Highs, Lows, and Everything In Between

Picture by Ahmet Bozkus

There are some days when I really miss the typewriters and corded telephones of my formative years.

Somehow, I have found myself in a dispute with TalkTalk - our phone and Internet providers - after they accidentally cut off our landline.

This is the culmination of almost a year's worth of exchanges with them about changes they were talking about making to our line.

I was reassured numerous times that I wouldn't have to do anything, our line wouldn't be cut off and, anyway, they couldn't do it without our express permission.

Then, the other day, they cut us off.

A TalkTalk-appointed engineer came out, checked our set-up, and proclaimed that the fault was not at our end.

However, when I went back to TalkTalk the random person I ended up in a conversation with contradicted everything I'd previously been told - including by the engineer - and said we did have to do some rejigging of the set-up ourselves.

The conversation did not go well.

But, ultimately, this is very first world problems and small potatoes compared to the real hardships that several of my friends are currently going through.

So, after the initial fury and moaning to Rachel, I'm kinda letting it slide for the moment. 

Although it is frustrating not being able to call people on the landline (yes, I know that's very 20th Century, but I'm an old geezer and, even now, don't really understand a lot about mobile phones).

In more positive news, when it came to receiving the first of my recent medical test results this week, even the nurse was impressed.

This was for my blood sugars. My target score is 48 (I think this is HbA1c aka glycated haemoglobin) and my previous result had been a shocking 60 (my worst ever, according to a previous nurse).

However, after three months of dieting I've brought my score down to 49.

Now, I've just got to keep going.

Unfortunately, a few days later I went for my regular INR (blood thickness) test and after months of stability, my score was now above my target range... meaning I'm back to weekly tests for a while.

The only reason the nurse and I could come up with for this change was, in fact, the impact of my new diet! 

Swings and roundabouts, eh?

Top Ten Ray Harryhausen Creations

In the week that marked the anniversary of his passing in 2013, what better time to celebrate the creations of the godfather of stop-motion: Ray Harryhausen.

THROWBACK THURSDAY: At The Cinema With...

Pre-demolition: The derelict site of the former ABC Cinema in central Tunbridge Wells

These days I rarely see any movies at the cinema. I count myself 'lucky' if I manage the trip once in a 12-month period.

However there was a time - when I had a job - that I'd pop in to the cinema almost every week.

While the Tunbridge Wells town centre cinema (pictured above, years ago and well past its prime, and now - after a lot of faffing about - demolished) was still open, and I was friends with the manager, I saw pretty much everything that came out.

Of course, at the time, I was entertainments' editor for the local paper and self-appointed cinema critic.

I even had my own regular - and well-read (if not well-written) - column: At The Cinema With...

But when Odeon bought out the site then closed it so it didn't draw audiences away from their new, dismal, overpriced grottiplex on the out-of-town industrial estate, the rot started to set in.

I still went reasonably regularly, even though I had to pay(!), and got to see pretty much everything that interested me.

These days, now that I can't drive, it's just too much hassle. It's expensive, as well as inconvenient... and there are "other people" there when I'm trying to watch films.

To mangle Jean-Paul Sartre: "Hell is other people."

Despite what you might see elsewhere (in some movies, actually) watching a film is NOT a social experience, especially when you're paying the sort of money now being asked just to get through the doors.

If I've made the effort to go and see a film, I don't want to hear other people chattering, whooping, parroting dialogue, munching popcorn etc

I want to be in my own little bubble where I can sink into the story unfolding before my eyes.

And remember, more often that not, the people telling you that you HAVE to see a film on the big screen are those who will benefit financially from your inconvenience.

Truth be told - and it's probably a product of my age as much as anything - I find that far easier to do at home these days.

With the advances in home entertainment - the quality of TV screens and Blu-Rays, for instance - there is no longer the need to go to the cinema and pay a fortune to get annoyed with the unappreciative crowds of oiks who treat it as a social club.

Sure, I'll have to wait two or three months (sometimes a bit longer) for the movies I want to see to come out on Blu-Ray, Netflix, Prime Video, Sky Cinema etc, but I've realised I don't mind waiting.

It's a small price to pay for being able to watch a film how I want to, in comfortable surroundings with minimum distractions.

"Watch Out for That First Step, It's a Doozy!"

After a young man gets separated from his friends while in the woods, he falls into a 10-foot deep pit of spikes, impaling him through the leg, and leaving him trapped. He quickly learns that his fall was not an accident.

Pitfall is a survival horror film starring Richard Harmon, Alexandra Essoe, and Randy Couture. In Theatres May 29.

Sometimes the simple ideas are the best. Pitfall looks like a compelling cross between a Jason Voorhees slasher and a Dungeons & Dragons wilderness adventure.

In this house, Pitfall is already on the list for a future Tim and Paul DVD* Night viewing.

* NB. In this day and age the term "DVD" also embraces streaming, Blu-Rays, VOD etc

Lord of The Elves aka Age of The Hobbits aka Clash of Empires (2012)

Okay, confession time. I have a bit of a weakness for Bai Ling. I know she's not the world's greatest actress, but I find her alluringly watchable in whatever awful B-movie she turns up in.

And Lord of The Elves is a classic of that genre. Crafted by the masterminds at The Asylum as a mockbuster of Peter Jackon's first Hobbit movie, this was originally called Age of The Hobbits until the lawyers stepped in and its name changed to Lord of The Elves.

Then, without any warning or explanation, it suddenly underwent a bland renaming to Clash of Empires.

The Blu-Ray I have of this is entitled Lord Of The Elves, but for the sake of clarity I should point out at this stage that not only is the word "lord" never used in this 82-minute flick, but there are also no "elves" in it, nor is that word mentioned either.

Of course, both of these words do have connections with the rather popular Lord of The Rings movies, but that's surely a coincidence, right?

Inspired by real-world archaeology, the action of Lord of The Elves takes place 12,000 years ago on Flores Island, Indonesia (where examples of an early hominid, Homo floresiensis, were found in 2003).

But this is an Asylum movie, not a National Geographic documentary. As well as being populated with giant lizards, some of which can fly (like dragons), and giant spiders, the island is home to three types of human: the diminutive vegetarian Tree People, cannibalistic cavemen called the Rock Men (who ride the flying lizards on occasion), and a tribe of hunters that the Tree People refer to as "giants" but are simply humans.

When the Rock Men raid the Tree People village - to stock up on snacks for their cooking pot - one family escapes, fleeing to the land of the "giants", where they gain assistance from Amthar (Stargate SG-1's Christopher Judge), Laylan (Bai Ling), and a couple of disposable prehistoric red shirts.

Together, despite being severely outnumbered, they stage a rescue mission on the Rock Men's encampment in the hope of saving the captive Tree People.

Shot on location in the jungles and mountains of Cambodia, Lord of The Elves certainly looks mythic.

It just kind of falls apart when people get involved.

Eric Forsberg's script is simplistic, to say the least, and much of the acting is am dram level. While some bad dubbing contributes to this, I have a suspicion that Christopher Judge was the only true actor on set, and most of the rest were Cambodian locals randomly roped in because they 'looked the part'.

I'm sorry, I can't help myself...

Except for eye candy, I'm not exactly sure what Bai Ling or her character really contributed to the movie. Being generous, you could say that Laylan has a basic revenge arc, but she could easily have been excised from the movie and nothing would have changed.

Of course, I might not have been so keen to watch it. But that's a different story entirely.

The giant creatures, and the faux-dragons, are delivered as mediocre CG monsters, but actually they're not so poor that they take the audience out of the moment (come on, you're watching an Asylum joint, what were you expecting? Marvel Studios level CGI?).

The monsters help add some colour to the otherwise human-centric "fantasy" tale , which, barring its prehistoric setting, has an element of Willow about it as well.

Let's be honest, Lord of The Elves (or whatever you want to call it) is not a great movie, and bears absolutely no resemblance to any of the big budget Hobbit movies.

However, if you're a fan of classic cavemen movies, such as One Million Years B.C., Clan of The Cave Bear, Quest for Fire, When Dinosaurs Ruled The Earth etc then you might be able to eke out some silly fun from this nonsense.

A Relaxing Afternoon Spent With Rescued Farm Animals

Alice and I pose by a Second World War era tractor at the farm

The weather was warm if overcast, so Rachel, Alice and I jumped in the car and headed out to the delightful Little Fant Farm (just outside Maidstone) on Bank Holiday Monday (yesterday).

Admission - and parking - was free, which was a nice touch, but we suspected the farm made up for that with its enormous, and very popular, award-winning outdoor café/restaurant.

In an environment that was both dog- and kid-friendly, there were a number of animals to check out on the farm, ranging from pigs and horses to goats and ducks. All of them are rescues - which made this experience even more perfect.

Nigel

A meeting of great minds

The ducks

Ant and...

...Dec

We had a walk around the farm and then a short stroll down a country road to a neighbouring farm, where we had a lovely chat with that farmer's mother who was feeding two of their horses, Bob and Ted.

All in all, it was a really chilled day out, topped off with a delicious cream tea and pleasant conversation with the couple we shared a table with outside the café.

Time spent around happy animals is always very relaxing and good for the soul.

Even though it wasn't a "tree safari" per se, it was still a day out and I took a small number of evocative pictures of trees and stonework to add to my portfolio.

Bob and Ted

HEALTH UPDATE: Biscuit Club Is Back On The Menu

Image by stevepb from Pixabay

While real life continues to entertain me with alternates to my established "tree safaris", this week has seen several key health-related events that will hopefully show that I'm heading in the right direction.

I've had another (painful) blood test - checking my blood sugar levels - and will get the results, all being well, at the end of next week.

As well as that, I went for my annual eye health check (stinging eye drops and bright lights fired into your eyeballs at point blank range) on Friday, the results of which should take two or three weeks to appear.

However, this week also saw the first meeting of the third iteration of Biscuit Club. The first was my initial NHS run class which lasted about three months, then there was the epic nine-month class which finished just a few weeks ago.

And now this one, run on behalf of the borough council, seems very similar to my previous course, but only runs for 12 weeks. It even happens not just in the same building as the last Biscuit Club but the same room.

There are around a dozen people in this class, and I'd estimate that I'm the second youngest. 

This first week was mainly about an extended warm-up and cool-down, as well as a couple of simple "tests" to serve as a baseline for our assessment at the end of the 12 weeks to see if we've improved. 

But most importantly the hour-long session ended with tea and biscuits. Not that I had any tea (as I don't drink caffeine these days) and I shouldn't really have had any biscuits (because of my diet) but that three-pack of Jammie Dodgers was calling out to me!!!

THROWBACK THURSDAY: #TimFest 2025

A year ago (late April, 2025) we threw a party to mark the 20th anniversary of my life-changing aortic aneurysm, or more accurately to celebrate the extra 20 years (so far) that I have had since the National Health Service (NHS) saved my life.

Here's the pictures - and text - I used to mark the occasion on the blog: 

Much to Rachel's surprise, it was actually my idea to host this event (I am, if you didn't already know, notoriously anti-social). I'd seen that 'new' Doctor Who was 20 years old this year and I realised that my brush with death had come several episodes into the regenerated show's first season.

Up until this year, I have been very nervous - almost superstitious - about even knowing we'd reached another anniversary and I never wanted to know the exact date or too many details of the circumstances (beyond the obvious facts that I had suffered a dissecting aortic aneurysm and then a stroke on the operating table).

But, this year, I finally accepted that two decades was far enough removed from the original, awful, event that maybe it was time to invite friends and family round to share a few drinks, have some nice food, and - at Rachel's suggestion - even raise a bit of money for the Aortic Dissection Awareness charity.

While Rachel - who actually organised the whole shindig, invited the guests, prepared the food, decorated the house etc - called the event "20 Years of Tim", others were calling it "Tim Day" and even "TimFest". 

I'll confess while it was immensely flattering to have all these people turn up to celebrate "me", it was also incredibly overwhelming and every so often I had to find a few calming minutes of quiet solitude with Alice and Obi (my two favouritest dogs in the whole, wide world).

Poor Alice, who is dealing with her own medical issues, seemed rather out of sorts as well, with so many people in "her space", that she didn't even engage in her usual rough and tumble with Obi (she's renowned for bullying him mercilessly, despite being a fraction of his size!).

I was quite gobsmacked by how much Acrobatic Flea (my signature character from our old games of Villains & Vigilantes) branding there was for the day - from the lovely T-shirt that Rachel's parents had made for me to the cup cakes created by the wonderful baker over the road from us.

Just before the group photograph was taken, Rachel gave a short, tearful, speech about how brilliant everyone had been in the wake of my sudden hospitalisation - from the amazing doctors and nurses of the NHS to all our friends who had pitched in to help us get through this. It even got to me, despite having already heard a dry run the night before, and a good number of other attendees. 

On the food table was a small framed poster with a QR code that people could scan, if they wished to, to make a charitable donation to Aortic Dissection Awareness.  

There was light-hearted talk about making Tim Day an annual event, which I did relay to Rachel, but I think one social event in 20 years is probably quite enough.

Top Dogs: Obi, the visitor (front), and our beloved Alice.

FAMILY PORTRAIT: Me, Rachel (holding Alice) and Rachel's parents

There were even garden games available for the young - and young-at-heart

EX-CUPCAKE! We're lucky to have a gifted cake maker live across the road from us

Excuse me, there's a Flea on my cupcake!

A mere fraction of the food and drink Rachel provided on the day

While the event was never intended as a "gift giving" day I was stunned
by the unexpected gifts I did receive.