News

Date: 13 March 2024

Topics: Blood Bowl, Writing

Blood Bowl: My first attendance at a tournament will be this weekend when the second edition of Chaos on the Coast goes ahead on Saturday, March 16 at the Ourimbah RSL. Plenty of interest in this event with around 30 coaches expected to play, with quite a few coming up from Sydney to take part. I'll be taking Slann seeing its been placed in Tier 2 and there are bonuses to be had. Whether I still remember how to play them properly remains to be seen. As for the league, my opponent for the next round finally got his previous match played so I may be able to play him soon and finish off my season, of which I have three matches still to play.

Writing: Despite the heat here and all the other distractions, I have been working on a fantasy novella which I want to put into my same series as Blutmunth. It's set just as the first novel concludes but before the beginning of the second. It'll serve as a nice little bridge between the two which I'd like to publish with another short story I wrote decades ago called Spitzlowen Keep, which takes place well before the first book in the series. It's a simple story, tentatively titled The Wandering Minstrel which involves a militia bard being called upon to find out who's responsible for a series of abductions in a frontier city.

Date: 12 February 2024

Topics: Blood Bowl

Blood Bowl: It was mixed results for the Emperors over the last three weeks. On Jan 27 at Elemental Arcade in Gosford, they continued their winning run with a 1-0 win over the second norse team in the competition in an extremely tight match. However the run came to an abrupt halt when they faced the fifth-placed high elves at Ourimbah on Feb 8, who capitalised on several errors and romped in for a 4-1 victory.Though they were able to finally get some casualties, they came way too late to stem the tide and now need to regroup before facing their next opponents.

Date: 23 January 2024

Topics: Blood Bowl & Sport

Blood Bowl: The Emperors haven't played since Dec 13 last year after taking on a chaos side in a pretty tough match at the Elemental Arcade in Gosford. The end result was a 1-0 victory in their favour, despite suffering five casualties, including the death of Galba the wight (fancy failing both regeneration rolls - sigh). After receiving a forfeit win last Monday (Jan 15) they are due to play the second norse team in the local competition sometime this week once it has been arranged.

Sport: Through a gaming buddy on the Central Coast, I have been introduced to the game of Walking Football, a much slower version of the game I used to play, but it can be quite competitive. So far this month I've attended two sessions, once at an artificial pitch at Tumbi Umbi on Jan 2, and the other at the Mariners' Centre of Excellence at Tuggerah on Jan 21. Matches are usually five-a-side (though the numbers vary due to how many turn up) and played on smaller pitches with shorter goals. Further information can be found here.

Date: 21 November 2023

Topics: Blood Bowl, Photography & Website

Blood Bowl: The Emperors had their first win in the local league on Sat 11 at Elemental Arcade, a gaming store in Gosford and the preferred venue for the league. The first half was locked at 1-all with the vampires scoring first, but the boys took advantage of a couple of errors in the second half and powered home to a 3-1 win over a side that was run by a local gent who has the same name of one of the major characters in Feudball! They now sit seventh on the ladder with a 1-3-1 record and will be taking on a Chaos team next.

Photography: With better weather I'm taking my chances heading out to take a few snaps. I've been to seven Mariners' home matches (in all competitions, including the womens) since the start of October, on Nov 17 I journeyed to the lovely beachside suburb of Avoca for the first time in many years, and on Nov 20 I even had a wander around the Sydney CBD.

Website: Adding a tab for the Beaches and Burgers blog on each page as well as tidying a few sections up. Something I've been meaning to do for a while.

Date: 5 November 2023

Topics: Blood Bowl

Blood Bowl: Still battling away in the local league. My fourth match was last Monday (30 Oct) at Ourimbah, with the Emperors of Rome II undead side coming up against the third-placed team from last season, that of a Khemri (Tomb Kings) side. After successfully defending the line in the first half, the undead scored first in the second, but were worn down by casualties and knock-outs and couldn't stop the drive to equalize. Three draws and a loss so far with the fifth match scheduled for Nov 11.

Date: 9 October 2023

Topics: Blood Bowl, Photography

Blood Bowl: Attended the recent annual MOAB games convention Sept 30-Oct 2 at Sylvania Heights. Pleased to say that 18 coaches were in attendance for the Blood Bowl event, which was won by veteran player Gnome, who was fielding Khorne. In second place was Anothy V with Tomb Kings. Yours truly took Nurgle and finished ninth overall, with a 3-0-3 record for the weekend, going LWL WLW. On Oct 11, I have my third league match scheduled for my Undead side which will be taking some Imperial Nobility.

Photography: Have made to recent trips over to the gallery at East Gosford. One to take my entry in on Oct 3 and the other on Oct 7 to attend the opening ceremony. This year has seen a record number of entries withover 200 pieces submitted. The exhibition continues until Oct 17th, with another visit scheduled to the event on Oct 14 with my local Mental Health support group.

Date: 28 September 2023

Topics: Blogs, Blood Bowl, Photography

Blogs: Started a new blog called Beaches & Burgers. It's an idea that I've had for months, but me being me I have been procrastinating about launching it, until now after I've compiled and edited reviews of places that I've been to. Basically it's a combination tourist and eatery review, where I wrattle off a few words about the place I've been to, show a picture or two, and talk about what I've eaten there. Most of the reviews are of local places but I've put in some holiday ones. It's nothing fancy, just another blog to keep me busy seeing I try to get out as much as possible. I haven't added a links to it as yet around the site but I'll get that done when I'm back from MOAB.

Blood Bowl: Currently three rounds into the new Central Coast BB League - Chaos on the Coast 2. My team, the Emperors of Rome II, have played twice so far, drawing the runner-up from the previous season, the Commissioner's Norse team in round one, and the winner of the previous league in round three. Round two was a bye. The opening match was a 1-all draw, with the undead side winning the casualty count 4-3, and resurrecting a zombie from a slain opponent. Their second match was considerably tough affair against Chaos Dwarves, with the sides locked at 0-all at the break. A couple of 50/50 rolls however did not go their way, and the current league leaders pinched the game 1-0, with a 2-all casualty count. I'm also heading off tomorrow to participate in the annual BB tournament over the long weekend and will be fielding Nurgle this time round.

Photography: Two days after I get back from MOAB I'll be off to take my entry to the annual Mental Health Art Works! Exhibition at the Gosford Regional Gallery in East Gosford. My entry this year shall be a rather scenic shot overlooking the coast towards Terrigal simply titled Forresters Beach #1. You'll find it on the Introduction page of my new blog.

Date: 5 July 2023

Topics: Blood Bowl

Blood Bowl: Took the opportunity to attend the annual Eucalyptus Bowl BB tournament at the Burwood RSL in Sydney over the weekend just passed (July 1 & 2). 54 coaches participated in the event, with the overall winner being my opponent in round three - Almic85, who was playing Orcs. Another orc team, run by Sydney coach Geoff W, was also in third place, whilst the runner-up was Claymore from New Zealand, making his first appearance at the event with High Elves. Yours truly had the only Bretonnian team in the event and was doing quite well at the end of day one in 12th place. Unfortunately, the orcan hordes and their norse allies were too much for the imperial nobles on day two, making sure I stayed winless for the day and slumping to 37th place with a record of 2-0-4.

Photography: With an early start on Saturday morning, I took the opportunity to take the camera for a walk around Strathfield and Burwood, whilst also taking plenty of shots at the tournament. The old hotel I stayed at also provided the opportunity for some interior shots as well.

Date: 30 May 2023

Topics: Blood Bowl, Photography, Website

Blood Bowl: Due to an increase of social activities this month, I was able to play my first two games of Dungeonbowl against a human opponent on May 22. Matches were played at Gerry's place in Ourimbah against my host and Tupi. First game my College of Death defeated Tupi's Beasts 2-1, with my host winning the second match by the same margin with his College of Life. Personally I found both games entertaining with the games flowing a lot quicker than your average game of Blood Bowl. I should also add that I've registered and paid for this year's Eucalyptus Bowl tournament in Burwood. I have no idea what I'm playing at this time.

Photography: May has also been a busy month for getting out with Monet and taking pictures. On May 6 there was a trip to Pearl Beach and Patonga at the southern end of the Central Coast, which was followed by a wander around Kincumber before a psychologist's appoinment on May 12. Couldn't resist taking the camera to the second semi-final against Adelaide on May 20, the 2-0 win resulting in the Mariners making their fifth grand final since the A-League's inception. I am seriously considering starting a third blog, one which is part tourist and part restaurant review, where I talk about scenic watery locations I've visited and food eaten at these places.

Website: Have added another roster to my Favourite Teams page. After many hours of examining match reports and old print-outs I've managed to compile a decent history of my first SLOBB league side, the Oz Correctional Facility, which played in two leagues during 2011 and 2012.

Date: 1 May 2023

Topics: Blood Bowl

Blood Bowl: Sixteen coaches had intended to play at the third running of the Outback Cup (as part of Shire Con 2023) at the Sylvania Heights Community Youth Centre on April 29, but only ten braved the wintery conditions to participate in the five game, one day sevens tournament. Nine different races were involved in the event, with my irregular coastie sparring partner Tupi again winning an event with Khemri. Yours truly played the same race as well, starting and finishing with a 1-0 win, but losing the three games in the middle. There were two highlights for the Desert Warriors - in the first match they almost cleared their Slann opponents from the pitch before running in the winner, then in the final game against TO Luis V's Dwarves, tomb guardian Kauket received the ball from the touchback off the opening kick-off and shuffled all the way to the end zone for the winning point, with the side defending well to stop their opponents from scoring. I finished seventh overall.

Photography: On March 29 I took a trip up to Taree for a short holiday and to catch up with some acquaintances. When the weather was fine I took the camera for a couple of walks. There was a rather intense match between the Mariners and Melbourne City in Gosford on April 15 and with myself posted at the top of Bay 17 I was able to catch a lot of the action. Naturally, with the BB event over the weekend I had the opportunity to take a few more shots as I usually do at gaming tournaments. Some of the many shots taken will be featured in my two blogs.

Date: 7 February 2023

Topics: Blood Bowl

Blood Bowl: Sixteen coaches participated at the inaugural Chaos on the Coast one-dayer at the Ourimbah RSL club. Thirteen different races were involved in the three round event, with Central Coast player Tupi (playing Khemri) getting his maiden BB tourney victory, with veteran Gnome finishing second with his Goblins. Yours truly took his Woy Woy (Chaos) Renegades to the event and after a 3-0 win in the first round, lost the second match 2-3 on turn sixteen, after having trailed by two after five, then crashed to a 0-4 defeat at the hands of some slippery skaven. I picked up the sports prize for the event, my sixth.

Date: 10 January 2023

Topics: Blood Bowl & Photography

Blood Bowl: Preparing for a local tournament here on the Central Coast, the first official NAF event here since 2014 edition of the Gosford Gauntlet. Chaos on the Coast will be running at the Ourimbah RSL club (a short walk from the train station) on Feb 4 and yesterday I traveled to Hornsby to play a couple of trial matches against Luis V (TO for MOAB) at Gametraders Hornsby. The first match was Chaos Renegades (Pact) against Dwarves which ended in a 1-all draw, with the second being Goblins vs Orcs. The multi-secret weapon stunties were beaten 0-2 despite winning the casualty count. I dare say I'll be opting to take the Renegades to the three game one-day event.

Photography: The Mariners have been quite busy on the pitch in December so there's been plenty of visits to the stadium in Gosford to watch two editions of the F3 derby against Newcastle (11 & 21 Dec) and matches against Sydney FC (Dec 17) and Melbourne Victory (Dec 31). The boys have been in great form recently with four wins from their last six games and Monet has been getting a considerable workout yet again. I really think he needs an upgrade.

Date: 16 November 2022

Topics: Life & Photography

Life: Recently returned from a lengthy holiday in Victoria. It was quite a struggle to reach my eventual destination of Bendigo, with the outgoing journey having to made by coach rather than rail, with a number of obstacles and delays strewn in the path, including flood waters, road maintenance and poor weather. The return journey was much the same, despite being able to travel by rail for half of it, it still ended up being longer. Still, the effort was worth it to view a rather historical and picturesque country city and spend some time with a person that I have known since high school, even if the main event for the journey, an air show at Benalla, was cancelled due to due to the rain. My psychologist was rather pleased that I persevered with the holiday, seeing travel anxiety is just one of the many things that I have to get accustomed to. I even managed to find the time to visit a cousin in Shepparton early in the holiday and go on lengthy drives throughout the Victorian countryside.

Photography: So much to see and do there. My poor Monet was rather overwhelmed at times visiting historical sites such as the Victoria Hill historical mining site, the Great Stupa with its Bhudda statue made of jade, the White Hills historical cemetary, the Botannical Gardens... even just strolling around the CBD with its galleries, hotels, museums, parks and churches was a pleasure. There was an unexpected joy of birdwatching, grabbing some nice snaps of local wildlife even in the front yard of my host's place.

Date: 5 October 2022

Topics: Blood Bowl & Photography

Blood Bowl: Made the trek down to the shire to participate in the annual MOAB games convention, which was returning after a hiatus of two years due to the pandemic. This time round I fielded High Elves, the Peninsula Princesses, and finished the event with a 3-1-2 record in fourth place. The ladies did quite well. They were undefeated on day one and lead going into the second day. Unfortunately, the results didn't go their way on day two, succombing to successive losses to the overall winner Peter A (who played Orcs) and runner-up Georgio C (Underworld). I did pick up the consolation prize of most touchdowns for the event, the fourth time I've managed this, and registered my 450th career win.

Photography: Made a trip over to East Gosford yesterday to deliver my entry for the Art Works! Mental Health Exhibition. A Good Morning (entry #57), will be on display at the community gallery (next to the main building) at the Gosford Regional Gallery from October 7 to 17.

Date: 17 August 2022

Topics: Photography

Photography: Made a trip over to East Gosford today to collect my finished entry for the upcoming Art Works! Mental Health Exhibition, which is being held at the Gosford Regional Gallery, starting on October 7 and finishing October 17. My Entry for this year will A Good Morning, a scenic piece taken early one morning whilst strolling around the back of the gallery in October 2021. It can be viewed on the Featured page in the Photographic section.

Date: 11 July 2022

Topics: Gaming & Photography

Gaming: Unfortunately only one of the two tournaments went ahead, with the Streetbowl event for July 2 having been cancelled due to a lack of numbers. Eucalyptus bowl, despite the weather and Covid disruptions, went ahead, though some players dropped out or were delayed getting to the event. After a pair of trial matches on June 25, I wound up taking Black Orcs to EB (it would've been Orcs for Streetbowl) and finished with a 2-0-3 record in 29th place. The Spanish Guns struggled throughout the event, with the air goblin route accounting for three of their five touchdowns. Casualties were extremely hard to come by, only managing three despite playing against AV 7 sides in three rounds. At the very least, I'll now have rankings for all 29 races.

Photography: Seeing I opted to stay in Burwood for EB, I took an opportunity for a longer walk to the venue (Burwood RSL) on July 9 to take a few snaps. I also recorded a few shots on the first day of the tournament, but Monet was playing up on the second day and none of the pictures were any good.

Date: 1 June 2022

Topics: Gaming, Life & Photography

Gaming: Hasn't been any table-top gaming of any sort since the last post. It's been all online. I do have two Blood Bowl events coming up next month, the annual Eucalyptus Bowl NAF major and a one-day Street Bowl tournament. Hopefully there'll be some gaming locally in the foreseeable future.

Life: Hard to think I've been here over two months, having moved in on March 25. Unlike the old residence in East Gosford, it's a seven minute walk to the nearest bus stop, but I have discovered that I can go a variety of different ways to get to it. Feel considerably lonely at times, but the social calender has recently picked up with outings to local landmarks and recent events. Autumn was a really wet season here, with last April probably the wettest month I've ever experienced in my lifetime. It really does feel like winter now though.

Photography: Recently Monet got a good workout, with a lengthy walk around the Woy Woy waterfront, then a visit to the Australian Reptile Park in the hills overlooking Gosford. Though people had to register to bring a camera into last Saturday's Central Coast Comic Con event at the Gosford Racecourse, I still managed to take a few snaps (and some video footage) with my mobile phone, which was what a lot of people were doing on the day. Plenty of subject material where I live as well, seeing the Everglades Lagoon Reserve is just a good stone's through away. I vary my walks to the bus stop just to stroll by it - weather and time permitting.

Date: 20 March 2022

Topics: Gaming & Life

Gaming: Well, I've been able to do some. Three sessions, two games of Mordheim on 21 & 28 Feb against my regular sparring partner Richard, and an RPG session last night with all four of the group being able to attend for the first time in about a year and a half due to the pandemic. New characters were generated for a warhammer fantasy-esque world with the first session being an emphasis on decision making rather than combat. It was rather enjoyable, more so seeing I was able to unwind after all the stress of searching for a place to live.

Life: My moods have definitely been all over the place. It feels that I've been on one hell of an emotional roller-coaster ride, which thankfully has ended on a positive note. Yesterday, prior to the gaming session, I paid a deposit, a second week's rent and the bond for a clean unit over in Woy Woy, not far from where I used to live 17 years ago. I really don't know how it happened, but as you can imagine I'm very happy that it has, so I'm moving next week. This morning, after putting what could well be a last load of laundry on the line, I walked around with the camera and took a few artistic shots. There's plenty I'll miss about this place, but there's plenty I won't. I'll update the blog when I can.

Date: 17 February 2022

Topics: Life

Life: As if being in the middle of a pandemic isn't bad enough, last week on Feb 8 I was notified by the real estate that my lease was being ended with a 90 day 'no grounds' termination. As you can imagine, this has come at quite a shock seeing I've been at this address in East Gosford for nearly 16.5 years. So now I'm in a packing and hunting phase and really haven't had so much luck so far. I haven't really done much else, apart from a sanity boosting visit to the stadium for some soccer last Thursday (Feb 10) with the camera getting a good workout with a double header that evening. A shame the Mariners were unable to secure a win that night or again on Sunday, with draws in both games against MacArthur Rams and Perth Glory. Feel free to peruse the latest blog post for further details on the enforced move.

Date: 27 January 2022

Topics: Blood Bowl

Blood Bowl: A rare opportunity for a league match last Thursday (Jan 20) at Gametraders in Hornsby, a day short of eight months since the previous one. The Lake Munmorah Mercenaries II took on Luis V's new Khemri side and just held on to win 1-0 despite running short of players. Casualty count was 1-3 in favour of the undead side.

Date: 5 December 2021

Topics: Blood Bowl

Blood Bowl: Attended Nuffle's Beach Bash today at Sylvania Heights Community Youth Centre. Persisted with my snotling roster, making some amendments to allow me additional scoring options. Fielded Hakflem Skuttlespike and Akhorne the Squirrel, with the former obliging with my first point of the tournament in a 3-0 win over an undead roster. Despite being on the top table for round two, things fell apart at a rather steady rate, with the side being beaten 0-2 by wood elves, then royally butchered 0-3 by goblins in the last match by the eventual runner-up Clay M. The event was won again by Rabid.

Date: 29 October 2021

Topics: Blood Bowl & Photography

Blood Bowl: An extremely rare opportunity arose last Tuesday for a trial match for the upcoming Nuffle's Beach Bash, which has been confirmed for Dec 5 at Sylvania Heights Community Youth Centre, the regular venue for MOAB. Local player Tupi obliged for the impromptu trial match, which saw his vampires run rings around my snotling side 1-4. Obviously that roster will need some serious fine tuning before I use that anywhere.

Photography: The Mental Health Art Works! exhibition was postponed and shifted to a new venue. The event will now take place at The Entrance Gallery on Noberta Street at The Entrance, starting November 20 and finishing November 28. Entries have to be dropped off on November 16. With restrictions easing considerably, there'll be no problems getting there and back for the event.

Date: 16 September 2021

Topics: Writing

Writing: Continuing with some editing on Feudball 3 to help pass the time during lockdown, which is now in its twelfth week. Currently up to Chapter 17, the match in Morrunsia against Tallin's side. Most of the work done is correcting spelling and grammar, but it still needed a little extra. Also working on a supplementary document which goes into plenty of detail about where the inspiration for the series came from, as well all the little references and homages that are scattered throughout the series.

Date: 25 August 2021

Topics: Blood Bowl & Photography

Blood Bowl: Not much to add in this department. I was looking forward to the Blood Bowl tournament at the annual MOAB games convention, and had not only registered and paid nearly a month ago but had ordered extra black orcs to create a Black Orc BB team for the event. Unfortunately, MOAB has been cancelled, with my registration fee already refunded, due to the ongoing Coronavirus pandemic which has really hit Sydney rather bad over the last two months. Seeing NSW is still in lockdown, I have been passing my time constructively by painting miniatures, creating storage cases and experimenting with unusual line-ups on the BB2 PC game amongst other things.

Photography: Haven't been going too far due to the lockdown restrictions, but have been able to get a few decent snaps locally. Thankfully the birds aren't aware that there's a pandemic on and are still doing what they normally do at this time of the year. I have put in an entry for the annual Mental Health Art Works! exhibition in October at the regional gallery in East Gosford (provided that it isn't canceled due to the pandemic), but seeing a walk to the framers isn't really an essential reason to be out and about, I entered one of my older works instead, which had already been displayed in exhibitions in Sydney and the Gosford Regional Show.

Date: 11 June 2021

Topics: Writing

Writing: Feudball 3, the bare bones edition created using the Kindle app, is now available on Amazon Kindle. I have also updated the Feudball download files as well to include new items, including the vastly updated map.

Date: 8 June 2021

Topics: Blood Bowl, Photography & Writing

Blood Bowl: A bit quiet league-wise, with only one match to report on. My BMBBL Old World Alliance team, The Lake Munmorah Mercenaries 2, took on a halfling outfit back on May 21 at Good Games Gosford (my first visit to the store in two years) and suffered an embarrassing defeat, losing 1-2. Thankfully the side was spared any serious injuries.

Photography: Have had a few opportunities to get out and give the camera a workout. On April 30 I ventured up to Long Jetty for an hour long walk around the waterfront, with a shot or two I felt being good enough to get framed for this year's Art Works! exhibition. On May 22 & 23 I spent the weekend at the Central Coast Air Show at Warnervale airport, and was able to take hundreds of photographs (and some video footage) of vintage warbirds in action. 'Monet' was also taken to the Mariners vs Western United match on June 5, which resulted in a 2-0 win for the locals and a third-place finish in the regular season.

Writing: Have prepared and uploaded a 'bare bones' version of book three of the Feudball series on Amazon Kindle to replace the faulty version that was up there. This particular version contains no images (map, field diagram, logo, Gordon's blackboards and me) which are currently in the PDF version of the book on Drive Thru Fiction. Just waiting on approval.

Date: 22 April 2021

Topics: Blood Bowl & Writing

Blood Bowl: In terms of victories, it wasn't a very good weekend at Eucalyptus Bowl on April 10 & 11. The Guns for Hire Old World Alliance team had a shocking first day, going winless, but recovered to get two wins on the second day and finish 32nd out of 40 with a 2-0-4 record. There was an added bonus of scoring 12 touchdowns for the event (eight of them on the second day), and picking up the most TDs prize on a countback, after being in a three-way tie. Oddly enough, overall winner Tribal Sinner and runner-up Gnome also fielded Old World Alliance rosters at the event.

Writing: Feudball 3: On the Road has been uploaded to Amazon Kindle, however there has been a few problems with the formatting, so I'll need to sit down and try and rectify the issues. It's still available on Drive Through Fiction in PDF format though, and you can pick a copy of it up for $3 AUD.

Date: 5 April 2021

Topics: Website & Writing

Website: Updated the home and feudball pages seeing a third feudball book is on the market now. :)

Writing: Feudball 3: On the Road, is now up on Drive Through Fiction! I finally knuckled down today and got it done, then realised that the website needed to be updated as well. Still have to format the book for Kindle, but it should be done this week. The PDF version of the third book will retail for $3 AUD.

Date: 26 March 2021

Topics: Blood Bowl & Writing

Blood Bowl: Again, very poor of me to not update this in a timely fashion. Back on March 11 I played my first league game for the new season of the Blue Mountains Blood Bowl League, and my first game with the new 2020 rules. The Lake Munmorah Mercenaries II, an Old World Alliance franchise, traveled to Hornsby where they played against the Commish's Underworld side, and defeated them 3-2, achieving a 6-0 casualty count in the process. More games will be scheduled in the upcoming school holidays, with the annual Eucalyptus Bowl tournament going ahead as well on April 10 & 11.

Writing: Feudball 3: On the Road, is nearing completion. I'm currently tying up a few loose ends, which includes a final check to see if I've missed anything and formatting the book for PDF and Kindle versions.The map has been completed and a cover picture has been added.

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