Happy Birthday to Me!

Its my Birthday today! Without giving away my real age, I will say that I will be once again 21 for the 17th time or is that 17 again for the 21st time? Either way I look younger and feel younger than my genuine age.

It’s common knowledge that Doctor Who is one of my favourite programmes, so here is some classic Doctor Who for your enjoyment…..Well, its classic now, it was actually for Red Nose Day….(cue extremely cheesy evil laugh)……

Triples 2010: Re-Enactment Groups

There were several re-enactment groups at Triples this year. While having nothing against the groups in the past, thought it was time I paid more attention to them. In their particular uniforms, with their stands behind them, those in full costume looked very smart.

Click on the thumbnails below to enlarge.

Le Garde Imperiale	21 eme Regiment de Ligne
The Thomas Stanley Retinue	Medieval Combat and Archery Tourney organised by the Thomas Stanley Retinue

You may notice that those featured above, with the exception of The Thomas Stanley Retinue, are Napoleonics Re-enactment groups.

Le Garde Imperiale is based in the UK and France and open to all. They do small skirmishes, large battalion formed battles, a public drill display, seminars, concerts, TV work etc and in 2006 were involved with film work for the BBC and Chester University.

21 eme Regiment de Ligne otherwise known as The 21st Regiment of the Line, is one of Emperor Napoleon’s elite line Regiments and recreates its history from 1812 to 1815.

The Thomas Stanley Retinue are a Medieval Re-enactment group who specialise in the recreation of the Wars of the Roses. They also demonstrate combat techniques of the period including hand and pole weapons, black powder, archery and cavalry.

On a final note the 21st Regiment of the Line are will be leaving for the Waterloo Battlefield on June 16th 2010. The Regiment will also be taking part in a re-enactment of the battle for Plancenoit and camping on the Waterloo battlefield itself. Everyone welcome. Cost of the trip is £150. For the full details, click here

Doctor Who: The End of Time Part 2

Not long finished watching Doctor Who: The End of Time Part 2 followed by Doctor Who Confidential on BBC3. For those who have not seen it yet, it was a great send off for the tenth Doctor and it can be watched again on the BBCi Player. It answered a few questions in the process too. Liked the last few minutes at the end before his regeneration also. David Tennant's Doctor will be missed.

I have seen the new Doctor Matt Smith on some other shows and I like the guy but am still interested in seeing how he will play the Doctor. They got him off to a good start.

In the new trailer for Season 5 I'm sure I spotted the weeping angels from the episode "Blink" popping up again....

Coming Spring 2010....

Happy New Year 2010

Happy New Year Everybody and wish you all the best for 2010!

Hopefully this year you will get your wargaming wishes fulfilled and play periods you may want to start playing and perhaps finish projects you started last year. Either way I hope it will be a fun year for you.

As you can see this is the new Doctor Who logo for the new Doctor Matt Smith when he takes over. Personally I thought David Tennant was a fantastic Doctor and one of my favourite Doctors and he will be missed by fans. Tom Baker was another of my favourite Doctors when I was a kid but there was a lot to like about all the others too.

Don't forget Part 2 of The End of Time at 6.40pm on BBC1 today. Someone or something is going to knock four times.........

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to all of you and thank you for reading my blog for the past year!

Over this holiday season you can expect more posts from me.

Once again I will remind you that Doctor Who, The End of Time Part 1 is on BBC1 at 6pm. It marks the beginning of the end for David Tennants 10th Doctor. The End of Time Part 2 is on BBC1 on New Years Day at 6.40pm. It is then that Matt Smith the new Doctor takes over.

Below are some more Doctor Who Youtube vids, the first 2 below showing how the Doctor defeated the Master last time followed by a slightly different trailer for The End of Time. Have a nice day. Enjoy your Christmas Dinner and relax with some booze.

Christmas Eve 2009

Today it is Christmas Eve so hope everyone enjoys today and the rest of the Holiday Season.
If the snow that arrived in the UK is still here tomorrow, as it has been here since last friday, I will post some pics to show that we are having a White Christmas.

As I am sure you have guessed I am a Doctor Who fan. This is a reminder that the Doctor Who Christmas Special, The End of Time Part 1 is on tomorrow on BBC1 at 6pm. There is a short preview below.

Blog Action Day 2009: Climate Change

Blog Action Day is finally here in which thousands of bloggers all over the world unite to highlight a particular issue.

This year, of course, the issue is Climate Change. Climate Change affects everyone on the planet in various different ways as its consequences are manifested in the weather patterns and things such as rising sea levels and increases in temperature and the melting of the ice caps.

For more information on the Science of Climate Change go to ....... http://www.bbc.co.uk/climate/ Most people think of Global Warming when they think of Climate Change. The warming of the earth is actually a natural phenomenon however it is the impact on the earth by humans that has caused the earth to warm unnaturally through huge amounts of carbon emissions and greenhouse gases.

To find out more on the effect of climate change on the earth go here: http://www.google.com/landing/cop15/ The presentation is narrated by former US Vice President Al Gore using Google Earth.

While investigating Climate Change and relevant sites on the web, I unexpectedly stumbled across the Department of Energy and Climate Change, a UK Government agency (see screenshot). Not sure about other readers but until I started looking I was not aware of its existence. You can find it here: http://www.decc.gov.uk/

About 40% of high carbon emissions are by individuals and households. So if people only slightly changed the way they did things at home it would have an impact. Even doing a small thing could help. Doing lots of small things that could cut carbon emissions could have a big impact on emissions if everyone did them. It comes down to a better way of managing waste by recycling all recyclables such as tins, paper and glass. The Grimsby Wargames Society recycles. Those bins are regularly filled up with empty tin cans from drinks. Myself I recycle a lot of tins. I use a lot of them and go through quite a few of them because I buy a lot of tinned cat food. Also recycle paper too. There is place near me that recycles everything else: somewhere to take the plastic and glass basically. For those in Grimsby, coming from Littlefield Lane go down Chantry Lane towards St James Square and look to your left. The bins are on the edge of the car park.

Then there are other things like installing Loft Insulation to preserve heat in a house so that less or no heating is required, Turning off all equipment when it is not being used and not leaving it on standby, Turning off unused lights. Using energy saving lightbulbs. For more information on little things to do to cut down on carbon emissions in the home go to:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/bloom/

Another site offering ways to cut down carbon emissions in the home is the Act on Co2 site here: http://actonco2.direct.gov.uk/actonco2/home.html

In December there is going to be a Climate Change summit at Copenhagen. With the help of the US and President Barack Obama, we can get action taken to cut down on carbon emissions. Add your voice here: http://www.blogactionday.org/en/takeaction

It is time for Governments to sit up and take notice. Action must be taken all over the world. What will it take for any sceptical governments to believe in climate change, an island in the pacific or other region wiped out due to rising sea levels? Another disaster which involves a drastic change in the weather?

Another interesting piece I found on global warming and climate change can be found here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/8299079.stm

I am just 1 of over 9000 bloggers worldwide participating in Blog Action Day. Even Prime Minister Gordon Brown has contributed to Blog Action Day. Read his contribution here: http://www.number10.gov.uk/Page20931

Comic Relief 2009

Comic Relief has come round again. This photo is of me getting into the spirit of it wearing my nose which I picked weeks ago and a santa hat. What are you do wearing a santa hat you ask? Well, it's red just like the nose. I'm not rudolf the red nose reindeer's stunt double.

As for the photo, I didn't mean to scare you. To put it bluntly, I know I'm about as photogenic as a baboon's arse but I just don't give a monkeys.

Hopefully you'll be doing what I'm doing tonight which is watching Comic Relief live on BBC1. I will be making a donation out of some unexpected tax credits that are coming my way soon. It is possible to still donate after the live event. For more info, go to http://www.bbc.co.uk/rednoseday

President Obama

I missed President Obama's inauguration speech yesterday but finally caught up with it today. It was a really good speech and well received by just about everybody. Before going to college yesterday I did manage to catch Vice President Joe Biden being sworn in.

Interestingly Obama used the same bible that Abraham Lincoln used at his inauguration on March 4th 1861 in the early days of the American Civil War. Presumably this was a symbolic gesture by Obama. Capitol Hill and many other parts of Washington had been built by Slaves. Slavery was in the Heritage of the First Lady Michelle Obama's blood. Apart from keeping the Union together it was Abraham Lincoln who eventually ended Slavery in the 1860's.

Here is President Obama being sworn in:



And his speech:

Merry Christmas Everybody!

Merry Christmas to Everybody! Hope you having a nice Christmas and possibly reading this after eating some huge dinner. I'm on my own so I think I'll just be watching the telly for most of the day.

As with what now seems to be a tradition, I'm looking forward to the Doctor Who Christmas Special at 6pm tonight. Some trailers are below including the first 2 minutes of the special shown on Children In Need. Being a huge Doctor Who fan, I'm going to watch the last 3 episodes of the last series On Demand before watching the special: Turn Left, The Stolen Earth and Journey's End. Exterminate!!





There's also some Blackadder on tonight as the BBC is repeating the Blackadder Christmas Carol, which I have not seen for years. Later tonight there's a special reuniting the cast of the Blackadder series. Blackadder is partly where I get my knowledge of history from. See a little of the special below...



Once again, Merry Christmas to everybody!

90 Years Since the End of World War 1

Today marks 90 years since the end of World War 1. It was also Remembrance Day on sunday.
Today we should also remember soldiers who died giving their lives in other wars since.

There have been many events around the country commemorating the end of the war. The BBC has a website dedicated to celebrating 90 years of remembrance where you can find out more about it. There is a screenshot of the website on the left. Its address is http://www.bbc.co.uk/remembrance/

The BBC also has a website dedicated to the WW1 Battlegrounds. You can tour them by going to this part of the BBC News site: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7712908.stm