...In Vogue this month....

 Well Donnington was really rather good. The car engines sounded fantastic the kharsis wern't quite so insalubrious as last year and I sold some solderis so all in all a win win . Oh and there were a few nice games- not that I had much time to see 'em.Aside from Steve Bedfords nice Medieval  Jousting game and The Stonewall grouips Flodden (lots of OG figs on that one) Oh and Border Reivers Batlle of Trafalgar square  I didn't really see a lot..
Mind you I almost wore out the old vocal chaords over the weekend what with  about 3 zillion blokes wanting to talk to me on various subjects- need a pint or two just to cool 'em down.
 However now I'm back at home- and its taken me over a week just to get the workload below bottom lip level.
 So I thought I'd take a little time for a blog....
So here I sit before my keyboard ... and well ... mind in neutral. Work  has not allowed a great deal of painting  recently and to be honest such has been the  well "pressure" of late that I get sick of the little lead gits
 MAN SHALL NOT LIVE BY WARGAMING ALONE.

This is hardly surprising when one considers that over the years it has been the norm to trivialise what we do - even. or perhaps especially, amongst ourselves. But there you go I'm not sure other specialist hobbies do this in the same way- Military modellers don't. Model Railway chaps certainly don't.
 I've recently checked out some past magazines- one from 20 years ago and one from 15  years ago. Neiether were perfect but both had more actual content- despite fewer pages than many of the current offerings- mind you one did have a dreadfyully embarrasing photo of WW2 re-enactors- massively

overweight paratroops... Jump lads.....  AAARRRGGGHHHH SPLAT!!! 

So its hardly surprising that I find myself reading other things.. Private Eye. Vanity Fair, Vogue, and in case you just think I read these last two for the Lingerie adverts think again . After all a gentleman has to be abreast of the times in  terms of art, photography books etc-  and yes Fashion , Now to be truthful it was a bit of an accident. My wife Carole is a bit of a Fashionista- this Devil really does wear Prada and Karen Millen and Vivien Westwood  to name but 3. So it pays me to be aware- just before I  get the Paul Smith .
 Nevertheless- aside from splendid stuff on Art photography(and anything I can learn about photography is  fine by me)  and some cracking book reviews  there was a piece on scent-  in this case how a woman likes a man to smell... So apparently Chocolate is ok so is Vanilla  but  Dockers Armpit is definitely out- Not that the lady author Susan Irvine  put it that way of course bit it caused me to think.
 God knows how many times I've encountered chaps in our hobby who could do with reading this I thought. The number of chaps who need really NEED  to stand closer to the soap- or indeed in the same room- is still a significant percentage of our bretheren... and the odd whiff of  Chanel Pour Monsieur or Dior Eau Sauvage  wouldn't go amiss either. Apparently chaps spend over 530 million quid on "fragrance"  per year  so how come no more than a quid and halfs worth ever gets through the doors of the average show.
 Chaps we need to "image up " - at least some of the time... Don't we....