2015 round-up.

With 2016 now seven days old I thought I'd better get in with my 2015 summary before it gets too late.

Figures painted: more than the year before. Yusss! Mind you, the year before was an abominable year for painting, even by my standards!

Games played in the hobby room: some. Changed work situation sapped the time available to play solo. It was a year for setting games up and putting them away prematurely, for reading books, and for staring vacantly at computer screens...

Books read: a lot, but most of them were novels. Anthony Powell's A Dance to the Music of Time series being the highlight. Clever, humane, witty, satirical and wise. Heaving with laughter at 2am was more frequent in 2015 than in any other year I can recall.

Music consumed: Rory Gallagher. Have barely listened to anything else this year. I came to him late, but have fallen hard. Funny how with books and music they find their way to you just when you need them most.

Gaming with others: got some in. A few blokes locally are quite keen on getting together for boardgames now, so that's been really good. A shame it's come about when I've been most pressed for time! My traditional board wargaming days with Pat numbered just one this year, I think; the traditional miniatures gaming days with Luke were, perhaps, two.

Blogging: have lost a little direction, to be honest. Have posted a quantity of rubbish this year. Down on things interesting, amusing or useful and have tried to compensate with incomplete filler.

Wargaming in general: seems rather less important than it did a few years ago. International events as well as family happenings have meant that gaming has taken more of a back seat. Unfortunately, I've let some of those other concerns slip into my blogging. My intention was always to keep the blog lighthearted, bouncy, and free of anything personal or political, but 2015 saw a little of that other stuff sneak in. Apologies!

Bought, sold or wrangled: nothing sold; quite a lot bought - not all of it clever - and some wrangled. Wrangled included an email from the editor of a mag I wrote an article for some time ago offering payment for said article. The result was a large order of high quality Crusades figures. Most decent! Another thing was a reader here gifting me a supporting membership at TMP. Very kind of you sir!

Projects: finished off the second of my late Republican Roman armies and am very happy about that. Also made a start on and got through quite a bit of my Dark Ages/1066 project. Happy about that, but the painting tailed off more towards the end of the year more than I would have liked...

Blog Readers: there has been a very loyal group of readers and some who pop in now and then to leave a well-timed comment. Thank you all very much. You know who you are, and it's greatly appreciated!

Particular satisfactions: seeing Simon Miller's To the Strongest! rules doing so well.

Final 2015 note to self (ha, as if I'll listen!): when you do finally tackle a long-stalled project, just finish the damn thing!

Cheers to everyone, and best wishes for 2016!

Aaron