Category: Blog

2018 in Photos

Distilling a year into ten photos is never easy, but this year was particularly tough. Furthermore whilst this post tends to prioritize vacation shots, that’s only because I’ve sorted them way better than the normal day-to-day photos, so there’s probably a few gems that should have been here that aren’t.

The year began, as it usually does, in Oz:

Bernard and I went on a lengthy road trip from the Southern Ocean all the way up to Newcastle and had a blast on the way. We even ran into notorious Australian terrorist Ned Kelly at one point:

In March KLS and I went to the city for the first of three trips this year. It was cold but fun, and we lived like the urbanites we are for a few days:

Our first international vacation was to Scotland, otherwise known as the prettiest country on Earth. This was one of those dream vacations we’ll never forget, and in our little car we saw the length and breadth of the highlands and hebrides islands and enjoyed one amazing day after another, like the puffins on Staffa:

Or the standing stones on Orkney:

Or even just eating fish’n’chips at the northernmost town in Great Britain:

During the summer Bernard and Lakshmi visited! Here we are deep in a dungeon:

We went on another vacation too. After a brief stop in Portland for Florence’s wedding (insert heart emoji here) we jetted off to Hawaii for fun in the sun… and a hurricane!

The first four days were beautiful and warm and sunny and we spent a lot of time at or on the beaches. But then this happened:

And next thing you know the beaches emptied and people wrote SOS in the sand:

As you know we were lucky and the storm dissolved before reaching us. But that was certainly an interesting and memorable experience, and one I don’t want to soon repeat!

I’ll end with a shot of my lovely friend Yossie, which just shows you don’t have to go to exotic places to take photos you’ll treasure forever:

So thats the year in a nutshell. A good one; a memorable one. I hope you enjoyed the blog in 2018.

What’s next? Well in a week I’ll be in Oz once again, and mid January I’ll be flying from Sydney to Tokyo where I’ll meet Bernard for a week of otaku madness. I think it’s safe to say there’ll certainly be some photos worth seeing here in the next few weeks…

Gun Sniper Leena Special

I got it into my head that there were too many ‘model assembly’ posts here so cut back on them intentionally. But here I break my own rule because:

1) It’s been a while since I’ve made a ZOID.
2) This kit was a gift from JF.

The kit I refer to is this:

And here are all the pieces before I started assembly:

As usual with these kits, it seemed a bit over engineered, with 3 or 4 pieces going together to form what could have been one. But the quality control was fantastic and although more difficult than your average Gundam everything went together nicely:

Those are the legs and arms, just before I attached them to the rest of the body. It’s ridiculously articulated and I was amazed how well balanced it was:

Here’s the cockpit, complete with tiny pilot:

Yes the orange ‘glass’ canopy opens.

Now I’m no Z.O.I.D. fan (says the guy with 6 pricey kits…) so I can’t give many details about this robot but I can reveal that Gun Snipers are (apparently) semi-autonomous ‘Helic’ ZOIDs created using the ‘Organoid’ system. I’ve no idea who Leena is, but I’m guessing the ‘special’ thing about her ZOID is the ludicrous amount of weaponry it carries.

You see the above shot was only half way through. It took me at least as long again (several hours) to assemble all of the weapons:

Attaching them all to the ZOID itself was no easy task but I managed after a little bit of cursing…

It’s pretty great isn’t it! Here’s an overly-treated scale shot with a LEGO minifig:

Overall a fun build and a spectacular looking kit once complete! Thanks JF!

The Year In Photos

It was a busy year for us, and we saw and did many things. Here’s a summary, in which I only selected photos with us in them. If you want to read more about any of what is mentioned in this post, go back and check the original entries which are all here on the blog.

The year started – as it has for over a decade – down in Oz, where Bernard and I were on the Gold Coast about to drive down to Newcastle. We went to the usual places and did the usual stuff and had the usual fun we always have, but all this was heightened due to the fact we’d never been to many of the places we visited on our road trip. It was a memorable vacation!

In March, back in the USA, we had a record-breaking snowstorm. On one day we got just shy of two feet of snow, and I almost wore the snowblower out trying to clear it. That was a busy day!

In May we went to Japan for the sixth time. We stayed in three cities and had a jam-packed vacation that was so incredible I already want to go back (and may already be planning the next one…)

August saw us jet over to Ireland for a holiday full of scenery and the usual laughs. Once again this trip brought many highlights, not the least of which was visiting Skellig which the Star Wars films have now made famous. KLS enjoyed Ireland so much she’s went again in December!

And then in September we went to New Hampshire for a few days, visiting some caves, a giant arcade and taking lovely train and boat trips. As usual we packed a lot into a few days and it was great.

And in less than two days I’m heading off again to Australia, to once again meet Bernard in a city we’ve never been (Melbourne this time) and then to once again take a road trip back to Newcastle. This time however we’ve leveled up our itinerary, and our drive will take us a lazy ten days through the interior of VIC and NSW and then along the coastal road heading north. It promises to be great, and you can (and should!) read all about it right here starting in a few days…

Until then, Happy Christmas 🙂