I’m keeping this brief.

There should have been at least two posts about my stay with Nathan and our LoTR campaign play.

But at the moment I’m in extreme pain with my right arm. A pain that inflicted me for the last two days of my stay with Nathan and still does.

I think it might be a trapped nerve.

What it means is that I can barely move my right arm at the moment without some pain.

As soon as it improves I’ll be back to a normal service.

There was no gaming over the weekend after Friday.

Which was probably a good thing really.

Although I really enjoyed my gaming session Friday. I think I needed it after Thursdays memorial for Nan. A weekend of gaming might have been too much.

Saturday I had to help a relative move Nans sideboard and bureau into their van when they eventually came to pick the items up. Which basically took the day out anyway as I waited for them to turn up. Boy does Nans living room look empty now without them there. However it does mean mum can move round the downstairs easier.

With stuff leaving like some of the furniture, pictures off the wall, the house is starting to feel less and less like Nans home. Is that a good thing? Maybe. It means mum can start to make the place feel more like a home for her.

Yesterday I did finish organising the final bits for Marvel Champions that I own. However I do need a better storage solution that will allow me to transport the game easier. Obviously I take it with me when I visit Nathan. But I am in the process of trying to organise a regular game or two of not just Marvel Champions but Lord of the Rings LCG. So that I can play some of the campaigns both the games have. But to do that I need a better storage solution for Marvel Champions.

There are plans afoot for some gaming this week with Jonathan midweek. Followed by some gaming with Jeff.

I know what I’ll be playing with Jeff. That’s easy. War of the Ring the card game, and the Lord of the Rings LCG (arriving today).

With Jonathan the decision is a bit tougher. I’ll take Star Wars: The Clone Wars. Although I know the theme won’t appeal to him. The fact it is a “Pandemic” based game will at least pique his curiosity to try it once. Other wise I’m hoping he will bring games along that he wants to get to the table. I don’t think he’ll want to try Expeditions.

I’m looking forward to both gaming sessions. It will be good to game with them both again.

Yesterday was the family memorial for Nan.

Luckily we avoided any family drama, so the afternoon remained rightly all about Nan.

Nineteen members of the family gathered at the Wisbech St Mary Sports and Community Centre to remember the life of Nan.

A couple of days earlier my aunt and mum had gone through a massive pile of photos and put together a couple of photo boards. Which we had on display alongside a couple of photo albums.

If any family member wanted a particular photo they were welcome to take it. You can see the three I particularly wanted in the gallery below.

My aunt had bought 20 rose bush plants for people to take and plant in Nans memory if they wanted to. A really nice thing to do.

It was a nice afternoon that I know Nan would be happy we had.

A big thank you to Terry and Diane for doing the buffet, and Paula for working behind the bar.

Another day of wandering down memory lane as we cleared more stuff from nans.

And boy did I hit a reach seam of nostalgia

With my aunt and uncle back in the country and staying locally in the run up to Nans memorial next Thursday. They have been able to help Mum and me get on with sorting out Nans belongings.

It’s been a hard thing to do. Not just physically but emotionally as well. However it has been that emotional side that has been the main stumbling block over the past nearly two years preventing Mum and I making much progress with Nans stuff.

Even with my aunt and uncle here helping. It’s not been easier on that front. But it’s helped to have some-one else to share the burden with. We made some real headway over the last two days.

Whilst sorting out what stuff goes to the dump, charity, or to keep we came across a box that quite clearly was mine.

Inside this cardboard time vault were treasures that took me back to my teenage years and the early days of the British Home Computer boom.

If you remember when I wrote about playing the latest MtG set, The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-Earth I shared about my history with Tolkien and when I first came across Middle-Earth.

Well colour me pleasantly surprised (whatever that colour is) when I opened up the box and inside were my copies of The Hobbit (Oric-1 version) and Lord of the Rings Game One (C64 version). Minus the respective paperback books.

Also inside this treasure trove of memories were the following three items pictured in the gallery below.

The Simon’s Basic was a cartridge for the C64 that allowed you to use a more powerful version of Basic on the machine.

It was this version of Basic that I wrote a game to teach the Green Cross Code for my O-Level computing project in.

It’s the project I also rewrote completely the night before it was due to be handed in. I did an all nighter. I was young. Didn’t know better.

I hadn’t realised what an impact I’d made with the game or my coding skills until decades later when my school friend Jon Ward returned to the UK for a visit. When we met up he remembered all this, bringing up the game and how good I was in the computing lessons. It was very flattering.

Author probably has the honour of being the first ever word processor I ever owned and used!

Finally the official Commodore modem for the C64. Mum and Dad got me that for Christmas. A decision they would later regret. Later being three months later when that quarters phone bill came in.

You see Mum and Dad had no idea what a modem was or that it used the phone line.

Try and imagine one morning waking up. That days post dropping through the letterbox before 8am. Yeah that’s how far back we’ve gone to a functioning, reliable (well compared todays offering) postal service. Opening up the post and seeing a bill from BT for over three pounds.

Yeah I’d hit the phone pretty hard. I’d developed a serious Compunet habit downloading demoes etc.

Well Mum and especially Dad were more than a little pissed off. Getting Dad angry was the quickest way to lowering your life expectancy.

Obviously my online activities were seriously curtailed from that point on.

But it was Nan that really saved my bacon (as she has always done). She let Mum and Dad have the money to help with the phone bill I’d rung up with the modem.

There were other gems in the box too. But I’ll save them for another day.