It’s been a quiet week so far. Nothing much happening at all.

There is stuff in transit. Which I’m obviously waiting to arrive.

Stonemaier Games launched the latest Wingspan expansion Americas, covering the birds of the Americas such as Peru, Brazil, etc. Obviously I’ll be asking Diogo which of the birds he has seen. Along side this a new board for Viticulture was released. There was also a restock of the fan created packs. And yes I did order the new stuff.

The arrival of the new Wingspan expansion was the final nudge I needed to order the nesting box. For those curious what the nesting box is, it’s basically a big box to store Wingspan and all the expansions in. The only drawback is that the nesting box makes taking the game to a game night a bit more inconvenient. However with more and more large boxes joining the collection this is not really an issue these days.

While caught up in all the excitement of the new releases I realised it must be a good couple of years since I played Wingspan. Most likely when the Asia expansion came out.

However in that period we had two new additions to the Wingspan family in the form of Wyrmspan and Finspan. Both of which have seen table time. So in a way indirectly I have played Wingspan.

I do have a copy of the new Lord of the Rings The Two Towers trick taking game plus the Horses and Haradrim promo chapter pack. I think it’s great that the promo pack is free if you purchase from a lgs. I get that the publisher wants to support the brick and mortar stores. However is this really true? I’ve seen reports that stores are getting very limited supplies of the promo pack. Not nearly enough to go with all purchases of the game. And some stores not getting the promo pack at all.

I hate this sort of promotion. Not everyone has a lgs near them, and their only way to get the game is online. So why punish them? Why not have a period of exclusivity for the promo pack for the stores (making sure they have enough copies in the first place), and then make it available for purchase from the publishers website or the bgg website?

At the moment this extra content, it’s not cosmetic, is just putting money in the pocket of scalpers on eBay. I’m pretty sure a lot of the copies for sale on eBay are from retailers. Although I have no evidence to back this up. But they are the only ones that’d have multiple copies to sell.

How did I get my copy? Well Nathan was going into Basingstoke so I asked him to pop into the flgs there and see if they had it with the promo. They did so a quick bank transfer and I’m the proud owner of the game with the promo.

I think that’s enough for now. Hopefully something interesting in my life will have happened by the next post.

As of yesterday the UK rules for owning and flying a drone in the UK changed.

Previously I only required an operators id to fly my Dji Mini 4 pro because it came in at 249g. Getting an operators id wasn’t hard as long as you had the pennies to pay for it you could get it. The only hassle about it, if you can call it that, is it needs renewing each year. The operators id needs displaying somewhere on the drone itself.

As of yesterday to fly my drone I needed to also have a flyer id. To get a flyer id you need to take a forty question multiple choice test. Which is free to take, and you can take as many times as you like until you get a pass (which is 30 out 40 questions right). This flyer id is valid for five years.

So on New Year’s Eve I took the online test and passed first time (34/40). It’s not as impressive as it sounds. You can refer to the drone code as it’s called during the test. In fact they actively encourage it. One thing I did like at the end was for the ones you got wrong it gives the correct answer.

I will also need from the start of 2028 make sure that my drone transmits a remote id. Technically drones transmitting a remote id kicks in from yesterday too. However “legacy” drones have a transition period before they have to. My drone falls into this “legacy” area.

I’ve looked into if my drone can be upgraded in some way to do this and the answer is technically yes. It can do it now if I use the enhanced batteries with it. Which I think I may have.

Another new requirement as of yesterday is if flying at night the drone has to have a flashing green light on it. Which I believe mine has but when using the camera it may switch off. I need to investigate this more.

I haven’t done much with my drone. But I want to. And the plan is to. Like my Dji action 4 camera I want to do more with them. However I’m not sure how I’m going to use them because I want to avoid using, or falling back on the tropes and cliches currently in vogue with outdoor videos. I’ll leave my subconscious to ponder that one for me in the background.

It’s been a rough couple of days as we work through the grieving process. Nico for such a small dog has left such an enormous hole behind.

But even while grieving and having much needed emotional support cuddles with the rest of the little monsters, I have bought another game.

The majority of my game purchases these days are ones of opportunity.

I belong to a UK board gaming facebook group that not only chats about games but also allows the selling and buying of games.

It has been known that on a daily basis for members of the group to post collections or games they no longer have room for or want for sale to those of us who don’t have enough games.

It’s these listings that I usually buy from these days, especially if it’s a game I’ve been after for a while.

One such purchase of opportunity from this group has been another copy of Dark Moon.

Dark Moon started life as a streamlined, dice version of Battlestar Galactica. Naturally being an ip licensed to FFG it was never going to see the light of day with that theme. Not unless FFG picked up the game. Which they didn’t. So it got released as Dark Moon by Stronghold.

Stronghold did release an expansion for the game that I never bought at the time. Then over the years the game and expansion fell out of print. Which made it harder to find a copy of the expansion when I remembered to look for it.

Which brings me to this purchase.

The seller was not only selling the core game but also the expansion. They couldn’t be separated because they were in one box. However at the price being asked I didn’t mind. Getting the expansion separately would easily cost me the asking price if not more on eBay (if it was available).

So I snapped it up.

This sort of opportunity was how I ended up with Discworld Ankh-Morpork.

Obviously I do pre-order stuff (mainly expansions these days) or buy stuff I come across via reviews. But those later ones I also count as purchases of opportunity because they were unplanned.

I’m hoping this sort of serendipity will eventually get me the Fallout expansion New California (at a reasonable price).

It’s taken a day or two for me to write this post.

Last Thursday, early Friday morning the news broke that Ace Frehley, the original lead guitarist and founding member of KISS passed away.

Like the passing of Diogo Jota earlier in the year, the news of his passing hit me pretty hard.

I’ve been a KISS fan since 1982 when I first heard them round my best friend Kevin’s house. The album he played to me was Love Gun.

KISS were my first gig (De Montfort Hall, Leicester 1983). Ace had left by then, KISS had taken the make up off, and Vinnie Vincent was on lead guitar. Eric Carr had his drum set on the tank turret that was a left over from the creatures tour.

It wasn’t until March 1988, a month after the passing of my grandad that I had what can only be described as a three day high! It started off attending a record signing by Ace at a record store in Kingston Upon Thames. I drove there with a friend that I was studying with at Brighton Poly.

This signing and the gig two days later were the first Ace had here in the UK playing as a solo artist since leaving KISS.

So after queuing for an age I finally got to briefly meet Ace and the rest of Frehleys Comets, and get his ep signed. My friend kindly got a copy signed for my brother.

After the signing I headed back east and home.

As I said two days later myself, my brother, my best friend Kevin, and our childhood partner in crime Ginette drove down to the Hammersmith Odeon to see Ace play live.

It was a magical three days, I was on a natural high. Not only had I met my hero. But I’d seen him play in his only UK gig.

Jump forward to 1996 at my local in Guildford they had a fancy dress party (I think for Halloween). I went as Ace from the Dressed to Kill album.

As the photo below shows with the wig I made a pretty good Ace.

It took me an age to put the make up on.

The lazy part was I could get away with wearing a suit, and didn’t have to try and recreate one of Ace’s stage outfits.

There is another photo (full length) but I’ve been unable to locate it.

In 1996 I went by myself to see KISS headline Donington as part of the reunion tour. At the time it was the only UK reunion tour, but they announced further UK dates at the concert.

I was front and centre for this one. There was no way I was going to move from my spot. If I needed to answer the call of nature I was more than prepared to pee my pants. Luckily I didn’t need to go. Somehow my bladder held out for an incredibly long time.

This was a dream come true. The original KISS lineup in full makeup. And I was front row for it.

I then saw them with Kate at Wembley full makeup up, I think that was the Psycho Circus tour. And that was without Peter on the drums.

I feel lucky that I got to see the original line up in make up. Plus see and meet Ace as a solo artist.

Ace was my favourite member of KISS. A hero of mine.

Ace bought so much joy to my life. Gave me probably one of my most memorable life moments. Yes meeting him in 1988 was that impactful.

I hope his friends and family are finding some comfort from the outpouring of love from fans.

RIP Space Ace.

Mention the word vertigo and I instantly think of the Hitchcock classic.

However since Sunday morning I’ve been reminded it’s a medical thing too.

Being woken up by Dolly to go out at 6am on Sunday is not the ideal time to find out that all of a sudden the world has turned into a 1960s Batman set.

Returning to bed was a relief and I tried to sleep off the feeling of nausea I’d gotten from standing up too long.

Later in the morning I dumped the little monsters on mum. They needed letting out regularly and that was going to be an issue for me in my current state. In the end they stayed the night with mum.

But during the day and night I was lying as still as possible with my eyes closed. Often drifting in and out of sleep.

A risky trip to the doctors (mind you all trips to the doctors unwell are potentially risky for a single person) yesterday got me an exercise to do plus some tablets to stop the nausea.

Although all three missed me. Dolly apparently didn’t settle. So she has been back with me. Dolly needs less visits outside than the Nico and Loki.

The nausea has stopped thanks to the pills.

However the world is still spinning when I move my head, and I still walk like a drunk. So stating the obvious I’m not safe to drive. Let alone spend the day on my feet working.

So that’s where I am lying on my back, moving as little as possible, doing the exercise I have been given.