23 March 2020 – Lockdown Day 11

 

Sunday 22 March

This is the only day of the week when we keep to at least part of our pre lockdown routine.   We always clean the house each Sunday morning, whether it needs it or not!   The rest of our routine is to have a sit on the naya in the sun, and then go for a walk after lunch.   The continued wet and cold weather stopped sitting on the naya, and the Spanish government stopped our afternoon walk.

                                                                        

The above comments are a little tongue-in-cheek.  We do of course understand the need for staying at home and keeping safe, and indeed we fully support it.   But it is hard not to be able to have even a short walk.   And the continued grim weather just makes it all that much harder.   Finding something to do to keep occupied has become really important.

Monday 23 March

Jan and I have had two hobbies for as long as I can remember.   First walking, second wargaming.   We started wargaming together just after we got married in 1969.   It started when I painted Airfix model soldiers to make a diorama of the Trooping of the Colour.   I was in the army at the time, and this was to keep me out of the pubs whilst we saved to get married.   I ended up with a large collection of model soldiers, and found a book about wargaming in the library.   At first it was just another game, like cards or Risk.   But gradually we both became more interested, and started to take it seriously

As a result we developed an interest in the Napoleonic period.   This in turn led us to ten summer holidays in the 1980s and 1990s walking and discovering Napoleonic battlefields in Germany, Portugal and Spain.

But more importantly we really enjoyed wargaming itself.  I know that it looks like a game of toy soldiers which we all played as children.  But in fact it is really quite complicated, and at least on a bar with amateur chess.

For the past ten years I have been running a campaign based on the Napoleonic Wars.   For many years I did it online, and have a collection of 12 players throughout the world, each playing the part of a Napoleonic commander.  It was done to provide battles for Jan and I to wargame.   But the standard of game was pretty low.  So I now do it as a solo campaign.  This provides more interesting wargames, and takes me a couple of hours a week to administer.   It is a really good counter to the more physical walking.

The most important aspect, especially now that we are in lockdown, is that it gives us something to do for an hour or two each day.   And without the distraction of walking twice a week we spend more and more time at the wargames table.