In which I Agree (as usual) with Optimus Prime

I’ve been feeling a little low as so many of my friends are brimming with excitement over World of Warcraft’s Cataclysm expansion that is coming out in the next few hours. I’m not particularly jealous of the game itself, but that “Night Before Christmas” feeling is something I haven’t really felt about a game or expansion release in a while. Am I getting old and jaded beyond repair, I wonder?

But then I look at Optimus Prime dressed as Father Christmas, and everything is better again.

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This was the cover of issue 41 of the UK Transformers comic.

In which I go Christmas shopping and meet Santa!

Originally posted December 19th, 2007.

So, I head into Norwich to do some Christmas shopping, and who should I meet?

Santa at Jarrolds

It’s Santa! Not just any Santa, but Playmobil’s Santa! Doesn’t he look cheery as he shills for some other Santa’s grotto? To be honest, I think he looks a bit uncomfortable, but I suppose he has to pay for all those holidays in Tahiti somehow. Luckily I met him again after his shift.

Santa is free!

There now, he’s much happier! Not only has he shed that horrible tinsel sandwich board, but he has spotted an advert for a new Scalextric set. Perhaps he’s going to put one of them in my stocking this year! Anyway, we chatted for a little while, to the disconcert of passers-by, then he gave me a cheery wave, and we parted company.

Santa was not the only Playmobil representative at large.

Mr Owl and friends

It’s that regular X-Entertainment calendar fixture, Mr Owl! I asked him for some news of our friends, but he just muttered something about not getting any lines this year, and scowled at me. I tried to have a word with his park ranger friend, but unfortunately my French isn’t terribly good, so we didn’t get very far.

Playmobil spy

Ostensibly, this chap seems to be some sort of pilot. But what is this? He is standing by the lego section, with a briefcase. That is no pilot, but a playmobil spy! I had caught him in the act, and he stood frozen in fear until I got bored and wandered off. I hold him personally responsible for what seems to be a Norwich-wide Lego shortage. All I could find were large sets, with little variety. I was looking for some small ones to use as stocking-stuffers for the non-existent nephews and nieces I use to explain to cute shop assistants why I’m buying toys.

I did buy one small thing for myself in the end. I imagine it’ll make an appearance on these pages before too long at all. Little Al has been quite quiet and thoughtful the past few days, which usually means something fell is afoot!

The Return of the Card Strahd.

Just a quick post. I was chatting about Ravenloft on Twitter, and I happened to mention that I owned a lifesized Strahd von Zarovich that used to sit next to my gaming table as I terrorised my players in an AD&D campaign each week.

Now, you can’t go around making such incredible claims without providing some sort of proof. Thus it is that the Cardboard Count has returned from his exile in an upstairs cupboard, and once again roams my halls.

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The Card Strahd in full wobbly rage!

More garden adventures!

My garden would horrify most real gardeners. Most of what I do to it involves ripping out the ever-encroaching bindweed coming under the fence from neighbours who consider them “ornamental”, and trying to make it as pleasant a place for nature as possible. Here are a few things I found in my garden adventures today. My little camera, as usual, struggles with getting close enough, but they’re just about usable:

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Seven Spotted Ladybird

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Galls on a Sycamore leaf

These alien-like red structures are called galls. Although they look a little like cocoons, they’re created by the plant itself as a reaction to having eggs injected into the leaf by an insect. It creates the gall to isolate the eggs from the rest of its structure, but the eggs are just as happy in the gall as in the leaf, so it all works out. These ones are probably the work of the Sycamore Gall Mite, Aculops acericola.

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Red Poppy

This is a poppy of Genus Papaver. I’m not quite sure of the species. It doesn’t look much like the corn poppy we associate with Flanders field, with the flower being about 6 inches across. It looks a bit more like the Oriental Poppy, but that doesn’t look quite right either. There’s over a hundred species in Papaver, and most don’t have pictures on the internet. It doesn’t matter that much though, as the insects love these whatever they’re called!

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Cuckoo Spit - Froghopper Froth

My rubbishy camera refused to focus properly on this. It’s knows as Cuckoo Spit in the UK, but for once the Cuckoos are innocent. It is a protective froth of processed plant sap made by the nymph stage of a relative of the aphid known as the froghopper. The froth protects the nymph from predation and drying out.

Spider Babys.

Araneus diadematus, the European garden spider, has been busy in my garden. I spotted this group of bouncing babies having fun on my wheeliebin and thought I’d share!

The focus isn’t perfect, but I think it’s the best my little camera is going to manage as close as I had to get. These spiderlings are little more than a millimetre across each. Click the picture to get a larger version.

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Araneus diadematus - Baby European Garden Spiders

I hope you enjoy this International Day for Biological Diversity. Why not have a rummage around your own garden or street, and see what you can find! I’d love to see pictures, especially those of you in distant lands.

Checking In

I’m not dead! Just in the throws of a cycle of seasonal depression, so it has been hard to drum up posting enthusiasm. Like my more famous Norfolk resident, Stephen Fry, I’m thoroughly bipolar, so these things are wont to happen. Full service shall resume presently.

In the meantime, I’ve submitted to blogger peer pressure, and decided to give EVE Online a try. Folks are not kidding when they talk about the brutal learning curve, but my days in early UO have left me fairly well-equipped for survival in such a universe, and the numbers geek in me is having a delightful time analysing everything. I’ll write more on EVE when I’m feeling a little more zestful.

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The Gallente Catalyst Destroyer. Currently my mightiest vessel.

In which it is still very cold.

It’s the nothingness.
The whiteness.
The endless…ness.
Stretching on beyond the human imagination.
Desolation of the soul!
OH MY GOD!!!!


The Mighty Boosh – Tundra Rap

And that was pretty much the story of my walk into town today. Except with less dancing, and more nervous shuffling over icy surfaces.