40 for 40: August

There was progress this month, but also some setbacks…

Weight

Target weight loss: 210lbs. Current weight: 232lbs. Weight lost this month: -2lbs.

Hmm. Not massively surprising since I was on holiday, my exercise routines were disrupted and I was eating a lot less healthily than I normally would, but still not the news I wanted to be sharing with you. Let’s hope I can get things back on track in September, as I’m still aiming to lose 22lbs before the end of the year.

Board Games

This month: 6. Total so far: 50

In August – today, as it happens – I had the pleasure of visiting the Stafford Boardgame Bash group in Stafford. The people we met there were very friendly and introduced me and Kirsty to a few new games, including Board Royale, Castle Combo, and Alibis – the latter of which we loved, as it was a hysterical take on the Codenames engine which we already enjoy. Amongst family, we’ve been playing Sushi Go, Forbidden Island and Rhino Hero; old favourites but it’s the first time we’ve played them this year, so they definitely count!

We’ve also been spreading the joy of Dixit to our regular group, and it’s becoming a firm favourite of ours. It’s odd because it took me a long time to play my copy of it, but once I had, the regular gang loved it!

Gigs

This month: 4. Total so far: 26

I managed a few Open Mics this month, including two I’d never done before: One at the Bell Inn in Trysull, hosted by Rachel and Daz, and the other was at the Wharton Park Golf Club in Bewdley. The former went well, and the latter was a very different environment than I’m used to, so it was a refreshing challenge! Elsewhere, I took part in the Open Mic at the Round Oak in Wombourne, hosted by my old friend Rich Sadler, and participated in my first ever flash mob choir at the wedding of two of our best friends, Fran, and Phil!

Sadly, my regular show at the assisted living centre has come to an end, as my client is no longer with us. It was a nice run while it lasted, and I’ll always be grateful for the opportunity.

Video Games

This month: 1. Total so far: 12

I’ve been slowly getting through Samurai Warriors 5, and I’m quite close to beating the main campaign on the two different “paths,” at which point I will mark the game off as beaten – there are extra modes and another campaign to go through if I wish, but that’s something I may come back to later. The game I managed to beat was actually Final Fantasy: Pixel Remaster on the Switch, on the save file I started more than a year ago on a plane on the way to Florida. The lack of a journal system in the early RPGs meant I had to look up a guide to find out what I had to do in certain situations, but it was nice to come to the end of the game again.

It's becoming less and less likely that I’ll beat 40 games, though…

Models Painted

This month: 11. Total so far: 55

I painted some Tyranids this month; a brood of Hormaguants and a base of Rippers. This is by far the largest army I have ever collected in terms of pure numbers, and because I’ve gone for a fairly rapid paint scheme, it’s worked out quite well. Another old friend from my Games Workshop days expressed an interest in doing a 3^rd edition 40K campaign, I told him I was up for it and found myself with the unenviable task of trying to come up with a 3^rd edition-compatible army with a force that consists largely of 10^th edition models. I’ve ordered some new models to bring this plan to life, so hopefully you will see some of those painted over the next month.

For now, though, I began to paint a Human Blood Bowl team a few weeks ago, which for some reason seems to have ground to a halt. I’ll try and get back on that over the next few days.