We recently had a family holiday to Gaucin in Andalusia,southern Spain . It's one of those picturesque whitewashed hillside towns/villages with a view of the straits of Gibraltar and North Africa ( you can see why it was called the pillars of Hercules in classical times) from our verandah.
There is a little castle, originally an Iberian strong point then a Roman fort and an Arabic castle, the castle of the eagle, a battle in 1309 and the fort stormed by the French during the Penisular/war of Independence.
We also managed a trip to Baelo Claudia, a Roman city that was just past Tarifa, the family allowed me to wander around taking photos which was good of them as they were a bit bored, but nice bit of Forum, theatre and museum, even better it was all free!
So not much figure painting, it's been too hot and busy, work and family, also a couple of weeks ago on Saturday my brother was told the chemotherapy wasn't working, we went from some years to a two to four weeks in a day and then to a matter of days, he died the following Saturday so one week.
He took me to my first wargame when I was about nine on the back of his motorbike, we went to some hall where there was a game with airfix plastic battleships on the floor. I remember his Vosper MTB model he made with love and care ( and the moment it was destroyed by our older brothers lobbed football!) My interest in model making and probably wargaming stems from him. I also remember him being stationed in Crossmaglen with his British army unit while I ( as a child) was visiting our relatives barely on the other side of the border, interesting times!
I'm going to miss him, apologies for the lack of wargame content, and also being remiss in visiting blogs but on both counts I hope to be back up to speed pretty soon.
All the best
Iain
