What a marvellous present!

Some of you may be aware that I have more than a passing interest in the Mongols, especially the 1238-41 campaign in Europe. Now currently my daughter works as a lead trainer for a medical assessment company and is in Poland teaching the Polish the methods that she uses. She has a weekend off so instead of coming home she stayed for a wander about. This morning she phoned and was telling me about her walkabout. Now previous instructions to said daughter involved taking pictures of old buildings and looking out for anything from the Mongol period. Later this afternoon while watching the Japanese v South Africa rugby she phoned again and said that for my 60th birthday next January she is taking me to Krakow for a long weekend of looking around the place. I'll be brutally honest with you, I was a more than a tad emotional.
Now Krakow was the fist major city the Mongols came to and destroyed but Wawel Castle they avoided because it was too strong. As I said to her, that's one place off of my bucket list...hmmm, I wonder if she is up for a trip to Mongolia or Japan for my 65th? 

Another light bulb moment.

For some reason I seem to be one of those people who will always try something the hard way first and then about half way through realise that there is a much easier option.
   So far I have made 8 buildings -mostly terraced houses- for my 6mm campaign which involved a lot of windows all painted by hand. I was in town today when the light bulb flashed on; instead of painting them why not use a chisel-pointed permanent black marker pen. So I've bought one and will try it out...I have high hopes.
   I know, sometimes I even amaze myself.