Wednesday 6 January 2021

Covid Christmas

 

I had plans to do a lot of blogging over the Christmas holidays, but unfortunately 2020 had one more surprise in store. You have perhaps heard of the ‘new variant’ of covid that is sweeping through southern England. Well, that’s where I live…

Three weeks ago, my wife got covid, as did her mother, father, sister, grandmother, aunt and uncle. This represents four different households, that briefly became connected through the need to help grandma. Thankfully, I can report that everyone seems to be recovering, even 91-year-old grandma, though she remains in respite care.

The one bright spot in all of this was that I appear to have escaped – either because I had the virus and never expressed any symptoms or potentially because I had it earlier in the year. (Knock on wood. It’s possible, of course, that I’ve just been lucky so far). This meant that I was able to look after the kids while my wife was completely out of action.

So, it was a muted Christmas, spent in isolation, my wife unable to even taste her Christmas dinner. Still, the kids had a great time, and maybe a calmer Christmas day was not such a bad thing for them.

Strangely, this all meant that I got more painting done than I expected. Since I completely abandoned any attempts to work, I kept my paints set-up on my desk for three straight weeks, and grabbing little breaks here and there to add a colour or shade was one of the things that kept me sane. I’ll be showing off some of that work in the days to come. For now, you’ll have to settle for this dwarf. It’s Reaper miniature. I bought it because I thought it looked like a ‘heroic scale’ version of the Khazad Guard from the Middle-earth Strategy Battlegame. I’m not actually sure why that was an important consideration to me, but it was. Anyway, it’s a very nice figure, and I really enjoyed painting it. There are several variations of this figure available, so if you want to construct a small army of them you could.

Hopefully, with my wife 75% recovered, I can get back to work, including doing some more blogging, but with England going into another lockdown, it means home-schooling and all the difficulty, disruption, and challenge that comes with it. It’s going to be an interesting year!

23 comments:

  1. Glad to hear your family members are all on the mend Joe! Lovely miniature and that paint scheme reminds me of the LOTR Gimli miniature

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    1. Thanks Ian. Yeah, I painted him to match my attempt at a Gimli, so I could use them in the same force if desired.

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  2. Oh, no! Glad to hear that everyone is (hopefully!) on the mend, though I imagine it must have been a rough time, filled with worry.

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  3. I am also glad to hear everyone seems to be on the mend. While it's nice to hear from my favorite designer, I don't think anyone is going to fault you for having to focus on family. Hope everyone get wells soon.

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  4. Best of health to you and your family and wishes for a speedy recovery. My mother and sister had it as well, and this Christmas my mother-in-law fell on my porch and broke her ankle (severely).

    A “muted” Christmas is a good way to describe it.

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  5. Glad your family health issues are receding ๐Ÿ‘

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    1. Thanks for keeping up your own blog, which I always enjoy reading!

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  6. Joe, I had no idea yall were all so down! I am so sorry everyone had to deal with this. Glad everyone is better and love to all, Page

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  7. Huzzah! Glad everyone is on the mend.

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  8. Good to hear everyones on the mend now. Immediately thought of Gimli when I saw this paint job! Great work on the red/brown.

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  9. Glad everyone is recovering. Best wishes.

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  10. Good to hear about the recovery from C-19.

    And that's a fabulous dwarf.

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  11. Oh Joe! My thoughts are with your wife and family, and you. Be kind to yourself too.

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  12. I hope everybody recovers soon, best wishes for the family!
    The dwarf looks great, especially the beard!

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  13. Glad to hear that everyone is making a recovery
    Great Dwarf too!

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  14. Dude, blessing on your family, happy to hear everyone came through. My Wife works for a major hospital here in US and today she got the first shot of the Pfizer vaccine. Fingers crossed for us all to keep dodging the bullet (so to speak).

    Cheers
    Kevin

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  15. I also had a COViD Christmas. I had double lung pneumonia. After a 5 day hospital stay, I survived. I am glad to hear that all of your family is doing better.

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  16. I am sorry to hear about your struggles but glad that everyone pulled through!
    Wishing you all a good recovery... stay safe and stay sane๐Ÿ™ƒ

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  17. I echo everyone else's thoughts on here. I am glad all is shaping up well now after the scare you have all had.

    Lovely dwarf mini by the way - and a great paint job as usual.

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  18. Believe me, it will be a looong year. Again. But wargamers have an advantage : they have too much to do to be bored. Makes me think they are the best group if you look for people for a mars mission. 'Oh what, landing? Today? Two years are over? I am not done with the elven army...'

    Glad to hear that you and your family made it. Maybe you should try to get tested to find out if you really had it.

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  19. Glad everyone is doing better

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  20. Glad to hear that everyone is on the mend!

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