Tuesday, 09:17 pm, 04 February 2003

We returned from Nottingham about 3.30pm today. Took out the miniatures purchased, de-sprued them and undercoated them in black - finishing up my undercoating can. The trip had been a great road trip requiring roughly four hours driving (from my wife) total. Nottingham had a number of interesting points, but for me the highlight of the trip had been driving between Wilmslow and Nottingham (and back) and seeing Warhammer World.

Here is the required picture of me standing outside Warhammer World. Thanks to Mrs Barbalet and my cheap digital camera.

Warhammer World was a move-on moment. We didn't see the museum or the plant. Just the shop area, the bar area and the games tables laid out. Contrary to the reports in the magazines, Warhammer World couldn't make casts of old miniatures. The helpful staff informed me that the mace wielding Chaos warrior was no longer available (thankfully I got mine last week). All the old Space Ork figures I wanted to pick up where listed in the catalog but they couldn't recast them. They had been deleted from their system.

My wife decided to buy a Lord of the Rings figure set and some paint. I picked up a 10- figure squad of Storm Troopers from their order list and some books. Disappointed at the lack of old list range. But an important thinking point. Games Workshop is a company. It makes its money from modern miniatures not my memories. This experience brought a sense of closure. I have nearly finished my Imperial Guard force. The wife, however, now has some Lord of the Rings figures - which may provide a game or two.

As a company, the Games Workshop offices had a youngish 20-something feel to it. One woman in the bar to about forty men. A couple of old timers, but mainly 20ish men. It had a computer start-up three-to-five years into it. Perhaps a Be Inc in the late 90s feel. But somewhat familiar.

Saturday, 11:38 pm, 17 May 2003

I took the afternoon off from the releasing game and went into Manchester to visit my wife who is working in the city today and t'row. We actually haven't had a weekend off together in a number of weeks. So I thought I would go in and find the Manchester Games Workshop and buy some clothes. The Manchester Games Workshop was hit by an IRA bomb in 1997(?) together with a large section of Manchester.

So I travelled in post-Mac-release by train. My wife and I had a quick bite and then I headed out in search of the Arndale Centre. I found the Arndale Centre quite overwhelming. I am not a good mall shopper at the best of times, but the general dankness of this mall put it on a lower par than the out of the way small town malls in Malaysia or Thailand. The difference was it was huge but still had exposed cement/cabling and elements of disarray.

For the large mall, there was one information point with paper maps. The paper map didn't map well onto the mall itself. There were a number of straight sections shown which were in-fact kinked alleys. After about 20 minutes and the suspicion that the Games Workshop didn't exist, I found it down a small alley and off the main walkway. You would have missed it, if you hadn't walked to the end of the alley, you wouldn't have seen the store. The store was big and very well stocked. A number of large games tables and all bar one had groups of people playing on them.

I was hoping to find some *setting up a club* information - but nothing came to light. I called my wife and began to head back. It had been raining rather heavily and although the mall was undercover, I actually had to leave the mall and circle it at one stage to get my barings and find the Information desk. Even though I had my umbrella, when you are packed around a number of people an umbrella can be seen as an offensive weapon.

Without thinking about it, I had walked around for about half an hour in a relatively saturated state. I found the nearest men's clothing shop and bought a complete upper body of Manchester wear. A tshirt, shirt, and sweater - all polyester bar the tshirt which is poly-cotton. I don't wear synthetics at all normally. I am a cotton wearer. My wife wears synthetics but I don't like them. So it was strange to spend an afternoon wearing synthetics of central Manchester. I am still wearing them as I type.

Sick of Games Workshop?

I returned to my wife - still at work - and she said, 'Getting sick of Games Workshop?' Strangely for all my negative experiences and the level of general alienation I feel in Games Workshop stores and with Games Workshop players. My own experiences keep me interested. It has many parallels with my thoughts and developments with technology. Although I feel dirty and sickened when I am around particular technologists - conferences, conventions and alike - I like my own experiences with technology.

There is no paradox - merely the hope that I will find like-minded tacticians. With software, I do meet like minded folk, in ebbs and flows. So I feel my romantic/naive searching is productive, at least five percent of the time! Good night.