All aboard the Coronation Scot - with Tintin and company!

Gosh, has it been really been a whole seven days?  How very remiss of me, but there has honestly been little of note to blog about - except the Chap Olympiad, of course, which I was unable to attend this year but which you can read all about on RetroChick's and Penny Dreadful's blogs (and probably by now a few others - there were hordes of 'em there, by the look of things!).  Next year, I promise you, just you wait!

I've got a couple of posts in Draft that are still waiting to be finished, but for the moment I thought I'd do a little filler about a couple of recent purchases that are of interest.



No, I haven't bought the Coronation Scot (I wish!), or even a ticket to see that famous locomotive (or even been lucky enough to get a ticket for any other famous train, unlike some others I could mention {shakes fists in mock outrage}).  I haven't engaged the services of Mr Tintin either (Tintin?  Mr Tintin?  Mr T. Tin? - what say you?).  What I have obtained, though, are probably the next best things.

Ever since I bought my Monopoly Nostalgia Edition a few years ago (have I mentioned that before?) - in fact earlier than that, from when I first started playing the British Towns card game that has been in the family for years - I've had a hankering for some old-fashioned board games and this has gone some way towards satisfying that craving.  It's the Coronation Scot Railway Game!

Coronation Scot Railway Game, £3 (from £6) + postage, at Past Times

When I first set my eyes on this little game on the Past Times website a year or so back I knew it would only be a matter of time before an example would find a home in Partington-Plans Towers and a happy set of circumstances conspired to allow just that two weekends ago. 

The first circumstance is quite obvious - it's currently half price!  That alone nearly convinced me to take the plunge were it not for the fact that Past Times' postage & packing fee of £3.50 would have negated the saving.  But what was this in my Inbox?!  A special one-day-only offer code for free p&P - AND an extra 20% off everything in the shop?!  Apparently a special thank-you for being a previous customer (although I've bought a few things in person at my local branch several times I can't for the life of me remember ever buying anything online before, but I wasn't about to complain!) - what luck!  So with a whopping 70% off and no postage to pay this wonderful piece of fun came to me for the bargainous sum of £2.55.

A bargain indeed, with four real wooden pieces, dice and shaker plus a proper fold-out board such as one might find on games costing 3 times as much.  Very often a cheap-and-cheerful board game has to make do with nothing more than a piece of reinforced cardboard for a playing surface and plastic markers, but not this one.  Perhaps they really don't make 'em like they used to - top marks to the manufacturers, Ecotronic, for sticking to such a faithful reproduction.  Now that I can look at it closely first hand, I can honestly say that if I'd paid the full price and postage I still would have been happy.

As you can probably tell I'm very pleased with this modest piece of railway fun and am now looking forward to trying this out in a game with someone (any takers?).  In the longer term I've already got my eye on its sister title Touring England but for the time being - all aboard the Coronation Scot!



Turning to Tintin, my post three years ago(!) detailing the then just-completed motion capture film that would become The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn (and the one a year later showing the first images) is still even now one of the most popular on this blog and I have been a bad blogger for not having followed it up - particularly as I went and saw it at the cinema and as Messrs Jackson and Spielberg must surely be well into the second film by now!  The least I owe you all is some sort of review and I will see about doing just that, as I have just today bought the DVD.  The special 2 Disc Edition - I always try and buy the 2-disc edition of a film, even though I don't always watch anything on the second disc I just like to get my money's worth and at least I know I have the extras if I ever do want to watch them! - "Exclusive to Sainsbury's", apparently, and "Available for a Limited Time".  We may scoff, but a quick look on Amazon and elsewhere proves the truth in this statement - no sign of a 2-disc special edition anywhere.  The same price as the standard single-disc version sitting right next to it on the same shelf, too, so how could I not?  I must admit Sainsbury's have been doing very well recently to match, or even better, the prices of online retailers - so top marks to them (those who know me well would say that I'd give top marks to Sainsbury's on most things, but we're not here to discuss my grocery preferences!).

Already I'm imagining a Tintin adventure on the Coronation Scot, so I shall away now to watch the film and [eventually] strong-arm a family member into playing the Railway Game.  Hopefully news will pick up in the week ahead, but I will return at some point with the promised review at any rate.

Pip-pip!

Decking the halls

Around the second week of December was when my family usually brought out the Christmas tree and decorations and it's a tradition that I've continued in my own home. So today was the day earmarked for getting out the decs and my little artificial tree.

The tree itself was actually left behind by the previous occupant of my flat and is just the right size for the living room, not to mention surprisingly sturdy and realistic. So right from the get-go I had the most important decoration all buttoned up, with no need to worry about getting another every year and spending all of Christmas vacuuming up dropped needles, plus there was some decent tinsel included as well.

The rest of the decorations were almost all purchased a few years ago from the once great and much-missed high street emporium that was Woolworths. They were doing a 3 for 2 offer on all decorations in the run-up to Christmas, as I recall, so I was able to amass 24 red and gold baubles (turns out the tree is only really big enough to take half that number, but it's always good to have spares!) 3 of these lovely gold reindeer bell rings (proper jingly ones too!) and three stars including the main one for the top of the tree, all for about £10. Oh Woolies, whyfor did you have to go bankrupt?! ;-(

Around the same time Past Times were doing a similar offer, so I was able to get a set of three Victorian-style candles, this wonderfully traditional Father Christmas and his sleigh, plus this delightful glass fairy.

Perhaps unsurprisingly I'm a sucker for an old-fashioned Christmas tree of red and gold, so I was lucky to find all these items in those colours. I never tire of that combination and I like to think that, with my limited means, I've managed to create a pretty decent looking Christmas tree. Not bad for a chap, eh?


All set for the festivities to begin now, methinks!