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Postcards from the EdgeBy Jon BlythWhisper it quietly now - "I am a wargamer". I don't know how you deal with it, but over the years I have developed an unhealthy stance of secrecy as regards my hobby. For years, the question "..and what did you do at the weekend?" would send a chill down my spine at work on a Monday morning. It's not that I'm embarrassed at all by what I do. It's just that I'm a little embarrassed, that's all. I've found that there are classes of spare-time activity, set into the general public's psyche at what I can only guess is an instinctive level. These are grouped by what I call the "Spice Classification". Sporty - This includes any physical activities, usually in groups of other like-minded active types, including football, squash, fishing, cricket, football, darts/pool/snooker, football, scuba-diving and football. Also included is any time spent watching sporty stuff on TV. Posh - This caters for all the moneyed or upwardly mobile people and, rather than being special occasions, constitutes normal life for them. Pastimes include expensive dinners, parties with expensive food and wine, expensive food and wine with no party in sight, any kind of hunting or shooting or fishing where the "g" is dropped from the end of the word in question, and any activity involving waxed jackets and Range Rovers. Scary - Depending on your point of view, this is a large category involving varied pursuits not really designed for human beings to really have a go at - such as rock climbing, long distance running, bungee jumping, night clubbing, D.I.Y, and cow pushing. (If you're unsure on the last one, please ask!) Baby - Not really spare-time activities, rather those designed to use up any time that might once have been considered as being spare. E.g. families and pets. Ginger - Wargaming and Morris-Dancing. I kid you not. It takes a lot of time to adequately explain the appeal of wargaming and generally ends with the listener nodding slowly, saying "Oh yes, toy soldiers. I know what you mean". If any reader has a short, punchy, fascinating sound bite that they use to describe wargaming to "outsiders", please let me know what it is. No, I mean it, please.... The important thing to remember is that we enjoy what we do and there are stranger hobbies than ours that receive greater public acceptance and understanding. (Oh all right, not many of them). Now, who's up for some cow-pushing then...? |