My August 2026 monthly round up

I did a fair bit of travelling in August. The month started with Cathy and I making a last minute overnight trip to Kent (via Oxford). We stayed near Whitstable, had an evening in Herne Bay, before briefly popping into Canterbury to pick up some new art we had bought online. 

Herne Bay sunset

Canterbury museum

We really liked the places we visited, and would like to return to that bit of the world for a proper holiday sometime. (And to go back to the museum when the Smallfilms gallery is open!)

I also spent a weekend in Shrewsbury, which included a trip with my mum on the Shrewsbury Town supporter's coach to Birkenhead to see Tranmere v Shrewsbury. I'm going to post a separate football review of the month, so you can read more about it there. But on the Sunday I went feeding ducks before church with my sister-in-law and an assortment of niblings.

Cathy and I had another road trip and just about stayed in Cymru this time when we met up with Cathy's aunt and uncle in Monmouth one weekend.

At the top of the Cynon valley, I went on the Tower Zipwire with Sara - my ride down was a birthday gift. I've already blogged about it, complete with video. 

There was another delayed birthday gift this month because I spent my Lego Store gift voucher that Connor gave me for my birthday. I bought the new set of Derpy the tiger from K-Pop Demon Hunters on the day it was released and built the set the same evening! He's fab. (Thanks Sara and Connor for being so generous!)

In the evening of the solar eclipse, Cathy and I went out onto The Marl (the big park near us) to experience it. You can't tell much was happening in this selfie with the sun.

In politics, our local Plaid Cymru branch is looking ahead to the council elections next year. We have started going out on some fact-finding canvassing, with sessions on the eastern and northern edges of the "South Cardiff" area. It's been fun knocking doors in the sunshine, and I hope we get good weather into September as well!

I went to seven football matches in August, but I think that's enough games to merit their own post! Check back tomorrow (or the day after).

And in case you missed it:

• My book of the month was Fundamentally by Nussaibah Younis
• My album of the month was Sanguivore by Creeper
• This month's Blood Bowl game saw my first ever win for the Norse Team (and some fierce snacks!)
• Our street got resurfaced - but there was a twist!
• I acquired another philatelic passport (this time from Japan) for my collection 
• I also bought some new action figures that were a homage to Action Force 

Bank holiday Blood Bowl bashfest

My monthly Blood Bowl showdown with Bryan was a battle of two "bash" teams. I was playing Norse for the fourth time, in search of my first win with them. Bryan was fielding his trusty dwarves again.

Previously my encounters with the dwarves have been while playing low-strength, low armoured, agile teams. However, the Norse line up had players who could go toe for toe with the dwarves and had a couple who were stronger. That led to two dwarf serious casualties, depleting their line up. Having a trollslayer sent off also didn't help them much.

Injuries and naughty trollslayer

Star player Thorsson Stoutmead had a decent game, using his special move 4 times to take out an opponent by lobbing a keg of beer at them. It's a useful way to open a hole in a defensive line. 

It was a breakthrough like that which led to the first Norse score. The dwarf ball carrier got sacked and four Norse players showboated to party in the end zone. 

In the second half, the Norse were receiving from the kick-off. The ball was collected by one of the valkyries, while her team-mates bashed a clear pathway through the reduced dwarf defence. She was then able to run the length of the pitch to score, fending off an attempted blitz on the way. 

But the play of the game led to the third and final score and saw Bryan overcoming his usual incredible terrible dice-rolling luck. With the Norse streaming forwards towards the dwarf ball carrier, Bryan rolled the required 6 to ensure a successful long pass and then successfully rolled to receive the pass. 

With three dwarves free and bearing down on the end zone, a Norse berserker tried to stop them but failed and ended up injured. 

There were a few turns left for fun bashy aggro, but no real chance of scoring as we ran the game out. The final score meant the Norse have finally won a game - it finished 2-1 to them.

Snacks: spicy crisps and mango jaffa cakes, washed down with Tango "Thirst Trap".

My first philatelic passport from Japan

My fifth addition to my collection of philatelic passports this year arrived in the post today.  It's the first one in my collection from Japan. It's in absolutely pristine condition, considering it's 35 years old. I love the bright red cover.

The opening pages show you how to use the passport and the original owner followed the instructions!

Inside there is a unique collection of stamps from around the world. Here are some that caught my eye, including this graphic depiction of an atrocity commemorated on a stamp by Iran.

Mauritius paid tribute to the tragic dodo with a whimsical cartoon stamp and a commemorative cancellation postmark. 

Meanwhile, the USA post office was already in the Christmas spirit (in November!) and Santa Claus was in their special postmark.

I really enjoy collecting these passports. They are quirky and I never know exactly what I will find inside. 

Zipwire half century

A handy day off on Friday just gone, and I cashed in my birthday promise from Sara - a zipwire at Tower Zipworld up by Hirwaun.

It's a great set up, with a long zipwire over a lake followed by the "fastest seated zipwire in the UK" to get you back down to the main complex. 

You can also get a video of the zip too - of course, this is my point of view so you only really get the evidence that Sara did the zips!

We also did the Tower Coaster in the main site. It's a high speed ride through trees and tunnels. It's also great value, as you get three goes round for the ticket price. That was handy as Sara's twins both wanted to go round with 'Uncle' Jon - so they were both able to get a turn screaming next to me.

Diolch yn fawr, Sara, for a memorable half century birthday present!

Album of the Month: Creeper, Sanguivore

This is the second time I've reviewed a Creeper album as an album of the month this year. I'm reviewing them out of order after reviewing Sanguivore II: Mistress of Death back in January. 

Sanguivore was Creeper's vampire concept album from a couple of years back. It very much has the feel of a band developing their style and storytelling technique. The singer-narrator becomes a vampire in the first song, the lengthy opener, Further than Forever. The song is in multiple parts as the story develops with riffs that felt at time like a homage to Bat Out of Hell (particularly the refrain about his "Armageddon Girl").

The echoes of Meat Loaf isn't the only stylistic tribute on the album. The Ballad of Spook and Mercy is a dark folk tale about a vampire on the hunt reminiscent of Nick Cave. The simply sublime Chapel Gates sounds like it could have been a Ramones song. It's a great piece of punk rock artistry. Black Heaven is a goth rampage underlaid by fizzing synthetic drums. More Than Death is a lost musical theatre number. Sacred Blasphemy is an arena anthem with soaring vocals driven along by metal guitar riffs. Lovers Led Astray is lounge rock gone awry.

A very vampirey castle on the back

Can you tell I loved this record? I listened to it several times over a solo car journey and for the next few days had lyrics and riffs from different songs interrupting my thoughts and running through my head. Good music is as infectious as vampirism. 

Lyrically, there are plenty of clever moments to catch, as well as some very strong singalong bits. ("I pick a rose, for every bloodstain on your clothes"). I particularly liked the despairing line "Some nights you're pining for the pine box" - the cry of a vampire exhausted of unliving their undead unlife - in More Then Death.

I can't really put my finger on why I have fallen so hard for this band, except I admire how they have chosen to tell a story and have really committed to it by creating some wonderful music. Vampire stories are ridiculous and yet seem to be unkillable, however much the tales are retold into parodies of terror. So why not turn the trope into singalong stories? Especially if along the way you create a twisted celebration of life and love through the jealous, zealous bloodlust of unholy resurrected monsters? 

I've got a ticket to see Creeper perform live in October. I can't wait. 

Details

Year of release: 2023

Tracks: 10 (although one is a 30 second instrumental break between 2 songs

Favourite track: Chapel Gates, closely followed by Black Heaven

Track to skip: Further than Forever is almost ten minutes long. It sets the scene, rock opera style, for the album so is essential when listening to the album first time around. But on subsequent plays, it's skippable.

Resurfacing the street

A couple of weeks back our street got resurfaced. We were informed by signs being hung in the street giving us some notice. As far as I know, no cars got towed.

The street needed resurfacing. We had several patches that pushed the definition of "paved road".

The damage was really noticeable if it rained. Of course, in the driest summer on record, it rained the day before the road crew were due! 

I was impressed how much they managed to get sorted in a single day. The noise throughout the day (which caused the entire house to vibrate at one point) was worth it. We now have shiny new tarmac and the risk of losing a shock absorber is no longer a real danger.

And that, you might think, is the happy ending of the story, folks. But, no, there was a plot twist that nobody saw coming. 

The new tarmac was down for just EIGHT days before Welsh Water came along and dug up part of it! 

There's the seed of a new pothole, right there. 

Book of the Month: Fundamentally

This review contains spoilers. 

Non-spoiler summary - this is a fictionalised account of trying to deradicalise women who were tricked and trafficked into becoming brides for fighters in ISIS. It is very well written, told from the perspective of a female British academic who has traded academia to work on the deradicalisation programme for the United Nations. She meets a young woman from London who is now in a camp for former ISIS brides in Iraq. The story explores their tentative friendship during the labyrinthine process of leaving the camp and returning to the UK.

It's a very moving, witty, challenging and memorable book and I thoroughly recommend it.

++++++ Spoilers follow ++++++

This is a work of fiction that has such a ring of authenticity about it that the author, Nussaibah Younis, has added in a disclaimer at the back to say that no, she did not work for the United Nations when she worked in Iraq, and no, there are no internment camps for women who were trafficked into forced marriages to ISIS members in Iraq. Although similar camps do exist in other countries, and women have been left trapped, imprisoned and stateless after being deprived of their home citizenship.

However, Nussaibah did work in Iraq for a NGO and was advising the Iraqi government on how to deradicalise women who had joined, or were coerced into joining, ISIS. She is also a British academic who grew up in the UK, like Nadia the primary protagonist in the book. Whether there are any other similarities between her and Nadia would be an intensely personal question to ask, given Nadia's sexual experiences and her apostasy.

The different relationship Nadia and Sara, the other main character in the book, have with the religion they were brought up in was another very authentic element to the book. Nadia meets Sara in the camp where women who were married to ISIS fighters are being held. After a while it becomes apparent that Nadia's rebellion against the strictures of her religion left her open to her naivety being exploited in almost exactly the same way that Sara's idealism and wanting a more fervent version of her faith led to her being trafficked into a life of sexual slavery. 

Nadia's journey from a teenage true believer through to an apostate adult is an interesting look at natural deradicalisation. What is equally interesting is the way Sarah clings to her faith, despite being repeatedly married off to short-lived ISIS cannon fodder soldiers. She doesn't lose her faith despite the personal atrocities she experiences and resists the deradicalisation programme. She still wants the dream she had of a religious utopia to be possible, despite the reality she found herself in, and she doesn't want to let that dream go. 

The book's setting in the world of the UN also, sadly, feels very true. Nadia has to deal with competing internal political priorities. Some of the tangential storylines and prejudices expressed by the motley cast of supporting characters seem to be drawn from real life, even if the hypocrisy and corruption are dialled up to eleven. There are arguments between empire-building heads of department as they struggle for greater personal control of resources. The people needing help are the lowest priority of jaded career UN workers, many of whom seem to have ended up in Iraq by accident and are just serving their time until they can take another placement somewhere else. 

Meanwhile, we have Sarah and Nadia, slowly becoming friends despite everything. When it becomes apparent that Sarah will never be repatriated to Britain, and also apparent that she probably doesn't want to go back, they have to find an alternative place of safety. It all gets very messy and tense towards the end of the book, which kept me gripped until I had finished the story. 

This is my favourite fiction book so far this year and probably since I read Jennie Godfrey's The List of Suspicious Things last summer. It has a lot to say about religion, global geopolitics, fixing the problems of failed states, and human connection. It is profoundly hopeful, despite the many reasons the characters have to despair. And that, I think, is its most endearing quality. 

More Action Force revival news

Last year I posted about both an official and unofficial revival of Action Force, with figures released in homage to my favourite toy line of the 1980s. This week I received three fresh new figures created by Black Major Nation, an independent toy manufacturer named after one of the villains of the original toy line. 

The figures are another version of Red Jackal, a Cobra style trooper in a Red Shadows style uniform and a Cobra Eel Trooper from the classic G.I.Joe line but done in the colour scheme of a Kraken from vintage Action Force.

Red Jackal is basically a repaint of "Destro", one of the key members of Cobra, the terrorist organisation that fought against G.I.Joe. Back in the 1980s, Destro had a repaint and was released as Red Jackal in the UK. This makes the toy very collectible now for American collectors who have all the G.I.Joe figures released in America. 

Unlike the Red Jackal I blogged about last year, this one is a multi-jointed "o-ring" figure, like the original one in the 80s. (It's called an o-ring figure because the legs are attached to the rest of the body using a rubber band inside the figure - that's the O.)

Red Jackal comes with two alternate heads - one would turn him into Red Laser and the other is a Cobra Commander hooded head with an anachronistic AF Enemy logo on his hood.

The Cobra Trooper is OK. It would fit in with some Enemy troops fine. 

The Kraken Eel is, well, crackin'. The colour scheme is perfect. 

I really like this figure although the accessories are a little bit fiddly. They don't fit together very securely and the peg on the back-pack is quite loose in the hole in the figures back where it's meant to attach. As a display piece it's great; as a play figure, bits would quickly get lost. 

Shortly after I blogged about the figures last year I acquired some figures from a different independent manufacturer, Lady Jaye Toys. They released some "Shadow Troopers" in a variety of weird colour schemes. I decided to just get the classic Red Shadows they released in tribute to the original range. 

Again, these are o-ring figures. They come with two different weapons - a reproduction of the bazooka that was shipped with the vintage figures, and a machine gun. 

If I had one criticism of these figures, it's that the heads are two small when compared with the vintage figures. However, they come with optional different heads, including one to create a Black Major if you want one.

I have acquired a few vintage Action Force items recently as well, so will share those on the blog at some point.