Post-Christmas December round up

As it's New Year's Eve, I thought I'd round up the month's activity before launching into the year-end posts. 

I covered the first three weeks of the month in a previous post. My final day in work was Monday 22nd. On "Christmas Eve Eve" (the 23rd) we headed up to Shrewsbury and we stayed until "Boxing Day Boxing Day" (the 27th).

Christmas Eve morning, we went with my brother and three niblings to watch The Muppet Christmas Carol in the cinema. I don't think I've seen it on a proper cinema screen since it was released in the early 90s. It's a film that seems to get better with age. It was only the second time my youngest niece had been to the cinema. The film was a bit long for her, but she did very well at not being too bored. 

Later on Christmas Eve I went with my brother to the midnight communion service in the village Anglican church. We have done this as 'brother-time' for a few years now, with a stop in the pub on the way, and it's something I look forward to as part of the Christmas experience.

My sister and family drove all the way from Edinburgh to spend Christmas Day with us. We managed to fit 8 people round my mum's dining table for Christmas dinner. 

Auntie Cathy and Scottish niblings 

Mum's Christmas Cake

There were some exciting presents.

I will be blogging about this!

And some family members were completely tuckered out by it all!

On Boxing Day we had another brotherly outing as the two of us went to a local derby football match - Shawbury United v Haughmond FC in the United Counties League. Haughmond play on the north edge of Shrewsbury and Shawbury is less than 10 miles north of Shrewsbury so the two clubs are in close proximity. 

I was impressed by the set up at Shawbury. They had a nice clubhouse and a lovely pitch. The Haughmond Ultras (4 pre-teen boys with a flag and a drum) had ensconced themselves in one of the small stands and kept up a noise throughout. They went home happy, having seen their team win 3-1. 

I've been fortunate enough to be off work during betwixtmas, so have had a relaxing few days since coming home, sorting some life admin and things. Today (New Year's Eve) I went to my final football match of 2025, watching Barry lose away at Briton Ferry. 

I went with my friend Paul and we arrived to find the pitch was still very frosty in places. Kick off was moved back an hour in the hope the pitch would thaw out enough to be playable. It passed the pitch inspection but Barry will wish it hadn't as they were second best all game and lost 2-1. They also had two penalties given against them, with goalkeeper George Ratcliffe saving both of them! 

Frosty pitch!

Moonrise over Briton Ferry

And that concludes a busy December!

Co-opting Santa into your regional culinary vendetta

This amused me. We got sent a Cornish cream tea through the post for Christmas. Scones, jam, clotted cream etc. in a nice presentation box.

What you might not know if there is a weird rivalry between Cornwall and Devon centred on cream teas. Like all religious and cultural wars it focuses on a tiny difference in the way things are done, in this case the dividing line being whether you put the jam or the clotted cream onto your scone first. 

And, just to make sure, the Cornish cream tea company have invoked Santa as the final arbiter on proper clotted cream etiquette. 

So there you go. Dare you go up against Santa and have your scone any other way?

Seasonal marketing never sleeps

Popped in quickly to B&M stores on the Friday before Christmas and saw this rollover holiday marketing.

I've got to admit I'm a bit tempted by a Biscoff version of a creme egg. It will be disgustingly sweet, I'm sure. But I'm still tempted...

Pre-Christmas December round up

I've packed a lot in to December so far and thought I'd get in early with my review of the month, ahead of the Christmas shenanigans.

Cathy being Christmassy in Abergavenny!

The Christmassy feeling started with the Carol Service in Grange Gardens. Cardiff Council decorated the bandstand, the Salvation Army band provided the music, Richard the new vicar at St Paul's led the service, people from other local churches did readings, and my friend Sioned's daughter read a poem. 

One lovely aspect was all the songsheets were bilingual and people sang in Welsh and English, which really worked. It sounded lovely. We had about 200 people come along with lots of families. 

Another community event was the final Keep Grangetown Tidy litter pick of the year. I didn't find anything particularly exciting but I did pick up 3 bags of rubbish and an abandoned pressure cooker. 

In early December I met up with Sara and we celebrated our ten year friendaversary. We first had a proper conversation at an event in Cardiff University organised by Diabetes UK. She asked me "What do you do?" Ten years later and we met up in one of our old haunts for a coffee and reminisce.

I also met up with my friend Heather for lunch at The Grange. Heather also worked with me in the Wales Diabetes Network and has since retired from the NHS. But she hasn't managed to escape lunch dates with me!

This month, Bryan and I foresook a game of Blood Bowl and instead unboxed his season 3 box set. In real world sport, I have made it to four football matches already in December, including...

...seeing my friend Ben play for Caldicot Town for the first time this season.

...watching Barry Town win the league cup semi-final up at Cambrian United.

...watching Cardiff Met with Steve, which was our first game together in months.

...and watching Cardiff Draconians away at Newport City. The Dracs imploded and finished the game with only 9 men.

I had a slightly quieter month, politically. But I was out every Thursday morning talking to commuters at different train stations. We have now been to all 12 stations in the constituency on the west side of the River Taff! This month we ticked off these:

I have a feeling campaigning activity will pick up in the New Year! 

After Christmas I'll be blogging my round ups of the year. 2025 has been a busy one so there is plenty to write about. That might take me most of January too!

Book of the Month: More News As It's Made

Last month I blogged about the small community of Action Force fans keeping the toy line alive with new figures and custom toys. David Gillis is one of the leading Action Force customisers and his creative customs show just what Action Force could have been if commercial pressures hadn't crushed the original toy line into the GI Joe mould. 

David also has a good eye for photos, and this coffee table book of his Action Force photography was on my radar for a while. A 'black Friday' deal finally convinced me to order myself a copy. And I'm very glad I did.

Briefly, the book is gorgeous. Beautifully laid out to show off the photos, with a mix of scenario-building and real-life details for a lot of the photos. David's love for Action Force really shines through each picture and snippet of backstory.

Presented as photos from the files of the Action Force Photogtaphic Unit (AFPU), the book is split into sections for the four elements of Action Force and then a section on the Enemy led by the evil Baron Ironblood. 

Q-force is the naval and aquatic arm of Action Force. 

At one point in tbe book, David describes Q-Force as "underrated", which I would agree with. The figures still pop up regularly 'on card' and seem easier to find than other parts of Action Force, although Space Force runs them close. 

I've included pictures of two custom vehicles because they are both developed from Star Wars "mini-rigs". Around about the time The Empire Strikes Back was released, Kenner produced some small one figure toys that didn't feature in the films. They were in the pocket-money range for kids, unlike other Star Wars vehicles.

I love how David has taken these vehicles and repurposed them for Space Force.

The more popular parts of Action Force were the SAS Force and the infantry Z-Force. I have a feeling neither would be used on toys now - SAS has probably been copyrighted by the Army, and "Z" has become a Russian propaganda symbol used to express support for the invasion of Ukraine. 

But back in the 80s, Z-force were the good guys.

Stories featuring good guys also have to have bad guys and the ultimate bad guy challenging Action Force was Baron Ironblood who commanded an army of brainwashed soldiers known as the Red Shadows. 

David has created some new characters who have also sworn allegiance to the Baron, but most of the Enemy photos feature the original Red Shadows and Muton robots in various scenes. 

Overall, I think this book would be interesting enough for people who don't have a nostalgic connection to Action Force. The photo work is excellent and the write ups add some great little details to the pictures. 

More News As It's Made is available from Total Toy Books.

Unboxing Blood Bowl - the Third Season!

No match report this month, just the excitement of two brand new teams and a new rule book in the brand new box set. Bryan had this as an early Christmas present and, as a Christmas present to me, we got to unbox it together!

I love brand new sprues!

The teams are the Bretonnian knights - a team sort of loosely based on Frankish crusader knights - versus the Tomb Kings, mummies and undead from a Pharoahnic culture not unlike Ancient Egypt. Both teams have little nods to their our-world equivalents.

The Egyptians were often buried with cats

A little frog climbing onto the Frankish token

This set also comes with handy tokens so you can update in real time what's happening to members of your team and who's carrying the ball.

Also, a new rule book with some changes to game play and the skills and abilities of the miniature heroes. 

It also has some amusing artwork throughout.

If a book is too much, there are quick reference "cheat sheets".

The pitches are a big improvement on the 2016 and 2020 versions, in my opinion. The checkerboard coloration on the turf one will make it much easier to move game pieces. 

The stone side works as well, although the stone sides of these pitches have always been easier to use. 

Bryan and I played 12 games of Blood Bowl in 2025 so we felt we could use a month off from actually playing. Not sure when season 3 will kick off for us. I need to get my own copy of the rule book...