Yeah have fun today all of you lucky gits who can't read this yet some people just couldn't get to a game today

I thought we had a group for a skirmish today around here somewhere, but I seem to have been marooned in a small overcast town in southern Hampshire who's choice of excitement today could only be either plotting a modern-day Final Solution for the chavs and neds of my hometown, or just creatively avoiding the stress they cause everywhere in the town by walking around reading a book while wearing headphones and working out the details for my big annual Barbecue (note capital letter ) in the back of my mind.

If I didn't have to get stuff sorted out for that then I wouldn't even leave the house today of course, now the summers finally starting to put some kind of appearance, no matter how insipid it may appear to be, I can really enjoy a lazy drinky/smokey in the garden on a Sunday, what with it being my one day off and everything

But enough about some guy you've never even met; lets hear more about this Barbecue!!

Yeah I'm kinda pleased with how its going this year, I'm not spending anything after next Friday (a Tommy gun, Browning Hi-Power, wood stock for me luvvly luvvly Uzi [more on that later...] and a chrome Hardkick D.Eagle will be mine soon Mmmmm Thompson goodness - and the completion of the WWII collection at last ) and I'm gonna need everything I can lay my hands on for this one 'cause doing these things properly ain't cheap!!

Its a veritable extravaganza this year and with 2 spit-roasted pigs, a couple of kegs of beer and a fire pit built especially for the purpose its a lot of effort to put in for just a couple of nights, but I've decided I'm gonna do it....

For the look of the thing, there are airsoft-related things worth mentioning here as well, namely: Those Taiwanese `Mad-Max` sawn-off double-barrelled shotguns that may have come to your attention - they are rather awesome BUT only one of the two trigers on mine works sharply enough so only one barrel fires like it should (like fire-breathing a f**king monster, basically) and the other sounds, looks, and feels like a damp squib in comparison. A trigger tuning from the tech guys at GZ will reveal the extent of this problem. If it can be fixed, I'm getting another one as well. They are THAT good.

Also, the Tanaka M1897 is the best airsoft shotgun. They keep getting better, and this one just took the cake, its like a real gun, seriously. You simply would not believe the sound and feel of the racking, the shells are wonderful, (they take the gas so there's no gas system in the gun to get buggered up, and you never need to worry about running out of gas as long as you have shells Got 18 so far ) the finish on everything is simply superb of course, and when the stock pouch and sling arrive (with shell loops on both) and the 1907 bayonet fitted on the front this will probably be the best-looking gun I've got as well as the most spangly to play with!

In short, its my favourite gun, along with the mighty HK33, so I'll have pictures of it in its full glory and intimate detail, review-esque stuff about it, and even more opinionated beatification aplenty in the near future.

Real shame I couldn't get to a skirmish this week though, and I wont for a while yet because as usual this time of year brings all these summer people out and they get busy with the hammer and nails and the flourscent paint and the 20,000-watt PA systems, and before you know it you've got stuff to do and places to go all the time.

We be going to some drunken folk festival (yes yes, I know, but they really know how to get drunk ) next weekend for the sake of actually seeing my best mate Jas for once, instead of him being constantly arrogated (in my opinion) by his girlfriend (hence his and therefore my going to a folk festival), and even the weekend after that there is, apparently, an enlarged party/mini festival thing for a couple of days called, I kid you not, Gnomelands.

Anyone near the Winchester part of the country will probably know of Homelands, the 3-day outdoor dance event thats been overrun by the media, and I think Gnomelands may be an evolution from the Greenfields event that used to take the fallout from Homelands as those people less `overt` out in the real world decided it was a bit too much like every other media-saturated festival. This Gnomelands jobby should be just the ticket for them and me, by the sounds of it. Sweet.

Worth looking at: http://www.weebls-stuff.com/toons/homage/ a chortle of B3tan dimensions and characteristics, I feel.

http://www.davideodesign.co.uk/pepsigirl.htm Informative and educational, this home video disproves an obscure urban myth. Perhaps.