Mastermind

Himself says he is itching to get back to doing some modelling after more than two months of enforced abstinence.

Getting settled after a house move is not the work of a moment, of course, so I'm doing what I can to get him back in business.

In this house his modelling den will not have to double as spare bedroom so he's spreading out, and I spent some of an afternoon at the weekend assembling this fancy chair he's bought.

It reminds me of the one Magnus Magnusson used to interrogate contestants in.

The quizmaster's famous catchphrase was "I've started so I'll finish", which is very appropriate because Himself still has a drawer full of stalled projects to complete including lining the new Conway Castle, painting the Brian Madge Britomart, finishing off models of carriages 15 and 19 and rebuilding our Backwoods Darjeeling Pacific.

Let's hope it's a comfy chair!

Home Sweet Home!

The layouts' long emigration is over!

Bron Hebog and Dduallt have arrived safely at their new home on the west coast of Scotland after a month in transit.

We haven't had the chance to conduct a detailed examination yet but it appears that they have survived the loadings, unloadings and period in storage relatively unscathed.

The only damage Himself has noticed is to a stretch of fencing, but fortunately things like the 'Bridge to Nowhere' on Bron Hebog and the semaphores on Dduallt are all intact.

At the moment they are surrounded by all the detritus of 'flitting' (as we say in Scotland) but the hope is that eventually the double garage (which was top of Himself's wish list for their new home) will have enough room to have Dduallt up more or less permanently, meaning for the first time in nearly 30 years Himself will have a layout to play with at home!

(And me too when I pop in!)

Although there won't be enough room to put the whole of Bron Hebog up we should be able to erect at least 2/3 of it at a time which will be handy for things like trying to fix the phantom electrical fault that disabled the fiddle yards at Dinas last year.

All in all, exciting times!