Goodbye Darwin...hello...Canberra...

So, 2022 brings some big changes in my life. I have left my *Big Government* job in Darwin for a new life in Canberra. It's been a hectic couple of months and something that I've been planning for well over a year. Transitioning from a life in the tropics to the cold wintry climes of Canberra has been a bit of a wild ride.

Sorting everyone's life out...kid's schooling...my wife's work..my work...housing...travel...final rental inspections...removalists...all of these things took a lot of time and energy, and as you can imagine...there has been little time for hobbying or gaming.

I'm happy to say though...once all of these ducks were lined up - aside from a few hiccups - everything went to plan and we did not crash & burn on our arrival in Canberra.

Unlike the Pitch Black space craft lying here in Coober Pedy.

After I had spent two weeks gardening & fixing up the house in Darwin, I spent some time on the road - by myself - driving down the Stuart Highway from the Territory, through South Australia, Victoria and New South Wales and finally to my family home in Canberra, ACT.

I've done the Stuart Hwy a few times for work, but this time I relished the opportunity for a solo trip. I still collect CDs and I played my albums on full LOUD rotation for the first time in years. Heaps of Led Zeppelin, Rolling Stones, PJ Harvey, Guided by Voices, Drones, Cat Power, All Them Witches, Sabbath and on and on...singing along with my cd cases spilling all over my passenger seat...William Shatner's 'Has Been' album got a good spin too.

Canberra is much bigger city than Darwin which as one can imagine has pros & cons. I'm trying focus on the positives at the moment. After a few weeks settling in, I started poking about, and I took my kids to a few events around town.

Firstly, I have to say that I am completely awestruck by the prowess of rail hobbyists. I took my son to one of the annual shows - there are two big shows in Canberra I discovered - and the scale of the Club's undertaking was colossal.

Lots of local towns were represented.

Hopefully you can get a sense of the size of the displays..

My kids are big anime fans so they loved the Japanese themed display. The craftsmanship on these were inspirational...leagues away from my slap-dash approach to modelling and terrain.

The next weekend, there was another rock-solid nerdy event to get me inspired...The Geek Markets.

I even managed to pick up a bit of loot for myself. Cheap Sci Fi... 

..and some cheap 1/72 boxes. The Germanic Warriors will be used to bolster my dark age collection for Lion Rampant...The Crimean French is a bit more speculative, I've been toying with the idea of starting a new period in my favourite scale, perhaps colonial or English Civil War. ECW is the frontrunner at the moment, but I just couldn't resist snaffling these French up.

As you can imagine, it's been a couple of months now, but things are starting to straighten out and I've even managed to drag out my unfinished models to paint. 

More soon..