Good Bye old friend…

… A Spring clean.

I’ve always enjoyed a Spring Clean, a rifle through the collected detritus of life, rediscovering long lost treasures.  A chance to organise, evaluate and possibly discard those items that inexplicably accumulate around the periphery of oneself.

With regards to this humble weblog, I had considered redesigning the décor, perhaps even updating one’s avatar, but over the last six years, ‘28mm Victorian Warfare’ has proved such an invaluable escape that I simply couldn’t bring myself to do it.  Instead I resigned myself to checking and updating the hyperlinks, returning my library books and generally titivating the front page.  It was during this time that my tired eyes fell upon the banner for the Gentlemens Wargames Parlour and I felt a pang of sorrow stab my hardened heart.  The Parlour was my first foray into the often troublesome world of online forums.  I had been lurking around its hallowed corridors for a while, before finally applying for membership, and was heartened by what I saw.  The quality of posting, the use of language and general good natured comments made by the members were all in stark contrast to other notable forums who were suffering from the curse of banter at that time. 

Having made my introductions in the Duke of Wellington Bar, I would be found, more often than not, in the Rudyard Kipling Suite, which whilst not as busy as say the Edward VIII Cocktail Bar still attracted enough passing trade to allow this novice contributor a real boost form the positive comments and general helpfulness of the members.  In short, I could not have been happier I had found a window for my creativity and was starting to consider the enlightened members as friends, many of whom are still with me today as we continue to pass comments on our respective blogs.

I can’t tell you exactly why and how the Parlour started to decline, many theories abound, but it did seem to happen very quickly.  I suppose the simple truth was that it didn’t have the numbers to sustain the interest, but whatever the reason, the end was inevitable.  Ultimately I followed the lead of many other respected Gentleman and commissioned my own blog, ‘28mm Victorian Warfare’ with a clear mandate to replicate the enthusiasm, kindness and jolly good manners that I had come to expect from the Parlour.

Every so often, I venture back, dust the cobwebs from one of the virtual armchairs and make a polite enquiry as to the whereabouts of the chaps, but these comments seem to dissipate down the now silent corridors.  My last post in March 2016 was simply not acknowledged, there was nobody there.

So the unescapable truth is that the Gentlemens Wargames Parlour is no more and I am resigned to take down the banner, fold it neatly and place it the virtual drawer marked ‘gone, but not forgotten’.  If I could beg your indulgence just a little longer then I would ask you all to charge your virtual glasses and raise them in one final toast,

Goodbye old friend.