Despatches from Syldavia

Envoyé… 7 September 1713 Leaning against the rail amidships on the Lightning , General Ritter Petr Kotrimanic felt the ship being carried away in the tide.  A puff of wind fluffed out the Lightning’s sails and the ship began to move with a sense of purpose.  Soon the sounds of Dbrnouks’ wharves faded away and then the building of the town’s seafront and their bright roofs began to fade from sight as the ship pulled way into the Adriatic.  The ship’s crew settled into their busy routine while out of their element, the passengers, Kotrimanic with them, settled into a mood of listless waiting.      Ritter Kotrimanic, now more properly entitled Ambassador and retired General, reflected on the expected two days of isolation ahead of him.  Kotrmanic’s appointment was a newly-created position as Ambassador-at-large to the states of the western Mediterranean, his orders were to establish contact with the states of the region, including the newly-seceded Catalonia, to determine which, if an

Hi all, I have updated my map for Syldavia, fiddling with minor details like the direction of river courses, the location of national frontiers and changing some place names.   The most noticeable change is the presence of a hex grid, each hex is supposed to be 10km in diameter.  This particular change is a big help (obviously!) figuring out distances between places in real terms, such as numbers of days (or hours...) of travel between point A and point B. Syldavia is smaller than I thought! Jim

Sure he is stylish, but can he write ? It is high time to respond properly to the Stylish Blogger Award, which was generously granted to Despatches from Syldavia by Alan of the Duchy of Tradgardland.   As I understand them, the conditions of the award require that I post a link to the award’s donor, so click here to pay Tradgardland a visit (and say Syldavia sent you!)   Also, I am to reveal seven unknown things about myself.  Well, I’m 6’6”, a former astronaut and… Well, you already knew all that.  Here are six other things: 1) My roots in this this curious hobby go back to a childhood gift of some Britons guardsmen, then of some Timpo knights which were followed by my own purchases of Airfix 1/72 figures, bought with saved-up small change.  After quite some long time, I stumbled on some old lead toy soldiers that needed repainting, did so and so came to the realisation  that I could paint my Airfix soldiers.  My model was not just any old thing, it was F

Tintin about to be awarded the Order of the Black Pelican (from Hergé's Ottokar's Sceptre) I opened up the internet today to find a surprise awaiting me, Alan (aka Tradgardmastare of the Duchy of Tradgardland, at http://tradgardland.blogspot.com/ ) has honoured Despatches from Syldavia with the "Stylish Blogger Award".  I believe that Alan is terribly generous as what passes for style around here is pretty threadbare compared to the splendour and wit of some of the web sites we are lucky enough to visit, and I myself have been so inactive the last while that even the "blogger" part of the honorific seems a stretch. Nevertheless, and to be serious for a moment, a nod from Tradgardmastare (who runs one of my favourite places on the web) is indeed an honour and one to be gratefully and graciously acknowledged.  My thanks, Alan.  The Stylish Blogger Award looks like an interesting exercise given some of the spots I have read in the last few days and I would b