Lord Ipsqueeck's Adventures: the first time to Bobbejaanland for this year!

 Here we go again, theme park season has begun, and to that end I kicked it off in Bobbejaanland, which is only half an hour drive from mommy and daddy's home.

 

And as such, it was time to do some fun rides again!

 

Of course, I love to share my adventures with you all, and for some videoclips, hop over to daddy's themepark YouTube where he will be upping some clips in the coming days and weeks about this journey! 

 

We can't start a day out without going to one of my favourite attractions, the Boatride.  These little boats sail around a cosy garden, and I just love this calm little attraction.

 

After that though, it was time to do some wilder attractions, and I took daddy on the Big Bang waterslide.  Though his cap decided to go solo on this trip...

 

After doing the regular slide as well, it was time for some more splashy fun, with the El Rio wildwater course.  And it really was daddy's day, as a big freak wave splashed right between the segments of the round boat, soaking daddy head to toe hehehe...

 

 

It was time for lunch after that, and we went to the Santa Fe village for some burgers and fries... and chicken nuggets!

 

To let our food settle, we then took a ride on the monorail, going around the whole park for some calm sightseeing. 

 

Ready for more adventure, I went on the double levelled carrousel in Kinderland with mommy, taming a wild tiger as it went around.

 

From there on, it was to the El Paso Special, which has had a clean up during the winterseason, all the animatronics working perfectly again if you shot them!

  

It was time to practice my driving afterwards, as I steered my train along the canyon rocks!

 

 

 

But as the weather started to change, as rain was predicted in the late afternoon, we couldn't end the day without going once more in my favorite ride... and I could even do 2 trips in a row thanks to the friendly operator!

  

And so the first visit of the year to Bobbejaanland for me ended, though I already heard from mommy we will definitly come back this summer for more adventuring in this awesome themepark.

  

Until my next adventure! 

 

Though daddy wonders what they are building there behind the Dreamcatcher, as a brick wall and all can be seen now... 

 

 

On Tour to the Frituur 22: Pure Frituur in Deurne

 In today's culinary fast food exploration, I'm going to a place recommended by friends for the excellent fries.

 

And that is Pure Frituur in Deurne, Antwerp.   

 

Located in a semi-busy shopping street, I went there on a sunday evening after a tournament, so it was okay to find a parking spot nearby.  Inside it was clean and there was a "bar style" seating against the wall to enjoy your meal, though seating is limited so don't take the whole team there or it will be a standing dinner!

 

My Order

 

I went for a small fries, a pot of home-made tartare saus, a berepoot (a fried meatball on a stick with fresh onion) and a smoked cervela.  Pretty basic and classic order as such for myself.  This cost me 14.60 euro, which are about the regular prices you tend to pay around frituur's here in Antwerp "suburbs".

 

The fries where excellently bakes, as was the meat.  They sure know their craft.  But, there was a downside.  They also offer online ordering apparently, which most people make use off to arrive and be able to pick up their order in minutes.  However, as a "dropped by accidentally eat-in customer", that meant my order kept shuffling more to the back of the preparation line.  A bonus though, eating in they give you metal cutlery!

 

As a result, I waited 27 minutes for my meal to be ready, and while I sincerly enjoyed the food, as I said above, it is truly well baked, this was a bit of a downer for me personally.

 

Conclusion

 

Quality wise, nothing at all to remark.  People where friendly, the place is clean and the food was excellent.  But the long wait time, that takes away a serious amount of points for my rating, so I'm going for a 6 out of 10 due to this.  I must admit, had I not be so "meugh'ed" by the wait, this would have been a 9 out of 10 stars rating for the quality.  

 

So if you want to enjoy these fries: order online and take-out! 

Warhammer Underworlds wednesday 8th of april

 Roight, time to put the fun deck of Benelux Clash aside, and start getting "back into" my Shadeborn to prepare for Maastricht.

 

And I immediatly started with a big mistake, but more on that in a moment... 

 

But, we got two games in, normally next week two more and then I guess it'll have to do for the gruelling time schedule of the Maastricht Open. 

 

The first game was against Peter and his Thorns of the Briar Queen, running Deadly Synergies with Edge of the Knife. 

 

Both warbands geployed, and we where off for some dicerolling and hopefully ghostbusting! 

 

And this is where I made the mistake.  Sylarc immediatly charged deep, wounding Vaclav, and about to ping the Queen with Dark Lamprey.  Which is something I don't do normally against the Thorns.  My normal plan is to try and take out 3 or 4 of the little ghosts immediatly in round 1 because neither the Queen nor her right hand man are a big thread and only go to 3 wounds inspired...

 

But it had been a while, and I fell in my regular pattern of immediatly taking out his leader, then Commanding Stride'ing back with Slythael.  It doesn't look much, but it will come back to haunt me as these are an undead warband that doesn't raise back.

 

Sylarc became the center of attention far off in enemy territory, as Drusylla took out The Silenced.

 

And my brave crossbow aelf soon fell as well to the swarming of the Thornqueen's servants.

 

The ghosts where driven into a corner, so normally in round 2 I should be able to start mopping them up while containing them in that corner.

 

And so round 1 ended, a 7 to 10 lead for the Thorns on the board, but that wasn't something I was worried about.

 

But in round 2's early activations, a dramatical roll happened.  Slythael hit The Ever-Hanged with 2 hits, one becoming a crit due to Raging Slayers.  But Peter rolled a double crit in return, and the ghost remained on this plane of existence, and that meant they would be able to start breaking out, and they managed to bring down Slythael in return.

 

Which they duly did, with Valyssa becoming the target so he could make some passive scorings in the process.

 

Vaclav was taken out however, and eventually the Ever-Hanged as well, but this was to little to late as two of the ghosts had now escaped the boxed in status of the board, and it was 10-16 at this point for the ghosts.  Here, my early mistake and the double crit save came to haunt me, as this meant I know lacked bodies to charge out and take out his remaining ghosts...

 

 I dispatched the Exhumed early in the round, but I was in to close a spot now to be able to get to them all in the remaining activations.

 

 While Drusylla managed to take over the Aqua token, even though the ghost survived the attack, his own ghost also snuck on the token at my side, and I didn't score any of my big hitters in the end as there was just one body to much on the table in the final round.  The Shadeborn as such lost 15 to 19, the initial mistake having cost me.  That freaky save prevented rectifying the situation, but not sticking to my initial plan is what actually cost me the game!

 

For the second game tonight, more flying tablecloths lined up against me, as Lady Harrow's Mournflight came forward, using the Realmstone Raiders and Hunting Grounds deck combination, piloted by Thibaud.

 

Both warbands deployed, Thibaud using the Locust generic scroll (Dark Majesty) for the banshees, and he had brought scenery to dress up his side of the board as well!

 

The regular flurry of my opening charges and moves ensued, and the Lady Harrow herself was immediatly taken out.

 

As the Shadeborn infiltrated into his half, the banshees prepared to counter attack those that disturbed their haunted mansion in Embergard.

 

 And Valyssa soon found herself beleaguered near the side of the field, and the first round ended at an 8 to 8 score.

 

 However, she slipped off while being vunerable, and thanks to her Haymaker managed to take down The Screaming Maiden.

 

But Caitha swiftly punished her doing so, the knifewielding aelf falling to her attacks.

 

The Shadeborn decided to "pull the trigger" though, and Slythael finished off The Anguished One, meaning three aelves would be out for the hunt on Caitha in the final round, with a 15-11 score on the board at the moment.

 

 Wherever the banshee tried to go, there was an aelf waiting for her, and as all my survivors had reach there was no safe place for her to get to.

 

And it was Drusylla who dealt the final blow, chasing down the final banshee.

 

Sylarc moved himself on the Aqua Ghyranis token in the final activation, and with Annihilation out, it became a 24-14 victory for the Shadeborn.

 

So, that second game was more how it should be, as I got my targets back in order compared to the first one.  Next week, I'll be able to get in one or two more games to get back in the slaughter vibes of death by a thousand cuts, and then it's off to Maastricht! 

 

 

 

 

Live, Love, LARP

 Live, Love, LARP is a documentary made in 2017, in association with the Mystic Realms organisation and free to watch available on YouTube.

 

And this actually gave a good insight into the hobby, without stygmatising the participants as socially awkward people and the likes as often happens.

 

The documentary is split in various segments, of how the people live ordinary lives, and in their hobby live out extraordinary fantasies of adventure, questing but most importantly cameraderie.  It follows the journey of both regular participants and newer players, but also about the storytellers and how they craft the tales and settings for everyone to participate in.  Wether it is as a hero or a lowly NPC (the rat people where fantastic), and how to tailor for both young and old.

 

This documentary as such also takes a look at the immense creativity the people showcase, and the skills they learned to make their costumes and props to go on their adventures.  Sewing, leatherworking, all that sort of skills that come in handy in regular life, but also social skills, working along with others, and being able to put the stress of every day's ratrace to the side for some good old relaxation!

 

A very intresting documentary for certain, and worth the 1hr20 it runs to have a watch! 

 

 

Helsmiths of Hashut Infernal Cohort with Spears

 Painted up for the Golden Hat XLV over on Chaos Dwarfs Online, the theme was infantry units.

 

And as such the perfect opportunity to start working on that Age of Sigmar force (as I'm liking round based game better then square based game...).

 

The unit was painted up as the rest of my refreshed collection, keeping to the blue and gold colourscheme.  But I did opt for a bit of a connection to my beloved "main game", Warhammer Underworlds.  I put the rune of the Blood of the Bull warband on there, hinting at this being either the doomed expedition into the Spitewood, OR a new force to raze the place to the ground.

 

The demon essence reservoirs I kept with the fiery theme of before, as I don't like the official ghostly green GW used for that.  I'm an old schooler after all.

 

But as such, that's the second unit of the Spearhead force done, which is a bit of my unofficial goal to get painted over the course of these various CDO challenges, meaning the next unit will be the Bombard.

 

Check back then! 

 

Of course, as expected it didn't win any of the top spots, as there is a LOT of talent in the CDO community. 

 

But as I said, I am joining these always with the olympic though, and if something gets picked up left or right so much the greater!