No need to laugh or cry

I am tempted to start with a moan about Windows 10, but let's do wargaming stuff instead, despite it being a bit thin on the ground. The battle of Neuestrassen rather fell away and we gave up half way through the third night. It was mainly my fault as I wouldn't attack, but I didn't think I had enough infantry and they certainly weren't in the right place. I would have won eventually just by picking off morale chips from the Austrians here and there - my artillery had to come good eventually - but it wasn't making for a terribly good game. I think luck was fairly even over the three weeks, but Peter failed Major Morale multiple times and then lost a cavalry melee with a fresh Cuirassier unit charging a Dragoon unit that had lost three quarters of its strength to musket fire; all of which he took well. The new roads are good though. And have I painted anything myself this week? Not as such. Have I worked out the basing for the WWI stuff I bought? No.

In other news, I was at a breakfast meeting with the Yorkshire and Humber agent of the Bank of England for a run through their latest forecast of the economy, and I have to say that it all seemed rather over optimistic to me. If I correctly understood the process that they go through it mainly consists of looking at whatever assumptions are priced into futures markets for key factors such as oil prices, house prices, unemployment etc; in fact everything except for UK interest rates and that's only because it's the BoE that sets those in the first place. Given the track record of the financial markets for correctly pricing anything perhaps it's best not to take it all too seriously. She asked not to be quoted on the record, but I can't resist one small transgression of that rule. When asked how their forecast reflected the possibility of the UK leaving the EU she simply said that they didn't make judgements on political issues and that when markets started to price in that risk then so would the BoE. However, when asked what she thought the possible impact would be on the UK economy of a crazy person becoming President of the United States, she visibly blanched and her speech became incoherent for quite some time before she recovered sufficiently to say that they would worry about that when the markets started to price in the risk.

And there has been music, with gigs by Nick Hall and Kushty Rye, both excellent. The former, who included a lovely version of 'Wonderful Life' as a tribute to the late Colin Vearncombe, is usually to be found in a duo with his wife, but she is seemingly currently appearing as an ersatz Suzi Quatro on a tour of the Czech Republic alongside a former member of Smokie; apparently it pays well. I must confess to having seen Smokie, who were from Bradford, in concert about forty years ago. Once you discounted the hits ('Living Next Door to Alice' anyone? Thought not.) they weren't bad. Sadly I never saw Suzi Quatro in the flesh, so let's remind ourselves of what I missed:

Kushty Rye (which I believe to be Romany for 'good bloke') are a sort of homage to the late Ronnie Lane, although only two of his songs (How Come and Ooh La La) actually featured in the set. Other than that it was all self-penned, but high quality country/folk/rock.