February already, and I have not achieved most of my plans for January. Some projects had to be shelved because of circumstances explained below, but in general I seem to have done very little in the past month.
On New Year’s Eve I managed to run my car over a high kerb and ripped off the lower front bumper. This took about a fortnight to get fixed; one week for it to be collected and one week waiting for it to return. Next morning it would not start, so the AA was called. After some difficulty he got the engine firing and followed me to the Jeep service workshop in Reading, where it has been ever since. It appears that the work I had done in December at my usual garage to replace the glow plugs was botched – one of the plugs was not connected at all.
The Jeep workshop has identified a fuel leak that will cost about £300 and five to ten days waiting for parts before they start looking at the plugs. I now understand why the Jeep is referred to as an “off-road vehicle”!
The absence of the Jeep has led to cancellation of journeys to the local recycling centre with junk I planned to clear from the loft, so that project is in abeyance. It has been too cold and/or wet to try turning out the shed.
I have spent an hour or so each morning helping my wife at the stable yard where she keeps her horse and helps out with two others. That timetable has been at her discretion because she is the one with the transport.
Yesterday I finally completed the first turn of the first player in my solo “Axis and Allies” global war game. This version is far more complex than the original 1942 board game. I am trying to follow history as closely as possible. In this turn (September to November 1939) Germany has taken Western Poland with minimal loss, attacked the British fleet at Scapa Flow and sent a cruiser and several submarines out towards the Atlantic. It was a foregone conclusion that, contrary to history, the Submarine attacking Scapa Flow would be sunk, but damage was inflicted.
Today I will start the turn of the Soviet Union. Step one is to read the day-by-day history and convert that into game moves. I am also catching up with my reading, having several unread periodicals to get through before starting on my Christmas books.
General Whiskers' semi-historical wanderings 
One issue I have with the game is the disconnect between the (estimated) thee-month strategic game turns and the movement rates. In three months a ship could steam around the world, but in the game it gets two sea areas, so German submarines can only reach the North Atlantic after at least four months! Of course, each ship token represents dozens of ships, so once the game is underway things begin to even out a bit. The game is a very well thought out abstraction.