Splashdown!

 After a really fab birthday celebration at moonbase and making myself thouroughly ill with jelly and ice cream, I headed off Earthward for a meal with the Wotan Clan at home. I think ill have to be fifty more often as this has been one of the most memorable occasions since I was a nipper! You can see the self satisfied smile on my face above as i enjoy a little shore leave with Will, my youngest last night.

I also took great delight in showing him all the goodies which have been showered upon me for the big day, most notably the piece of original Mike Noble artwork from the Star Fleet strip showing the nuclear ferry ship in all its glory! A veritable feast for the eyes, the artwork is flawless and immaculate and shall find pride of place on Mars Base wall (as soon as I can persuade Mrs Wotan to let me hang it!). I have (hopefully) thanked everyone personally for this amazing gift, but I would just like to reiterate how grateful I am for this singular and very moving present.

The fun didn't stop there either however, as I also received a signed copy of Alan Shubrooks book C21 FX, a Randy Rayder LP from the mighty Woodstock, a wonderful vintage booklet on the Moon landings from Andy, an extremely rare set of acrobat figures from Paul Vreede and a boxed set of Forbidden Planet metal figures from the wonderful P Toad.

So after the mess has been cleaned up and the airlock swabbed out after my unfortunate attempt to catch blancmange in zero-g, I am left with some stunning gifts and a host of very pleasant memories.

But just once more for the road, a massive thank you to Terry, Paul V, Kim, Richard, Hugh, Mike, Arto, Ed, Alan, Andy and to the Woodmeister himself for going to the extraordinary lengths to arrange the bash for me and again for the opportunity to plaster my ugly mush and the inside of my head all over the blog on a daily basis. Its been a pleasure. Muchos gracias, Bill