The Milk Tank

You may remember (or probably not), back in 2022, when I saw a truck carrying a milk tank. I had never seen anything like this before, except in comic books, and I was sort of impressed. Well, I have seen it again a few days ago, again during the school run. I gave it the dramatic name of the milk tank, which might sound silly, but it's fitting. First, because that's what it is, a tank that carries milk. Second, because there is something badass and barbaric about milk, as I explained in this blog post, so it has some kind of sense to give it a military sounding name.

Rooikat (word of the day)

The things you learn when you read crime fiction, particularly crime fiction from a different continent. So as you may know, I am currently reading South African  Deon Meyer's last novel, Leo. So I learned the existence of a wild cat called caracal or, in Afrikaans, rooikat. Which sounds darn cool. It's also the name they give to a South African tank. Now I love all cats, including wild cats, and I just love the name rooikat. I don't remember hearing about them before reading the novel, maybe I did, but did not notice, but anyway, I feel more cultured now. And rooikat (or caracal) is the word of the day.

Tank Trivia

 So we went to the local fayre yesterday, something we love to do since we have been living in this town. There is a section with old army vehicles, mostly but not exclusively from the British armed forces. There is always a tank there, which we can visit. Wolfie loved it. We learned a few things about this tank. It was meant for six men, fully armed, it was the fastest tank in service, and it was stocked with tea. It even had a kettle with water bottle and everything. Because you cannot go to war without tea.

War Games (and a tank)

We went to one of Wolfie's friends' birthday party yesterday. It was nice and Wolfie enjoyed it a lot. The main activity was a warn game with Nerf Guns. Kind of fitting, given that yesterday was the 11th of November. Maybe we should not be trivial about war, but since I am a child I always found war games both fun and cathartic. Wolfie and his friends enjoyed it greatly anyway. He usually gets bored at birthday parties, but not this time. And there were not only Nerf Guns: the whole décor was rather well done, really elaborate, with a cool and huge inflatable tank. Ironically, the birthday party was in a church. I must confess, I would rather play war than listen to a sermon.

The family tank

You may remember that Wolfie told me there was a secret present for my birthday? Turned out the secret present was the toy tank I really wanted. Way cooler in fact than the one my childhood friend had back in the days. As I expected, my mum thinks it is a tad violent for a toy (one of the reasons why I did not receive one as a child). But my father-in-law thinks it is very educational and will feed Wolfie's imagination (besides, his own father, my wife's granddad, was a WWII veteran and did travel by tank from time to time, so for him it's just another sort of vehicle). And as I expected, Wolfie adores it and it is as much my tank than his. In fact, it is a family tank and father and son have already played with it together a lot. We started moments after unwrapping the presents. I will repeat what I said before: having a boy when you are a father allows you to live a second childhood. Anyway, this is just very cool.

I want a tank

Well, I mean a toy tank. And it would be for my birthday. I guess someone could think I am going through a midlife crisis, maybe it is the case, I don't know. But as my birthday is coming soon and my wife asked for present suggestions, it struck me that I'd like to have some presents that I could share with Wolfie. I am lucky enough to be able to live through a second childhood thanks to my boy, might as well make the most of it. There is a more selfish reason for this: when I was a kid, my best friend had a toy tank with soldiers and I always envied him. It was nothing fancy: one tank that had one side "open" where you could put small plastic toys. Don't know why I thought this was uber cool. I did not find the exact model on Amazon, but I found this tank which looks pretty neat and it's quite cheap. The soldiers remind me of the ones we used to have as kids. When I told that to my father, he was a bit shocked, thinking it was a tad barbaric and violent, but he grew up playing cowboys and Indians and cops and robbers and what have you, so he can't talk. Beside, I think war games are kind of cathartic. Anyway, Wolfie really likes the green tank because it is his favourite colour and he is curious about the technology (he is everthe engineer). And I like it because nostalgia. So the tank is on the list.

Inside the Tank

We went to the local carnival this weekend, one of the special days our little English town (village?) has around the equinox. And among many cool things we did was getting inside this tank. Well, Wolfie and I, my wife did not go in. I blogged before about the fascination I had with tanks when I was young, how much they were central to many of our make belief games, either toy tanks or "invented" ones (the neighbour's gazebo). Getting in a real tank with my thus revisiting a childhood memory. I learned a bit about these engines: this one is called the Spartan and is meant to transport troops. It is of course decommissioned, but apparently the same model is still use in some parts of Africa and if I remember correctly, elsewhere as well. I think Wolfie quite enjoyed his time in there too. Not his favourite kind of vehicle (which is reassuring, as I'd rather not have him become a soldier), but he seemed to enjoy it there.

Armed Forces Day

Today is Armed Forces Day in one of the local parks, so we should be going there. There will be live music, army vehicles (tanks I hope), armed force representatives and whatever you can expect in such event "for the whole family". I think it has propagandist purposes and therefore I am not sure I am that keen on it. But I do remember loving military parades and other displays when I was a child. See this post for more details. I think it might actually be fun and remind me of all the old make belief games I used to play. We should go there with the Ticklers and Blonde Tickler's mum. But not too early as Blonde Tickler wants to sleep in the morning. It should be fun.

Tank

About a year ago, we were walking on the main street of our little town when we saw this tank. Apparently it is from a company that offer tank hires for special events the way others have limousines or horse carriages. For me, the tank is two things: 1)the armoured combat vehicle any land based army has or had and 2)the toys based on the armoured combat vehicle that so many of my friends had when I was growing up. The tank was that mysterious mean of transport with weapons which I found absolutely cool. In it, you were near invulnerable and near invincible. (And yes there was that movie which I was always curious about but never watched). It became one of the many elements of our make belief games. I find it a bit sad that it is now turned into a limo, but seeing one like this, even in a mundane setting, it fired u my imagination and brought back lots of memories.