Days 847 to 853

Aka Monday 27^th May to Sunday 2^nd June 2019 

Monday was a Bank Holiday, or a non-paying holiday as it’s known to the Temp!, and I spent part of it making guacamole with my nephew:

…which wasn’t bad, but we had a lot and there is only so much guacamole and Dorito’s you can eat in one day 😊

 

Then it was back to work for the rest of the week. I’m feeling more settled and more used to the work and feel like I’m remembering more of the processes, making me more effective at the job. Although there are still parts of the job, I haven’t grasped completely yet…

During the rest of the week I got a couple of comics:

…and the latest Lego Batman issue, which has a free Robin with it:

…and some DVDs:

…I got ‘Dog Eat Dog’ for Nicolas Cage and Willem Defoe, who have given epic scenery chewing performances in past films, and I was expecting some of the same. But both actors are kinda subdued in this film, which is an average crime story and isn’t that memorable and is kinda meh. But the opposite is true with ‘School For Scoundrels’, a classic comedy that still stands up today and in some ways feels more relevant in regards to it uses of pick-up tricks and today’s pick-up “gurus”. And the I watched ‘Body Bags’, which was has some intriguing stories, but they’re not particularly scary and do feel a little underwhelming (given the talent involved).

…and I got a USB sound adapter plugin, which hopefully will allow me to rip music I’ve got on tape and minidisc…

 

…and I got some Courtney Barnett CDs. I heard ‘Everyone Here Hates You’ and really loved it, listened to a few more songs on Youtube and had to have more 😊:

…and I got a copy of ‘Dispatches’ by Michael Herr, after reading a couple of reviews about how good it is and was the basis (or at least influenced the making) of ‘Full Metal Jacket’…

…and at the weekend I went to the park with nephew to play baseball and had a water balloon fight later, it was a really hot day and the fight was good for cooling off…

…and I did the G2 Crosswords this week (as per usual):

…and Monday’s crossword got the week off to a middling start as I had to cheat on nearly a sixth of the clues (four out of 23), although I did learn that ‘lugubrious’ means ‘morose’, that ‘Arachne’ was a ‘Greek girl who unwisely challenged Athena and ended up as a spider’ (I did try  feminising ‘arachnid’ into a female name, but to no avail!) and that ‘eclat’ means ‘brilliant display – conspicuous success’, maybe the Bank Holiday had sapped my little grey cells…

…Tuesday saw a slightly improved crossword score, I only had to cheat on an eighth of the clues (three out of 25), the little grey cells have come out from the Bank Holiday fog and are clicking, although I should have gotten ‘putty’ and ‘blobby’, but I did learn that ‘Pizarro’ was a ‘Spanish conquistador who conquered the Incas, d. 1541’…

…and Wednesday’s crossword went even better, I only had to cheat on two of the 24 clues, due to lack of performing marine mammals knowledge, I didn’t know that they performed in ‘dolphinarium’ and lack of sporting knowledge, I didn’t know that who can score with a ‘drop goal’ in rugby, c’est la vie…

…things took a slight nose-dive with Thursday’s crossword and I had to cheat on nearly a quarter of the clues (five out of 22). It was a real grind to get the answers I got. Although I didn’t know that ‘coagulated blood from a wound’ is called ‘gore’, I went for ‘scab’ or that an ‘animal in its second 12 months’ is called a ‘yearling’ and I really should have gotten ‘linesman’ from ‘male official with a flag’ (although I’m sure that women can also be officials with flags/linesmen/linespeople)…

…Friday’s crossword goes a tad better, just had to cheat on a fifth of the clues (six out of 26), again it was a grind to get the answers that I did get and I’m a tad annoyed that I didn’t get ‘boar’ from ‘sow’s mate, I went with Bull, a completely different animal!, or ‘tiff’ from ‘lover’s row, but I did learn that an ‘Erne’ is a ‘sea eagle’, that ‘bisque’ is a ‘shellfish soup’ and that ‘jute’ is a ‘fibre used for making sacking and rope’…

…while Saturday’s crossword brings the week to a just okay finish, with having to cheat on a sixth of the clues (four out of 24), the answers were mostly straight forward to get, but I would have done better if my rhubarb, detective fiction and Hungarian composer knowledge was better 😊, but I did learn that ‘strabismus’ means to have a ‘squint’…