…and we’re still feeling under the weather, somewhere between 50 – 75% of normal health, which feels like it’s becoming my theme song! Putting that to one side, this fortnight I picked up two lots of National Lottery winnings, unfortunately nothing substantial through ☹…
…went to the cinema to see ‘Reminiscence’:
…which is a nice neo-noir, with an emotional core story, but feels overly like an extended TV show/pilot, rather than a feature film. And I picked up this fortnight’s New Comic Book Day beauties:
…and ‘Doom Patrol’ season 2 (which I haven’t watched yet):
…and I got two Best-Offs, one on Buddy Holly (and The Crickets) and one on Bachman-Turner Overdrive and Lindstrom & Prins Thomas’ ‘III’:
…'III' was nice house/space disco music, but not greatly memorable. The Buddy Holly Best-Off is weird as I can see why they
inspired people that then formed bands which took rock ‘n’ roll forward/further,
but the songs themselves aren’t all that. Whereas the Bachman-Turner Overdrive
Best-of is terrible, just bad, except for one song ‘Takin’ Care Of Business’ (which
sounds like the father of Primal Scream’s ‘Rocks’) all the songs sound like parodies
of rock songs. What is good and great is a ‘Roar Groove’ subscription, which I re-set
up this fortnight (as they had to change their setup which meant having to
cancel all subscriptions and ask people to re-subscribe) giving me access to
their catalogue beautiful house music. And I read some more mighty fine comics:
…Monday’s crossword gets the week off to a pretty good start as we only had to cheat on a twelfth of the clues (two out of 24). The grid was a bit chewy to start with, but once we got ‘winklepickers’ the rest of the grid tumbled into place. And we learnt that a ‘South American cowboy’ is called a ‘Gaucho’ and that Omar Khayyam was a Persian poet who died in 1131…
…Tuesday’s grid goes just as well, as we only had to cheat on a twelfth of the clues (two out of 23), the little grey cells seem to be back to normal, firing on all cylinders! And we learnt that ‘Emile Zola’ was a French novelist who wrote the 1898 open letter ‘J’accuse,…’…
…and the little grey cells are keeping it up with Wednesday’s grid as we only had to cheat on one of the 24 clues. Learning that a ‘canto’ is the ‘highest part in a piece of choral music’. The little grey cells have been knocking it out of the park!...
…and the park knocks back with Thursday’s grid as we had to cheat on over a quarter of the clues (seven out of 25). A very poor performance, but it does reflect our physical health as we are feeling tired, knackered, done in, wheezy and woozy and we just couldn’t get to grips with the grid. There were a few that we should have gotten, but we did learn that a ‘strut’ is a ‘longitudinal brace’, that ‘Lhasa’’ is the ‘city from which the Dalai Lama fled into exile in India in 1959’and that ‘cheeseparing’ means ‘stingy’, and is nothing to do with pairing with cheese…
…and we back on solid ground with Friday’s grid, a traditional having to cheat on a sixth of the clues (four out of 24). The grid did start off chewy, but once we had the top and bottom clues (‘razzle-dazzle’ and ‘yellowhammer’ respectively) it fell into place. And we’re feeling a bit better physically, so the little grey cells are more together. And we learnt that ‘Holstein’ is a ‘breed of black-and-white cattle from northern Holland’ and that the ‘superego’ is our ‘self-critical conscience’…
…and Saturday’s grid ends the week on a meh note, we had to cheat on nearly a quarter of the clues (five out of 22). Again, our physical health/ill-health is impacting our mental facilities, so we can’t quite make the leap from clue to answer. Like with ‘belligerent’, we just couldn’t connect it to ‘sabre-rattling’, but we did learn that a ‘stoa’ is a ‘classical portico’ and that ‘Muscat’ is the Omani capital and a type of white grape. We also relearnt that the ‘Ugli’ is a ‘trademarked citrus fruit’, which we seem to be unable to remember!!!
…and we get the week off to an average start with Monday’s crossword, we had to cheat on a sixth of the clues (four out of 24). I guess the little grey cells were celebrating the Bank Holiday a bit hard and were a little rusty! But we did learn that a ‘Balalaika’ is a ‘triangular Russian instrument’ and that ‘Mexico’ is the ‘country where Guadalajara is to be found’…
…now we’re back to the working week and things pick up with Tuesday’s grid. We only had to cheat on a twelfth of the clues (two out of 24). The little grey cells were back on their game and smashed through the clues, learning that ‘legato’ means ‘(musically) smooth’…
…Wednesday’s word puzzle went okay, we only had to cheat on an eighth of the clues (three out of 24). But we were a little bit hampered by a couple of the clues being mis-printed, but we did learn that ‘odontalgia’ means ‘toothache’…
…Thursday’s grid goes better with the little grey cells back to their clue smashing ways, as we only had to cheat on a tenth of the clues (two out of 21). And we learnt that a ‘person deprived of food’ is called a ‘starveling’ and that ‘rissoles’ are ‘deep-fried minced meats coated in egg and breadcrumbs’…
…things get knocked up a notch with Friday’s grid, as we only had to cheat on an eleventh of the clues (two out of 23). After out struggles we our health it seems that the little grey cells are back to their clue-smashing best. And from today’s grid we learnt that ‘circuitous’ means ‘indirect’, which is pretty obvious in hindsight…
…and we end the week with a slight dip, having to cheat on a seventh of the clues (three out of 21) for Saturday’s grid. It was a bit of chewy one and we slipped up by mistaking Greek for ancient Greek inn ‘Greek form of mandolin’, so we dismissed the answer of ‘Bouzouki’, but we did learn that ‘Tbilisi’ is ‘Georgia’s capital’ and that a ‘roue’ is a ‘debauched elderly man’…
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