Days 2670 - 2683

Aka Monday 14th March - Sunday 27th March 2022

A mixture of working in the office and working from home, a little time off and plans being pushed back. The biggest thing that happened this fortnight was my birthday and a family fight, my autistic nephew was staying over and the night before my birthday he kicked off over going to bed. Lots of shouting and slamming doors, telling us off for being horrible and cruel, by telling him that it was ten o’clock and past his bedtime. And when he woke up he carried on and said, in regards to me, that “he doesn’t deserve a birthday”. 

Which was frustrating and was made worse by no-one else saying anything, no “X that’s not nice” or no “don’t worry he’s just in a mood”. Just nothing. Like it’s only Stewart, he can just take it. Which sent me of in a bit of a spiral of depression and pissed-off-ness. Logically I know that it was just his way of dealing with his emotions, but my heart can’t take it, especially as we’d be looking after him for a while and having to cope with these outbursts and it was the straw that broke the camels back. I still have a couple of unopened presents as they have been “tainted”. But we did make up and clear the air a few days later, and I know not to bottle up these feelings.

Anyway, back to my Birthday and the good stuff included getting some cash money, getting that day’s 'Wordle', aceing the G2 Crossword (i.e. getting all the clues), getting my haircut and going for an impromptu Medium Walk:

…during which I picked up my New Comic Book Day gems:

..got ‘Halloween Kills’ (which, on second watch, is still a bit bumpy and uneven and very brutal) and ‘Eternals’ (which I haven’t rewatched yet) on DVD:

…and the reissue of Keith Richards ‘Main Offender’:

…which is full of rock ‘n’ roll groovy goodness, although not quite as memorable as some Stones tunes…I also picked up ‘The Matrix Resurrections’:

…which I was disappointed with on first watch, hopefully a rewatch will open up the film and its theme’s, kinda like how some wines need time to air before being drunk. I also got the new Cowboy Junkies album ‘Songs of the Recollection’:

…which is a fun collection of covers in a downbeat country style, a great album to listen too when you haven’t got much to do, the sun is out and you have a drink in your hand. Highlights are their covers of ‘Ooh Las Vegas’, ‘No Expectations’ and ‘I’ve Made Up My Mind To Give Myself to You’. The postman delivered this month’s Kyle Starks Sticker Club stickers:

…and my copy of ’John Morales Presents Teddy Pendergrass: The Voice Remixed With Philly Love’:

…so far I’ve only listened to the mix of ‘Don’t Leave Me This Way’ which is just <chefs kiss>, just sublime and superb. He also delivered Rachael Smith’s excellent ‘Hourly Comic Day 2022’ and the 10” and comic collaboration between Rachael Smith and 'The Burning Hell':

…both of which were superb and great fun. I also got this month’s ‘Mojo’ and ‘Uncut’:

…which has a few interesting articles (e.g. with Keith Richards and Jason Spaceman from Spiritualized) and record reviews, and the CDs are okayish, but neither are particularly special. I then picked up my meagre Lottery winnings:

…got the latest Lego Batman magazine:

…and I watched ‘Appointment With Death’:

…which was a little disappointing. It has a great cast, is set in the period and on location, but has none of the magic and fun of the ‘Murder On The Orient Express’, ‘Death On The Nile’ and ‘Evil Under The Sun’ films. I also watched ‘The Dead Center’:

…which is a nice tight horror flick, a nice mixing of psychological and actual horror focusing on one main character and how it affects him, while also showing how the wider world is affected. And ‘Upstream Color’:

…which is a beautiful film, but one I found confusing. I think I was expecting to watch a “normal” film, where the bad guys get their comeuppance and everything will be explained. But they don’t kinda don’t, but do, nothing is explicitly explained, but there's enough information to intuit what is going on. Once I decided that the film was “just” showing how our leads deal with a traumatic experience for a certain length of time and that it was more like a poem than a finite story, it made more sense. The how and why aren’t important, except that they initiate the story, it’s about how the leads deal with the aftermath. And it’ll stay with you, like a good song or poem. And I watched ‘The IPCRESS File’ tv show:

…which was good. It’s not close to be being as epic as the film version, but the series is good fun, the first couple of episodes feel like they were trying to update the feel of the film, but it then settles in being its own thing. Using more of the book’s storylines, widening the focus onto more characters (although the romance between Major Dalby and Dr. Lavotchkin felt forced and out of character, as though it was only there to drive a b-plot, rather than to show or develop the characters) and it felt like it fitted more in within the world of ‘The Avengers’ and ‘The Man From U.N.C.L.E.’ than the gritty “real ”world portrayed in the film…

…I also did some reading:

…I read ‘Robo-Hunter’ Volume 2 and Volume 3, finishing off the classic Sam Slade stories and, aside from the casual racism, i.e. the Asian/Chinese city being called Chick-City and the racist accents of the foreign people/droids, they still hold up as enjoyable tales of mystery and droids. And I know that that “aside” is doing a lot of work and the only way I can excuse it is that all the characters have “stereotypical” accents, even the British characters have a touch of the Dick Van Dykes and that I don’t think anyone impressable would be reading these stories, but it defo wouldn’t be written this way today…and I did the first week’s G2 Crosswords:

…and Monday’s crossword gets the week off to a rough start, as we had to cheat on a fifth of the clues (four out of 21).  This was a chewy grid that the little grey cells found hard to get to grips with. A real grinder, that took ages to finish. But we did learn that the ‘pith’ is the ‘most vital part’, that ‘brigandage’ means ‘highway robbery’ and that ‘Eritrea’ is a ‘country in the Horn of Africa’…

…things pick up with Tuesday’s grid, as the little grey cells click into place, and we only had to cheat on an eleventh of the clues (two out of 23). Maybe the little grey cells were a little sluggish from the weekend and are now on the front foot. And we learnt that ‘chowder’ is a ‘rich seafood soup’ and that ‘zircon’ is a ‘semi-precious diamond-like gemstone’…

…Wednesday’s grid was another grinder, one that we had to chew over the clues for a while, but in the end, we only had to cheat on an eighth of the clues (three out of 23). Although we did jump the gun with ‘French red wine’, we went with ‘Burgundy’, didn’t check the intersecting letters and got it wrong, missing ‘Bordeaux’! But we did learn that ‘Erato’ is the ‘muse of erotic poetry’ and that ‘Tillage’ is the ‘cultivation of land for raising crops’…

…things remain chewy with Thursday’s grid, no pre-birthday affect pushing on the little grey cells today, as we had to cheat on an eighth of the clues (three out of 25). Like, why didn’t we get ‘Israeli’ from ‘native of Jerusalem?’! But we did learn that ‘Djibouti’ is a ‘country in the Horn of Africa, bordering on the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden’…

…the birthday affect is in full effect with Friday’s crossword as on our 47th year we didn’t have to cheat on any of the 21 clues. Clues which tumbled like ten-pins, woo!!!...

…and the excellence continued with Saturday’s grid as the little grey cells continued to stomp over the clues and we only had to cheat on one of the 24 clues. We only stumbled on not get ‘thrill’ from ‘kick’, we got stuck on thinking of words for the act of kicking or for quitting something, like smoking. Still a good end to the week… 

…and I did the second week’s G2 Crosswords:

…and Monday’s crossword gets the week off to a damn fine start, with only having to cheat on a ninth of the clues (two out of 18). Maybe the anger from the birthday SNAFU has sharpen the little grey cells, so there no need for them to get up to speed after the weekend. And we learnt that ‘Sarajevo’ was the ‘city where Torvill and Dean won gold in the 1984 Winter Olympics’ and that a ‘numismatist’ is a ‘coin expert’…

…and the finest continues with Tuesday’s grid, again we only had to cheat on a ninth of the clues (two out of 19). Although the little grey cells may be being a little blunted as we should have gotten ‘frothy’ from ‘bubbly’ and ‘petulance’ from ‘sulky behaviour’ (especially after the birthday SNAFU!!!)…

…things improve with Wednesday’s grid as we only had to cheat on a twelfth of the clues (two out of 24). The little grey cells only stumbled on not knowing that a ‘mushroom with a brown cap’ is a ‘Cep’ and that an ‘arrangement of rows and columns’ is a ‘matrix’…

…and Thursday’s grid is a repeat as again we only had to cheat on a twelfth of the clues (two out of 23). Surely this streak can’t continue? We fell down with ‘better’, which we read as improving, as getting better and not as someone who makes a bet, so we never thought of ‘punter’! But we did learn that a ‘declaration’ is an ‘avowal’…

…Friday’s grid went one better and we only had to cheat on a thirteenth of the clues (two out of 25). Would have gone better if we’d checked the intersecting letters for ‘pleasingly sharp to the taste’, we went with ‘tarte’ and not ‘tangy’, if we’d checked the intersecting letters, we would have realised that we had the wrong spelling of ‘tart’ <shaky head emoji>…

…and Saturday’s grid ends the week, not quite as well as we started it, as we had to cheat on a sixth of the clues (four out of 24). I guess the little grey cells were just a bit tired out from the damn fine form from earlier in the week. And it could have gone worse, like we only got ‘Orion’ (for ‘legendary Greek hunter, who after his death was placed among the stars’) because of the New Gods. And we learnt that ‘sortie’ means a ‘trip out’ (we were thinking more along acid lines), that the ‘Medici’ were the ’dominant family in Renaissance Florence’, that ‘intuited’ means ‘deduced’ and that the ‘Olivier’ is the ‘largest of the National Theatre’s three stages’…