Day 2973

 Aka Thursday 12th January 2023

Back in the office today and it feels a little weird to be back, but nice to see my colleagues and chat face to face. And it gives me a chance to get the Metro and train on the cryptic crossword:

We did a little bit of training for the new team members, but aside from that it was a pretty normal day, nothing out of the ordinary to report…I finished watching Season Two of ‘Elementary’:

…which was very enjoyable. You can tell that everyone has settled into their/these characters and this world and are telling intriguing stories that equally advance the characters and tell fun ‘crime-of-the-week’ stories…and I did a little shopping, I got these four-colour gems (which I haven't read yet):

…and I got ‘Standing By The Wall’ by Mick Herron:

…which is a short story about the Slow Horses, a kinda palette cleanser before the next novel. It resolves a few loose ends and sets up some future dominoes. I think this is the tenth ‘Slow Horses’ story, so Mick Herron has a perfect grasp on the characters and how they interact, and it’s nice to be back with them. I also got the latest ‘Uncut’:

…which has some cool (but short) interviews with Anton Newcombe (mastermind of the Brian Jonestown Massacre), who talks about some of his favourite records and John Sinclair, the MC5’s old manager, poet and activist, with big articles on Curtis Mayfield, Spencer Cullum and Tom Tom Club. And there’s a super cover CD as well. It’s well worth getting the magazine just for the ‘Sounds of the New West Vol 6’. Especially Kassi Valazza’s ‘Watching Planes Go By’, Hermanos Gutierrez’s ‘El Bueno Y El Malo’ and Setting’s ‘Night Divers’, whose albums I’ll be picking up asap (although Setting is a very vague name when searching on Google!!!)…and I did today’s G2 Crossword:

…and there’s not much to say to about Thursday’s crossword, just that the little grey cells were on top form and smashed it and we didn’t have to cheat on any of the 23 clues. They just powered through like a hot knife through butter. Hopefully they didn’t burn themselves out and have some juice left for the rest of the week…