Days 3026 - 3032

Aka Monday 6th March - Sunday 12th March 2023

Still catching up, but this week was fairly quiet, with the two stand outs (at least for me) being the reaction to Gary Lineker’s reaction to the Home Secretary, Suella Braverman, announcing new policy to “stop the boats” aka stop migrants coming to the UK via using small boats and dinghies to cross the English Channel. In a nutshell he said that this was "an immeasurably cruel policy directed at the most vulnerable people in language that is not dissimilar to that used by Germany in the 30s".

Which then sparked lots of commentators to “misread” or “misunderstanding” what Lineker had written, stating that he had directly compared the policy to the Holocaust and the Tories/supporters of this policy to Nazis. Even through many people, including Holocaust survivors, agreed with Lineker and pointed out that the Nazis didn’t start with the concentration camps, rather that they started by using language (and behaviour and policy) to de-humanize and other people that they didn’t like, such as Jews, homosexuals, trans people, trade unionists, etc.

Following great pressure from the right wing (largely based on misunderstanding and misrepresenting what Lineker actually wrote) and Lineker standing by what he had written, the BBC suspended him from Match of the Day. Which resulted in his fellow presenters and colleagues withdrawing their labour in solidarity. Which meant that the resulting sports/football shows went ahead without presenters or commentary! With shortened programmes and replacements to cover the time slots.

My personal opinion is that Lineker was right, that it’s shameful that this fascist policy can be implemented and that so many people were unprepared to draw a line in the sand and join him in his criticism. Just another day of Britain scraping the bottom of the barrel.

More pleasantly the first season of ‘Poker Face’ finished:

…and it has been a consistent joy to watch over the last few weeks. There have been lots of comparisons to ‘Columbo’ (including the fan posters above) and they are pretty right. Both series cover some very heavy subjects and reasons for the murder, but without being overly gory or voyeuristic, both humanise all their characters, both are fun and have a great streak of low-key humour. Yeah, ‘Poker face’ takes the ‘Columbo’ essence into the modern world and creates something special. The same way Rian Johnson brought back the Christie style whodunnit with ‘Knives Out’. 

‘Poker Face’ just has it all, a great cast (Natasha Lyonne is great as Charlie, the central character that we are following, but she never gets in the way of the other characters, who all have room to breathe and for us to get to know them), great stories and a great look (everyone behind the scenes, costumers, lighting, art, etc. does a great job to make the ‘Poker Face’ universe real and believable). It's just a perfect "comfy murder" show. Can’t wait for Season Two!

…and I picked up these comic book gems:

…went for a Morning Walk on Sunday:

…and after all the feeling unwell and ill and out of sorts, it’s nice to be getting back on track with trying to improve my health (with these walks and weights). This morning I walked 3.95km in 48minutes and 3seconds, which took 5,222 steps and burnt 373 calories and I also picked up a minor Lotto win:

…and I did this week’s G2 Crosswords:

…and Monday’s crossword gets the week off to a solid start, as we only had to cheat on 9.52% of the clues (two out of 21). The little grey cells made short work of the clues, only getting stuck on the two clues we didn’t know the answer to and couldn’t guess it. We learnt that a ‘Yawl’ is a ‘two-masted sailing boat’ and that ‘Yalta’ is a ‘resort city in the Crimea, where Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill conferred in February 1945’. Not a bad start, but will it continue…

…and Tuesday’s crossword goes a tad better, with only having to cheat on 8.70% of the clues (two out of 23). The little grey cells were perkier today and only stumbled on forgetting that ‘chardonnay’ is a ‘dry white wine, resembling chablis’ and we’re not sure about ‘new personifications of familiar ideas’ is a good clue for ‘avatars’, but it’s all heading in the right way…

..and Wednesday’s crossword maintains things, as we only had to cheat on 8.70% of the clues (two out of 23). Again, the little grey cells swept through the clues, only stumbling on two clues that we didn’t know the answers to and couldn’t guess – ‘Delet’ from ‘city of South Holland, famous for its blue pottery’ and ‘atelier’ from ‘studio for both French and British artists!’…

…and things tip up with a tad with Thursday’s crossword, as we only had to cheat on 8.00% of the clues (two out of 25). The little grey cells continued to bound through the clues, like a colossus, although we did stumble when we went with ‘biannual as the answer to ‘occurring every two years’, when the answer was ‘biennial’, but we did learn that an ‘adze’ is a ‘tool used for cutting and shaping large pieces of wood’…

…and there’s not much to say at Friday’s crossword as the little grey cells totally smashed it! Scythed through all the 21 clues and didn’t have to cheat on any of them! Hopefully this will continue…

…Saturday’s crossword doesn’t go as well as yesterdays, but still goes pretty well. We only had to cheat on 8.33% of the clues (two out of 24). And we could never of guessed the answers to those two, we still don’t know how ‘French Indian Ocean department’ is a clue for ‘Reunion’, but we did learn that ‘azalea’ are a ‘type of rhododendron grown for its showy flowers of different colours’, so a good end to the crossword week…and I did the Metro’s crosswords:

Days 3019 - 3025

Aka Monday 27th February - Sunday 5th March 2023

Still catching up, so this’ll be brief. I spent the first half of the week in the office and Thursday and Friday working from home. Nothing much to say about work, except that I left my power lead in the office and had to go in as my work laptop doesn’t hold a change! But WFHing did mean that I could get in a couple of Morning Walks in. Here are pics from the Thursday’s Morning Walk:

…which covered 4.00km, in 48min 17secs. Which took 5,260 steps and burnt 378 calories. And these are Friday’s pics (including the dreaded stairs and bridge!!!):

…which covered 4.07km, in 48min 14secs. Which took 5,299 steps and burnt 388 calories. Although I think that I may not have wrapped up warm enough as on Friday afternoon I developed another cold, although by Sunday it started relenting and lessen…although this did allow me the time to listen to these SUSS records, which the postman delivered:

…and they just beautifully encapsulate that ‘bootgaze’ sound. Music that calls to mind the landscapes from Western flicks, the deserts of Mexico, Texas, California, Monument Valley. Just perfect music to relax to, to get woozy to, to drift away on musical bliss, to soothe the mind. I also got plenty of reading material:

…which I haven’t read yet, but they do look intriguing (and yes, this is yet another Rolling Stones special, of which I have several, but I can’t help myself! And it does look like they’ve taken a slightly different approach), including this week’s comic gems:

…I also picked up the ‘Yellowstone’ Seasons One and Two boxset:

…of which I’ve heard nothing but good things about, plus I like the other films and TV shows I’ve seen from ‘Yellowstone’ creator Taylor Sheridan (although I’ve got a ton of other stuff to watch as well!) and I picked up two lottery wins (albeit v minor ones):

…and I did this week’s G2 Crosswords:

…and the crossword week gets of to another damn solid start, as we only had to cheat on 4.55% of the clues (also know as one out of 22). The little grey cells rested themselves over the weekend and are on fighting form. And we learnt that ‘Oporto’ is a ‘City on the Douro River’…

…and we take a terrible tumble with Tuesday’s crossword. We had to cheat on 15.38% of the clues (aka four out of 26). Not a good performance, we just couldn’t get a proper grip of the clues and missed some v obvious ones. Like ‘wrongdoer’ from ‘sinner’. But we re-learnt that ‘etymology’ is the ‘study of the origin of words’ and learnt that an ‘ague’ is a ‘shivering fit’…

…and things get a bit back on track with Wednesday’s crossword, as we only had to cheat on 8.33% of the clues (two out of 24). Still not sure that ‘suffer mental stress’ is a great clue for ‘agonise’, as it really directs you to a medical condition (but then again who said that the clues have to be straight forward!)…

…and things remain a bit back on track with Thursday’s crossword, as we only had to cheat on 8.33% of the clues (two out of 24). And we learnt that ‘Cordoba’ is the ‘Spanish spelling of an ancient city on the Guadalquivir’ and that the ‘Bossa Nova’ is a ‘Brazilian dance (we thought it was only a rhythm!). Hopefully the rest of the crossword week continues to go as smoothly as the last couple of days…

…and we’re back off track with Friday’s crossword as we had to cheat on 14.29% of the clues (three out of 21). It was a tough grid and we made a couple of errors like plumping for ‘economy’ as the answer to ‘concerned with money and trade’, if we’d counted the letters we would have realised that we were one letter short and might have gotten the right answer of ‘economic’, and this is a better outcome than we expected. And we learnt that ‘Nehru’ was the ‘first Prime Minister of India, d.1964’…

…and Saturday’s crossword ends the crossword week on a meh note, as we had to cheat on 13.04% of the clues (three out of 23). Not a great end to the week, although I did have a bit of a cold and I guess that knackered the little grey cells a tad. ‘Cos we should have gotten ‘heel’ from ‘command given to a dog’ and ‘bolero’ from ‘Spanish dance’, but we did learn that a ‘babushka’ is a ‘Russian woman of a certain age’. Hopefully we’ll feel better, and do better, next week…

…and I did the Metro’s cryptic crossword (which I’m slowly starting to get to grips with):