Days 3054 – 3081

Aka Monday 3rd April - Sunday 30th April 2023

And I’m still catching up, trying to get down to being only one month behind! So, this will be a bit of a whistle stop race through of this month. I had a week off work, including a Bank Holiday, which gave me a little time to relax and recharge and get in some exercise, a little bit of weights and a few Morning Walks, The first walk of the month was on Wednesday 5th April:

…and covered 3.71km, taking 48minutes and 57seconds in 5,146 steps and burning 351 calories. On Sunday 9th April I started to expand the route:

…to 4.08km, which took 48minutes and 38seconds, in 5,326 steps and burnt 387 calories. On Wednesday 12th:

…I walked 3.94km, in 47miutes and 50seconds, in 5,202 steps and burnt 373 calories. On Sunday 16th:

…I walked 3.95km, which took 48minutes and 41seconds, in 5,260 steps and burnt 371 calories. On Wednesday 19th April 2023:

…I covered 4.02km, in 47minutes and 22seconds, in 5,216 steps and burnt 384 calories. On Sunday 23rd April:

…I covered 4.13km in 48minutes and 24seconds, in 5,341 steps and burnt 395 calories. On Wednesday 26th April I extended the walk a tad more (although the phone was acting up a bit):

…and covered 3.82km in 52minutes and 31seconds in 5,432 steps and burnt 363 calories. The final Walk was on Sunday 30th April, although my phone packed up about a quarter of the way through, so I had to restart it, which means that there’s no data for this morning’s walk, but here are a few pictures (taken once the phone started working again!):

…and because the phone has been acting up I finally decided, after eight plus years, to upgrade my phone and put the order through on the last day of the month.

…I brought a few CDs this month, the James Holden album was particularly very good, and felt more like a mixtape or a continuous piece of music rather than a collection of individual songs:

…the reissue of Alan Braxe’s ‘The Upper Cuts’:

…is a nice collection of French house tracks, bringing back sun-kissed memories. I got Len’s ‘Steal My Sunshine’:

…for the Idjut Boys remix, which is okay, but doesn’t top the poppiness of the original. I also got ‘Once Again We Are The Children Of The Sun’, which is a beautiful collection of sun-coming down, chilling in the garden/forest/wilderness songs. On a nostalgic I picked up the ’Bladerunner’ soundtrack:

…for the chilled out-ness of it, that future-past electronic noirness. I also experimented with Stevie Wonder’s ‘Talking Book’:

…and it was okay, ‘Superstition’ is a great track, but the rest was just average, and I didn’t feel a need to get anymore Stevie Wonder albums. And finally, I got ’13 Of The Best Of The 13th Floor Elevators’:

…a collection of songs previewing “the forthcoming series THE QUEST FOR PURE SANITY: the release in optimal quality of all surviving source material for all of the band's recordings. '13 OF THE BEST' has been mastered separately to vinyl, CD, digital and streaming for the best possible sound quality for each format. Each original source has been referenced to the earliest vinyl pressing and meticulously transferred at 96khz 24- bit resolution. Multitrack tapes of the original recording sessions have been newly mixed in strict accordance with the records as first released. 'You're Gonna Miss Me', the band's seminal single, is presented here for the first time in true stereo. Taken from the original multitrack session tape, the song has been mixed to stereo in accordance with the iconic mono 45 as recorded and engineered by Walt Andrus. 'Slip Inside This House' viewed by fans and critics alike as the Elevators' masterpiece and one of the key psychedelic recordings of the era, is included on the LP as the edited mono single mix so the loudest possible cut can be achieved. The eight-minute stereo version is included on all other formats. 'Never Another', 'Dr Doom' and 'Livin' On' from the band's final sessions have been newly mixed but without the overdubs added almost a year after recording. While the session tapes survive, the overdubs do not. 'Livin' On' features Roky Erickson's original superior vocal performance instead of the overdub used on the 'BULL OF THE WOODS' LP. What is uniquely presented here is 100% Elevators as mixed and intended for the LP. No embellishments! '13 OF THE BEST' is produced by 13th Floor Elevators official archivist and historian Paul Drummond who has also written sleeve notes with full track-by-track information. The author of 'Eye Mind' (2007) the exhaustive and definitive biography of the 13th Floor Elevators and '13th Floor Elevators: A Visual History' (2020) Drummond has spent a lifetime documenting every aspect of Elevators history, amassing an unprecedented archive of original material and memorabilia in conjunction with the band members.”

…I got some Lego Magazines (I do find making Lego models relaxing and the mini-figures make nice bookcase/chubby hole decorations):

…I also got some dynamite comics:

…and picked up my Lotto wins:

…and I watched ‘Why Didn’t They Ask Evans’:

…a really fun Christie adaption, with great chemistry between the two leads (Will Poulter and Lucy Boynton). I also watched ‘Black Panther: Wakanda Forever’, which was okay, just average. Nothing that we haven’t seen in a Marvel film before. Felt very much like it was just setting up future plots/films. I also re-watched the fun murder mystery ‘Murder Mystery’ ahead of catching the premiere of ‘Murder Mystery 2, …which is almost as good as the first and maintains that fine line of believability and ridiculousness/comedy. I also got a few magazines, the latest ‘Mojo’:

…for the excellent Velvet Underground article and cover CD. And the latest ‘Record Collector’:

…for the Steve Mason (ex of The Beta Band) interview/article and the reviews. And I got the latest ‘issue of Uncut’:

…to be honest I wasn’t going to get this issue as I’m not a fan of any of the bands and people on the cover, except for The National. Who I have heard off, but hadn’t heard their music (at least knowingly), so the cover CD being a curation of their music and side-projects. And after flicking through the magazine, they were a few bits I wouldn’t to read (a nice, but short article looking at The Orb albums over the years, the album reviews and a short The FLK interview). And I liked the cover CD much more than I expected, what was weird was that the tracks from The National didn’t interest me (except for they cover of the Grateful Dead’s ‘Morning Dew’, which is odd in itself as I don’t normally like the ‘Dead), but I did like the tracks from the bands side projects…the postman delivered these months superb Kyle Starks Sticker Club stickers:

… the first issue of ’Knowtes’:

…the latest beauty from the Modern Toss boys…and issue 3 of ‘Disco Pogo’:

…a massive slab of top-notch writing about dance music and culture, past, present and future.

…and he delivered my voter ID, which means I can safely take part in the upcoming local elections. Yippee!

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

…and with Monday’s crossword the little grey cells get to a stonking, flying start, as we didn’t have to cheat on any of the 18 clues! A clean sweep. They just powered through the clues like a burly rugby player. But can we keep this up for the week? Let’s find out…

…Tuesday’s crossword continues with the little grey cells smashing through the clues! Although they did stumble on 5.26% of the clues (aka one out of 19), ‘consequently’, from which we couldn’t get ‘ergo’, which in hindsight, is very obvious, but at he time we just couldn’t recall it. Hopefully it’s not a sign of things to come…

…unfortunately yesterday’s crossword was a bad sign of things to come, as we had to cheat on 25% of the clues (six out of 24) on Wednesday’s crossword, possibly the worst performance this year? There was a bit of irony as one of the answers we couldn’t get was ‘sick as a parrot’ (from ‘very disappointed’, and we were sick as a parrot about our performance although in hindsight a good chuck of those six we didn’t know the answer to. We didn’t know that the ‘Figaro’ is the ‘oldest French national newspaper’, that ‘moleskin’ is ‘heavy twilled cotton’ and that ‘Antonio’ is ‘Shakespeare’s merchant of Venice’. Hopefully, this is a just a dip before climb back to the glory days of earlier this week…

…and things do pick up with Thursday’s crossword! The disaster is behind us! We only had to cheat on 8.70% of the clues (two out of 23). The little grey cells only stumbled on not getting ‘megalopolis’ from ‘huge city’ (we went with ‘metropolis’, which is one letter short!) and ‘Arabic’ from ‘Semitic language’…

…Friday’s crossword went okay, a bit of a chewy one, but the little grey cells got through most of the clues, and we only had to cheat on 12.00% of them (three out of 25). We did misread ‘contract’ as referring to a business contract, something you sign, so we didn’t get ‘dwindle’ and we should have gotten ‘dither’ from ‘be in two minds’, but we did learn that ‘impetuous’ can mean ‘madcap’…

…and we end the crossword week on a solid well-done note, as we only had to cheat on 8.33% of the clues (two out of 24). The little grey cells were feeling a bit knackered this morning, but they chewed through the clues like Popeye through spinach. And the two we missed – ‘Dahlia’ from ‘flowering plant of the aster family’ and ‘Evans’ from ‘George Eliot’s actual surname’ – we didn’t and I’m not sure if we would have guessed them, maybe, but maybe not… 

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

…and we get the crossword week off to an okay start, with only having to cheat on 13.64% of the clues (three out of 22). I guess that the little grey cells are a little sluggish after their Easter eggs, because we should have gotten two of those, but we did re-learn that a ‘kepi’ is a ‘military cap with a flat round top and a visor’…

…things tick up a tad with Tuesday’s crossword, as we only had to cheat on 11.54% of the clues (three out of 26). In hindsight we should have done better, but some of the clues were a little “hazy”, like do you really think that an ‘errand’ is a ‘quick mission on another’s behalf’? But you live and learn and re-remember that clues can be sneaky…

…and the tick up continues with Wednesday’s crossword, as we only had to cheat on 4.17% of the clues (aka one out of 24). Not bad going! The little grey cells have been on a bit of wave at the moment, although I’m shocked that we didn’t get ‘Leeds’ from ‘Yorkshire city, where Alan Bennett was born’ and the intersecting letters! I mean how been cities in England start with L and are five letters long! Oh well…

…and we struggled a little with Thursday’s crossword and had to cheat on 12.5% of the clues (three out of 24). I think the little grey cells were a little tired, a little sleepy when we did the crossword, ‘cos we should have gotten ‘cochlea’ from ‘spiral tube in the inner ear’ and I don’t know why we had forgotten that brackets are also called ‘parenthesis’, but we did learn that ‘concurrence’ is another word for ‘agreement’…

…and we’re back on track with Friday’s crossword, as we only had to cheat on 9.52% of the clues (aka two out of 21). The little grey cells are getting back on track, although we did get tricked by the clue ‘fit’, we were thinking along the lines of being healthy or something fitting in a space or clothes fitting, but we didn’t think that it referred to a health condition (even with the intersecting letters!), otherwise we would have gotten ‘convulsion’. But we did re-learn that ‘mother of pearl’ is also called ‘nacre’, we do have a slight blindspot for that, as it’s been a clue before! Roll on Saturday’s crossword…

…and this week’s crossword week ends on a high note with Saturday’s crossword, as we only had to cheat on 4.35% of the clues (one out of 23). This was a tough grid to get through, our first pass only yielded a handful of answers and it took a while to grind out the complete grid. Except for not getting ‘database’ from ‘organised body of related information’, we even had all of the intersecting letters. And we still couldn’t get ‘database’! But I think that the little grey cells were worn down by dealing with the other clues. Roll on next week’s crossword week… 

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

…and the little grey cells kick off the crossword week in excellent style as they aced all the clues! A clean sweep! No answers were missed! 0.00% need to cheat, but will this excellence continue for the rest of the week…

…and Tuesday’s crossword goes almost as well as Monday’s, we only had to cheat on 4.35% of the clues (aka one out of 23). And I’m a little shocked that we didn’t get that one. How can you miss ‘prey’ from the clue ‘victim’! Maybe the little grey cells were still a little woozy and not fully woken up…

…and it goes pretty okay, not quite as well as the last couple of days, but not too bad. We only had to cheat on 8.70% of the clues (two out of 23). And those two were a bit chewy, and maybe, if the little grey cells has been more rested, we would have gotten ‘vanguard’ from ‘forefront’, but I’m not sure we would have gotten ‘tousled’ from ‘disorderly’, so we pretty much did as best we could…

…and it went pretty well, we only had to cheat on 12.00% of Thursday’s clues (three out of 25). Although we should have gotten ‘yore’ from ‘long ago’ and ‘masala’ from ‘blend of Indian spices’, but we did learn that ‘Op Art’ is a type of art and one Bridget Riley was one who produced Op Art. Perhaps more importantly, we’ve noticed a trend this week of having to cheat on increasing clues. At the start of the week, we didn’t have to cheat on any, then one, then two and now three. Which suggests that tomorrow we’ll have to cheat on four and then five on Saturday! Be interesting to seem if that does happen…

…and Friday’s crossword goes even worse than expected! This grid really foxed us and we had to cheat on 23.81% of the clues (also known as five out of 21). Not a good performance at all, how did we miss ‘infuse’ from ‘steep – brew’ or ‘reserved’ from ‘on hold’!!! But we did learn that the ‘person one is talking with’ is called an ‘interlocutor’ and that Jan van Eyck was the painter of the Arnolfini Portrait. Hopefully tomorrow’s crossword will go better…

…and we end the crossword week on a sour note as we have to cheat on 20.83% of the clues (five out of 24) for Saturday’s crossword (which is what we predicted on Thursday!). We just couldn’t get to grips with the grid and I wonder if it’s a result of yesterday’s bad performance. A negative feedbackloop, kinda thing. Like, we should have gotten ‘svelte’ from ‘attractively thin and stylish’ or ‘adapt’ from ‘modify’! But we did learn that ‘nankeen’ is a ‘hard-wearing cotton fabric’, that an ‘Gannet’ is a ‘large heavily built seabird with a long stout bill’ and that ‘filbert’ is another word for ‘hazelnut’. One lives and learns and carries on for another crossword week…

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

…and the new crossword week gets off to a flying start. Monday’s clues were a bit chewy to start with, but once we got a couple of answers and intersecting letters, they quickly tumbled under the deductive might of the little grey cells. And we only had to cheat on 5.56% of the clues (otherwise knows as one out of 18), and that one we probably would never have gotten as we had no idea what ‘with alacrity’ meant. But we now know that it means ‘readily’. Hopefully the rest of the week’s grids will fall as easily…

…Tuesday’s crossword goes almost as well, we had to cheat on 10.53% of the clues (aka two out of 19). But maybe the little grey cells were a little tired, ‘cos we should have gotten those two clues and it should have been a clean sweep. We should have gotten ‘altitudes’ from ‘heights above sea level’ and ‘allergic’ from ‘likely to react badly’, especially when we had the intersecting letters. But except for those two clues, the rest were straight forward and the little grey cells just powered through them like a hot knife through butter…

…and, with Wednesday’s crossword, the little grey cells continue to power through the clues like a flame through ice! We only had to cheat on 4.17% of the clues (one out of 24). I guess that this morning’s walk was good for the little grey cells, perked them up! And we learnt that an ‘Eritrean’ is ‘from Asmara in the Horn of Africa’…

…the little grey cells are still operating to a high standard with Thursday’s crossword, as we only had to cheat on 4.35% of the clues (or one out of 23). Pretty good going, although there is a little niggle that we could have had a clean sweep as we do know that ‘tundra’ is to do with cold climates and we should have considered it as an answer to ‘arctic regions with permafrost’. Maybe we just needed a few more minutes to ponder on it…

…things are still going well with Friday’s crossword, especially compared to last week’s go-around. We only had to cheat on 8.00% of the clues (or two out of 25). All the clues we could answer we got and those two we had no idea how to answer, so we learnt that ‘bathos’ is the ‘transition from the sublime to the ridiculous’ and that a ‘bombe’ is a ‘dome-shaped ice cream dessert’…

…and we end this crossword week on an okay note, as we had to cheat on 12.00% of the clues (a la three out of 25). The grid was a hair tricky to get to gripes with and it was the most strugglely of the week, but we did get through it (although we defo should have gotten ‘imperfection’ from ‘flaw’!) and we learnt that ‘motlier’ means ‘consisting of a more haphazard collection’ and that ‘Prospero’ is the ‘leading character in Shakespeare’s The Tempest’ (which I’m sure we had before and I should know…but Shakespeare is a bit…low on my reading list…)…

…and I did all these Metro Cryptic Crosswords:

…and Friday 14th April's Metro Cryptic crossword is the first that I have aced! I got all but three of the answers on the bus in and back from town and I got those remaining three with just a couple of hints: