Aka Monday 3rd July - Sunday 16th July 2023
Still catching up, so another rush-through! Pretty much a usual fortnight, working and relaxing, enjoying time with friends. Aside from what’s listed below, the unusual thing to happen is that on Wednesday 5th I tried grapes for the first time! At least the first time in their natural form and non-liquid! And they were yummy and crunchier/less squishy than I expected! I picked up this fortnight’s New Comic Book Day gems, including the excellent ‘Button Man’ Volume one (in its 2000AD Partwork form, so I have a "reading" copy):
…the latest Jimmy Cauty Cookbook, ’The Stonehenge Cookbook’ arrived:
…which focuses on the burying of The KLF's Brit Award at Stonehenge, their Brit Award performance, parts of the ‘Deep Shit’ graphic novel and a recipe for Rockman Rock Cakes! A fun read, that feels like a conversation reminiscing about past deeds. Also arriving via the Postman, was the latest issue of ‘Knowtes’:
…the latest paper-based bundle of joy and comedy from Modern Toss and…I got some more Disney 100th Anniversary Lego Minifigures, still on the hunt for my five Day of the Dead guitarists:
…I also got a fair few albums, including the tenth anniversary edition of Matt Berry’s ‘Kill The Wolf’ (some nice folky. Jazzy, rocky ‘70sish songs) and bdrmm’s ‘I Don’t Know’ (nice shoegaze album):
…got a The B-52’s compilation, I like ‘Rock Lobster’ and ’Love Shack’ and thought it was time to dip a toe into The B-52’s:
…and the music was great, sixties garage and surf rock ‘n’ roll, but was often let down by some of the lyrics, which too me, were sometimes too arch/affected/camp, taking me out of the song. Like, ‘Rock Lobster’ is a great song, but when, towards the end, he starts naming different sea creatures, it feels too tongue-in-check, but when they all connect, like on ‘Love Shack’ they are great. I also got Television’s ‘Marque Moon’, which I haven’t listened to yet, but have heard good things about. Similarly, I got Richard Hawley’s ’28 Little Bangers from Richard Hawley’s Jukebox’ compilation:
…which has gotten good reviews and should, at the worst, be a good collection, with a few gems, nuggets of rock ‘n’ roll gold in it. And I got copies of Texas’ ‘Say What You Want’ single and ‘One Mile From Heaven’ compilation:
…I got ‘Say What…’ for the sweet Rae & Christian remix (a nice head noddery remix, in vocal and instrumental versions) and I haven’t listened to ‘One Mile…’, but, from the reviews, it should be a sweet collection of private press songs…I also went for a few Morning Walks, first on Thursday 6th July:
…which covered 4.72km in 6,214 steps, taking 57 minutes and 2 seconds, burning 447 calories. The next Morning Walk was on Sunday 9th July:
…which covered 5.44km, burning 522 calories in 1 hour, two minutes and 51 seconds, in 6,976 steps. Next Walk was on Tuesday 11th July:
…which burnt 512 calories in 1 hour, three minutes and 2 seconds, covering 5.36km in 6,946 steps, with the final Walk this fortnight on Sunday 16th July:
…which took 6.870 steps, covering 5.26km in 1 hour, two minutes and 44 seconds, burning 500 calories…and I collected a lone Lotto win for the fortnight:
…and I did the first week’s G2 Crosswords:
…and Monday’s crossword gets the crossword week off to a grand start, the little grey cells were on top form and we only had to cheat on 9.09% of the clues (aka two out of 22). And those two we just didn’t know the answers to, which means that we learnt a ‘300-year anniversary’ is called a ‘tercentennial’ (we did try combinations of tri and nial and random middle letters, but nothing worked) and that ‘French novelist, Amantine Dupin, d. 1876’ was also known as ‘Sand’…
…and Tuesday’s crossword goes okay, we had to cheat on 11.54% of the clues (a la three out of 26), but we should have gotten ‘bale’ from ‘large bound bundle’ and we misremembered ‘Ingmar’ as ‘Ingman’ for ‘_ Bergman, screenwriter, film and theatre director’. I guess that the little grey cells were a tad tired, and we couldn’t make that final leap from a thought of an answer, a possibility, to a rock-solid answer. But we did learn that the surname of ‘Henry VIII’s last wife’ is ‘Parr’. Hopefully the little greys will perk up and be back to form for tomorrow’s crossword…
…and Wednesday’s crossword was a terrible mess, the little grey cells were not on top form and we had to cheat on 25.00% of the clues (aka six out of 24). Only relived by us not knowing the answer to five of the six, we should have gotten ‘edibles’ from ‘food’, especially with the intersecting letters. But the other five we had no to very little chance of guessing the answer. Which means that we learnt that ’orzo’ is ‘pasta shaped like pearls of barley’, that ‘Honshu’ is the ‘largest Japanese island’, that ‘inveigh’ means to ‘rail (against)’, that ‘Goldsmith’ is the ‘author of She Stoops To Conquer’ and that ‘rondo’ is a ‘musical composition with a repeated theme’. Fingers crossed that tomorrow’s crossword goes better…
…and things do get better, but not too much better, with Thursday’s crossword, as we had to cheat on 12.50% of the clues (a la three out of 24). We’re getting back to normal form! Again, we got all the answers that we defo knew, although we may have had ‘lisle’ (from ‘strong, tightly twisted cotton thread’) before in another crossword, and couldn’t guess the answers to those three (maybe two). But we did learn that a ‘Pimpernel’ is a ‘small plant of the primrose family, with five flat-petalled flowers (sometimes scarlet)’ and that the ‘diacritical mark written over an “n” in Spanish’ is called a ‘tilde’…
…and Friday’s crossword goes a tad better and we’re back in familiar territory as we only had to cheat on 9.52% of the clues (two out of 21). It’s good to be back under 10%! And we learnt that another term for ‘sorbet’ is ‘water ice’ (which seems kinda redundant) and that a ‘Haji’ is a ‘Muslim who has made the pilgrimage to Mecca’…
…and the crossword week comes to a close with a damn solid performance, where we only had to cheat on 8.70% of Saturday’s clues (also known as two out of 23). And I’d argue that ‘roused to anger’ is a poor clue for ‘sore’, I’d say that being sore at someone or something is more of a resentment or annoyance, more of a passive thing than be angry at someone or something. Being angry is more active, being sore is more passive. But we did learn that Holland gin is a type of ‘Schnapps’, hopefully next week’s crosswords will go better for us…and then I did the second week’s G2 Crosswords:
…and the crossword week is off to a damn fine start with Monday’s crossword, we only had to cheat on 9.52% of the clues (two out of 21). Although we did know the answers to those two clues, but we just couldn’t recall it for ‘walrus’ from ‘The ____ and the Carpenter (Lewis Carroll)’ or misremembered it for ‘Swedish-American film actress, whose last film appeared in 1942, dies at 84 in 1990’, we went with ‘Gabor’ and not the correct answer ‘Garbo’! But still a v solid start…
…the damn fine-ness continues with Tuesday’s crossword, we only had to cheat on 8.70% of the clues (two out of 23). We did drop the ball with ‘shrub used in hedges’, we just assumed that it was a specific type of shrub and didn’t bother to consider the actual answer, ‘privet’! But we did learn that an ‘Azerbaijan’ was a ‘pre-1991 Asian Soviet on the Caspian Sea’…
…and things go v v badly with Wednesday’s crossword, as we had to cheat on 30.43% of the clues (seven out of 23)!!! The worst performance ever! We just couldn’t get to grips with the grid, it was a real struggle. I don’t know how we didn’t get ‘useless’ from ‘vain’ or ‘risque’ from ‘ribald’. Just not good! But we did learn that ‘Vanuatu’ is a ‘Pacific island nation’, that a ‘counter-tenor’ is a ‘high male singing voice’, that an ‘Equerry’ is an ‘officer of the British royal household’ and that an ‘uvula’ is a ‘fleshy lobe in the throat’. Hopefully tomorrow’s crossword will go better…
…and we are recovering from yesterday’s crossword disaster, as we only had to cheat on 16.00% of the clues (aka four out if 25). Although it feels weird to consider 16.00% an improvement! Especially as we missed some easy ones, like ‘steer’ from ‘bullock’. But we did learn that Enrico Fermi was an Italian-American physicist and creator of the first nuclear reactor and died in 1954…
…and the recovery is still on, as we only had to cheat on 9.52% of the clues for Friday’s crossword (two out if 21). Looks like the little grey cells are back on track! Although we did miss some mid-level easyish ones, ‘Acts’ from ‘____ of the Apostles (New Testament)’ and ‘havens’ from ‘places of safety in a storm’, so obvs not out of the woods yet…
…and we end this crossword week back on damn fine solid ground, as we only had to cheat on 4.17% of Saturday’s clues (aka one out of 24). We’re back baby! Just in time to take a day off before the new crossword week! We only stumbled on not knowing that an ‘odd-numbered page’ is called a ‘recto’ (although I have a faint recollection that it was an answer in a previous crossword, from a long time ago). Roll on next week’s crosswords…and these are the Metro Cryptics are did this fortnight:
