Sunday, 24 November 2019

Days 975 - 981


Aka Monday 30th September 2019 - Sunday 6th October 2019
 
On Tuesday this week we all found out the outcome of last weeks job interviews. We were called up, one by one, into an office where we were told whether we had gotten the job and given feedback on how our interviews had gone…being a modest kind of guy I can’t go into details about my feedback, but it was much better than I had expected, although it now means that I have to live up to my hype/promise! And the further good news is that we all pasted the interview and were all offered permeant posts, so the team stays together...

...then on Thursday I went for a compliance interview with the job agency that had placed me, basically it was about transitioning from being a temp employee to a permeant employee, passing on an up to date CV, references, bank details, proof of I.D., etc., a bit of bureaucratic hoop jumping to make it back into the land of job security…

…now the plan is to get twelve months of work under my belt, fill in that employment time line a bit, then start looking for a promotion and to develop a five-year plan… 

…after the compliance interview I picked up this week’s New Comic Book Day releases:



…which as I write, 24th Nov 2019, I still haven’t read…I am so far behind on all my reading…the problem is when I get back from work and I’ve done my exercises and had dinner I feel to tired to do anything than watch a bit of TV for an hour or so before hitting the hay and the weekend never feels like there is enough time in it to catch-up properly…

…talking about comics, the Postman delivered Sarah Horrock’sThe Bacchae Vol. 2’:


…which looks and reads great, reminding me a little of early Vertigo books, with a lack of pandering to the audience and a straight expression of the artists intent, as though it has sprang fully formed from them without being filtered in anyway (although it is also clear that plenty of thought and care has been put into this work). I just wish I was a better reviewer, so that I could better explain how good this comic is, we get tons of emotions and story development, and a great cliffhanger ending…

…and I made a Lego guitar stand and amp:













…I’m getting a good collection of Lego mini-figures and soon my ‘Disco on Infinite Earths’ will be complete…


…I also brought the new Moon Duo album, ‘Stars Are The Light’, which I’ve only listened to once so far, but there will be much further listening, as it’s a great album. It keeps the psychedelic rock base that the band are know for but updates it and adds in disco/house elements, like Chic crossed with Spacemen 3. I also got the new DJ Harvey compilation, ‘The Sound Of Mercury Rising, Vol II’, which I haven’t listened too yet, but Vol I was good enough to ensure the instant purchase of Vol II…
 

 
…and I did this week’s G2 Crosswords:



…and Monday’s crossword gets the week off to an meh start, as I had to cheat on over a fifth of the clues (four out of 23). I think that the little grey cells had taken too much of a rest and weren’t up to speed, ‘cause I should have gotten ‘archaic’ from ‘antiquated’, ‘staple’ from ‘(of food) necessary and important’, ‘surly’ from ‘bad-tempered and unfriendly’ and ‘causes’ from ‘gives rise to – crusades’…


…the meh continued with Tuesday’s crossword as, again, I had to cheat on a fifth of the clues (five out of 25). Which was a little annoying as I almost got some of those five, but was out by a letter – I went for ‘imbie’ instead on ‘imbue’ and ‘therely’ instead of ‘thereby’ – c’est la vie (and I learnt that ‘imbie’ and ‘therely’ aren’t words or at least properly spelt words)…


…there was more meh with Wednesday’s crossword as I had to cheat on a fourth of the clues (six out of 24), the little grey cells have been taking a battering in the solving stakes, missing some, in hindsight, obvious answers. But I did learn that ‘inure’ means ‘habituate’ and that ‘filigree’ is ‘ornamental work in wire’…


…and Thursday’s crossword dissipates the mehness as I only had to cheat on a seventh of the clues (three out if 22). The little grey cells are getting back on track, but should have gotten ‘obtruded’ from ‘butted in’ and ‘earnings’ from ‘pay’, but I did learn that a ‘Shah’ is a ‘Persian emperor’…


…and the little grey cells are just about keeping the mehness at bay with Friday’s crossword, as I only had to cheat on two thirteenths of the clues (four out of 26). Again, in hindsight, the answers are obvious – how could my little grey cells not get ‘ice bucket’ from ‘holder of frozen water (3, 6)’??? But they did avoid some obvious traps, like not thinking that ‘check the growth of something’ was about measurement. Does this mean that we will end the week on a high note…


…and the answer is no, the mehness returns with Saturday’s crossword, as I had to cheat on a fourth of the clues (six out of 24). It’s especially annoying/embarrassing as several of those six were pretty obvious. Why didn’t I get ‘October’ from ‘eighth month in Roman calendar’ when it literally has eight (octo) in its name! I think I was feeling to lazy/tired to think all the clues through. But on the plus side I did learn that ‘dudgeon’ means ‘(high) resentment and the grid has brought back ‘halcyon’ into my vocab (and reminded me that I haven’t listen to Orbital’s Brown album in a long time, something that I must remedy)…

Saturday, 23 November 2019

Days 946 - Day 974

Aka Sunday 1st September 2019 - Sunday 29th September 2019

Aka The Catch-Up
As I’m trying to catch-up and get up-to date on this blog I’m going to cover September and October (and probably November!!!) in a couple of big blocks. 

During this month at work we started a new hours regime, so instead of doing 8.45 to 5.15, we’re now doing 8.30 to 5pm, which isn’t a big change, but one that means a bit of re-jigging the morning routine to make sure that I’m not late to work…aside form that work is going well, I feel pretty settled in and there’s the possibility that the post will become a permanent one.

And by possibility, I mean that all the temp posts are being advertised, that I applied for one and had the interview on Friday 27th September 2019 and I think it went pretty well and that I might get the job. Fingers crossed!

Comics-wise I brought a hefty chuck of gems this month:













…but I haven’t had much time to read any!!!

…I also brought ‘Avengers: Endgame’, which came with a free Avengers character guide…‘Avengers: Endgame’ was a great end to the first decade of the MCU and felt like it tied up the various stories and plot lines. It’s going to be weird watching the next crop of MCU films, now that we’ve had such an epic end to this first decade of stories…


…and ‘John Wick 3 - Parabellum’, which was okay, but felt a little weighted down by too much world-building, focusing on the High Table and its mystery to the determent of the story, like I spent to much time thinking “…is this how an organisation can really operate?...’, which took me out of the story, but the action scenes were still great…


…and an Inspiral Carpets best of, mostly for Saturn 5 and the Mark E Smith collaboration and This Is How It Feels (which didn’t sound as epic as I remember it sounding, although that’s mostly from Carter USM’s cover of the track, so that might explain why!)…

…and L’Epee’s ‘Diabolique’ album, which features Anton Newcombe from The Brian Jonestown Massacre, and is chock full of Anton’s signature rock ‘n’ roll, which sounds both familiar, touching on the classis sounds, while still sounding brand new and modern and now…

…and Liam Gallagher’s ‘Why Me?, Why Not.’ Album, which sounds better than ‘As You Were, more rock ‘n’ rolly and less poppy…


…and I brought Stewart Lee’s ‘March of the Lemmings’, Sara Pascoe’s ‘Sex, Power, Money’ and Mick Herron’s ‘Real Tigers’ (which I got after finishing ‘Dead Lions’, which was a s good as ‘Slow Horses’, Mick Herron is building an enjoyable universe in which to spend time in)…

…the Postman also delivered my ‘FOMT’ package, Lucy Sullivan’s ‘F for Feminist’, which got me thinking about how women were viewed when I was young and how far things have changed/haven’t changed since then…and ‘Night City Life’, full of cool light night disco music, perfect for dancing and when you’re journeying through the city late at night… and ’Frozen From Hell’, the full length version of ‘Who Goes There’… and Modern Toss’s ‘Work Is Shit’…





…and I built some more Star Wars Lego…






…and I went for a Long Walk and faced my two foes again, and again wasn’t stopped by them, although I did feel very unsafe taken a picture from the top steps!: