Days 1124 - 1130

Aka Monday 24^th February - Sunday 1^st March 2020

 

I had the week off work this week…which meant I was able to a get a Long Walk in Monday to Friday (but no Long Walk on Saturday, as I was too tired and the weather was too windy and rainy), with some really nice views (albeit the same views as I walk the same, more or less, route each time):

This is Monday’s walk:

…Tuesday’s walk:

…Wednesday’s walk:

…Thursday’s walk:

…and Friday’s walk:

…as well as walking this week I watched ‘Dracula A.D. 1972’:

...in which a bunch of hip and happening youths are bored of cocking a snoot at authority and breaking the old people’s taboo’s and decide that the ultimate trip, the ultimate taboo to break would be a black mass. And while holding their black mass Dracula is risen from the dead (again) and chaos ensues. ‘Dracula AD 1972’ is a fun horror romp and a perfect Hammer Dracula film – Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing at their best, hoary magic rituals, blood and gore and plenty of sexy girls and bosoms. And it has one of the best lines ever with “Okay, okay. But if we do get to summon up the big daddy with the horns and the tail, he gets to bring his own liquor, his own bird and his own pot.”…

…and I brought the new Courtney Barnett album, ‘Courtney Barnett MTV Unplugged’:

…which has a nice mellow vibe, as Courtney plays acoustic versions of her songs and a few covers, aiding by a few guest appearances…the new Chuck Palahniuk book, ‘Consider This’:

…which I’ll read after ‘Spook Street’…and I finally got the Metamorpho DC Lego Minifigure, with two spares, which, aside from Mister Miracle and the original/Golden Age Batman, is the one I was first after:

…I also got this week’s New Comic Book Day comics:

…and the postman delivered ‘Flimsy Mewsings’ by Rachel Smith (which came with a pin/badge of Flimsy):

 

…in which Flimsy muses on life and offers her advice, but the ‘blurb’ for the book puts it best with “Flimsy is a blue kitten who tries her best. In this book, with the help of her friends, she shares some thoughts on life, and how best to live it”. This is a really uplifting book with lots of sage advice and jokes/humour. A real tonic when life/the world is getting you down…

…and on Saturday I made biscuits, vegan chocolate chip cookies, from a recipe a recent Guardian food supplement (the third picture is what the cookies should have looked like). The prep, the making of the cookie dough and the doling out of the mixture all went well, but I think I left the cookies in the oven for too long as when they came out, instead of being soft and chewy they were crunchy. More like the texture of Ginger Crunches. Ah, well, maybe they’ll go better next time (with less time in the oven!)…

…while on Sunday I got my first Bumble match…and it’s with a hottie (way too hot to be talking to me in my opinion, but anyhoo)…I said yes, now I just wait to hear back from her…although part of me is wondering if this is some kinda scam, either by Bumble to keep me on the app and maybe paying for extra options, or from her looking to get my money (which I have very little of at the moment!)…it would also mean that I wanted have the worry and stress associated with going on a first date…

…I also did this week’s G2 Crosswords:

…Monday’s crossword gets the week off to a pretty good start, with only having to cheat on an eighth of the clues (three out of 24). The little grey cells chewed through most of the clues with no problem, especially once we got a few of the intersecting letters. And we learnt that ‘tenor’ can refer to a ‘general meeting’ and that a ‘patterned flooring made with wooden blocks’ is called ‘parquet’…

…while Tuesday’s grid goes a tad worse, with having to cheat on sixth of the clues (four out of 23). The little grey cells are still doing okay, bit annoyed that I went for ‘hefer’ and not ‘udder’ for ‘source of milk’ (and that a misspelt heifer!). But we learnt that ‘madeira’ is a ‘fortified Portuguese wine’, that a ‘female chaperone’ is called a ‘duenna’…

…Wednesday’s grid went spectacularly well as the little grey cells and me only had to cheat on one of the 25 clues and just ploughing through the rest. We couldn’t get ‘Durer’ from ‘German artist, d.1528’ (did only one German artist die in 1528???)…

…and Thursday’s grid goes almost as spectacularly bad, as we had to cheat on a quarter of the clues (six out of 24). It was a real tough grid and I just couldn’t chew my way through, just kept hitting brick walls and couldn’t build any momentum. And most of them, in hindsight, were obvious and we should have got them. At least we learnt that the ‘bluebell’ is a ‘spring-flowering woodland plant’…

…and we’re back on the pendulum with Friday’s crossword as we only had to cheat on an eleventh of the clues (two out of 22). Just missing out on knowing that the ‘position that’s very exposed to attack’ is ‘the firing line’ and that ‘oviparous’ means ‘egg-laying’. A pretty good recovery from yesterday, but what will tomorrow bring…

…and Saturday’s crossword goes almost as well, with only having to cheat on a ninth of the clues (three out of 26). There were a few tricky clues, but with a little extra time the little grey cells managed to chew through most of them. And we learnt that the ‘apse’ is ‘where the altar is found in a church’, that ‘crinoline’ is a ‘full stiff petticoat worn under a skirt’ and that ‘skirl’ is the ‘sound of the bagpipes’ (although I would have thought that apocalyptic would have been a better description!)…