Day 2113 - 2119

Aka Monday 31^st August - Sunday 6^th September 2020

I’m still running behind, so this’ll be another quick one, partly so I can catch up and partly because I’ve forgotten things!

This Monday was a Bank Holiday, so I went for a Long Walk, burnt off some calories:

 

…and then went on another Long Walk on Saturday:

…I also read ‘Sex’ Book 6 and it’s nice to return to Saturn City, catch-up on the various gangs and criminals, all while Simon is getting further involved with cult/conspiracy/rich guys frat party type thing, which may or may not be an actual ancient cult controlling the world:

 

…and picked up my New Comic Book Day picks:

…brought the reissue of The Rolling Stones ‘Goats Head Soup’, the reissue of The Charlatans ‘Between 10th and 11th' and Richard Norris’ ‘Elements’:

 

‘Goats Head Soup’ is the under-appreciated Stones/Miller album, and this reissue gives it the chance it deserves to shine. A great fusion of rock ‘n’ roll and soul/funk. I got into The Charlatans after baggy, as they hit their stride in the Brit-Pop years (although they were so much more than just Brit-Pop, encompassing soul and dance and acoustic and a timelessness), so I was basically hear ‘Between 10th and 11th' with virgin ears, and it’s not a bad album, ‘Weirdo’ is a great track, but it’s not a great album. And finally, but not last is ‘Elements’ a great album, best summed up by it’s Bandcamp description of “…fuses warm analogue synths, widescreen ambience and pulsating, subtly changing sequencers, creating a hypnotic, mesmerising work.’. All three are great albums and these summaries don’t do justice to how good they are. If only I hadn’t fallen behind on keeping this blog up to date!

…and I did this week’s G2 Crosswords:

…and Monday’s crossword gets the week of to an almost above average start, as we had to cheat on a sixth of the clues (four out of 24). We should have gotten ‘corkscrew’ from (move in a) spiral, but we had no chance in getting the other three. Which means that we learnt that ‘passata’ is a ‘thick tomato paste used in Italian cuisine, that a ‘horse with patches of white and another colour (not black)’ is called a ‘Skewbald’ and that ‘bis’ means ‘(musically) to be played twice’…

…Tuesday’s crossword went better, we only had to cheat on an eighth of the clues (three out of 23). The little grey cells were pretty much on fire knocking the clues out of the park Babe Ruth, except for those three. I don’t know how we didn’t get ‘seedy’ from ‘squalid’, but we did learn that ‘apogee’ means ‘culmination’ and that ‘raffia’ is ‘palm leaf fibres used to make baskets, mats, etc’…

…Wednesday’s word wonder went as well as Tuesdays’ with only having to cheat on an eighth of the clues (three out of 25). We stumbled a little with 25 across ‘one hawking their wares’ by going with ‘seller’ and not ‘pedlar’ and we should have gotten ‘greedy’ from ‘voracious’, but we did learn that ‘Raphael’ was a ‘Italian Renaissance painter. D. 1520’…

…things took a tumble with Thursday’s crossword, we had to cheat on a fifth of the clues (five out of 24). I think that the little grey cells were getting tired as we missed some obvious answers, but we did learn that ‘skyr’ is ‘Icelandic yoghurt’ and that ‘San Sebastian’ is a ‘resort city in the Basque Country’…

…Friday’s crossword hit the upswing and we only had to cheat on a seventh of the clues (three out of 22). We learnt that ‘triennial’ and not ‘triannual’ means ‘occurring at three-year intervals’ and that ‘relish’ can mean ‘appetite’. Though we should have gotten ‘mood’ from ‘state of feeling’…

…and Saturday’s crossword ends the week on a meh note. We had to cheat on nearly a sixth of the clues (four out of 26). I think the little grey cells were still a little hungover, as we should have gotten ‘arches’ from ‘spans’ and ‘elude’ from ‘avoid’, and I’m slightly annoyed that we went for ‘Erie’ for Ireland, poetically’ and not ‘Erin’, but we did learn that ‘Matins’ means ‘morning worship’, not a bad crossword week, but hopefully next week will be better…