Days 2218 - 2224

Aka Monday 14^th December - Sunday 20^th December 2020

Working from home this week…finished off my Christmas shopping and got some treats for myself, like ‘Tenet’:

…one of the very few films released in cinemas this year post-Covid, although I haven’t watched it yet. I also got this month’s Mojo:

…mostly for the Stone Roses article (which is about the second album and the band splitting up and is pretty brief), the 2021 preview and the excellent/interesting cover CD, featuring “15 new garage rock nuggets”. And the latest Private Eye, Scream (which has some nice articles on ‘The Ghost Breakers’ and ‘John Carpenter's The Thing’) and Lego Star Wars magazines:

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

…and the postman delivered a whole slew of goodies:

…my copy of ‘Future’ (which I backed via Kickstarter) and Mark Thomas’s ’50 Things About Us’ (which, if it’s like his previous work, should be both thought provoking and fun), and copies of the Japanese release of the Spanish version of ‘Sticky Fingers’ by The Rolling Stones (which omits ‘Sister Morphine’ for a live version of ‘Let It Rock’ and has a different cover, but aside from that is the same as the “normal” version, which is a great album) and Cherrystones new compilation of obscure punky dancey music that fell through the cracks. 

My copy of Jockey Slut’s tribute to Andrew Weatherall also arrived and it’s a great read and brought back memories of lots of great music and nights out/in with friends and underlined what a unique role in played the artistic world. The only downside is that it’s too short, it feels like the contributors had a lot more stories to tell!

…I went for a Long Walk on Saturday:

…and later on that day our Prime Minister Boris Johnson (which still feels very weird to type!) announced that London, the South and South East would be going into Tier 4 restrictions (from midnight tonight, Saturday 19^th Dec), due to a new strain of Covid. Which is troubling as (a) we previously only had three Tiers, (b) there’s a new strain of Covid, and (c) that it feels like a lot of this could have been avoided if the Government had acted quickly and learnt the lessons of previous Lockdowns and restriction measures. Although it seems the only chance to my daily routine is that non-essential shops will be closed, I can still go out for exercise, still go to work and still go food shopping. Which just means that I can’t pop to the comic shop or clothes shop or HMV or go socially ☹

…and I did this week’s G2 Crosswords:

…and Monday’s crossword gets the week off to a grand start, as we only had to cheat on a twenty-fourth of the clues (one out of 24). We took our time, took things back to basics (like writing out the letters and spaces for the clues we weren’t sure about, which for some reason triggers some part of the brain that just looking at the letters and spaces doesn’t – when I was looking at ‘P_N_S_’ I couldn’t think of what it could be, but when I wrote it out ‘PUNISH’ just stood out!) and only missed out on ‘as good as’ from ‘virtually’…

…and Tuesday’s crossword goes pretty well too, we only had to cheat on an eighth of the clues (three out of 23). The little grey cells just continued to knock out the answers, with clue after clue tumbling before their might! (except for a couple 😊) And we learnt that a ‘poet’ is a ‘versifier’ and that ‘impasto’ is an ‘artistic technique using thick layers of paint’…

…and Wednesday’s crossword keeps up the good work as we only had to cheat on a twelfth of the clues (two out of 25). We got stuck on ‘private coaches’, trying to think up synonyms for ‘bus’, but then it just trigged that the answer was ‘tutors’. We also got stuck on ‘in’, trying to think of 11 letter words being entrance or foyer or access, so it’s not surprising that we didn’t think of ‘fashionable’ and we learnt that ‘doobry’ means ‘whatsit’…

…while Thursday’s crossword goes even better as we only had to cheat on one of the 24 clues – ‘long-haired Turkish cat or rabbit’, we went with ‘Angola’, which is so close to the right answer of ‘Angora’, just one letter out, but you shouldn’t complain when you just drop one clue…

…Friday’s crossword goes the same way, off the 22 clues we only had to cheat on ‘Ford UK model made from 1950 to 1972’, which learnt was the ‘Zephyr’. The little grey cells have been on top form this week, but will it continue with tomorrows climax???

…Saturday’s crossword goes pretty flyingly. Or at least most of the clues did, only an eighth of the clues (three out of 26) proved to be a problem. We didn’t get ‘sleazebag’ from ‘despicable person (informal)’, we nearly got ‘tyrannous’ from ‘unjustly severe’, we just couldn’t get the last three letters. And we learnt that taboo can be spelt ‘tabu’…all in all a pretty great crossword week…

 

 

Days 2211 - 2217

Aka Monday 7^th December - Sunday 13^th December 2020

Worked from the office for Monday and Tuesday, with the rest of the week working from home…and during the week I picked up the following albums:

…Richard Norris’s ‘Music For Healing’, during the first UK Lockdown Mr Norris released, weekly, twenty minute ambient songs, written to help people cope, and deal, with the stress and worries of Covid and being in Lockdown. This album collects edited versions of those tracks, which still maintain their otherworldliness and beauty.

…Amorphous Androgynous’ new album ‘We Persuade Ourselves We Are Immortal’ and its remix album ‘We Persuade Ourselves We Are Immortal Remixes’. ‘We Are Immortal…’ is a forty-minute psychedelic song-cycle/track composed of six suites and it maintains the quality of previous Amorphous Androgynous albums and mixes. It’s forty minutes of head music you can just get lost in. The remix album is a companion piece, but I haven’t listened to it yet.

…and I got The Avalanches new album ‘We Will Always Love You’ and The Kills collection of b-sides and rarities ‘Little Bastards’, which I also haven’t had a chance to listen too yet. I also picked up this week’s New Comic Book Day comics:

…and got the latest stickers from Kyle Stark’s Sticker Club:

…a great illustration off Blue Beetle and Booster Gold, one of my favourite double acts (especially in the ‘80’s/’90’s Justice League).

…I also did some Christmas shopping and got myself this tasty little set:

…at least I managed to resist buying the Playmobil De Loren set (at least for now!) And I went for a Long Walk on Saturday:

…and I did this week’s G2 Crosswords:

…and Monday’s crossword gets the week off to a good, solid start, with only having to cheat on an eighth of the clues (three out of 23). The little grey cells were well rested and just knocked the clues out of the park. And we learnt that ‘Tamil’ is a ‘language of southern India and Sri Lanka’, that ‘osmium’ is a ‘metallic element used in alloys, Os’ and that ‘Antwerp’ is a ‘Belgian port’. Except for those three, the clues fell easily…

…Tuesday’s crossword threw us a bit of a wobble and we had to cheat on a sixth of the clues (four out of 25). But it did have one of our favourite clues ‘HEADGEAR?’, for ‘caps’. Slightly annoyed that we went for ‘clank’ for ‘noise of metal on metal’ and not ‘clang’. Although we did learn that a ‘mattock’ is an ‘agricultural tool shaped like a pickaxe’ and that ‘Euler’ was a ‘Swiss mathematician, d.1783’…

…conversely Wednesday’s crossword went excellently as the little grey cells solved all the 21 clues, with no cheating needed. Superb performance by the little grey cells…

…and Thursday’s crossword went almost as well, we had to cheat on one of the 24 clues. We couldn’t get ‘advised’ from ‘recommended’, but the rest of the clues were easily dispatched by the little grey cells…

…and Friday’s crossword went terribly badly, we had to cheat on over half the clues (eleven out of 18). A very poor performance, we just couldn’t get a handle on this grid. But we did learn loads, that ‘peripatetic’ means ‘travelling from place to place’, that ‘befit’ means ‘suit’, that ‘inveigh’ means ‘complain bitterly (against)’, that ‘ab initio’ means ‘from the beginning (Latin)’, that ‘Fino’ is a ‘very dry and pale sherry’, that ‘Trial By Jury’ is an ‘one-at Gilbert and Sullivan opera’ and an ‘apostle’ was an ‘early Christian missionary’…

…and things pick up with Saturday’s crossword, but only a tad. We had to cheat on a quarter of the clues (four out of 19), which is almost a triumph compared to yesterday’s grid. Not sure if the little grey cells have picked themselves up or that the grid was easier! And we learnt that ‘Mantua’ is a ‘city in Lombardy (where Romeo goes when banished from Verona)’, that ‘querulous’ means ‘peevish’, that ‘NB’ means ‘nota bene’ and that ‘Hector’ was the ‘greatest fighter in the defence of Troy against the Greeks’…