Monday, 1 March 2021

Days 2267 - 2280

Aka Monday 1st February - Sunday 14th February 2021

Still catching up with this blog entries, so this’ll be another quick one. Still in Tier 4 Lockdown, still spilt between working from home and working in the office, still bored of the restrictions, but still understanding of why the restrictions are needed and still annoyed at those that can’t be bothered to follow the restrictions (which means that the Lockdown will last longer!).

The postman delivered a load of stuff, including some comics:



 

…’Murky Waters:Tales From Beneath’, ’Far Sector’ #10 and ’Bad Machinery’ ‘Vol. 10: The Case of the Severed Alliance’, which I haven’t read yet (except that I did read ‘The Case of the Severed Alliance’ when it was released as a webcomic and know that it will very, very good). My glorious Kyle Starks stickers:


…some retro musical treats. The Stereo MC's album ‘Deep Down and Dirty’ and EP’s ‘Step It Up’ and ‘Deep Down and Dirty’, and Rae & Christian’s ‘Northern Sulphuric Soul’ album. Both the Stereo MCs and Rae & Christian deliver some top-notch UK hip-hop, the Stereo’s MCs on a more breakbeaty tip and Rae & Christian on a more downbeat, scratchy tip, and it was a joy to rediscover them:




…and ’Slough House’ arrived:


…which was a great read, lots of drama and pathos and humour. Mr Herron continues the high-quality storytelling and I’m looking forward to the TV series, to see if they can capture the essence of the books. I also read a load of great comics:













…I must especially highlight that ‘Future’ was a very enjoyable, cinematic, heartfelt treat, that it was interesting to see an early version of Alien in ‘Alien: The Original Screenplay’, the changes that the film made make sense and made a more powerful film, but the original screenplay is still fun and while it makes a great comic, it probably would have made a worse film. With finishing ‘ABC Warriors’ Vol. Two and ‘Nemesis The Warlock’ Vol. 4 I have finally got to finish the Nemesis/Torquemada story, which I first started reading backing in the late ‘80’s/early ‘90’s! The first half of the ‘ABC Warriors’ Vol. 2, which focused on the Time Wastes was great and tied into the Nemesis/Torquemada storyline, but the second half, which were self-contained storylines, wasn’t and was a drag to read, very hard to get through. I think the problem was that there was no overarching story or plot line and it seemed like the stories were there just to keep the ABC Warriors active/in print. And I finished the last arc of ‘Sex Criminals’ (and the special ‘Sex Criminals: Sexual Gary’) and it was a really enjoyable read (both the story and the excellent letters pages) tinged with a little sadness as this was the end. It’s bizarre how a story about people who stop time when they cum, was overflowing with humanity and compassion and fun and understanding.

…and I brought some Lego:






…I went for a Long Walk on the 6th:













…and made spicy parsnip mash and pork steak, using a Nigel Slater recipe from The Observer:



…which was pretty tasty, although I think I overcooked the pork as it was slightly chewy (but it was still tasty)…and I did this fortnight’s G2 Crosswords:

Week 1


…so, after eschewing my normal exercise/Long Walk to avoid getting a cold, I get a cold anyway! But it doesn’t seem to have affected the little grey cells, as we only had to cheat on a ninth of the clues (three out of 26) in Monday’s crossword. Although we should have gotten those three – ‘uppercuts’ from ‘blows to the chine’, ‘castigate’ from ‘censure severely’ and ‘tied’ from ‘drew’ (we got stuck thinking about drawing, rather than sporting events!) – so maybe the rest of the week will be downhill from here on in…


…Tuesday’s crossword went okay, we just had to cheat on a sixth of the clues (four out of 24), which is fairly average. Of those four, we messed up on a couple, like for ‘wrap up gently for protection’ we went with ‘coddle’ and not the answer of ‘cocoon’, but the other two we just didn’t know. So, we learnt that ‘Aida’ is a ’Verdi opera’ and that ‘Reno’ is a/the ‘Nevada divorce city’…


…Wednesday’s crossword went much better, as we only had to cheat on a twelfth of the cues (two out of 24). The little grey cells just powered through the clues, like Jason and campers in a Friday flick. And we learnt that the ‘Royal Navy flag’ is called the ‘White Ensign’ (we got the ensign part, but not the white part) and that a ‘pair of glasses with a handle’ are called a ‘lorgnette’…


…and things go into a tailspin with Thursday’s crossword. We had to cheat on a quarter of the clues (six out of 23), which is pretty poor. I think the cold is upon us and is knocking the little grey cells out of their clue solving groove! Which is probably why we misread ‘most insignificant’ as ‘most significant’, which kinda changes the answers that you think off! And missed the other answers, which feel very obvious in hindsight, like ‘rued’ for ‘felt remorse (for). But we did learn that a ‘neap’ is a ‘type of tide’…


…and things pretty much totally turnaround with Friday’s crossword, as we only had to cheat on one of the 21 clues. The little grey cells are back in their groove! Just powering through the clues, often getting them before finishing reading the clues! Although I’m not sure how we didn’t get ‘landmark’ from ‘significant feature (or event)’…


…and the little grey cells are back out of their groove with Saturday’s crossword! We had to cheat on more than a third of the clues (eight out of 21). A very bad performance Some of the clues we just didn’t know, some, in hindsight, we could have guessed, like we should have guessed ‘Piaf’ for ‘French chanteuse (the Little Sparrow) d.1963’, but we did learn that a ‘quadtrain’ is a ‘stanza of four lines’, that a ‘caret’ is a ‘mark indicating text insertion’, that a ‘Satyr’ is a ‘lecherous man’ and that ‘Tunis’ is a ‘North African capital’. Hopeful next week will go better…

Week 2


…and Monday’s crossword gets the week off to a solid start, as we only had to cheat on an eighth of the clues (three out of 23). The little grey cells were well rested after the weekend and strolled through the clues, making only one slip up. For ‘officials who once made public announcements’ we went with ‘town crying’, instead of the right answer ‘town criers’. But we did learn that ‘Danish Blue’ is a ‘salted and strongly flavoured cheese’…


…and things take a right old tumble with Tuesday’s crossword, having to cheat on a third of the clues (eight out of 23). Some of the clues we just didn’t know, and some we just couldn’t reach and missed, like getting ‘oddballs’ from ‘eccentrics’ or ‘labour’ from ‘childbirth’, which are super obvious in hindsight. But we did learn that a ‘long pillow’ is called a ‘bolster’, that ‘Mongolia’ is a ‘land-locked east Asian country’, that ‘Omsk’’ is a ‘city 1,400 miles east of Moscow on the Trans-Siberia railway’, that an ‘Inca’ is an ‘old Andean’ and that ‘legato’ is ‘(musically) the opposite of staccato’…


…things bounce back with Wednesday’s crossword, we only had to cheat on a twelfth of the clues (two out of 25). The little grey cells have taken stock after yesterday’s disaster and are back and kicking ass! Although we should have gotten ‘coax’ from ‘persuade gently’, and having lived through the ‘90’s we should have gotten ‘Bosnia’ from ‘Balkan country, capital Sarajevo’…


…and we bounce further with Thursday’s crossword, the little grey cells powered through the clues like Pacman and we only had to cheat on one of the 21 clues, learning that ‘Italian dumplings’ are called ‘gnocchi’…


…things are still on the up with Friday’s crossword, only having to cheat on an eighth of the clues (three out of 24). And we learnt that an ‘Indian fig tree’ is called a ‘Banyan’ and that ‘Samoa’ is a ‘Polynesian country, capital Apia’…


…and Saturday’s crossword ends the week on a high note as we only had to cheat on an eighteenth of the clues (one out of 18). We couldn’t get ‘metaphor’ from ‘figure of speech’, but aside from that it’s a real bounce back from Tuesday’s massive stumble…

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