…still on the catch-up, so this one will be brief and cover a fair few weeks. During this month/four weeks our new Health Secretary, Sajid Javid, announced that he is Covid positive, just two days before “Freedom Day”, aka Monday 19th July 2021, which potentially means that the whole Cabinet, include Johnson, could have been exposed and will need to isolate!! It’s so ironic that when all the Covid legislation is repealed and all the restrictions go from mandatory to “personal responsibility” that some of the people most responsible for Covid running wild through the UK will have to self-isolate. Aside from all this, the postman delivered the following:
…‘BTWBisexual’ by Rachael Smith, a cool ‘zine about coming out as bisexual…
…’Heavy Rotation’, ‘Razorblades’ #3 and ‘Leviathan’ by The Grid & Fripp, all of which I haven’t read or listened too (yet)..
…and Richard Norris's ‘Hypnotic Response’ album, which is some beautiful motorik based grooves…
…and ’Giant Days Extra Credit’ Vol. One and ‘Giant Days Early Registration’, which I have read, and they are both fab, just perfect story telling…this month’s Kyle Starks Sticker Club stickers:
…I also read a load of other comics:
I also got ‘Utopian Ashes’ by Bobby Gillespie and Jehnny Beth, an interesting duets album about a relationship falling apart...
...and plenty of reading in the shape of this month’s Empire, Electronic Sound, Mojo and the novelisation of ‘Once Upon A Time In Hollywood’…
…I also got some of this month’s New Comic Book Day gems:
…and the reason that I skipped some of these months New Comic Book Day gems is that on Sunday 11th July 2021 I went to A&E has I thought I was having a heart attack! The background to which is that for the last few weeks I’ve been having intermittent chest pains and shortness of breath and on Sunday morning I had an episode that felt so bad that I thought I was having a heart attack (or some kind of cardiac event) and that was it for me.
I called an ambulance and after a few tests and questions it was off to A&E. Although by this time I was feeling better, largely in part I think due to the care from the ambulance crew and knowing that, if something was/did go wrong, I was in capable hands. Then there were more tests and questions at A&E which, too my huge relief, found nothing wrong with my heart. Rather I had costochondritis, an inflammation of the cartilage that joins the ribs to the breastbone. I have never been so relieved in my life. There were a few moments where I thought that I had had it! And if this pain was just from an inflammation, I can’t imagine what the pain from an actual heart attack would be like. And after some antibiotics, steroids and pain relief I was discharged and went home for bed rest for the rest of the week. This experience has definitely made we think about living in a healthier way and reconfirmed just how vital the NHS is. Massive thanks to the crew of ambulance 379 and Southend A&E who took excellent care of me (And I realise that 90% of the time when we’re treated by ambulance and A&E staff, we’re not in a fit state to remember their names, making it hard to thank them when we’re better!)…so then I was off work sick for three days and then working from home for the Thursday and Friday.
Then I went back into the office the week after for a couple of days, but it was clear that I wasn’t back to full health, no way near back to normal!, so then it was back to working from home for a the rest of the week. And since then, I’ve been back in the office, but feeling low-level off most of the time, mostly just wheezy, woozy and tired. So, I have been keeping my exertions, like walking, to a minimum, especially as getting out of breathe and woozy has triggered a couple of panic attacks. The biggest effects this has had through is (a) I’m doing no exercise, so no Long Walks for a while, and (b) I’m missing a couple weekly New Comic Book Day trips as the walk is too far ☹ And on the 24th and 25th these symptoms are getting worse and triggering more intensive panic attacks, so I think tomorrow will be GP time! Although I did manage to keep up my crosswording, this is the first week’s G2 Crosswords:
…and Monday’s crossword gets the week off to a meh start. We had to cheat on a sixth of the clues (four out of 26). I think the little grey cells were a little sluggish (maybe too much parting at the weekend, perhaps) and we missed some obvious ones, like ‘punchy’ from ‘having an immediate impact’, so maybe we’ll leave it as a warm-up grid? And we learnt that ‘greengage’ is a ‘sweet variety of plum’…
…Tuesday’s grid is groundhog day, as the little grey cells are still a little sluggish and we had to cheat on a sixth of the clues (four out of 24). We missed out on two answers by one letter, e.g. we went for ‘thicker’ and not ‘thicken’ for ‘become denser’, a silly mistake to make! But we did learn that a ‘creel’ is an ‘angler’s basket for holding fish’. Not a bad start to the week, but not a great start…
…Wednesday’s grid goes almost perfectly, and we only had to cheat on one of the 24 clues. An almost clean sweep, if only we had remembered that ‘smithereens’ means ‘little bits’!!!…
…Thursday’s grid goes back to the new norm of having to cheat on four clues, this time out of 21 clues (aka a fifth of them). We are feeling a little sluggish, don’t know if it’s due to the second jab and the heat/humidity and lack of sleep, but it does seem to be affecting our crossword game. But we did learn that a ‘sprocket’ is a ‘wheel with projections on its rim that pull things through’, that an ‘oratorio’ is a ‘composition for voices and orchestra based on a religious text’, and to ‘sing carols from house to house’ is to ‘wassail’ and ‘ergo’ means ‘therefore’…
…and it’s groundhog day again with Friday’s grid as we had to cheat on a sixth of the clues (four out of 23). We missed a couple of easy ones, like going for ‘pickle’ for ‘you should try to avoid being in one of these!’ and not checking the intersecting letters, which if we had of done might have clued us in that the right answer was ‘scrape’. But we did learn that ‘mordant’ means ‘sardonic’…
…and we’re backing to bucking the trend with Saturday’s grid as we only had to cheat on a tenth of the clues (two out of 21). It was a bit scrapy, like we couldn’t get ‘royal pardon’ from ‘UK’s prerogative of mercy’ until we got the ‘y’ from an intersecting clue! And we learnt that the ‘large tuba used in marching bands’ is called a ‘sousaphone’, which was nice…
…and I did the second week’s G2 Crosswords:
…despite feeling under-the-weather, the little grey cells are still going strongish, as for Monday’s crossword we only needed to cheat on an eighth of the clues (three out of 23). Although we did miss a couple of easy ones (and learnt that a ‘vassal’ was a ‘feudal subject’), so more vitamin C for the little grey cells!...
…Tuesday’s grid was a little sluggish, we had to cheat on a sixth of the clues (four out of 23), and it took a while for the little grey cells to get through it. Again, we missed a couple of easy ones, like we went for ‘biology’ for ‘analysis of the structure of animals’ and not the right answer of ‘anatomy’. But we did learn that ‘quelque chose’ means ‘something (from Paris?)’ and that ‘Troy’ is a ‘system of weights used for precious metals and gemstones’…
…and the sluggishness continues with Wednesday’s grid, we had to cheat on a fifth of the clues (five out of 25). I guess we’ve picked up a Summer bug or something! As this grid was a real grind to get through. Again, we missed a couple of easy ones, like ‘cohort’ from ‘unit of Roman legion’, but we did learn that ‘Brownie’ is another word for ‘Fairy’ and that ‘Norma’ is ‘Bellini’s 1831 opera’…
…the sluggishness continues a pace with Thursday’s grid, as we had to cheat on a quarter of the clues (five out of 21). I just can’t shake this Summer bug/under-the-weatherness and it’s just draining. It’s the only reason for missing ‘usurers’ from ‘lenders at very high interest rates’ or ‘dairy produce’ from ‘butter, cheese etc’ (we went for ‘dairy product’ instead) or ‘wormhole’ from ‘damage done to wood by burrowing larvae’. But we did learn that ‘Zeus’ was ‘Jupiter’s Greek counterpart’…
…things perk up a tad, but not by very much, with Friday’s grid and we’re still feeling under the weather ☹. We only had to cheat on a fifth of the clues (five out of 24) and the clues we did get were straight forwardly dealt with, but the little grey cells were too knackered to make the leap to answer for the chewy clues that we should have got. But it does mean that we learnt that a ‘centavo’ is ‘100th of a Mexican peso’ and that ‘Diabolo’ is a ‘spool, sticks and string game for one’…
…and we end the crossword week feeling knackered and wiped out and having to cheat on a sixth of Saturday’s clues (three out of 18). And two of those three we should have gotten, ‘actor’ from ‘player’ and ‘edgy’ from ‘nervous’, but we did learn that Edgar Wallace was a journalist and crime writer, who dies in Beverly Hills in 1932. Hopefully, a restful weekend will give the little grey cells time to recuperate and get back to normal…
…and I did the third week’s G2 Crosswords:
…and after Sunday’s hubbub (more of which later) Monday’s crossword doesn’t go well at all and we had to cheat on a third of the clues (six out of 19). After Sunday’s stresses the little grey cells couldn’t make the leap for a lot of these clues, like how could we not get ‘porcelain’ from ‘ceramic ware’ or ‘winkle’ from ‘small mollusc’? But we did learn that Montevideo is in Uruguay, that ‘rapacious’ can mean ‘predatory’ and that a ‘canard’ is a ‘deliberately misleading report’. Not a good start to the week, but hopefully we’ll get back on track after some bedrest…
…Tuesday’s grid goes a bit better, we only had to cheat on an eighth of the clues (three out of 24). The bed rest is taking effect! Although there is still a way to go, as in hindsight I think we should have gotten those three as well. We should have gotten ‘dovetail joint’ from ‘(in carpentry) an interlocking of tenons and mortises’, mostly as ‘dovetail joint’ is one of the only carpentry terms we know!, ‘bonkers’ from ‘loopy’ and ‘Adam’ from ‘Faith, Hart-Davis or Smith?’ Roll on tomorrow’s crossword…
…there’s a slight wobble with Wednesday’s grid as we had to cheat on a sixth of the clues (four out of 23). I guess more bed rest is needed! Just popping out to the shops is leaving me feeling knackered and down in! But better than the alternative! But we did learn that ‘amethyst’ is a ‘kind of purple colour’, that a ‘Pagoda’ is a ‘temple built as a pyramidal tower with an upward curving roof’, that a ‘Scoter’ is a ‘large black diving duck’ and that a ‘continuous horizontal grey cloud’ is called a ‘stratus’…
…things pick up with Thursday’s grid, we only had to cheat on an eighth of the clues (three out of 25), the bed rest is starting to pay off! Although we’re still missing some easy ones, like for ‘talkative and rude’ we went for ‘foul-mouthed’ and not the answer ‘loud-mouthed’, but we did learn that the ‘decorative band round the top of a wall’ is called a ‘frieze’…
…with Friday’s grid it looks like the bed rest has paid off as we only had to cheat on a twelfth of the clues (two out of 24). But it should have been a clean sweep, we forgot to check the intersecting letters, which meant that we missed two easy answers: ‘grit’ and ‘sixtieth’. So, still not back to where I was health wise, but it’s getting there…
…and Saturday’s grid ends the week on a high note as we almost get a clean sweep and only had to cheat on one of the 22 clues. For some reason we couldn’t get ‘administrator’ from ‘person who manages the organisation’, I guess that we were stuck thinking around CEOs, Chairman/woman/person and similar level positions! Looks like the bed rest has paid off! Fingers crossed it continues for next week…
…and I did the fourth week’s G2 Crosswords:
…and Monday’s crossword gets the week off to an iffy start as we had to cheat on a fifth of the clues (five out of 26). I guess the little grey cells are still a tad under the weather, like we’re back 70% health tops and the stress/worry is weighing us down, as we missed a couple of obvious answers, like ‘screwball’ from ‘absurd’ or ‘betrothed’ from ‘intended’. But we did learn that the ‘lower house of the Russian Federal Assembly since 1993’ is the ‘Duma’…
…maybe I underestimated the little grey cells as for Tuesday’s crossword we only had to cheat on one of the 24 clues (or it was a super easy grid?!?). They whipped through the grid, only getting stuck on ‘assert’, the answer of which is ‘aver’, but will this continue…
…and we’re back to normal with Wednesday’s grid, as we only had to cheat on an eighth of the clues (three out of 24). Still annoyed/embarrassed that we didn’t get ‘armhole’ from ‘opening in clothing’, how could we miss it when we had the intersecting letters!!! But we did learn that ‘inamorata’ means ‘girlfriend’ and the little grey cells seem to be back to normal strength…
…maybe I spoke too soon, as for Thursday’s grid we had to cheat on a fifth of the clues (four out of 21) and we missed some easy ones, ‘quadruplet’ from ‘one with three siblings’ (we went with ‘quadtiplet’!) and ‘mixed blessings’ from ‘it has good and bad sides’, but we did learn that a ‘set of bells in a tower’ is called a ‘carillon’…
…and things go even worse with Friday’s grid as we had to cheat on a third of the clues (seven out of 23). We just couldn’t get a handle on the grid, like how can we have missed ‘hawk-eyed’ from ‘sharp-sighted’ or ‘contrary’ from ‘opposite’!!! But we did learn that ‘Riga’ is ‘Latvia’s capital’ and that a ‘cow shed’ is called a ‘byre’. We did like 5 down, ‘it could trigger a revival’ for ‘kiss of life’, a very nice clue and answer…
…and we boomerang back with Saturday’s crossword as we didn’t have to cheat on any of the 21 clues. The little grey cells just chomped through the clues like Pacman chomping down on ghosts, easy peasy, lemon squeezy…
No comments:
Post a Comment