Days 2594 - 2606

Aka Monday 27th December 2021 - Sunday 9th January 2022

…this fortnight I watched ‘Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs’ with my nephew (after a slight argument) and we mucked about after, but it left me a little out of breath, which it shouldn’t have done…something else to pick up with the doctor the next time I get a chance to talk to them. I also picked up some Lotto winnings:

…on Tuesday 28th December 2021 I walked into town and back today for the first time in ages, mostly because there was a forty minute wait for the bus!, although it did make me weary and tired…not sure if that’s due it being so inactive over the last few months or if it’s due to my symptoms/Nathan…which got me back into walking, at least tentatively.

So, on Saturday 1st January 2022, to kick off the new year right, I went for a Long Walk, not a full one, more like a Medium Walk, but I’ve had enough of being inactive, of resting, as it’s not effecting my symptoms/Nathan. Although halfway through I did start getting some chest aches and my left arm went a little tingly! 

But I did do 4.07km, in 48minutes and five seconds, which burnt about 388 calories, and when I got home did some free weights. All without having an attack of symptoms! Although I did have to dodge a load of joggers/runners as a local Running Club were having a get together on the sea front…the next day (aka Sunday 2nd January 2022) man, when I woke up that morning, I ached so bad, but this time it wasn’t that cold, watery ache in my chest, but an ache in my muscles and bones from bout of exercise yesterday (the first bout in about two months, as per doctor’s orders to not exert myself). Although I did feel a little lightheaded and woozy, which I put down to my interrupted sleep…and on Monday 3rd January 2022 I went for a Long Walk again, but again it’s not a full one, more like a Medium Walk. I did 5.07km, in 56 minutes and 31 seconds, which burnt about 492 calories, an improvement on Saturday’s walk and all without having an attack of symptoms! 

Although later that evening my chest did get a little achy and tingly! So, looks like I can get back to a bit of exercise! I might be able to get beach-body ready!!!

I spent the second week working in the office and I walked home a couple of times and on the Friday evening (7th Jan 2022) my symptoms flared up this evening (mainly between 7.30 and 9.30), maybe working in the office this week is too much exertion? Maybe I should save the exercise for the weeks when I’m working from home? It didn’t stop me from going for a Medium Walk on Sunday (9th Jan 2022).

I did 4.90km in 56 minutes and 14 seconds and burnt 471 calories, all while listening to Phil Manzanera’s ‘801 Live’ album…which was okayish, but didn’t leave me with a desire to relisten to it.

Anyway, also during this fortnight I got ‘No Time To Die’ on DVD, at some point I plan to do a Craig Bond marathon to see how they stand me as a continuous story and how/if they fit in with the other Bond films…

…I also read ‘Wonder Woman: Dead Earth’, which was very enjoyable, ‘Rogue Trooper’ Vol. 5, which wasn’t, ‘Decorum’ #1 – 8, a enjoyable fun sci-fi epic:

…I also watched ‘A Cure For Wellness’, an enjoyable weird horror film, ‘The Matrix Resurrections’, on first watch it’s a big let down, ‘Broadcast Signal Intrusion’, a fun weird scary flick, ‘Murder Of A Cat’, a very enjoyable detective/coming of age story:

...‘Strange Days’, if it’s New Year’s Eve you’ve got to watch ‘Strange Days’, a great film, ‘Quatermass and the Pit’ and ‘The Quatermass Xperiment’, fine examples of that mad ‘50s/’60s Brit sci-fi weirdness, and  ‘Basic Instinct’, which has a much more solid detective/thriller story to it than I remember from when I saw it in the ‘90s…and the postman delivered ‘Feels So Good’ by Ma$e, which I got for the instrumental, a looping of a Kool and the Gang track, but the sample Puffy used as a scratch/jump in it!, so it sounds a bit weird (it’s masked by the rapping in the normal version) and Robotman’s ‘Doo De Doo – The Remixes’ single, chock full of acid goodness:

...‘Snowblind’, a fan novel of what MacReady got up to before he went to the Antarctica in ‘John Carpenter’s The Thing’:

...’Action Comics’ #577, a fun Superman and vampires tale:

...the ‘@0’ A mix by Coldcut and Mixmaster Morris, perfect horizontal listening music:

...and a book detailing the making of ‘Escape From New York’:

…and I picked up the latest ‘Shindig!’ magazine, mainly for the Spiritualized article and ‘Record Collector’, mostly for The Rolling Stones in the ‘80s feature:

…this fortnight’s New Comic Book Day gems:

…and a load of Lego magazines:

…and I did this weeks G2 Crosswords:

…and Monday’s crossword gets NYE/NYD week off to a meh start, the little grey cells were misfiring, and we had to cheat on nearly a quarter of the clues (four out of 18). Like I say the little grey cells just couldn’t get a grip on the clues. Like for ‘Juliet’s follower?’, we knew it referred to the NATO alphabet, but we got our alphabet mixed up and were trying to think of a four-letter L word! We went with lima and not ‘kilo’ <shaky head emoji> Or how we couldn’t get from ‘stealing’ to ‘larceny’, but we did learn that Limassol is in Cyprus and that ‘Minsk’ is the ‘capital of Belarus’…

…things are reversed with Tuesday’s grid, as we only had to cheat on one of the 19 clues. Maybe the little grey cells were embarrassed by yesterday’s effect and have bounced back. Either way they cruised through the clues like Ryan Gosling in Drive. Only stumbled when we couldn’t get ‘immobile’ from ‘still’…for a long time we thought ‘still’ referred to a brewing (or moonshine) still!...

…we might be on a roll as we only had to cheat on one of Wednesday’s 24 clues. The little grey cells are Supermaning it through the clues, with the only hint of kryptonite being not getting ‘unspoken’ from ‘tacit’, which we really should have got, especially as we had the intersecting letters…

…Thursday’s grid went almost as well, we had to cheat on a twelfth of the clues (two out of 23). I’m a little befuddled on how we couldn’t get ‘mystified’ from ‘bewildered’, but we did learn that ‘Burns’ wrote the poem Tam o’Shanter. All the bank holidays and working from home must be having a positive effect on the little grey cells…

…Friday’s grid went a tad wobbly, and we had to cheat on an eighth of the clues (three out of 25). I think the little grey cells were a bit unfocused as we missed three obvious ones (at least in hindsight!). For ‘food that may be tossed’ we got stuck thinking on salads and missed the obvious ‘pancakes’! And it was a similar thing with ‘frilly’ from ‘with decorative ruffles’ and ‘legacy’ from ‘something left (or left unfinished!)…

…and Saturday’ grid ends the week (and starts the New Year) on a pretty fine note as we only had to cheat on one of the 19 clues. The little grey cells steadied themselves after yesterday’s performance and pretty much smashed it. It would have been a clean sweep, except for ‘watering holes’ where we went with ‘taverna’ instead of ‘taverns’, we forgot that the answer had to be a plural! Hopeful it’s a sign of what the New Year will bring (the almost clean sweep, not the plurals things)…

…and I did this weeks G2 Crosswords:

…Monday’s crossword gets the new week/year off to a very solid start, as we only had to cheat on an eleventh of the clues (two out of 22). The little grey cells swarmed through the clues like killa bees! Looks like the healthy living - the walks and the free weights, along with the cutting out salt, sugar and carbs (or at least trying to) since early Dec - we’ve managed to do since the 1st is paying off. We only stumbled on not knowing that the ‘Indiaman’ was a ‘large sailing ship trading for the Est India Company before 1858’ (although we did guess that it started with India…) and that ‘scherzo’ means ‘(musically) fast movement in triple time’. Hopefully the rest of the week/year goes as smoothly…

…and things take a big tumble with Tuesday’s grid, as we had to cheat on a fifth if the clues (five out of 25). Maybe it was because it was our first day back in the office and the little grey cells were just worn out? Whatever the reason, we found this grid a tough nut to crack, and it cracked back! We missed a couple of easy ones and misread one, we didn’t get ‘drool’ from ‘slaver’, as we read it as referring to a slave owner! And we also learnt that ‘Marc’ is a ‘kind of brandy made from pressed grape skins’, that ‘Quadrille’ is a ‘traditional square dance for four or more couples’ and that ‘salacious’ means ‘bawdy’…

…things massively pick up with Wednesday’s grid, we only had to cheat on one of the 24 clues. The little grey cells have bounced back…but will it last (reader, it will not!!!). We only struggled on ‘how cows give birth’, as we got stuck thing on words to do with how baby cows are born and not the term to cover the entirety of the procedure – ‘calve’…

…and we’re back to tumbling with Thursday’s grid, we had to cheat on a sixth of the clues (four out of 24). I think the exertion of working in the office is exacerbating our symptoms, which in turns makes it harder to focus the mind. Probably why we leapt for ‘dainty’ from the clue ‘little’ and didn’t bother to consider the interconnecting letters if we had we would have gone for the actual answer of ‘dwarf’! But we did learn that ‘ormolu’ is ‘brass that looks like gold’, that ‘Colcannon’ is an ‘Irish dish of mashed potatoes and cabbage’ and that ‘Berlin’ was a ‘Russian-born American songwriter, d.1989’…

…we’re still tumbling with Friday’s grid, we had to cheat on a fifth of the clues (four out of 21). I defo put this down to us having over-exerting ourselves as our symptoms did flare up dramatically this evening. To such an extent that we couldn’t focus on much of anything and it’s a surprise that we did as well as we did. And we learnt that ‘humus’ is ‘partially decomposed organic material’, that the ‘Grebe’ is a ‘small aquatic bird that builds floating nests’ and that ‘ricotta’ is an ‘Italian curd cheese’…

…and, although we felt physical much better, Saturday’s grid also went poorly, as we had to cheat on a quarter of the clues (six out of 23)! Some of those quarter we should have got, like ‘germ’ from ‘bug’, but we did learn that a ‘vessel used when making soup’ is called a ‘stockpot’. Hopefully the weekend will allow the little grey cells to rest and recoup and next week’s grids will go better…