Days 2809 - 2815

Aka Monday 1st August - Sunday 7th August 2022

…well once again I’ve got very, very behind with this record, as I write it is the 28th December 2022! Behind enough that I have to include the year! So the next few entries will be big gallops through the remaining Summer and Autumn months…here we go!

So, for the vast majority of this week I’ve had a painful chest…not a massive pain, like an knife in the heart or an electric shock, more like a strained muscle, been punched in the chest kind of pain, but it’s lasted for most of this week and nothing I do or don’t do seems to relive it for long…if it was a symptom of anxiety then the Tory leadership contest certainly heaped its fair share on to the pile! It was such a long, long campaign of people who you wouldn’t trust to use scissors unsupervised telling a bigoted base what it wanted to hear. Nothing that would help this Country through the tough times ahead. Just the usual soundbites about refugees, benefit claimants, wokeness and other culture war nonsense, just anything to get the less than 200,000 Conservative Party members to vote for them. Just scum, scrambling in the muck for personal advancement, and no thought of what is best for the Country, just me and party first, second and third! Just Scum.

On a happier note my copy of Orbital’s ’30 (Something)’ arrived:

…and it’s good collection of tracks and remixes, but the new tracks don’t match or better the classic Orbital tracks, like ‘Halcyon+on+on’, ‘The Box’, etc, and the remixes don’t make the tracks soar any higher (in my eyes), but even when they are average Orbital are heads above most other bands. And it makes a great introduction to the band and a starting off point to do a deep dive into their back catalogue (which is stockpiled with classic songs and albums)…I also picked up this week’s New Comic Book Day delights, including the Kickstartered ‘Geezer’ about a fictitious Britpop band:

…and ‘For Whom The Cowbell Tolls’ arrived in the post:

…a making of/biography of the Beastie Boys ‘Paul's Boutique’ (and sequel to the authors 33 and 1/3 book about 'Paul's Boutique ), a super classic album that everyone should have in their collection. I also watched a few new things this week, first up was episode one of ‘he Netflix adaptation of 'The Sandman’:

…and it was…dry…Morpheus looks like a posh Tim-nice-but-dim…and I can’t get that out of my head and it completely removes any feeling of gravitas and grandeur from the story. I feel like maybe this story worked best as a comic in the ‘80s/’90s? I also watched ‘They/Them’:

…which is a slasher (hence the slash in the title? They Slash Them???) set at a “Gay Conversion Therapy” summer camp. And it’s a bit of a meh film, there’s a lot of potential, a good cast and story ideas, but it’s never fully realised or developed. It feels like the script needed one more pass to get the best out of it…and I watched ‘Prey’:

…which is a great ‘Predator’ film. It takes things back to basics – a Predator on the hunt, who is unknown to the humans, until their paths cross and they clash – and concentrates in telling it’s story. There’s no attempts to lever-in world-building or lay the ground work for future films (hello ‘The Predator’), ‘Prey’ just delivers an entertaining story and in doing so it naturally sets up possible future stories, but organically and not crowbarred in. Possibly the second best ‘Predator’ film…and I did tjhis week's G2 Crosswords:

…and Monday’s crossword gets the crossword week off to a damn solid start, as we only had to cheat on an eleventh of the clues (two out of 22). Physically we’re feeling dog-rough, but the little grey cells rested well over the weekend and have come out fighting We only stumbled on not getting ‘eschew’ from ‘avoid’ and we learnt that ‘tyro’ means ‘novice’. Like I said a damn solid start…

…Tuesday’s crossword goes even better, we only had to cheat on a thirteenth of the clues (two out of 26). The little grey cells are smashing it, knocking it out of the park, just zooming along, untroubled by gravity or friction. We should have gotten ‘linear’ from ‘progressive sequentially’, but we did learn that a ‘Sandpiper’ is a ‘shoreline bird’. Physically we feel knackered and worn down, with pains and aches, but the mind, the little grey cells are unaffected…but will this continue…

…and the good news continues with Wednesday’s crossword, as we only needed to cheat on a twelfth of the clues (two out of 24). The little grey cells zoomed through the clues like the Flash. We should have guess that ‘mute’ was the answer for ‘device that softens the tone of a wind instrument’ and we learnt that ‘Hosta’ is a ‘shade-loving plant with striking foliage, much enjoyed by slugs’…

…and Thursday’s crossword went terribly, terribly badly. I guess her physical ill-health caught up with the little grey cells and we had to cheat on nearly a third of the clues (seven out of 24). Spoiling the run of only having to cheat on two clues! A very. Very poor showing. Physically it’s been a long week, I’ve had chest pains, mostly in the centre, along the breast bone/sternum and upper abdomen, what felt like heart pains/angina, shortness of breath, tiredness and high levels of anxiety, and it’s finally taken a toll on the little grey cells! And we missed loads of obvious answers, like ‘lip’ from ‘backchat’ and ‘extravagant’ from ‘profligate’, but we did learn that ‘Tunisia’ was the ‘North African  country with the 2011 Jasmine revolution led to the Arab Spring’…hopefully today was just a blip and we’ll be back on form for the rest of the week…

…and things were back to normal with Friday’s crossword. We had a horrible morning, feeling v unwell, but by the afternoon I felt great (and by late evening I was back to feeling v  v unwell! A rollercoaster of a day!) and that’s when we did this crossword and we only had to cheat on a tenth of the clues (two out of 21). The little grey cells seem to have gotten over yesterday’s ill health and subsequent poor performance. And we learnt that the ‘ENSA’ aka the Entertainments National Service Association ‘put people in the spotlight during the second world war’ and that ‘buckram’ is a ‘cotton fabric stiffened with glue, used in bookbinding’…

…overall the crosswording week has been a good one, apart from Thursday’s dire performance, and Saturday’s crossword ends the week on an okay note. We did have to cheat on over a fifth of the clues (five out of 23), but that is an Illuminati score, which we haven’t had on a while (Hail Elvis, Eris and Lucifer). Most of the clues were a doddle for the little grey cells, but we came a cropper with not knowing that ‘love affairs, generally secret’ can be called ‘amours’ and we should have gotten or guessed the rest, like ‘blip’ from ‘temporary setback’ or ‘aspire’ from ‘aim (to do something)’…roll on next week, when we’re on leave from work, so can take our time with the grids, and have a GP appointment, so hopefully we can get to bottom of my ill-health… 

Days 2795 - 2808

Aka Monday 18th July - Sunday 31st July 2022

This fortnight was a bit of a mixed bag, the first half was spent working from home and trying to cope with the 40+ Heatwave and the second was spent on leave trying to recover from the excess heat. Yeah…Monday and Tuesday were really bad, just no escape from the heat, just crushing down on you. But, at least I was working from home and could dress appropriately and use/wear cold flannels to try to cool down. And even after the 40+ heat had dissipated we were still in the high 20s/early 30s and it took most of the rest of the week to get back to “normal” summer temps. And once the heat was back to more normal levels I was on leave, got my hair cut, caught up (a bit) with my reading, music listening and TV/film watching, which included the ‘The Bob’s Burger’s Movie’:

…which was great, as good as a normal episode of the ‘Bob’s Burgers’, but more epic, more dramatic, properly ramped up so this story does deserve being a movie. Our characters are pushed to their limits, playing off some that has been on the show, so there are high stakes at stake. Being movie length there’s room for the storylines to breathe and grow. And the animation is great, it hits the shows aesthetic but makes it cinematic. Such a great, fun and uplifting movie. I also watched ‘The Black Phone’:

…which is based on a short story by Joe Hill, about a child abductor and killer operating in the ‘70s, and a sister trying to find her brother. It looks great and has a great cast, but it feels a little slight, not padded exactly, but a little drawn out maybe? Maybe there’s a tad to much scene setting, showing the kids normal life of school and home which doesn’t create a sense of foreboding and dread and worry? It’s an enjoyable film, but you feels that there could be a bit more. And I watched ‘The Grey Man’:

…which has some great action scenes and a great cast and it’s obviously that a lot of work as gone into the film, but it feels very by the numbers, like they’ve watched loads of great action flicks and taking the best bits and stuck them together. Like, let’s take a bit of the Jason Bourne films, that plane scene from Tom Cruise’s ‘The Mummy’ and some more from the ‘Mission Impossible’ films and 'John Wick', etc. So it feels before like a greatest hits compilation than an unique piece of work. I also picked up ‘Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness’ and ‘The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent’ on DVD:

…both of which I’ve already seen, and enjoyed, but (a) the comic collector in me want’s a complete collection of the MCU films/DVDs, and (b) I want to see the deleted scenes that come with ‘The Unbearable Weight…’ DVD.

I picked up some great comics this fortnight:

…including the limited edition ’Old Dog’ ashcan, which includes the short story from 'Image!' #1 along with some background info for the series proper. I then got the latest ‘Mojo’:

…and it was a bit of a mixed bag for me this month. I primarily got it for the cover CD and because Dr John was mentioned on the front cover. The rest of the bands and singers mentioned on the cover – Bruce Springsteen, Blondie, Dexy’s, Joan Jett, Procol Harum and Burning Spear – I’m not bothered about, I’m not supper into. This month’s big article is on Bruce Springsteen, who I’ve never gotten in, always found a bit dry/nothing special, but the cover CD is collection of songs that he and the E Street Band have covered live and it’s a damn solid CD. It’s worth getting the magazine just for it. Highlights being Mitch Ryder & The Detroit Wheels ‘Devil With A Blue Dress On & Good Golly Miss Molly’, John Lee Hooker’s ‘Boom Boom’, Richard Berry and The Pharaohs ‘Have Love Will Travel’, Bo Diddley’s ‘Mona’, The Contours ‘Do You Love Me’, Chuck Berry’s ‘Bye Bye Johnny’ and Moon Mullican’s ‘Seven Nights To Rock’. There’s also a nice article on early Elvis and the photos taken by Alfred Wertheimer, and a short, three quarter page article on Dr John and his forthcoming country album. Although I felt a bit cheated, if the artist is mentioned on the cover you’d at least expect a couple of pages on them inside! And the latest ‘Uncut’:

…which covers Blondie, Kate Bush, The Kinks, Bowie, with the main feature on Wilco. But I picked it up for Cosey Fanni Tutti and Steve Hillage and the cover CD. The CD is an alternative version of Wilco’s ‘Yankee Hotel Foxtrot’ and it’s great and it’s inspired me to get the actual ‘Yankee Hotel Foxtrot’:

…and a digital copy of Jeff Tweedy’s (Wilco’s frontman) solo album, 'Together At Last’, as a couple of it’s songs were on the alternative ‘Yankee Hotel Foxtrot’. I had dismissed Wilco as hipster’s and generic alt/indie rock, but I was really impressed by the alternative ‘Yankee Hotel Foxtrot’ to explore more (maybe it’s an age thing and my inner indie kid has less sway!). And the “proper” ‘Yankee Hotel Foxtrot’ feels more traditional, less out-there, it’s still pretty damn good and I think I’ll be adding more Wilco albums to my collection. So, this month ‘Uncut’ has beaten ‘Mojo’ in the battle of the two rock n’ roll music magazines! I also picked up some meagre Lotto winnings:

Most annoyingly, especially in the heat, on Tuesday 26th July I accepted an offer on a book I had for sale on ebay and because I wouldn’t be near a post office for the next few days I posted it out on Tuesday afternoon. And that evening I got an email asking if they can withdraw their offer, which is annoying, but okay, I’ll be nice. So, I said okay, let’s cancel that order, but I’ve already posted it to you, so you’ll have to post it back to me and now (10th August), a fortnight later, I haven’t had a reply to that email or the book back, so now (10th August) I’ve got to go chase them and maybe get ebay involved! Some people are just dicks! More pleasurably I got a few CDs this fortnight, starting with Black Rebel Motorcycle Club’s ‘We’re All In Love’ single:

…which I got for the b-side ‘Abstract Dragon’ (which I could only find as part of a digital reissue of the album and this track was only available of you brought the whole album, and it was cheaper to get a second-hand copy of the single) and ‘Abstract Dragon’ is a nice 12 minute track that goes from your trad rock ‘n’ roll to something more chilled and folky. I also got the ‘Elvis’ film soundtrack:

…I’ve heard that the director Baz Luhrmann likes to make his soundtracks special and from the tracklisting it’s clear that attention has been made to the songs, to take well-known songs and make them new again, so should ne an interesting listen. I also got The Chemical Brothers ‘Dig Your Own Hole’ 25th Anniversary edition:

…which has a five extra previously unreleased tracks, which I’m sure will be a good listen, but it makes me wonder why there’s so few extras/bells n’ whistles, compared to the lavish anniversary edition of the ‘Surrender’ album, would be interesting to know the behind the scenes reasoning for these differences. But I’m sure I’ll enjoy the extra tracks and I already know that ‘Dig…’ is a great album…and I did this fortnight’s G2 Crosswords:

…and Monday’s crossword gets the week off to a poor start as we had to cheat on a fifth of the clues (four out of 21). And I’m not sure I can blame the heat for this poor start, yes we should have gotten ‘sixpence’ from ‘pre-decimal British coin, 40 to the pound’ and ‘attempt’ from ‘shot’, but we didn’t know that a ‘hopper’ is a ‘tapered container for loose bilk material such as grain’ or that ‘agog’ can mean ‘highly excited’. Hopefully it’s just a case of the little grey cells dusting off the weekendness…

…and things get even worse with Tuesday’s crossword! We had to cheat on a quarter of the clues (six out of 23), which I do put down to the near 40C heat. It really did wipe us out and there was no way the little grey cells could cope ☹. But we did learn that ‘curdle’ means to ‘turn from liquid to solid’, that a ‘Lycee’ is a ‘French state secondary school’, that ‘Bordeaux’ is a ‘port city on the Garonne in south-west France, a major wine capital’ (which we should have guessed at) and that ‘amity’ means ‘cordial relations’…

…and the disgraceful performance contains with Wednesday’s crossword, as we had to cheat on a fifth of the clues (five out of 23)! Again I think it’s the heat effecting the poor little grey cells, as we missed a couple of easy ones, like ‘common market’ from ‘free trade area with no tariffs’, but we did learn that ‘prosit’ is a ‘German toast’, that ‘Assam’ is a ‘black tea from north-east India’ and that ‘Tyrol’ is an ‘Austrian state, capital Innsbruck’…hopefully as the heat calms down we can get back to our normal crossword performance…

…the dire performance starts a very small improvement with Thursday’s crossword as we only had to cheat on a sixth of the clues (four out of 25) (and yes sixth is an improvement!!!). Again, we missed some easy ones, like ‘turbine’ from ‘rotary engine’ and ‘spry’ from ‘active (for one’s age?)’, but we did learn that a ‘chapeau’ is a ‘Parisian hat’, let’s hope this small improvement continues…

…and it does!!! We didn’t have to cheat on any of the 21 clues for Friday’s crossword, a clean sweep!!! It seems we’re on a week of high highs and low lows, what will tomorrow bring…

…Saturday’s crossword doesn’t go as well as yesterday nor as worse as the preceding days, we’re back to a usual score of cheating on an eighth of the clues (three out of 24). We should have gotten ‘plumage’ from ‘feathers’, but we did learn that ‘cedilla’ is a mark written under the letter c, especially in French, to show that it is pronounced like an s rather than a k and that ‘Pueblo’ is a ‘Native American village in the south-western United States’. Hopefully we’ll be back on track for next week’s crossword…

…and next Monday’s crossword went pretty badly, even worse than last week ☹ We had to cheat on nearly a third of the clues (five out of 18). I’m not sure why it went this badly, the heat isn’t overbearing, we’re off work so there’s none of that stress/pressure on our crosswording time. But we had been out for a bit of a walk and it did knacker us out a bit and we had a very minor anxiety attack or a prelude to an attack, which we were able to sail out, but it did leave us a little…on edge. So maybe that’s why we didn’t do well? Either way we learnt that ‘Pygmies’ are an ‘ethnic group in Equatorial Africa’, that if you are ‘unable to continue batting’ you can ‘retired hurt’ from a cricket match, and 76 trombones led the big parade. Hopefully this is just an outlier event and we’ll be back to crosswording excellence tomorrow…

…and we brilliantly bounce back with Tuesday’s crossword as we didn’t have to cheat on any of the nineteen clues! A clean sweep, after yesterday’s dire performance! I think we were helped by a break during doing the crossword (I had to pop out to get some shopping and to drop off a parcel at the Post Office) when there they just two clues left, which I wasn’t sure I would get, but a little time away and when I came back the answers were obvious and were just there! It has been a weird fortnight or so where it’s been feast or famine, either doing really well or doing terribly…

…and Wednesday’s crossword keeps up the bounce as we only had t cheat on a twelfth of the clues (two out of 24). Being on leave must be having a positive effect on the little grey cells…plus we don’t have to rush the grid, we can take a bit of extra time to dwell and consider what the answers may be. And we learnt that ‘Taiwan’ is a ‘republic of China’ and, somewhat on the nose, we failed to realise that ‘manifest’ was the answer to ‘obvious’!!! Fingers crossed that we keep up this standard for the rest of the week…

…and there’s not much to say about Thursday’s crossword, just that the little grey cells aced! Knocked it out of the park! Smashed it! We didn’t need to cheat on any of the 23 clues, sailing through in what felt like record time…

...and there’s not much to say about Friday’s crossword either, as it’s another clean sweep! The little grey cells are motoring on top form! Although with a little help from the anagrams, without them we wouldn’t have gotten a clean sweep…

…and Saturday’s crossword ends the week on a pretty damn fine note. It wasn’t a clean sweep like the last couple of days, but we only had to cheat on a twelfth of the clues (two out of 24). We only stumbled on not knowing that the triangular 22-storey, steel-framed structure on New York’s Fifth Avenue is called the Flatiron Building and not getting ‘tragic’ from ‘like Hamlet or Othello?’. But, aside from Monday, this was a pretty sweet crossword week and hopefully it’ll continue on for the next weeks…

Days 2781 - 2794

Aka Monday 4th July - Sunday 17th July 2022

A kinda miracle happened this fortnight, starting on Wednesday 6th July Cabinet Ministers started resigning! Thanks to Johnson’s ignoring/downplaying Pincher’s sexual misconduct, along with all the other misconduct and corruption, many Ministers and senior Government officials had had enough and resigned. With, I think a total of 54 ministers, ambassadors etc. actually left, which resulted in Johnson resigning on the 7th…kinda. 

He’s still Prime Minister and has said he will only go when the new Tory Leader is elected, which is a couple of months away. And who knows if he will go then! This is Johnson we’re talking about, and he’ll do whatever he can to keep as much power as possible. I wouldn’t be surprised if he tried to pull some trick! And now we’ve got weeks of leadership candidates competing to be elected leader, moving further and further away from reality and to the far right to appease the Tory party membership. Anyway, these are the comic book goodies I got this fortnight:

…I also got a few albums, starting with:

…a Link Wray compilation. Everyone knows the epic ‘Rumble’ and I thought it was time to explore further into the Link Wray universe. I also got:

…’Fell From The Sun’, which is a collection of laid back house music, as it says on the album “records that were made to accompany the sunrise; they slowed the pace on the dancefloor itself, right down to 98bpm. Woozy and hypnotic, this was the perfect post-club soundtrack”. And it’s a great compilation, with great tracks like Primal Scream’s ‘Higher Than The Sun (Higher Than The Orb)’, The Grid’s ‘Floatation’, One Dove’s ‘Fallen’, Transglobal Underground’s ‘Temple Head (Pacific Mix - Airwaves)’ and The Aloof’s ‘Never Get Out Of The Boat (The Flying Mix)’. A truly great collection of songs! ‘La Torre Ibiza Volumen Cuatro’, is the fourth in this series of collections of post-club/sunrise songs, which I haven’t listened to yet, but the previous albums were full of great clubby, but not clubby songs, songs for dancing too, but also to chilling too as the sun rises…and this month’s Kyle Starks Sticker Club stickers arrived:

…I also got the latest ‘Lego Star Wars’ magazine:

…with a version after Obi-Wan had had his revenge! And from Monday 11th July the hot weather started…and I don’t do well in hot weather…my blood is too thick for it and I get sluggish and worn out and done in, so instead of spending time out in the sun, it’s more spending time indoors with the air condition! Enjoying a few lunchtime drinks without get all sweaty and sticky. But the worst was to come as on Sunday 17th July the 40+ heatwave started!

And I did this fortnight’s G2 Crosswords:

…and the new crosswording week get’s off to a damn fine start as we only had to cheat on one of Monday’s 18 clues. We had a little stumble over not knowing that ‘censured’ can mean ‘rebuked formally’. But the rest of the clues were all dealt with and dispatched in rapid succession, roll on the rest of the week’s grids…

…Tuesday’s crossword goes just as well as Monday’s, we only had to cheat on one of the nineteen clues. We didn’t know that an ‘alcove by an open fire’ is called an ‘inglenook’. The rest of the clues mostly fell like tenpins, a couple with a bit chewy, but we got ‘em in the end…

…Wednesday’s crossword doesn’t go quite as well, we had to cheat on a twelfth of the clues (two out of 24). We did learn that the ‘shoulder blade’ is could a ‘scapula’, but didn’t get ‘minion’ from ‘servile dependent’…perhaps today’s political events (aka ministers resigning en masse throughout the day!) has distracted us a tad…

…Thursday’s crossword goes excellently as we didn’t have to cheat on any of the twenty-three clues. I guess the tangible air of change and improvement in the air has spurred the little greys on, and they aced today’s grid…

…and we bump down to Earth with Friday’s crossword as we had to cheat on a sixth of the clues (four out of 25). I guess that the little grey cells were burnt out after yesterday’s clean sweep. Aw well! And we did learn that a ‘fiefdom’ is ‘something controlled by a single dominant person’, that a ‘toper’ is a ‘lover of alcohol’, that an ‘epigram’ also called a ‘quip’ and that ‘retsina’ is a ‘Greek wine’…

…and we end the week on a sweet note as we only to cheat on a twelfth of Saturday’s crossword clues (two out of 24). We only stumbled on not knowing that Mahmoud Abbas is President of the Palestinian National Authority and not getting ‘ultimate’ from ‘finest of its kind’. Not a bad week…roll next week’s crosswords!!!

…and the new crossword week gets off to a damn fine start with Monday’s crossword, as we only had to cheat on an eleventh of the clues (two out of 22). The little grey cells strolled through the clues like it was a sunny day, we get a little stuck with ‘controversial hip-hop performer from the 1980s’, trying to think of a specific rapper, but we got a couple of the intersecting letters and then it all fell into place = ‘gangsta rapper’! And we learnt that a ’shashlik’ is a ‘mutton kebab’ and that s ‘saluki’ is a ‘tall, slender dog with a silky coat and large drooping ears’…

…and things seriously drop off with Tuesday’s crossword, as we had to cheat on nearly a sixth of the clues (four out of 26). The heat is starting to get to us…or more arcuately the lack of sleep caused by the heat has knackered the little grey cells and we just couldn’t get a proper grip on this grid. Like we missed ‘Moor’ from ‘African of mixed Arab and Berber descent’ and the clues ‘move in discomfort’ (for ‘squirm’) and ‘compelling need’ (for ‘motive) don’t feel quite right, like they are too far removed from the answer…or maybe I’m annoyed we didn’t get them! But we did learn that ‘Tuner’ was ‘the Fighting Temeraire artist’…

…and we’re back on top with Wednesday’s crossword, we only had to cheat on a twelfth of the clues (two out of 24). The little grey cells have bounced back from yesterday and trounced the clues today! Only stumbling on not knowing that an ‘ocarina’ is a ‘small wind instrument with finger holes’ and forgetting that ‘voracious’ is a synonym for ‘all-consuming’, maybe today’s crossword went better than yesterday’s because we did it at home and not during our lunch hour???...

…and Thursday's crossword went super-fine, and we only had to cheat on one of the 24 clues. We didn’t know that ‘Thomas Hardy’ wrote The Mayor of Casterbridge, looks like the little grey cells have well and truly bounced back…will they be a clean sweep by the end of the week?...there’s only one way to find out…

…Friday’s crossword went super swimmingly as we only had to cheat on one of the 21 clues. The little grey cells stormed through the clues and we only had trouble with not knowing that ‘Wesley’ was the surname of ‘18th-century clergyman brothers Charles and John’. I think the dip in temperature to something more temperate, more tolerable for those of us whose blood is too thick of the sun, give the little grey cells a bit of reprieve to focus on the clues…

…and the crossword week ends on a sour note with Saturday’s crossword, we had to cheat on a sixth of the clues (four out if 23). I think the week long hot weather has knackered the little grey cells and we couldn’t quite get to grips with the grid. I do wonder what will happen when we get the high 30/low 40 heatwave next week! We missed a couple of straight forward ones – ‘earthy’ from ‘crude’ and ‘vocalist’ from ‘singer’, but we did learn that ‘Midi’ is a ‘southern part of France’ and that ‘Ruhr’ is a ‘major industrial region of north-west Germany’…