Aka Monday 8th August to Sunday 4th September 2022
…as mentioned previously I’ve got very behind with this blog, so again this is going to be brief…at the start of the month I had a GP appointment, going over my symptoms and how they were affecting me. And I was prescribed beta-blockers on a trial basis to see if they (by dealing with the physical symptoms) would improve things. And they did for a little while, but the anxiety – the shakiness, worry, chest pains, etc – came back. So, at the second appointment to discuss the results of my blood tests (which were fine) and how the beta-blockers were going, we decided to stop the beta-blockers and try Sertraline (and as I write this on the 2nd January 2023, it’s been working pretty solidly, I feel much better, there’s still a small base level anxiety there, but most of the time is in the background and when it does raise up I find it easier to manage and deal with)…
…the other main issue this month was the heatwave. The temperature hit about 40 degrees Celsius in the UK, basically the highest temperature recorded in the UK since records began. And that wasn’t the worse of it. You could just about manage during the day, fans, air conditioners, cold wet flannels on the back of your neck, etc. But at night the temperature barley went down, or so it felt. So, even at midnight it was 20 – 30 degrees, just unbearable for sleeping, which then left you feeling done-in when you started the next day of 35+ degrees! Plus, you’re to sapped to eat properly or rest and then you no good for anything or anyone!
There was also an issue with pay running out to early. This month it was a real struggle to make it to the end of the month and still be able to afford to eat. I think I just miscalculated what I’d spent at the start of the month and it just caught up with me. I was still able to go about mostly as normal, and get stuff, but I was left to close to nothing, so I must make sure that I’ve got a buffer, so it doesn’t happened again…although I was still able to get these New Comic Book Day beauties:
…and I got the latest ‘Scream’ magazine:
…mostly for the article on ‘John Carpenter’s Vampires’ (such impulse buys may explain why I almost run out of money this month!). I also got a copy of DJ Shadow’s ‘Endtroducing…’:
…which I never got when it came out. There was so much good stuff coming out that it was easy to miss stuff and think well I’ll get that next week or month. And then it’s been 23 years! And it’s a great trip-hop/downbeat hip-hop album. Perfect to get lost in and daydream to. I also got it second-hand, showing some cost saving chops there! I also got the new Kasabian album ‘The Alchemist’s Euphoria’:
…which is okay, Some good songs in a electro-glam rock vein, but nothing special, nothing that stands out and matches some of their earlier (and in my eyes, better) work. I also watched a few things, including ‘Trainwreck Woodstock ‘99’:
…which was very weird. Weird to be looking back at late ‘90s and seeing what was going on in mainstream youth culture. Weird that what had started as a hippy festival in the ‘60s had gotten so corporate and showed no care about the audience. Not how they were going to eat, drink, wash, and sleep, but also in how they were going to be kept safe. It’s very much a guide to how not to run a festival. I’ve been watching ‘You, Me & The Movies’ watch the reimagined ‘Battlestar Galactica’ and it prompted me to do my own rewatch of ‘Battlestar…’, and it was as fun (and infuriating – there’s a few episodes which really drag!) as I remembered. I also continued watching ‘The Sandman’ (just episodes 2 and 3 of Season 1)…and it was still dry and Morpheus still looks like a posh Tim-nice-but-dim…and nothing feels like it is happening in real time, there’s no drama, no tension, it all feels like a flashback that is filling in the gaps rather than a story that is happening…I then watched ‘Scary Movie’:
…which has a large range of jokes from ‘clever’ to ‘stupid, but funny’ to ‘stupid and mean’ to ‘dodgy’ (these are mostly centred around the character Doofus, who has learning disabilities, and these jokes feel very much like punching down and took me out of the film completely) and it just chucks jokes out, like the Grouch Marx’s quote if you don’t like this joke there’s another five in a minute. But it did feels aged and I didn’t get all the reference (not sure if that’s a time thing or a cultural thing/not being American). And the ’The Rockford Files’ season one arrived:
…I’ve got really, really vague memories of seeing it once or twice when I was a young child, but I hadn’t seen an episode in like 35 years, and people say good things about ‘The Rockford Files’, so I though I’d dip my toe in the waters and it was an okay watch. The theme tune, the intro with the answerphone messages, the still photos and the central idea of a down on his luck P.I. is classic. But the episodes are hit and miss, we some soaring and some floundering. Sometimes the story is just a bit meh, sometimes it’s the acting/direction that lets it down. Basically, at the end of season one I didn’t feel like I’d wasted my time, but I wasn’t left with an urge, a need to watch any more…and the latest Kyle Starks Sticker Club stickers arrived:
…and don’t they look great. I also picked up some Lottery winnings:
…and as a coda to the last entry’s mention of politics the Metro had this as their front page:
…’PM attends meeting cover’, which just shows how much of a laughing stock Johnson had become. I can’t believe people still believe him and support him…and I did the first week’s G2 Crosswords:
…and Monday’s crossword goes pretty damn well, especially considering last week’s hiccups! We’re on leave, so there was a leisurely stroll to the shop to get the newspaper, only to find out that the papers hadn’t been delivered yet. So there was leisurely stroll back home and an hour or so later a second leisurely stroll back to the shop, the papers had been delivered and then a leisurely stroll back home and a leisurely doing of the crossword, in which we only had to cheat on a tenth of the clues (two out of 21). We only got stuck on not being able to work out that ‘penperson’ was a clue for ‘scribe’, which is obvious in hindsight, and not knowing that ‘Perugia’ is the ‘capital of Umbria, overlooking the Tiber’. And we did like the clue for 19 across, ‘Drake’s partner (4)’, we spent ages thinking about Francois Drake before we twigged that the answer was ‘duck’!...
…and Tuesday’s crossword goes a smidge better than yesterdays, as we only had to cheat on an eleventh of the clues (two out of 23). Although we should have done a bit better, we didn’t get ‘sword dance’ from ‘traditional Highland activity requiring weapons’, but we did get that the second word was dance, but couldn’t get the first word, sword, it just wasn’t there. But we did learn that ‘Medea’ was the ‘Princess who helped Jason get the Golden Fleece from her father’. Aside form those two the little grey cells just cruised through the clues, but will the rest of the week be as easy…
…and Wednesday’s crossword went pretty well, we only had to cheat on an eighth of the clues (three out of 23). Yep, pretty well, not great, but not dreadfully either, just okay. We did learn that a ‘Hidalgo’ is a ‘minor Spanish nobleman’ and that the ‘Indus’ is a ‘river that flows more than 3,000km from Tibet to its delta south of Karachi’…
…and Thursday’s crossword also goes pretty well, we only had to cheat on an eighth of the clues (three out of 25). Yeah, nothing spectacular, just good solid solving by the little grey cells. And we learnt that a ‘lath’ is the ‘wooden strip traditionally used to support plasterwork’ and a bend knot is a ‘type of knot used to join two ropes’…
…we’re defo in a new heatwave now (as declared by the Met Office for Thursday to, and including, Sunday) and I was worried that it would have a negative effect on the little grey cells, but things couldn’t be further from that as we didn’t have to cheat on any of the 21 clues for Friday’s crossword. This was probably helped by taking a break in-between starting and finishing the crossword. We knocked out the easy clues and then popped to the shops to do our food shop, which left the little grey cells to chew over the difficult clues, so when we got back, these tricky clues were easily dispatched by the little grey cells…
…and Saturday’s crossword ends the week on a damn strong note, we only had to cheat on one of the 24 clues. There were a few chewy clues, but the little grey cells were able to smash them all, except for not knowing that ‘fealty’ is an ‘old-style allegiance’. A pretty sweet crossword week this week, roll on next week…
…and I did the second 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 a ninth of the clues (two out of 18). The little grey cells were a little sluggish and I wonder if it’s a result of the beta-blockers I’ve been prescribed? We did miss ‘derision’ from ‘scornful mockery’ and we did learn that ‘marshal’ can mean guide…
…and Tuesday’s crossword continues the damn solid start, with is only having to cheat on a ninth of the clues (two out of 19). The little grey cells may be a little sluggish but are maintaining a strong level of crossword solving. We did learn that ‘Tisane’ is a ‘herbal tea’, but we weren’t able to get ‘skivvy’ from ‘what Cinderella was before she met her prince’, we were stuck on ‘sister’, ‘slave’, etc and didn’t think of ‘skivvy’, as it feel like sang/informal language…
…and our strong start has started to crumble as, for Wednesday’s crossword, we had to cheat on a sixth of the clues (four out of 24). The beta-blockers had worked fine for the first week of so, but I’m starting to feel a few side-effects, which I think are negatively affecting the little grey cells (at least a tad). But we did learn that Marie Curie was born in ‘Poland’, that ‘furbelow’ means ‘’frill – flounce’, and that ‘Euler’ is a ‘hugely influential Swiss mathematician, d. 1783’…
…and the crumbling continues with Thursday’s crossword, we had to cheat on over a fifth of the clues (five out of 23). Not a good performance, but like I’ve said before the little grey cells are feeling a mite sluggish and out of step. Like, we should have gotten ‘dodges’ from ‘cunning plans’ or ‘abroad’ from ‘out and about’, but we did learn that Nicola Benedetti is a Scottish-Italian violinist, that ‘stet’ is a ‘sign that an editor has had second thoughts?’ and that ‘animus’ means ‘hostile feeling’…we’re going to reduce the beta-blocker dosage, so hopefully we’ll feel a less sluggish…
…things perk up a tad…just a tad…with Friday’s crossword, we had to cheat on a sixth of the clues (four out of 25). The little grey cells still feel a bit sluggish, a bit hungover…like we missed ‘exhort’ from ‘spur on with cheers and shouts’, which we should have gotten, but we did learn that a ‘Toque’ is a ‘small round woman’s hat’ and that an ‘axiom’ is a ‘proposition assume to be self-evident’…
…and the crossword week ends on a damn fine note, we only had to cheat on one of the 24 clues! We didn’t know that ‘Negev’ is an ‘arid region of southern Israel’. Maybe reducing the beta-blocker dosage has worked and the little grey cells are feeling less sluggish…or today’s clues were easier! We’ll see with next week’s crosswords…
…and I did the third week’s G2 Crosswords:
…and Monday’s crossword gets the crossword week off to a stonking start, as we only had to cheat on an eleventh of the clues (two out of 22). The little grey cells mowed through the clues like a knife through butter, only hitting a snag with not knowing that a ‘diktat’ is a ‘policy declaration that must be obeyed’ and we really should have gotten ‘Etna’ from ‘explosive point for Sicily’, I guess we just didn’t think cryptically enough!!!...
…and the stonking start is solidified into a damn fine start with Tuesday’s crossword, as we didn’t have to cheat on any of the 26 clues! The little grey cells are certainly on a march! Not letting any clues get in their way…
…and things take a bit of a tumble with Wednesday’s crossword, as we had to cheat on an eighth of the clues (three out of 24). Not a bad outing, but obvs no where near as good as yesterday’s performance! We did get a little tricked by ‘Exe and Wye, say (but not Zed)’, where we got stuck on the alphabetness of X, Y and Z, so we missed that the Exe and Wye are ‘rivers’, but we did learn that ‘apricot’ is a shade of pink tinged with yellow’ (we had thought of it as more pink tinged with orange)…
…and Thursday’s crossword maintains the okayness from yesterday, as, again, we had to cheat on an eighth of the clues (three out of 24). I think the little grey cells are just a tad tired, and that’s why we missed ‘cry off’ from ‘pull out’, but we did learn that ‘Updike’ was a ‘Pulitzer prize-winning author of four ‘Rabbit’ novels, d.2009’ and that ‘Spenser’ is ‘the Faerie Queen poet’…
…and the okayness continues with Friday’s crossword, as we only had to cheat on a seventh of the clues (three out of 21). I think it’s just down to the little grey cells getting tired/worn out, as well should have gotten ‘backed’ from ‘endorsed’…although we did get ‘John Steinbeck’ from seemingly out of nowhere for ‘author of The Grapes Of Wrath’. I have heard of The Grapes…, but never read it, I didn’t know who wrote it, but the John fitted the first part of the answer and the first famous author called John that came to mind was John Steinbeck and voilà it was right. We also learnt that ‘grissini’ are ‘Italian breadsticks’ and that ‘unseemly’ is a synonym for ‘indecorous’…
…and Saturday’s crossword ends the crossword week on an okay note, we had to cheat on nearly an eighth of the clues (three out of 23), which isn’t too bad, not great, but not too bad. Slightly annoyed that we could think of every ‘gripping tool’ except for ‘pliers’!!! But we did learn that ‘byes’ are ‘cricketing extras; and that ‘Titian’ was/is a ‘Venetian painter – shade of red’…
…and I did the fourth week’s G2 Crosswords:
…and the new crossword week gets off to a tad of a rough start with Monday’s crossword. On our first pass we only got a handful of answers, and it looked like we would need to do a lot of cheating, but in the end we only had to cheat on a tenth of the clues (two out of 21). It just took a little longer than usual to do, but we got there in the end. And we learnt that an ‘early form of bicycle’ is a ‘velocipede’ and that ‘jocund’ means ‘mirthful’. Not a bad start to the week, let’s hope it continues…
…and the excellence continues with Tuesday’s crossword, as we only had to cheat on one of the 23 clues. The little grey cells just shoulder-barged their way through all the clues like they were paper cut-outs! And we learnt that ‘St Albans’ is a ‘Hertfordshire cathedral city’…
…the shoulder-barging continues with Wednesday’s crossword as we only had to cheat on a twelfth of the clues (two out of 23). And we learnt that a ‘Dabchick’ is a ‘little European grebe’…
…and things take a tumble with Thursday’s crossword, the shoulder-barging has defo been stopped, as we had to cheat on a sixth of the clues (four out of 25). It’s been a long week in the office and I think the little grey cells were just worn out and that’s why they struggled a bit with today’s clues. But we did learn that a ‘shako’ is a ‘plumed army cap’, that ‘obdurate’ means ‘stubbornly persistent’ and that ‘Advocaat’ is a ‘creamy liqueur made with eggs and brandy’…hopefully today is just a bump in the path of excellence…
…and things are back to normal with Friday’s crossword, as we only had to cheat on a tenth of the clues (two out of 21). The little grey cells have bounced back from yesterday’s slightly dismal performance, only stumbling on not knowing that ‘Kiribati’ is a ‘Pacific country of islands that spread north and south of the equator and east and west of the 180th meridian’ and that when you ‘winnow’ you ‘separate chaff from grain’…
…and we end the crossword week on an almost clean sweep! The little grey cells powered through the clues like a Pac-Man chomping through ghosts! Maybe it’s down to starting a new medication regime, which has reduced our anxiety and freed the little grey cells for better things? Anyway, the only reason we didn’t get a clean sweep was that we misread “central Vietnam’s largest city by population” as “central Venice’s largest city by population”! Otherwise we would have gotten ‘Da Nang’, like any kid that grown up during the ‘80s I’ve watched a lot of stuff related to the Vietnam war and Da Nang is as well know as New York City…
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