Days 3124 - 3144

Aka Monday 12th June - Sunday 2nd July 2023

Still catching up, so this’ll be a quicky. It was mostly the usual mixture of working during the week and recharging at the weekend, doing some exercise, pulling a muscle so I can’t exercise and back again. Enjoying time with friends, listening to music, reading, watching TV/films, the usual. Except that the Johnson report was, finally, officially released, quickly followed by Parliamentary debate on it, whihc was passed (with the usual suspects/idiots arguing that Johnson had done nothing wrong)… Like I said, the usual, in particular, I got some Morning Walks in, starting on the Tuesday 13th:

…which covered 4.56km in 55 minutes and 57 seconds, burning 429 calories and taking 6,058 steps. Next MW was on Sunday 18th, and it was v hot, not so much the temperature, as it’s pre-breakfast it’s relatively cool, but with the sun bearing down on one it takes a toll and does get a little ‘Ice Cold In Alex’:

…I covered 4.71km in 56 minutes and 24 seconds, burning 447 calories and taking 6,167 steps. The next MW was a week later on Sunday 25th, I started at 7.10am and it was already feeling v hot outside, with the sun shining through an unblemished sky. But the closer I got to the Thames Delta the cooler it got as the sea breeze got stronger and chilled one down. It was noticeable on the way back how, step by step, it felt hotter and hotter, the further one got from the river/sea. Anyway, the walk covered 4.65km in 57 minutes and 43 seconds, in 6,216 steps, which burnt 435 calories:

...the final MW was on Tuesday 27th:

…covering 4.74km in 6,240 steps and 57 minutes and 18 seconds, burning 448 calories. And that was it for MWs, has a had a slightly bad back, it’s only a twinge, but I don’t want to make it worse and set it off again, so I decided to rest up…while resting a picked up a tiny Lotto win:

…this month’s beautiful Kyle Starks Sticker Club stickers arrived:

…and it was another good few week’s for music, first up was ’Luke Una Presents E Soul Culture Volume 2’:

…a joyous collection of late-night/early -morning music, and next up was ’Slip-Disc – Dishoo’s Bombay London Grooves’:

….a groovy collection of ‘60s influenced Indian music and Indian influenced ‘60s music, followed by ‘Bleeps, Breaks + Bass’, which I haven’t followed listened to, but the songs I have a glorious bleepy, breaky and bassy, just superb, then there was a new version of the Jesus and Mary Chain playing Psychocandy ‘Live at Barrowlands’, which adds some non-Psychocandy tracks to the mix:

…the postman delivered this excellent looking album, ‘Richard Sen Presents Dream The Dream – UK Techno, House and Breakbeat 1990 – 1994:

…which I haven’t been able to listen to yet, but looks like a great companion to ‘Bleeps, Breaks + Bass’. And I also picked a CD version of Hack-Poet’s Guild’s ‘Blackletter Garland’:

…I also got some comic book gems:

…and I got myself some more Disney 100th Anniversary Lego Minifigures:

…basically, I want five of the dressed in white Day of the Dead troubadour, so I can line up them all artistic like…and I figure that I should be ebay the ones I don’t what and, at least, recoup what I spent on them…I also got the latest Lego Minecraft magazine, for this sweet Zombie (and Ninja and TNT machine:

…and I got the latest ‘Lego Batman’ Magazine, with a nice Cesar Romero Joker:

…got this month’s ‘Mojo’:

…which has a nice cover CD with some great songs on it, which nicely accompanies the article inside  on the Stax boxset of demos and unreleased songs, ‘Written in Their Soul: The Stax Songwriter Demos’ and a great tribute to Tina Turner, which has made me want to explore her older work, and the usual reviews, news, etc…and I did the first week’s G2 Crosswords:

…and we get the crossword week off to a grand start, as we only had to cheat on 4.55% of Monday’s clues (aka one out of 22). The little grey cells were on tip-top form and just powered through the clues, only getting stuck on not knowing that ‘Emile Zola’ was a ‘French novelist, who fought to clear the name of Alfred Dreyfus, d. 1902’. A pretty sweet start to the crossword week… 

…after yesterday’s sweet start to the week, Tuesday’s crossword takes things down a few notches. We had to cheat on 15.38% of the clues (otherwise known as four out of 26). I’d quibble about whether ‘scope’ is a good clue for ‘elbowroom’, but we did learn that ‘Laud’ means honour and is the surname of an Archbishop of Canterbury who was beheaded in 1645 and that ‘octavo’ is a ‘book or paper size’. Hopefully this is just a small wobble and the rest of the week goes better… 

…and Wednesday’s crossword went super goodly, we only had to cheat on 4.35% of the clues (aka one out of 23). Although in hindsight we should have gotten that clue and a clean sweep, ‘cos I’m not sure how we missed ‘novelty’ from ‘knick-knack – something new’. It feels super obvious now, but these things happen, maybe we were a tad sleepy or worn out from work and the little grey cells couldn’t make that leap from the clue to the answer…

…Thursday’s crossword went pretty well too, just not as well. We were a little sluggish in handling this grid and we had to cheat on 8.33% of the clues (two out of 24). I think that if the little grey cells had been on top form, we would have gotten a clean sweep. As in hindsight the two clues we didn’t get are obvious, although a little obscured in our daily lexicon, ‘epicentre’ from ‘where a crisis is most intense’ and ‘drear’ ‘depressing dull or repetitive’… 

…and Friday’s crossword continues the trend of almost getting a clean sweep! We only had to cheat on 4.76% of the clues (aka one out of 21). We just missed getting ‘courtly’ from ‘polite (in an old-fashioned way)’, instead we went for ‘civilly’, ah well, K Sera Sera. Aside from that very minor stumble, the little grey cells were on top form…but will we finish the crossword week on a high or a low…  

…and Saturday’s crossword ends the crossword week on a slight damp squib, as we had to cheat on 13.04% of the clues (a la three out of 23). Which normally isn’t bad, but the last few days, it does feel a tad poor form. Especially as we got all but the ending of ‘Plebeian’ (from ‘a common person (in ancient Rome), we just could get the ‘i’ and ‘n’ for some reason, which is v annoying, especially as it is super obvious in hindsight! Or ‘breathless’ from ‘excited – exhausted’! But we did learn that ‘Arak’ is a ‘strong liquor from fermented toddy palm sap or molasses’…and I did the second week’s G2 Crosswords:

…and we get another summery crossword week (it is trey hot this week!) off with a damn solid start, we only had to cheat on 9.52% of Monday’s clues (aka two out of 21). Although, I think, that with a bit more rest the little grey cells would have gotten ‘visceral’ from ‘instinctive and deeply felt’ and ‘acute’ from ‘keen’. Hopefully this means that we’ll have an excellent week, rather than a terrible week missing obvious answer…

…things pick up a notch with Tuesday’s crossword, as we only had to cheat on 4.35% of the clues (aka one out of 23). The little grey cells were on top-notch form today and smashed it out of the park, except for not knowing/learning that ‘bathos’ means ‘change from the sublime to the ridiculous?’, which is nice to know…

…and the damn solidness continues with Wednesday’s crossword, we dip down a tad, but nothing drastic, and we only had to cheat on 8.70% of the clues (also known as two out of 23). Nothing much to say really, just that we were let down by our poor geography knowledge, we didn’t get ‘Croatia’ from ‘Balkan country’ even though we had the intersecting letters! I just don’t know why we didn’t guess ‘Croatia’, it’s super-obvious! On the plus side we did learn that ’abnegate’ means ‘surrender – deny’…

…the damn solidness continues with Thursday’s crossword, we only had to cheat on 8.00% of the clues (a la two out of 25). The grid was a little bit chewy and we plumped for the wrong answer, ‘Erie’, for ‘Scottish or Irish Gaelic language’ and not ‘Erse’, which is v embarrassing. But we did learn that Frankincense and Mastic are types of ‘resin’, which is useful to know for future quizzing needs…

…and Friday’s crossword goes not that well, as we had to cheat on 14.29% of the clues (aka three out of 21). We just couldn’t get to grips with the grid, maybe if we’d wating half an hour or so the little grey cells would have been more awake, more alert, more on the ball. But we ground though the grid and we learnt that the ‘end of a watering can?’ is a ‘rose’ (although we might have guessed that as roses receive the water from a watering can) and that a ‘ballet duet’ is called a ‘pas de deux’…

…and we end this crossword week on a medium high, as we only had to cheat on 8.33% of Saturday’s clues (aka two out of 24). Not a clean sweep, but not a disaster, like we only got ‘morel’ from ‘edible mushroom’ because Poirot order’s some in ’78 film version of Death On The Nile. And we learnt that ‘rosin’ is an ‘extract from pines used to treat violin bows’…and I did the third week’s G2 Crosswords:

…and Monday’s crossword gets the crossword week kicked off in a v poor manner, as we had to cheat on 22.22% of the clues (also known as four out of 18). A v poor performance! I guess the little grey cells just weren’t rested after the weekend as we missed a couple of the answers by one letter (we couldn’t get ‘warbler’ from ‘blackcap or chiffchaff’ or ‘belated’ from ‘tardy’) and the others we just had no idea of the answer. So that means that we learnt that a ‘Breviary’ is a ‘priest’s service book’ and that ‘beryl’ relates to ‘aquamarine or emeralds, for instance’. Hopefully we’ve got all the bad performances out of the way…

…and things do improve a tad with Tuesday’s crossword, but only a tad! We had to cheat on 15.79% of the clues (or three out of 19). Better than yesterday, but my no means a good performance! We should have gotten ‘reception’ from ‘do for a happy couple, perhaps’ and ‘mislay’ from ‘lose’, but we just couldn’t make that cognitive leap. And we got foxed by ‘by legend, the first 12 ended here’, we thought that it might be about Greek gods (or maybe the Disciples), but we didn’t think of ‘Athens’! Not a good week so far…

…and Wednesday’s crossword gets us back on track as we only had to cheat on 8.33% of the clues (a la two out of 24). After a rough start to the week, the little grey cells are back on form and smashing through most of today’s grid. A tad annoyed that we didn’t get ‘fabled’ from ‘celebrated – legendary’, but we did learn that ‘gad’ means ‘wander, looking for a good time’, which is nice to know…

…and we’re heading back to terribleness with Thursday’s crossword, as we had to cheat on 13.04% of the clues (three out of 23). On the plus side, we learnt that ‘Piquet’ is a ‘card game for two’, on the negative side we didn’t get ‘inflate’ from ‘exaggerate – blow up’ or, and we are super annoyed about this as we come from a seaside town, ‘cockle’ from ‘edible mollusc with a ribbed shell’. Still super annoyed about not getting ‘cockle’…

…and we’re back on track with Friday’s crossword, as we only had to cheat on 4.00% of the clues (aka one out of 25). Finally, we’re back on track! The little grey cells smashed through all the clues, except for ‘oleaginous charm’ as we have no idea what oleaginous means (we now know that it means greasy) and there is no way that we would have gotten ‘unction’. So, pretty content with today’s performance…

…and we end a pretty dire crossword week on a not good, but not terrible note, as we had to cheat on 12.5% of Saturday’s clues (aka three out of 24). And those three, we had no knowledge of and couldn’t have guessed, so it was kinda a clean sweep of the answers we could get. Kinda. And we learnt that a ‘Beadle’ is a ‘minor parish official with ceremonial functions’, that ‘Ostia’ is a ‘port city of ancient Rome’ and that ‘Erebus’ is a ‘Greek God of Darkness – active volcano in Antarctica’. Glad to have this crossword week over with, hopefully next week’s crosswords go better…and I did a load of Metro cryptic crossword: