Days 3208 - 3235

Aka Monday 4th September - Sunday 1st October 2023

…and I’m still way behind with this diary, so this’ll be a quick run through, where possible. And I’m going to start with the worst thing part 2. Monday 4th and Tuesday 5th September were perhaps the hardest, most depressing days I have had in a v long time, as on Monday it was confirmed that my nephew would be sectioned on Tuesday and, like I said before, I just feel like I have totally let him down and was heart broken when he was taken away. I think the worst thing was that we couldn’t tell him what was going to happen. We were told not to tell him, as he would blame us, instead we should let the hospital staff do it, so that any blame would be put on them. So, no chance to have a final goodbye hug or anything. And that’s all I’m going to say as it’s still v emotionally raw, except that the hospital did decorate the inside of the ambulance with his fav things, to help him keep calm, and I’ve kept in email comms with him (as he doesn’t want to see us till he comes home)…okay now the horrible stuff is out of the way, the rest of the month was fine (except for the multiple occasions of tearfulness), starting with my Morning Walks. First wasn’t on Sunday 10th September because of the heatwave, it’s way too hot for exercise! Which feels odd as I’m writing this in mid-December and it’s flipping freezing! So, I didn’t go for a walk till Thursday 14th September:

…which covered 6.38km in one hour, 20 minutes and 37 seconds, burning 599 calories in 8,621 steps. Next walk was on Monday 18th September (I pushed back Sunday’s Morning Walk as I went out with friends on Saturday and felt trey rough on Sunday morning, defo a case of a few too many cocktails the day!):

…which covered 6.34km, burning 602 calories in one hour, 15 minutes and 42 seconds, taking 8,285 steps…it was good to be out and active, but tiring, I was almost ready to go back to bed when I got home, but work and a few free weights kept me awake…next walk was on Wednesday 20th September, thought that I had left early enough to miss the forecast rain showers, but I was wrong! Ten minutes in it started to spit, but that was okay, I could cope with that. But then it gotten heavier, not too bad, but enough that cars had to have their wipers on and I, dressed in shorts, polo shirt and hoodie, was getting wetter and wetter. I decided to end the walk early and avoid getting drenched and a cold. I popped into the shop to get my paper and by the time I got out the rain had stopped, but enough time had passed that I couldn’t restart the Walk and get to work on time! But at least I got a few steps in I guess. Next proper Morning Walk was on Sunday 24th September:

…which lasted one hour, fourteen minutes and 51 seconds, covering 6.31km in 8,216 steps, burning 600 calories…next up is Tuesday 26th September’s Morning Walk:

…which covered 6.34km in 8,335 steps, lasting one hour, sixteen minutes and 26 seconds and burnt 601 minutes. And the last Morning Walk this month was on Thursday 28th September (during which I had an argument with a dog walker/owner as they let their dog lick my legs! That’s not just on!):

…which lasted 8,293 steps, covering 6.28km in one hour, sixteen minutes and 17 seconds and burning 593 calories. There was no Morning Walk on Sunday 1st October, as the last weather forecast I had seen had this Sunday as a day of heavy showers, so I decided I wouldn’t walk in the rain and would have a lie-in instead…except when I woke up it was a bright and sunny morning day! But it was too late then, as I was already in chilling mode and we were well into the day…other good stuff that happened is that I got sent a lovely and free Oracle Sound t-shirt from Richard Norris (as I’m a subscriber to his Bandcamp page):

…I had a nice boozy late lunch with some friends on Saturday 16th September, during which I had a few too many cocktails and a lovely sausage sandwich of focaccia bread and a great ketchup/sauce, which about a week later I made my own version of:

…and I got some great albums from Matt Hollywood (Matt Hollywood & the Bad Feelings - Self Titled, Rebel Drones - Abusing The System, The Out Crowd - Then I Saw The Holy City and the singles Blinded and Miss June ‘75) and Joel Gion (Joel Gion):

…both ex/back with The Brian Jonestown Massacre, both mining that ‘60s but modern rock ‘n’ roll vein, with Matt on the rocker side and Joel on the more jingle jangle side and both excellent! Fine additions to my BJM collection. I also got ‘Colleen Cosmo Murphy Presents Balearic Breakfast’:

…which I haven’t listened to yet, but from the reviews and track listing should be great, and I assume will sound like a companion to ’We Are The Children Of The Setting Sun’:

…which is chock full of laid back blissfulness and Balearic charm. I got the latest Chemical Brothers album, ‘For That Beautiful Feeling’, in USB form (as it has extra tracks and a bonus, only available here chapter from their forthcoming book):

…and it’s your typical Chemical Brothers album, big and quiet, full on and relaxed electronic music. It feels like the natural evolution of The Chemical Brothers sound, it’s techno and house and ambient and hip-hop and more, but not…it’s The Chemical Brothers sound…I got a second hand copy of the DJ Krush single, ‘Meiso’:

…from the prime Mo’Wax days and it’s a joyous laid back hip-hop treat. I also got The Orb and David Gilmour’s ‘Metallic Spheres In Colour’ and Setting’s ‘Shone A Rainbow Light On’:

…both are prime examples ambient beauty, one classic ambient house of the Orbs heyday, and the other classic bootgaze. I also got this ‘The Incredible String Band’ set:

…which I haven’t listened to yet and got Dr John’s ‘The Montreux Years’:

…which has some sublime piano based rock ‘n’ roll. Also, this month’s Kyle Starks Sticker Club stickers arrived, and how beautiful they look:

…and us we’re talking about beautiful art, here’s a sweet Jaws mural:

…I also got ’Spider-Man, Across the Spider-Verse’:

…which is almost as great as the first film…and I got these New Comic Book Day beauties:

…got the latest ‘Empire’, ‘Uncut’ and the latest ‘Mojo’:

…and I got the latest Lego Minecraft and Lego Star Wars magazines:

…and I got some books:

…the latest Mick Herron, ‘The Secret Hours’, which isn’t part of the Slow Horses series, but, from reviews I’ve read, may share some characters, the new Chuck Palahniuk, ‘Not Forever, But For Now’, which should be an engrossing read, and the new novel from Sara Pascoe, ‘Weirdo’ (I greatly enjoyed Ms Pascoe’s non-fiction books and all the reviews I’ve read suggest that this will be a great read):

…and I picked up some meagre Lottery wins:

…and I did the first week’s G2 Crosswords:

…and we get the crossword week off with a slightly unsteady start with Monday’s crossword, as we had to cheat on 13.64% of the clues (three out of 22). Not the best of starts, but not the worst, especially as our fishing and river knowledge is poor! We learnt that the ‘Tweed’ is a ‘salmon fishing river rising in the Scottish Broders and flowing into the North Sea at Berwick in Northumberland’, that the ‘Test’ is a ‘trout fishing river in Hampshire flowing into Southampton Water’ and that ‘endmost’ is another word for ‘final’. Hopefully the rest of the week will go better…

…and we’re back on track with Tuesday’s crossword, we only had to cheat on 3.85% of the clues (aka one out of 26). A pretty damn good performance! We only got stuck on ‘grilled “sur l’herbe”?’, due to our poor knowledge of French, otherwise we probably would of gotten the answer ‘barbecued’, but a damn solid performance…

…and the damn solid performance continues with Wednesday’s crossword, as we only had to cheat on 4.17% of the clues (a la one out of 24). After an unsteady start, the little grey cells are back on track…although we did miss ‘Proust’ from ‘French novelist Marcel, d. 1922’, which should have been tots obvious! C’est la vie, I guess…

…yep, the damn solidness continues with Thursday’s crossword! We only had to cheat on 4.17% of the clues (a la one out of 24). The little grey cells are just bombing along, knocking out clues like Tyson! Except for ‘device attached to a Bunsen burner, for example’, we got the first part ‘gas ___’, but just couldn’t make the leap to ‘gas tap’! We thought of everything else, like hose, pipe, etc, but nothing thought of tap!!! Again, c’est la vie, I guess…

…and the little grey cells continue to smash through the clues with Friday’s crossword, as we only had to cheat on 4.76% of the clues (one out of 21). Although this should have been a clean sweep, but we got stumped by ‘distinctive atmosphere or aura’, even though we had the first letter, due to an intersecting answer, we didn’t get ‘vibe’, which is annoying…

…and we end this crossword week on a down note, as we had a terrible performance and had to cheat on 21.74% of the clues (aka the Illuminati score of five out of 23)!!!!! We just couldn’t get to grips with the grid, maybe the little grey cells had burnt themselves out? But it is kinda poetic, with the start and end going poorly and the middle going superbly! But we did learn that ‘Zambians’ are ‘natives of Lusaka’, that ‘for the time being (Latin/abbr)’ is ‘pro tem’, that ‘Zanzibar’ is an ‘autonomous archipelago off the East African coast, part of Tanzania’ and that ‘stratify’ means to ‘arrange in layers’…

…and I did the second week’s G2 Crosswords:

,,,and we kickstart the crossword week in grand fashion! We only had to cheat on 4.76% of Monday’s clues (aka one out of 21). A damn fine solid start. The little grey cells only stumbled on not getting ‘namely’ from ‘to wit’, which, in hindsight, we should have gotten. Must have been a touch rusty after the weekend…

…the damn solidness continues with Tuesday’s crossword, as we only had to cheat on 8.70% of the clues (a la two out of 23). Again we missed an easy one for unknown reasons, ‘siege’ from ‘military blockage’ (we really should have gotten this!), but we did learn that ‘la Fontaine’ was a ‘French fabulist, d.1695’ and we should explore what they wrote…

…and we’re back in damn fine solidness land with Wednesday’s crossword, only had to cheat on 4.35% of the clues (one out of 23). We were only let down by our lack of part games knowledge, which meant that we didn’t get ‘Consequences’ from ‘party game with writing on paper that gets folded’. We thought that they were referring to the game where you draw part of an animal/beast, fold it under, and the next person draws the second part, folds it and passes it on, and so on until you have a weird creature…

…and we dip down very slightly with Thursday’s crossword to damn solid ground, as we had to cheat on 8.00% of the clues (otherwise known as the v respectable two out 25). What’s annoying through, is with hindsight, we should have gotten a clean sweep, as we should have been able to work out ‘cute’ from ‘sweet’ and ‘comprise’ from ‘consist of’, but the rest of the clues came damn easy to the little grey cells…

…and everything aligns for Friday’s crossword as we didn’t have to cheat on any of the 21 clues! The little grey cells just powered through clues like hot water through ice…

…and Saturday’s crossword ends these crossword week on a damn solid notes, as we only had to cheat on 8.33% of the clues (also known as two out of 24). Which isn’t bad going! We should have gotten ‘bravura’ from ‘showy technical skill’, but we did learn that ‘Bellini’ was an ‘Italian composer, d. 1835’. A nicely relaxing and unwinding grid to start Saturday with… 

…and I did the third week’s G2 Crosswords:

…and there’s not much to say about Monday’s crossword as the little grey cells smashed it! A total clean sweep! We didn’t have to cheat on any of the 18 clues…but will the rest of the week’s crosswords be as easy to solve…

…Tuesday’s crossword doesn’t go quite as well as yesterday’s, but it’s still a damn fine performance, as we only had to cheat on 5.26% of the clues (one out of 19). Again, the little grey cells smashed the clues, with us only getting stuck on not knowing that ‘Zinfandel’ is a ‘California dry red wine’ (always more of a spirit drinker and not the grape!)…   

…which went a tad worse than yesterday’s crossword, as we had to cheat on 8.33% of Wednesday’s clues (aka 2 out 24). We failed to remember that ‘ascribe’ can mean ‘attribute’, but, we defo did not know that ‘Draw’ is a ‘source of old west African metal plaques and statures, many still held in the British Museum’, so it was almost a clean sweep! Kinda…

…and the little grey cells almost smashed Thursday’s crossword, as we only had to cheat on 4.35% of the clues (one out of 23). And we are dismayed that we missed a clean sweep by not getting ‘dismayed’ from ‘crestfallen’! We just couldn’t see it, but that’s only a small smudge on a great performance…

…and things finally crash down with Friday’s crossword, as we had to cheat on 12.0% of the clues (a la three out of 25). A poor performance, especially after a smashing first four days of this crossword week. Especially as we should have gotten those three, defo should have gotten ‘smorgasbord’ from ‘buffet-style meal’, or ‘odious’ from ‘repulsive’, or, finally, ‘thanks’ from ‘cheers’. But, I guess the little grey cells were just a wee bit weary after a great crossword week…

…and we end the crossword week on a damn fine solid note. We only had to cheat on 4.17% of the clues (aka one out of 24)! The little grey cells have recovered from yesterday’s stumble and are back on form. And we learnt that ‘turn turtle’ means to ‘capsize’, which, maybe we could have guessed, with a bit more lateral thinking. All in all, a great crossword week, but what will next week be like…

…and I did the fourth 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 the clues (aka one out of 22). The little grey cells were rested after the weekend and just smashed through the clues, like a red soft drink through a wall! And we learnt that an ‘ell’ is an ‘Old English measure of length for textiles’, which is nice…

…things take a tumble with Tuesday’s crossword, the little grey cells didn’t smash through the clues this time and we had to cheat on 11.54% (a la three out of 26). But we did learn that whirl can be spelt ‘whir’, when it’s the ‘sound of something going round’ and that the ‘Knot’ is a ‘stocky sandpiper that migrates in winter to the UK from it’s Arctic breeding grounds’. However, we are annoyed that we didn’t get ‘vortex’ from ’powerful circular current’, esp as it’s so obvious in hindsight…

…and the tumbling continues with Wednesday’s crossword! We had to cheat on 20.83% of the clues (otherwise known as five out of 24)! We just couldn’t get to grips with the grid and we missed some easy ones, like ‘jackpot’ from ‘big win!’ or ‘jiffy’ from ‘moment’! But we did learn that the Atacama is a ‘desert’, that ‘Tomsk’ is a ‘Serbian city, founded by Tsar Boris Godunov in 1604’ and that a ‘Kulak’ is a ‘prosperous peasant farmer in pre-Stalinist Russia’. Hopefully this is the end of poor performances for this week… 

…and Thursday’s crossword completely reverses the tumbling, as we didn’t have to cheat on any of the 24 clues! Other a couple of bad days, the little grey cells pulled out a clean sweep! Hopefully this means that we’re back on track…

…and we continue to be on damn fine performance with Friday’s crossword. We only had to cheat on 4.76% of the clues (a la one out of 21), although, in hindsight, we should have gotten that one clue. We should have gotten ‘pardon’ from ‘absolve – condone’. Aside from that, a damn fine performance by the little grey cells…

…and we end the crossword week on a poor, scrappy note, as we had to cheat on 30.43% of the clues (seven out of 23)! A terrible performance, like earlier in the week, we just couldn’t get to grips with the grid and we stumbled like a drunk man after closing time! But we did learn that a ‘Red Guard’ was a ‘member of a radical Chinese youth movement endorsed by Chairman Mao in 1966’ (although we should have been able to guess this!), that ‘sago’ is ‘powered starch’ and that a ‘table d'hote’ is a ‘fixed-price menu with limited choices’. Hopefully this week has gotten rid of our poor performances! Roll next week’s crosswords…and I did loads of Metro Cryptic crosswords: