Days 3264 - 3291

Aka Monday 30th October - Sunday 26th November 2023

…I’m still catching up, so this will be v quick run through for this month. Pretty much a typical month/four week period. Work and the weekends and the occasional night (or afternoon) out and these bursts of joy and fun and distraction. Starting with picking up a Lego Star Wars Boba Fett Mecha (which I haven’t made yet) to go with the Darth Vader Mecha:

…I also got some more Lego Marvel minifigures (included a few too many duplicates):

…and the latest Lego Star Wars issue, for the sweet Yoda’s Jedi Starfighter:

…on Tuesday 31st October I went for a Morning Walk:

…which took one hour, 15 minutes and 15 seconds, covering 6.41km in 8,298 steps, burning 613 calories…next time out was Thursday 9th November:

…which took one hour, 17 minutes and ten seconds, covering 6.43km in 8,431 steps, burning 610 calories…next time out was Monday 13th November:

…which took one hour, 14 minutes and 43 seconds, covering 6.34km in 8,222 steps, burning 605 calories…next time out this month/four week period was Wednesday 15th November:

…which took one hour, 16 minutes and 30 seconds, covering 6.40km in 8,372 steps, burning 608 calories…and the last Morning Walk this month/four week period was on Monday 20th November 2023:

…which took one hour, 17 minutes and five seconds, covering 6.46km in 8,439 steps, burning 613 calories…also during this month/four week period I picked up some meagre Lottery winnings:

…got some great CDs:

…including the Yes single for the two 808 State remixes, which were mentioned in the Chemical Brothers biography ‘Paused in Cosmic Reflection’ as being highlights of early Chemical Brothers DJ sets and an inspiration and some old Death In Vegas singles for their b-sides/remixes…and got some four-colour beauties:

…the ever excellent Kyle Stark’s Sticker Club stickers arrived:

…I got some magazines, including the Electronic Sound focusing on Andrew Weatherall:

…and I got ‘Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part One’ (a great, fun flick) and ’23 Seconds To Eternity’ (the first official DVD collecting The KLF’s videos and films!!!):

…and as a treat to myself, after a hard week or so, I made a couple of my Bovril, honey, strong cheddar and cucumber toasted triple sandwiches, which are a delicious combo of savoury and sweet, and a can of fizzy rhubarb and apple:

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

…and we get the crossword week off to a pretty damn solid start, as we only had to cheat on 4.76% of Monday’s clues (a la one out of 21). We were super close to getting a clean sweep, but we got stuck on ‘male singers’ and totally forgot about ‘baritones’, but aside from that little blip, a damn good start to the crossword week…

…and its whoop whoops all round for Tuesday’s crossword as we didn’t have to cheat on any of the 24 clues! The little grey cells stormed through them, with no trouble! Hopefully, this is the first of many for this crossword week…

…and for the second day in a row, there is little to say, as the little grey cells smashed the grid and we didn’t have to cheat on any of the 18 clues! Another clean sweep! Can they keep this up for a third day, let’s find out…

…and the answer is no! No third clean sweep in a row I’m afraid, but things only dip down a tad, as we only had to cheat on 5.26% of the clues (aka one of the 19). We were tripped up by my poor geography knowledge, as we didn’t get ‘Belgrade’ from ‘Balkan capital’ (we went with ‘Belgrave’), but it’s in the ole memory bank now, so roll on tomorrow’s crossword… 

…and for the third time this week, we’re back in clean sweep land! The little grey cells did it again and chomped through the clues like Pac-Man through pills! No cheating on any of the 24 clues! Can we make it four times in one week with tomorrow’s crossword? Let’s go…

…and we end I very successful crossword on a slight down note, as we had to cheat on 8.70% of Saturday’s clues (a la two out of 23). Which isn’t a bad performance, but, compared to early in the week it isn’t great. I guess that the little grey cells were just a tad burnt out, but we did learn that a ‘Canton’ is a ‘political region in Switzerland’ and that ‘grandiloquent’ means ‘orotund’, which means “(of writing, style, or expression) pompous or pretentious” and “(of a person's voice) resonant and imposing”, which is grandiloquent to know!…and I did the second week’s G2 Crosswords:

…and we start this crossword week on a solid footing, as we only had to cheat on 8.70% of the clues (aka two out of 23). The little grey cells were a little sluggish from the weekend, but, once warmed up they powered through the majority of the clues. We only got stuck on not getting ‘psst’ from ‘listen!’ (which I’d argue isn’t the best clue to use as a psst doesn’t always mean listen), but we did learn that someone ‘from a sultanate’ can be an ‘Omani’ or rather, we learnt that Oman is a sultanate! Let’s see how the rest of the week goes…

…and Tuesday’s crossword goes a little to the dogs, as we had to cheat on 14.29% of the clues (a la three out of 21). Slightly annoyed that we didn’t get ‘yarmulke’ from ‘skullcap’, as we just couldn’t remember how it was spelt or pronounced, we just knew it started with a y and had a k, u and e in it! At least we know for next time! Also annoyed that we forgot that ‘finicky’ is a word and the answer to ‘particular’. We also learnt that that Managua is in Nicaragua, hopefully this is a bumpy start to a smooth crosswording week…

…and things do pick up with Wednesday’s crossword, as we only had to cheat on 4.35% of the clues (or one out of 23). Which is a good performance, but we really, really should have gotten a clean sweep, as we knew the answer, we just couldn’t hook it up with the clue, which was ‘ship – funny story to make friends’ and we just didn’t twig that the answer was ‘icebreaker’, ah well, onwards and upwards… 

…and there’s nothing much to say about Thursday’s crossword, after yesterday’s close call, we achieved a clean sweep! Whoop! Whoop! The little grey cells were on fired and smashed through the clues like they were rice paper, but will this great performance continue on for the rest of the week…

…and the great performance does continue with Friday’s crossword, except we didn’t get a clean sweep. This was a v chewy grid and for the first few moments I wasn’t sure if we were going to get any of the clues, but with perseverance we got to grips with the grid and only had to cheat on 8.00% of the clues (two out of 25). We learnt that ‘Timbuktu’ is a ‘city in Mali’ and that ‘accrue’ means to ‘receive (money) over time’…  

…and we end this crossword week on a down note, as we had to cheat on 13.04% of the clues (a la three out of 23).  Another chewy grid, that we couldn’t quite get to grips with. We forgot that ‘misnomer’ means an ‘inaccurate term’, but we did learn that ‘quelque chose’ means something or anything or ‘(French) trifle’ and that a ‘Tostada’ is a ‘fried tortilla dish’…and I did the third week’s G2 Crosswords:

…and we get the crossword week off on a damn solid start, we only had to cheat on 4.76% of the clues (aka one out of 21). The little grey cells smashed it, crushed the clues, except for ‘physician who discovered blood circulation, d. 1657’, who was ‘Harvey’, which is nice to know…

…and the damn solidness continues with Tuesday’s crossword, we just had to cheat on 4.17% of the clues (a la one out of 24). We nearly had a clean sweep, but we forgot that a ‘countenance’ is also known as a ‘visage’, but these things happen…

…and we nearly got a clean sweep with Wednesday’s crossword, but we did the cardinal sin of not checking to see if a possible answer fits in with the intersecting answers, so we missed two clues we should have got, so we cheated on 11.11% of the clues (or two out of 18). Was defo to quick and filled with too much hubris to assume that I’d gotten the answer and not worry about checking, but lesson learnt now…

…and Thursday’s crossword went a wee bit meh, we had to cheat on 10.53% of the clues (aka two out of 19, which isn’t that bad, but looks bad given the small down of clues!). On the positive side, we just needn’t know the answers to those two clues, so we learnt that a ‘Roue’ is a ‘dissolute fellow’ and that ‘Yoruba’ is a ‘Nigerian language’. So, while it looks like a rough performance, it was actually pretty good, all in all…

…and Friday’s crossword went pretty poorly, the little grey cells just couldn’t get a full grip of the grid and we had to cheat on 16.67% (a la four out of 24). We should have gotten ‘hacienda’ from ‘large ranch in Latin America’ and ‘vignette’ from ‘brief description or sketch’, but we did learn that ‘urbanity’ means ‘elegance of manner’ and that an’ Arboretum’ is a ‘botanical garden’. I guess after a fairly good few weeks, we were due some poor performances, but hopefully they are out of our system now!!! Roll on Saturday’s crossword…

…and we end the crossword week on a bit of a sour note. The little grey cells aced the majority of the clues, but there were a few that we just couldn’t figure out and we had to cheat on 13.04% of them (aka three out of 23). We should of gotten ‘Chekhov’ from ‘Russian playwright, d. 1904’ as he’s one of the few Russian playwrights I know! And I’d argue that ‘veered’, veering or to veer are to have ‘turned sharply’, to have turned yeah, bit not sharply, more like a drifting away. But we did learn that ‘hoick’ means to ‘lift abruptly’. A so-so performance this week…and I did the fourth week’s G2 Crosswords:

…and we start this crossword week on a bad foot as we had to cheat on 14.29% of the clues (aka three out of 21). I guess that the little grey cells were feeling a tad knackered after the weekend? Or the clues were too tricky! I mean, we should have gotten ‘opus’ from ‘musical work’ and we should have guessed ‘macaroni’ from ‘tubular pasta’ and we learn that ‘pervade’ is a synonym for ‘suffuse’. Hopefully, after this poor start, the little grey cells perk up and the rest of the week goes smoothly…

…and the little grey cells are still warming up with Tuesday’s crossword, as we had to cheat on 8.70% of the clues (a la two out of 23). A better performance, especially as we didn’t know or could have guessed at the answers – ‘ibid’ from ‘in the same place (in footnotes)’ and ‘iamb’ from ‘poet’s foot’ – but some of the other clues were chewier than they should have been…

…and there isn’t much to say about Wednesday’s crossword as the little grey cells were on fire and swept through all 21 clues with having to cheat! A clean sweep, baby! Roll on the rest of the week…

…and there’s not much to say about Thursday’s crossword, as the little grey cells aced the clues! Another clean sweep! The little grey cells smashed the 23 clues like they were made out of toast…

…again there is nothing to say about Friday’s crossword, as the little grey cells smashed it again, cracking all 23 clues, and we getting us a third clean sweep in a row! 

…Saturday’s crossword ends this crossword week on an absolute high flyer, as the little grey cells, for the fourth time this week, in a row! Got a clean sweep! None of the 25 clues proved to be a problem for the little grey cells! This is perhaps the best crossword week ever! What will happen next week…