Days 3334 - 3337

Aka Monday 8th January - Thursday 11th January 2024

…not much to say about these few days, work, not working, reading, listening to music, watching films, the ‘Blade of the Immortal’:

…a fun samurai –‘em-up! An immortal master samurai is hired by an orphan to get vengeance against the samurai who killed her parents. Laying the groundwork for a study on revenge and how it affects one, interspersed with glorious sword fights…and ‘Guerrilla: The Taking of Patty Hearst’:

…which tells the story of the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA), a left-wing revolutionary group formed in California in the ‘70s, and their kidnapping of Patty Hearst, granddaughter of the mutli-weathly and iconic American publishing magnate William Randolph Hearst. This is a fascinating insight into ‘70s hippie culture and how some in it went even further into armed resistance and murder and how one of American royalty was kidnapped and brainwashed into joining the SLA (or wilfully joined, demanding on who you believe) and what happened next. Both films are will worth watching. I also did the crossword’s, the Metro Cryptic Crossword (my training ground towards The Times Cryptic!): 

…which have been going quite well, but with a few uses of the hint button! But we’re getting there…and I did the G2 Crosswords:

…and we get the crossword week off to a pretty damn solid start, as solved 96.00% of Monday’s clues (aka 24 out of 25). The little grey cells are still motoring at top speed (more or less) and only stumbled on not knowing that ‘Machu Picchu’ is an ‘Inca Trail destination’…we had heard of Machu Picchu, but we could neither remember how to spell it or if it was an Inca Trail destination! But like I said a damn solid start to the week…

…and Tuesday’s crossword goes equally as well, we solved 95.83% of the clues (a la 23 out of 24). We were only stymied by our lack of knowledge of US folk music, which meant that we didn’t get ‘Grandma Moses’ from ‘US folk artist, d. 1961’ (although we did get Moses, due to the intersecting letters)…

…damn! Wednesday’s crossword was a chewy one! Took longer than normal, but we managed to solve 86.36% of the clues (or 19 out of 22), which is more than I thought we would! We got outfoxed by ‘lines’ and totally missed ‘queues’, we were thinking about writing lines, saying lines, red lines…but not queuing lines! But we did learn that ‘steak au poivre’ is a ‘peppery meat dish’ and that an ‘isthmus’ is a narrow connecting part/strip’…hopefully this is just a blip and we’ll be make to normal performance tomorrow…

…and we’re not back to normal performance as Thursday’s crossword is tres chewy, chewier than yesterday’s! The little grey cells had to work extra hard to solve the 88.46% of clues that they did solve (aka 23 out of 26). We almost got ‘Borzoi’ from ‘dog with long silky hair’ but could only remember the first three letters and that it has a z in it! But we did learn that a ‘papaya’ is a ‘large yellow fruit’ and that a ‘lutz’ is a ‘jump on ice’…and the postman delivered ‘Paklis’ #0:

…I’ve heard good things about ‘Paklis’ and what better jumping on point but #0! Although I haven’t read it yet…

Day 3333

Aka Sunday 7th January 2024

…went for a Morning Walk, it was pretty chilly, but it was good to be up early and out get some fresh air and steps in, 8,681 steps in total in one hour twenty-one minutes and 33 seconds (although this timing is off a tad as we had a toilet break 2/3s of the way through!), covering 6.38km and burning 600 calories:

…and the rest of Sunday was pretty chilled, during which I watched ‘Thanksgiving’:

…which is a pretty great spin on the standard slasher, at times it almost feels like a parody of a slasher, but it keeps things on the right side. The cast are good and aren’t cookie cut characters and the kills are brutal. A pretty perfect slasher…and I rewatched ‘Transporter 2’:

…which is great mix of story, OTT action and humour. V enjoyable!

Day 3332

Aka Saturday 6th January 2024

…today I visited my nephew, for the third time, and it felt kinda normal. I guess I’ve gotten used to it now, it’s no longer unknown and almost routine. The intercom only entry, doors be locked before the next is open and that odd hospital/bog-standard office feel. But it’s really good just to spend time with him. Now we’ve just got to wait for a residential place to become available, then he can move in and get started living his life. Just hope that it’s not too far away…when I got back the post man had delivered my new backpack and I watched ‘The Exorcist: Believer’:

…which does a nice job in building a feeling of dread, but the story is kinds by the numbers and does feel like it is setting up the rest of trilogy, rather than concentrating on telling a full story (on which future films can build on). There are some nice scares and it’s nice how there is a bringing together of different faiths/beliefs, how they tackle possessions and a desperation to try anything that might help. It’ll be interesting to see how the next two films continue this story…and I did today’s G2 Crossword:

…and Saturday’s crossword ends a mighty powerful crossword week on a perfect note, as we solved all 23 clues! An Illuminati clean sweep! Hail Eris! The little grey cells were on tip-top form and the clues could not hold them back! Roll on next week’s grids…

Days 3330 & 3331

Aka Thursday 4th January and Friday 5th January 2024

…couple of quiet days, working or chilling out, which included watching ‘Two-Lane Blacktop’:

…which is an odd film with very little plot, technically we’re watching Warren Oates racing James Taylor and Denis Wilson to Washington DC, but it more like we’ve been hitchhiking and these guys have picked us up and we get to see what they do for a few days and then we part company. Tres odd! I also rewatched the classic Hitchcock versions of ‘The Lady Vanishes’ and ‘The 39 Steps’:

…and on Friday I found someone’s phone (dropped in the gutter while getting out of a taxi) and returned it and they gave me a tenner:

…I did say that it wasn’t needed, but they insisted, which was tres nice…I also got the latest issue of ‘Uncut’:

…which from the cover didn’t have much to sell it to me, yeah there’s a bit about Liam Gallagher and John Squire working together, but the other articles weren’t for me (I’m not a Neil Young or Shane MacGowan or Beatles fan, but the cover CD caught my eye. A collection of songs to celebrate the 8oth birthday of Topic, one of the world’s oldest independent record labels. This CD focuses on Topic’s folk side and it’s a nice, pleasant listen, but none of the songs soared high enough for me to want to explore that artist/band’s catalogue…and I picked up these New Comic Book Day gems:

...I also picked up these collection of The Monkees albums:

...I've got a The Monkees best of and it's got some classic songs on it, a lot of them, so I decide to dive into their back catalogue…and then I did these two day’s G2 Crosswords:

…and Thursday’s crossword is the one to break our streak, as we only solved 94.74% of the clues (aka 18 out of 19)…which is still damn fine going! We failed to get ‘devote’ from ‘dedicate’, as we were stuck on dedicate in the memorial sense of the word! But we know now…

…and Friday's crossword went delightfully as, once again, we got a clean sweep! None of the 24 clues could withstand the little grey cells, their defences falling at the little grey cells! We’re back on from, but will this tip-top performance last till Saturday…and I did the Metro Cryptic crosswords:

Day 3329

Aka Wednesday 3rd January 2024

Today my copy of the anniversary reissue of The Bees’ ‘Sunshine Hit Me’ arrived:

…and it’s a great album and example of my fav “genre”, a trad indie drums, bass, guitar and vocals set up experimenting with other sounds and equipment (samplers, turntables, non-traditional, at least at the time, instrument) to create something new. Bands like the Bees, the Beta Band, Lo-Fidelity Allstars, Regular Fries, Delakota, Brothers In Sound, Orange Can. Like, The Bees used Latin, African and Jamaican sounds with a wide range of instruments to create a beautiful, sunny album that you can groove too and then chill too. Re-listening to it now certainly drove away the winter blues…and I watched ‘Bad Day For The Cut’:

…which wasn’t bad, but wasn’t great. It’s a revenge flick set in Ireland and, at times, does a great job setting a mood of restrained violence and dread, and there’s a nice undercurrent of repeating cycles and the need to break them. It hits a fair few of the gangster revenge cliches and gets a bit ho-hum, but you don’t feel like you’ve wasted time watching it. And I re-watched ‘The Scarlet Claw’:

…which is one of my favourite of the Basil Rathbone Sherlock Holmes films, about a demented murder taking revenge on those that wronged him, and it’s a fun romp with all the classic Holmes tropes, that feels like a hug, taking you back to those carefree Sunday afternoons. A defo comfort watch. And I did today’s Metro Cryptic Crossword:

…and today’s G2 Crossword:

…and Wednesday’s crossword continues the 2024 tradition of clean sweeps!!! Once again, the little grey cells smashed through the 18 clues, leaving answers in their wake! We this streak continue, let’s find out part 3…

Day 3328

Aka Tuesday 2nd January 2024

…and this morning I felt out of breath walking to the local shop to get my paper and the week’s shopping. I assume that the ole lungs weren’t used to me being so active in the last few days and it caught up with me. Or I’ve got a dodgy lung or two! I also felt v hungry, so maybe I was just run down and without the readily available energy reserves to help power me through? And then it was back to work (from home)…during which my copy of ‘Mu 2’ arrived:

…which is a great fan album of what an official sequel to The KLF's ‘MU' album would/could have sounded like. It covers a range of styles, from straight up pop to house to techno to chilled, and it’s available on Bandcamp, at name your price, so what are you waiting for!…and I did today’s G2 Crossword:

…and Tuesday’s crossword continues this year’s trend of excellence, as the little grey cells, once again, smashed all the clues, all 24 of them. No fuss, no mess!!! Can we make it three in a row? Let’s find out part 2…and I did the Metro’s cryptic crossword: