Days 3376 - 3389

Aka Monday 19th February to Sunday 3rd March 2024

This will be a quick recap, as I’m writing this in late November!!!

The big thing this fortnight was the absence of E, especially when the first and second week anniversaries came round. It feels very odd, I know that their new home is better for them, they’ll have two carers with them, a social worker, proper educational support, etc. But I miss them and I worry about what would happen if there was an accident or problem or if they hate it there, it’s going to take at least half a day to get to them (booking flights or trains, getting to the airport or train station, the journey time, etc). Just have to keep in mind that this is best for them and that I can call them and see them when I want (funds permitting)…the rest of the fortnight was pretty average fortnight, work, crosswords, comics, music, TV, films, Youtube, chilling with friends, etc. So, I got the latest ‘Mojo’, ‘Uncut’ and ‘Record Collector’:

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

…got the latest and greatest comics:

…and I got The Hanging Star’s album ‘Hollow Heart’ and the boxset of Carter USM’s ‘1992: The Love Album’:

…’Hollow Heart’ is a nice collection of bootgaze, ambiently county tunes, evoking the grand deserts of America (if I remember correctly) and ‘1992: The Love Album’, which I really liked when it first came out and it’ll be nice to revisit that time…and ‘In The Jingle Jangle Jungle’ arrived:

…which I’m really looking forward to reading, but they are plenty of books already on the ole reading pile!…and it was a mixed week for Morning Walks, too many times where either I was too tired to go out or it was too cold to go out for an hour, like at one point it was around -1c and I already had the start of a cold or a baby cold, blocked nose, tiredness and slightly sore throat, all the good stuff – and I don’t want to make it worse! But I did go out on the 26th February:

…and the 29th February:

…and I did pick up some merge Lotto winnings:

…and I did the first weeks’ worth of G2 Crosswords:

…and the latest crossword week gets off to an iffy start as we only solved 85.71% of the clues (a la 18 out of 21). Not a good performance, but two of the three, we had no idea what the answer could have been, not even enough to take a guess (so we learnt that ‘Wadi’ is a ‘bed remaining dry until the rainy season’ and that ‘vermicelli’ is ‘worm-like pasta’), the third, ‘I daresay’ from ‘probably’, just didn’t register right and we were thinking along the lines of mathematical probabilities, rather expressions. Ah, well, ces’t la vie and all that…

…and we’re back on familiar ground, as the little grey cells bounced back and solved 95.65% of the clues (a la 22 out of 23). Our only weak spot was not knowing that ‘mica’ is an ‘insulation mineral, as shiny silicate ‘…but not for future crosswords! It’s now been stored away…

…we stay on pretty damn solid form with Wednesday’s crossword. We solved 95.24% of the clues (aka 20 out of 21) in an easy peasy manner! Again, we stumbled on only one clue, being ‘a clear soup’, not knowing what a ‘consommé’ is, but it’s another word in the bank for future use…

…Thursday’s crossword was another straight-forward stroll through for the little grey cells. Solving 95.65% of the clues (also known as 22 out of 23) and missing one. This time we didn’t get ‘pseudo’ from ‘fake’, mostly as we associate pseudo with being OTT, over flowery or pompous, but, yeah, in hindsight it makes sense…

…we hit a tiny bump with Friday’s crossword and could only solve 91.30% of the clues (aka 21 out of 23). I guess we’ve had too good a time of it and had to come down at some point. And it’s only a little bump. Although we should have got ‘elite’ from ‘cream’, especially has we had the intersecting letters and v much dislike the answer to ‘nosy parker’, which was ‘voyeur’. I would argue that being a nosy parker is an active activity, while a voyeur is a passive activity, but the answers are the answers…

…and we end this crossword week on a damn fine note as the little grey cells solved 96.00% of the clues (a la 24 out of 25). The little grey cells were back on their form, the only cloud was that we forgot that ‘aplomb’ is a synonym for ‘composure’…roll on nest week!!!!!

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

…and Monday’s crossword gets this crossword week off to a damn solid start, we solved 91.67% of the 24 clues. And the two that we missed we didn’t the answers for them, which means that we learnt that a ‘Coypu’ is an ‘animal like a small beaver’ and that ‘Worsted’ is a ‘smooth yarn, from wool’. More words for the ole memory bank…

…and we suffer a massive catastrophe with Tuesday’s crossword, we could only solve 66.67% of the 18 clues! That means that we only solved 12 of them! A shocking performance. But it is tempered. As a big chunk of those six clues, we didn’t get were specialised terms – ‘azimuth’ from ‘horizon arc’ or ‘avoirdupois’ from ‘weight system’ and ‘meniscus’ from ‘curved surface of liquid, caused by surface tension’. We should have gotten ‘falsetto’ from ‘high voice’, but we did learn that ‘Vilnius’ is the ’capital of Lithuania’ and that ‘CH’ is the code for ‘Switzerland’. Hopefully we can quickly bounce back from this poor, poor performance…

…and we defo bounce back as the little grey cells got a clean sweep with Wednesday’s crossword! They strolled through 19 the clues without a care…

…and we’re still bouncing with Thursday’s crossword, as the little grey cells got another clean sweep! All 24 clues knocked out of the park, easy peasy…

…and there’s nothing much to say about Friday’s crossword, as the little grey cells got another clean sweep! The third in a row! A turkey!

…we went out last night and the little grey cells were a little the worse for wear and we could only solve 80.95% of the clues (aka 17 out of 21). It was a v chewy grid, not helping by the hangover, but we learnt that ‘Mazurka’ is a ‘Polish dance’, that the DRC used to be called Zaire and someone from there was called a ‘Zairean’, and that ‘Mangelwurzel’ is ‘vegetable as cattle feed’. Not the best end to the week, but we did get a turkey!!!!! …and I did the Metro Cryptic Crossword: