Days 3446 to 3480

Aka Monday 29^th April to Sunday 2^nd June 2024

…Monday 27^th May was a Bank Holiday, and I took advantage and didn’t do much, just mooched about, listened to the Penthouse album ‘My Idle Hands’, which has a Jon Spencer Blues Explosion vibe to it, that full throttle rock ‘n’ roll, black leather jackets and quiffs and bad attitudes vibe. But heavier. Although I think my favourite track was ‘The Pool At Blood Gilly’, which had a chilled, but edgy, Country vibe, a Murder Ballads vibe to it…which I only picked up because it was £1 for the promo album and I’d liked a remix the Lo-Fidelity Allstars had done of ‘White Coal’ (called ‘White Coal (The Lo Fi's Meet Penthouse At The Brain Farm)’) and a Kris Need’s remix of ‘Voyeur’s Blues’…and I’m glad I did pick up, a fun listen…I also watched some old episodes of ‘C.S.I.’, which were nice, not to much heavy thinking required, kinda perfect to have on while doing the crossword, checking what’s in the paper, organising lunch, that kinda thing…so a pretty by the books chilled Bank Holiday, which allows me to save some money for next week’s trip to Scotland (and to do an online check-in)…all I have to do now is check that my backpack isn’t too big and what to pack and to check what we’re allowed to take on planes nowadays, as it’s been like 15 years since I last flew anywhere…I also picked up a load of four-colour beauties:

…and some music magazines:

…and I got some great new music, including Stephen Clarke’s excellent KLF Bundle (of great mixes/audio documentaries of the KLF and inspired by the KLF and the SEM album (SEM is/was an alias used by Deadly Avenger for their more electro sounding music):

…I also picked up some Lotto winnings (first time in a while):

…it’s funny how, before payday, I didn’t have any luck with the Lotto, the best that I’d get would one number, but after payday I get a fiver! But it’s nice to have a little to tuck away, and at least I’ve got lunch covered, while another day’s winnings covers the bus fare for a day, etc...I also got the latest Lego Star War Magazine:

…and made a Lego Star Wars Stormtrooper Mecha:

…and this month’s Kyle Stark ‘Kyle Stark Sticker Club’ beautiful stickers arrived:

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

…and we get this fresh crossword week off to a damn solid start. The little grey cells solved 90.48% of the 21 clues. Those two clues we dropped, I think, in hindsight we should have gotten, but sometimes you just don’t make that connection. Sometimes you don’t get ‘orchid’ from ‘light purple’ and ‘fandango’ from ‘lively Spanish dance for two’ (although we have heard this word before, from the Queen song, but we didn’t know it was a dance…

…and Tuesday’s crossword was v chewy, v tricky and we were only able to solve 83.33% of the 24 clues. But we did learn a fun new word, ‘cavil’ which means to ‘quibble’, and some less fun ones – ‘veneer’ from ‘attractive appearance that covers true nature of feelings’, ‘marquetry’ from ‘technique where [veneers] are inlaid into wood, for decoration’ and ‘drupe’ from ‘stone fruit’. Hopeful this is just a small stumble and we’ll be back on track tomorrow…

…and we are back on track with Wednesday’s crossword as the little grey cells aced it! And solved all 18 clues in very much an easy-peasy style, Whoop! Whoop! But will this continue…

…and we’re back in the land of chewiness! We solved only 89.47% of the 19 clues, and although we learnt that a ‘trug’ is a ‘fruit basket’, we’re super annoyed that we missed ‘conundrum’ from ‘poser’! We knew that the clue was referring to a problem, but the little grey cells didn’t make the connection…

…and Friday’s crossword has us back from the land of chewiness and in the land of solidness. The little grey cells solved 91.67% of the 24 clues, missing just two. A little annoyed that we didn’t get ‘avatar’ from ‘manifestation of the abstract’, as we had the intersecting letters, but that clue just outfoxed us. And we still confused by ‘harrumph’ from ‘clearing of the throat’, surely that’s to esoteric as a clue, surely everything has a slightly different noise they make when clearing their throats, enough that you can’t generalise to just one word?...

…and the crossword week ends on a damn solid note, as the little grey cells pummelled through 91.30% of the 23 clues. We got outfoxed by ‘loose’, thinking about how things get loose and not in the social sense, if we had, we might have gotten ‘wanton’, but we did learn that the ‘Mazurka’ is a ‘folk dance’. A nice end to the crossword week…and we did the fifth quick cryptic crossword:

…which was super chewy, but the little grey cells managed to solve most of the clues…and I did the second week’s G2 Crosswords:

…and we get the crossword week off to a damn solid start, with the little grey cells solving 92.00% of the 25 clues (although we were helped by the lots of ‘up’s in the answers). Of the two clues we missed, we should have gotten ‘faking’ from ‘affecting’, but put we did learn that a ‘heap of grass’ can be called a ‘hayrick’ (we did get the hay part, but didn’t figure out the rick part). Let’s hope that the rest of the week goes as well, if not better…

…and Tuesday’s crossword was a tad chewy, but went pretty well as the little grey cells solved 91.67% of the 24 clues. We probably should have gotten the two clues we missed, maybe not ‘agent’ from ‘substance with a particular effect’, but defo ‘sombre’ from ‘dark, gloomy’, but still a good performance…

…and Wednesday’s crossword went damn solidly, as the little grey cells solved 95.45% of the 22 clues. We only stumbled on not knowing that ‘Penang’ is a ‘island of the north-west coast of Malaya’, which, due to our lack of geographical knowledge, is nice to know. Just got to hope that the it’s firmly locked away for the next time I need to know it…

…and things take a damn solid nosedive with Thursday’s crossword, as we could only solve 88.46% of the 26 clues. And it wasn’t even a tres, tres chewy grid. We missed two easy ones – ‘lurk’ from ‘view information on social media without posting anything’ and ‘imaginary’ from ‘non-existent’ – but we did learn that ‘frangible’ is synonym for ‘brittle’, which is nice to know…

…and things pick up with Friday’s crossword, the little grey cells are back on sparkling form and we solved 95.83% of the clues. Which was kinda a given, as this was a straight forward grid and we only got stuck on one clue, ‘ancient warship with three banks of oars on each side’, as we just didn’t know that the answer is ‘trireme’ (although we did get the tri from the three banks)…

…and we end this crossword week on a perfect note, as the little grey cells solved all 24 clues! A clean sweep, baby! I guess that we just had more time to focus, than on the working days, and could let the clues percolate for a little bit longer. And we did the quick cryptic, which went well:

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

…and we get the latest crossword week off to a solid start, as the little grey cells solved 90.48% of the 21 clues. They just missed two clues, one we defo should have gotten, ‘define’ from ‘offer the meaning of’, and one we didn’t know, which means that we learnt that a ‘dried meat patty’ is called a ‘rissole’, which is nice to know…

… and Tuesday’s crossword goes pretty well, we solved 91.30% of the 23 clues, in almost double lick time, only getting stumped on not knowing that a ‘Brae’ is a ‘Scottish hillside’, and being outfoxed by ‘not expressed’, where we should have gotten ‘unvoiced’, but still a solid performance…

…and the sweetness continues with Wednesday’s crossword, as the little grey cells solved 95.24% of the 21 clues. We only slipped up on not getting ‘rational’ from ‘logical, lucid’, which is slightly annoying, but sometimes you have a bit of a blindspot…

…Thursday’s crossword was a pretty straight forward one for the little grey cells. We solved 95.65% of the 23 clues. We only got stumped by ‘rotted organic component of soil’, not knowing that it’s called ‘Humus’, but at least it’s easy to remember and store away in the ole grey matter…

…and there’s not much to say about Friday’s crossword, as the little grey cells aced it! Solving all 23 clues in super quick time! Woot, woot!!! Roll on Saturday’s crossword…

…and Saturday’s crossword ends this crossword week on a solid, but not super-impressive note, as the little grey cells solved 92.00% of the 25 clues. They chomped through the majority of the clues, with just ‘stack’ being a particular problem, as we could reach the answer of ‘heap’, it just evaded us. And it was a similar thing with ‘smudge’ from ‘ink stain, perhaps’, we just couldn’t make that leap from the clue to the answer. And we did the quick cryptic, which went well:

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

…and this new crossword week gets off on the good foot, the little grey cells solved 90.48% of the 21. A pretty straight-forward grid to tackle, and we learnt two new words. The first that ‘Eigg’ is ‘one of the Inner Hebrides’ Small Isles’ and that ‘primogenitor’ is a synonym for ‘ancestor’, both of which are nice to know. But will the rest of the crossword week go as smoothly…

…and things do go better, as the little grey cells solved 95.83% of Tuesday’s 23 clues, so close to clean sweep!!! Again, our lack of geography knowledge got in the way, but it does mean that we learnt that the word for a ‘compact group of mountains’ is ‘massif’, which is cool, kinda like a funky way of saying massive…

…and things take a tumble with Wednesday’s crossword, as we could only solve 88.89% of the 18 clues. We missed what should have been an easy one, ‘maudlin’ from ‘foolishly sentimental’, and one we had no way of knowing the answer to, ‘caesura’ from ‘poetic or musical pause’, which is…poetic…

…and there’s not much to say about Thursday’s crossword as the little grey cells aced all 19 clues!!! Yeah, baby! A clean sweep…

…Friday’s crossword goes almost as well, with the little grey cells solving 95.83% of the 24 clues. We only dropped the ball by not getting ‘secreted’ from ‘hidden’. We even had the intersecting letters, but still couldn’t make the leap to ‘secreted’! Maybe the little grey cells were tired from yesterday’s clean sweep…

…and Saturday’s crossword brings this crossword week to a solid close, not spectacular or amazing, but good, as the little grey cells solved 91.30% of the 23 clues. Which was the best that we could do, as we didn’t know that ‘Yttrium’ is a ‘silvery metal, Y, used in radar technology and to strengthen some alloys’ and that ‘Le Havre’ is a ‘French port city at the mouth of the Seine’, which are both nice to know. And we did the quick cryptic, which went well:

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

…and Monday’s crossword is a tad chewy, it had a good few tricky clues that stumped us for a while and in the end we could only solve 88.00% of the 25 clues. Of the three we missed, ‘Miasma’, from ‘unhealthy atmosphere’, is the only word we had seen used before, and we might have gotten it, given more time. Or maybe, probably more likely, we wouldn’t have. At least we learnt that a ‘Scherzo’ is a ‘playful composition’ and that the ‘arm bones’ are the ‘radii’. Hopefully the rest of the crossword week will go better…

…and things remain the same with Tuesday’s crossword, as we could only solve 87.5% of the 24 clues. Although the three clues we missed, we didn’t know the answer to any of them and it was very unlikely that we could have guessed the answers. All of which means that we leant that ‘Shostakovich’ was the ‘Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk composer’, that ‘Sri Lanka’ was previously known as Ceylon, and that ‘Modena’ is a ‘city associated with balsamic vinegar’. All of which is now filed away for later use…

…things tick up a tad with Wednesday’s crossword, as we’re back in the nineties, but only just. The little grey cells solved 90.91% of the 22 clues. We did miss an (relatively) easy one, ‘Lutheran’ from ‘kind of Protestant’, but we did learn that the ‘sepal’ is ‘part of a calyx’…

…things keep ticking up with Thursday’s crossword, as the little grey cells solved 92.31% of the 26 clues, missing just two clues. Two easy as pie (in hindsight) clues! Like, how could I miss ‘somewhere’ from ‘unspecified location’ and ‘illogical’ from ‘devoid of coherence’. The little grey cells must have been very tired or distracted to not get a clean sweep…

…and things drop down a tad with Friday’s crossword, as the little grey cells could only solve 87.5% of the 24 clues. Of the three clues that we missed, we really should have gotten ‘acerbic’ from ‘harsh’ and ‘Dalai Lama’ from ‘Asian high priest’ (especially this last one, like how many Asian high priests are there!), but we did learn that a ‘roll or knot of hair’ is called a ‘chignon’, which is nice to know…

…and we end this crossword week on an okay note, as the little grey cells solved 91.67% of the 23 clues. Especially after our earlier performances this week! Kinda feels lucky to get into the nineties! And we learnt that ‘otiose’ means ‘lazy or purposeless’ and that ‘efface’ means ‘delete’, which I’m going to have to work into my everyday speech, although maybe it’d be a bit pretentious. And we did the quick cryptic, which went well:

...and these are the Metro’s Cryptic crosswords I did: