Days 3481 - 3508

Aka Monday 3rd June to Sunday 30th June 2024

Right, Monday 3rd was my first visit to my niece. It was a very early start for me, up at 5am to catch the 6.30am bus to Stansted to get a 11.55am flight to Edinburgh. Before getting on the plane my biggest worry was if I'd be able to sit comfortably in the seat and use the belt without needing an extension, but that was fine and I needn’t of worried. But then another worry crept in...it's been a good ten years since I last flew and I couldn’t remember if I was a good flyer or not. And I'm not! But not totally, full on Shatter, just holding myself muttering that it'll be okay, the scene from Fight Club going through my mind. Calm like Hindu cows. I did have a book with me, but I just couldn’t focus on it and I ended up wondering what section I'd in if we crashed in a Lost stylee. And would I be a Jack, a Charlie or a Locke if we did crash. And word association took me straight to Lockerbie, but nuff said. And occasionally I'd hold my book in lieu of anything more substantial to cling to. But the flight was over before I knew it, no vomiting, no freak out. Calm like a Hindu cow. It took a little while to disembark, but I was soon out and meeting up with my niece. Then it was a short drive to theirs and a relaxing time in the garden and catching up and just being with them. And then two day’s later, I’m flying (and busing) back home, still a bit nervous, annoyed about the two hours of delay, but reassured that they are in good hands and settling in. During this I read, and finished, ‘The Last’:

…which was an engrossing read, a tale of the end of the world with a dash of Christie county-house murders. A proper page turner. And when I finally got hour godly time of like 11.30pm and found that my copy of ‘Down to the Sea and Back Volume Tres’ arrived:

…a great compilation of chilled and Balearic music, and some comics arrived, which added to my New Comic Book Day hauls for the month:

Nothing else major happened this month, it started t get hotter, my back played up a few times…I picked up some meagre Lottery winnings this month:

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

… I got the latest ‘Mojo’:

…and it was okay. The cover CD (of Stevie Nicks and Fleetwood Mac covers) was the main attraction, but it turned out to be mostly just okay, not great, but okay, listenable, but nothing that made me want to dive into an artist or bands back catalogue, although ‘Station Man’ covered by Rich Robinson, Deniz Tek’s cover of ‘Oh Well’ and Jonathan Wilson’s cover of ‘Angel’ (not the ‘Angel’ from ‘Tusk’, the other ‘Angel’) were pretty damn good), but there were also nice articles about Leadbelly and War (which has made me want to explore their music more, see what else there is aside from ‘Low Rider’), and tributes/obits for Dennis Thompson (from the MC5) and Steve Albini, and the reviews and news sections…I got a little bit of Lego, in the form of the latest Lego Star Wars and Lego Minecraft magazines:

…and I got a couple of CDs:

…the Blues Brothers CDs weren’t bad, but felt a tad indulgence (and I think that the 2cd Best Of is the better collection of Blues Brothers songs) and ‘Johnny Cash Songwriter’ is a great collection of demos cut by Johnny Cash, but never developed into finished songs. So, step in “John Carter Cash and David "Fergie" Ferguson stripped them back to just Cash's vocals and guitar before overdubbing newly recorded parts by a new band, including several musicians who had worked with Cash” previously. And these are good, sometimes great, songs, county with a twinge of pop-ness…and I did the first week’s G2 Crosswords:

…and we kick off this crossword week with a damn solid performance, where, after the ultra early start to our day, the little grey cells solved 95.24% of the 21 clues. And we didn’t know the answer to the one clue we missed, so we learnt that ‘Pastis’ is an ‘Anise-flavoured drink’. Let’s hope the rest of the crossword week goes as straight-forwardly and easily…

…and there’s not much to say about Tuesday’s crossword as the little grey cells got a clean sweep!!! Solved all 23 clues in lickety split time!!! Does and easy…

…and with Wednesday’s crossword, like yesterday, there isn’t much to say, as the little grey cells got a clean sweep!!! Aced all 21 clues! I guess going to Scotland has upped my clue solving game!!! So, what will happen when we’re back home…

…and the epic journey home (with two hours worth of delays) didn’t really affect Thursday’s crossword. Yes, we were only able to solve 86.96% of the 23 clues, but the three clues we missed, we didn’t know the answers to them, or even a vague idea of what the answer was. So, we learnt that ‘adagio’ means ‘at a slow pace’, that ‘Beaujolais’ is a ‘French wine’ and that ‘Aleppo’ is a ‘city of north-west Syria’. Which are now locked away in the brain bank for future use…

…and Friday’s crossword goes damn well and the little grey cells solved 95.65% of the 23 clues. We only missed one clue and that’s ‘cos we mis-read it! Instead of reading ‘Don Juan poet’ we read it as ‘Don Quixote poet’!!! So, we didn’t get the answer of ‘Byron’, which we possibly would have gotten, as we had the intersecting letters…but these things happen…

…and this crossword week ends on a bit of a downer, as we could only solve 84.0% of the 25 clues. A v poor performance. I guess we got a little confused by the clue ‘gist – spongy plant tissue’, mainly the gist part, as we didn’t link it to ‘pith’, but we defo should have gotten ‘vignette’ from ‘literary sketch’ and ‘creosote’ from ‘wood preservative’, but we did learn that ‘profound’ can mean ‘showing great knowledge’, we just thought that it meant important, dignified, meaningful, so that’s good to know…and the Quick Cryptic went well:

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

…and we get the latest crossword week off to a super damn solid start, as the little grey cells aced all 21 clues! A clean sweep baby! Woot, woot!!! But will we be able to maintain this excellent performance…

…and we take a stumble with Tuesday’s crossword, the little grey cells could only solve 87.5% of the 24 clues. I guess yesterday's stellar performance took it out of the little grey cells a bit, but not to much I guess. As of the three we missed the only one we had a chance of getting, and should have got, was ‘Brownie’ from ‘girl who does good turns for others’, but the other two we had no chance of even guessing. So, we learnt that ‘Motet’ is ‘sacred choral music’ and that an ‘Ounce’ is an ‘Asian feline’…

…and we almost make a comeback with Wednesday’s crossword, as we solved 94.44% of the 18 clues. The little grey cells have bounced back and were only fooled by the clue ‘boot sole protector’, unable to make the cognitive leap to ‘hobnail’. We were thinking of different words for sole and rubber, leather, etc and then considered that boot might refer to a cars boot and not the shoe, but we didn’t think of ‘hobnail’, which feels blindingly obvious in hindsight…

…and Thursday’s crossword goes pretty damn solidly as well, we solved 89.47% of the 19 clues and learnt that ‘Tashkent natives’ are ‘Uzbeks’ and that ‘pizzicato’ means ‘plucked as opposed to bowed’, which is another musical term to lock away in the memory bank…

…Friday’s crossword was a tad chewy, and in the end the little grey cells could only solve 87.5% of the 24 clues. Slightly annoyed that we didn’t get ‘jobsworth’ from ‘upholder of petty rules’, especially as we had the intersecting letters. But, on the other hand, we did learn that and ‘adze’ is a ‘woodcutting tool’ and that an ‘Andorran’ is a ‘native of a Pyrenean country’ (just got to find out what a Pyrenean country is!)…

…and we end this crossword week on a good note, but not as good as the start of the week. Of the 23 clues the little grey cells, after a chunk of chewing, solved 91.3% of them. We were let down by not knowing that ‘echt’ is a German loanword for authentic and that ‘poise’ can mean ‘coolness under pressure’, we just thought it meant stylish or cool looking…although we probably should have made that leap from looking cool to coolness under pressure…and the Quick Cryptic went okay:

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

…and Monday’s crossword gets this crossword week off to a stonking start, as the little grey cells aced all of the 25 clues! A clean sweep! The perfect way to start the crossword week…

…Tuesday’s crossword is very chewy and, after yesterday’s triumphant turn, crashes us back down to earth, as we were only able to solve 83.33% of the 24 clues. Super annoyed that we missed ‘fatigued’ from ‘tired’ and ‘intro’ from ‘first few notes’, we’re not sure about not getting ‘dive’ from ‘swallow drop’, but I guess a ‘swallow drop’ is a type of ‘dive, but we did learn that ‘Shiatsu’ is a ‘kneading and stretching Japanese therapy’…

…but we bounce back with Wednesday’s crossword, the little grey cells were back on form, and we solved 95.45% of the 22 clues. We only missed on not getting ‘fruition’ from ‘fulfilment’, but I don’t think that we would have guessed that, so I guess that we did the best we could and learnt a new word/definition…

…we’re still cruising in the upper echelons with Thursday’s crossword. The little grey cells solved 92.31% of the 26 clues, we learnt that a ‘tagine’ is a ‘Moroccan stew’ and we got outfoxed by the clue ‘scarlet plant’. We spent ages thinking about different red/reddish plants but couldn’t get to the answer ‘pimpernel’, but as soon as we got the answer the clue fell into! If we’d pondered on it longer we might have thought of other scarlet things and gotten to the Scarlet Pimpernel, but like the Scarlet Pimpernel, the clue escaped us till it was too late…

…things in the crossword realm are still soaring high, as the little grey cells solved 91.67% of Friday’s 24 clues. Although I think the hay fever is starting to affect us, as we kinda miss two kinda easy ones. ‘Orifice’ from ‘hole’ and ‘liaise’ from ‘interact’, they aren’t immediately obvious, but with a little pondering we should have gotten them, but still a damn solid performance…

…and Saturday’s crossword ends this crossword week as we started, the little grey cells aced all 24 clues! Another clean sweep to end the week. A couple of the clues were chewy, but nothing the little grey cells couldn’t deal with…the same with the Quick Cryptic Crossword: 

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

….and this crossword week gets off to a stellar start as the little grey cells aced all of Monday’s 21 clues!!! Woot woot, a clean sweep to start the week, the perfect way to start the week…

…and the excellence continues with Tuesday’s crossword, as, once again, the little grey cells aced all 23 clues!!! Another clean sweep, but can we continue on this hot streak…

…and things drop off with Wednesday’s crossword, as we could only solve 85.71% of the 21 clues…I guess the little grey cells were a tad tired from getting two clean sweeps…but, it was a bit of a chewy grid and we did kinda gave up to towards the end, didn’t give it our all…and missed a couple of easy ones, but we did learn that a ‘woodbine’ is also a ‘honeysuckle’…

…things pick up a tad with Thursday’s crossword, the little grey cells were back on damn solid ground and solved 91.3% of the 23 clues. We should have gotten ‘enamour’ from ‘inspire with love’, but we did learn that ‘Madeira’ is a ‘fortified wine’. Hopefully the ret of the week’s grids will be as easy as this one…or easier…

…and things are still picking up with Friday’s crossword, as the little grey cells solved 95.65% of the 23 clues. The one answer we couldn’t get was ‘parvenu’ from ‘upstart’, which is nice to know…

…and this crossword week ends, not perfectly, pretty damn near as, with the little grey cells solving 96.0% of the 25 clues. They really ripped through the clues, only stumbling on not getting ‘savant’ from ‘learned type’...and the Quick Cryptic went well...

...a pretty decent crossword week…and I did a load of Metro Cryptic Crosswords: