mintybloggydiarythingy 2.0

Week from Monday 14th September 2026 - On Saturday, I left home for my HOZZY APPOINTMENT extra early, as I half expected the kind of omnibus delays I'd encountered earlier in the week. In the event, I did get there in PLENTY of time (I arrived at the obstacle just in time to watch the AIR AMBULANCE depart from the helipad for its journey back to Eastleigh). I got dealt with straight away though, and I relaxed UNDER THE DRIP while listening to the previous night's excellent performance of MAHLER #9 off of the Proms. I then spent the rest of the day either waiting FOR or waiting ON buses, hopping about the city. I had to find my way to CURRYS, out on the Ocean Retail Park where the airport once was, so that I could purchase that 'USB-C-to-USB-A-female-converter' that I need for my NEW LAPTOP PROJECT. That involved a slow held-up bus from the hospital to the city centre, a wait for the number nineteen out to the east of the island, a slow journey through traffic to OCEAN...

My appointment with the PREMIUM-PRICED DENTIST revealed that my maxillofacials are AOK and nothing needs fixing. Which is a huge relief, if only for the fact that it would cost a bloody fortune if it did! There has also been a routine BLOODLETTING ahead of my Wednesday FACE-TO-FACE with the docs. SPIN CYCLE... In parallel with LA VUELTA, I've been dipping into the TOUR OF BRITAIN coverage. ITV4 are carrying it live. But I have no vested interest in the results this time around, so I'm just enjoying the scenery! Meanwhile in the Netherlands, the five-day ZLM TOUR is occurring. Typically, when there's a race going on which I DON'T get to watch, 'MY TEAM' does amazingly well, and that's very much the case with this one! The LiDL-TREK lads are hoovering up every stage win, point and bonus second going, especially Czechmate MATHIAS VACEK and mighty MAX WALSCHEID. But I'll have to take soshul meejer's word for it, because there are no tellyclips to be vie...

Week from Monday 24th August 2026 - There's been some more improvements to FIREFOX's anti-AI features, arriving on version 154. Not only can you disable any of the Fox's own robots from doing anything on YOUR browser, you can now stop yourself from embedding any of the BIG ONES from OpenAI, G***le, Anthropic, M!©r0$o f T etc. etc. I'm skipping through this week's episode of Radio 3's "KEY CHANGES" (again), as it is entirely dedicated to the subject of VIENNESE WALTZES (ZzZzZzZz in 3:4)... This week, I otherwise need to spend some of my "MONDAY DOING MONDAY STUFF" time catching up with a couple of WHODUNNITS, which I couldn't fit into my usual SUNDAY session. You guessed it! because I was watching the CYCLING and doing some PROMing instead! "MONDAY STILL DOING SUNDAY STUFF"! LA VUELTA hasn't been particularly exciting so far. In fact, the only remarkable thing that's happened was the cancelling of an entire day's r...

Week from Monday 10th August 2026 - Now that my CYCLE-VIEWING is over for a couple of weeks (a disappointing conclusion to both the Tours I'd been following this week), I've been giving some attention to some BBC PROMS. When I reach that time of day when I can concentrate on some music, I'm less inclined to put on a CD these days, and more likely to strap on the headphones and activate the BBC SOUNDS I-Player doobry for a random selection from the prommy playlist. I'm ignoring any chronology and just picking out anything that looks interesting on paper (well, on screen anyway!). I've learnt from years of disappointment to stay clear of anything performed by the BBC's own orchestras, although I have (of course) listened to the BBCSO doing MAHLER's Sixth, which wasn't too bad! (I came for the KURTÀG and stayed for the MAHLER!) Of particular interest lately have been some of the "PROMS ACROSS THE UK" concerts that are not even at the Albert Hall...

Week from Monday 27th July 2026 - That's it! I managed to get through three weeks of TOUR DE FRANCE highlights, without once having to listen to the scintillating dialogues of Rob Hatch and Sean Kelly! Of course, it was always going to be 'THE POGGY SHOW' (previously known as 'THE POGGY & VINGO SHOW', but THAT ended abruptly a week ago!). Mathieu van der Poel clinched the coveted CHAMPS-ÉLYSÉES sprint (m'eh!), but now that the Montmartre climb is now a permanent(?) fixture, the whole 'finale' was spectacular. It was a fairly good Tour for the LiDL-TREK lads in the end. MADS PEDERSEN sealed the deal in the GREEN JERSEY competition. He now joins a select handful who have taken the Points in all three Grand Tours. JUAN AYUSO and MATTHIAS SKJELMOSE both figured in the GC top ten. LiDL-TREK took the overall TEAM PRIZE, although I'm still not sure how THAT gets calculated! QUINN SIMMONS also received some sort of Combative SUPER-BEST Team-Mate Award ...

Week from Monday 13th July 2026 - 'MONDAY DOING MONDAY STUFF'... Got off to a start a bit late this morning, but my routine selection of RADIO PODCASTS was more condensed this week! "LE SHOW" and "NO SUCH THING AS A FISH" were business as usual, but... "STRONG MESSAGE HERE" is taking a summer break, so no episode at all this week... "FRIPP@80" on YouTube wasn't nearly as verbose as some of his previous 'episodes', so that didn't take very long... I gave this week's episode of "KEY CHANGES" a miss altogether, upon finding that it was entirely dedicated to the music of GEORGE FRIDERIC HANDEL. So that all saved me an hour or so, better spent catching up with yesterday's TOUR DE FRANCE highlights. #OnThisDay #FiftyYearsAgo 13/07/76, I saw GRYPHON play a terrific gig in CHICHESTER CATHEDRAL. They were at the peak of their powers and made full use of the amazing acoustics of the cathedral. I particularly rem...