mintybloggydiarythingy 2.0

Week from Monday 14th October 2024 - On Tuesday, I had my phone-in CLINICAL REVIEW with the 'Boss'. We agreed that I've got the BALANCE right with the meds I've been taking (Blood pressure, TICK! Pain management, TICK! Bowel movements, TICK!). The latest blood tests were encouraging, showing no kidney problems and no sign of THE DISEASE coming back. Which just leaves the question of the WALKIES-preventative numb feet and breathlessness... Speaking of which... on Friday, I wore myself out by going for a couple of hours of bimbling and mooching around Southampton. I windowshopped the heck out of HMV and bought the new album by THE SMILE, their second one this year. It's a challenging listen, as is most RADIOHEADy stuff at first, but it's definitely one that deserves 'living with' for the next few days until it 'sinks in'. I also browsed a couple of charity shops, as yer do. I found another album for my NUSRAT FATEH ALI KHAN collection. Yes, Mr VO...

HOW TO PREVENT THE SINISTER 'X' UPDATES 1) Turn off automatic updates on your phone. Open up PlayStore > Click on your 'my account' avatar > Go to 'Settings', then 'Network Preferences', then 'Automatic Updates' > Select the 'Don't Automatically Update' option. 2) You will still receive a notification whenever updates are available, but you must manually install the ones you want. This is the set-up that I prefer anyway: it's much safer all round, from a security/privacy point of view. 3) Whenever the dreaded 'X' app appears asking to be updated, ignore it. A lot of folks will have the habit of clicking on "Install all updates" for an easy life! That is a habit you need to break if you want to prevent 'THAT THING' from happening! 4) The phone's operating system will still recognise 'Twitter' as the app you originally installed. 5) Don't forget to scan the apps r...

Week from Monday 30th September 2024 - The Elite Men's Road Race at the UCI WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS was a pretty exciting seven hours in the saddle, and a pleasant enough way to fill most of a Sunday. But we should have guessed by now that ANY race that's got TADEJ POGAČAR in it would be won by Tadej Pogačar! Our Squinchy was robbed of a Bronze Medal in the final sprint, chiz chiz. On Friday, I'm orf up the Horse Pickle for an armful of good ol' PAMIDRONATE and a lot of 'PATIENT WAITING'... Week from Monday 7th October 2024 - WON YLTNEREFFID SEVOM EMIT...and another thing, TIME seems to move differently now, especially in the mornings. Days are longer but weeks are shorter. Or is it the other way 'round? Today, I'm popping 'round to the pharmacy to partake of the autumnal COVID and FLU vaccination programme. Experience shows that I'll be ZONKED OUT for at least a day or two afterwards. Forty-eight hours later... and I've slept off the wors...

Week from Monday 23rd September 2024 - Last week was another fairly empty one, followed by a concentrated burst of activity at the weekend (mental rather than physical)... I had acquired a naughty audience recording of a SOFT MACHINE gig from a couple of weeks ago. They played a 'one-off' at the Pizza Express oop dzat Londin, no doubt as a warm-up for their currently ongoing American tour. It's quite an exciting listen if you can hear past the audio quality ('MY LIFE IN B***LEGS'). It's nice and clear, but Asif's drums are painfully loud in the mix at times. But a bit of tender-loving Audacity can fix that! I've learnt by now to expect a lot of patter and 'dead air' at a Softies gig. A set that appears to last about an hour-and-three-quarters, can usually be trimmed to the length of a single listenable CD, if I have the patience to do so - I can lose all the vociferousness and the 'Chew Ning', cut the DRUM SOLO down to an acceptable leng...

Week from Monday 2nd September 2024 - Into the final week of the VUELTA... and everything changes as WOUT VAN AERT has crashed out, shaking up both the GREEN JERSEY and POLKA-DOT rankings. Once again, fractions of a second separate the GENERAL CLASSIFICATION, so anything could happen... I shall habitually click over to ITV4 for the TOUR OF BRITAIN coverage. That should also be watchable, if only for the presence of 'big names' REMCO EVENEPOEL and JULIAN ALAPHILIPPE (and a decent professional commentary!). LiDL TREK have entered their 'FUTURE RACING' development team for this one, so no 'big names' but still plenty of those distinctive uniforms to cheer on ("Chapeaux!" as they say, to LIAM O'BRIEN and COLE KESSLER). I had my person-to-person chat with the Doc, up at that there WHORE'S SPITTLE, whereby we updated each other on what's bin gwine on. The good news is that the MYELOMA hasn't returned (yet?), so any side-effects I am current...

Week from Monday 19th August 2024 - I had my telephone chat with a GP... She agrees that my BLOOD PRESSURE has gone from one extreme to the other and has suggested that I (further) halve the dose of CANDESARTAN that I'm taking. She's also prescribed a CODEINE-based painkiller for the HURTY FEET. I am due another BLOOD TEST, as one of my 'ORIGINAL SYMPTOMS' that may have returned (on top of the BREATHLESSNESS and low BP) is a goodly dose of ANAEMIA... ho hum! I might have to cut back on my morning BANANAS, as experience tells me that my levels of POTASSIUM might also be elevated. At least having gone through all this once before, I know what to look out for this time around! It's time for that Spanish VUELTA-type bike-race... usually my favourite of the big three GRAND TOURS, in terms of the actual competition. But often painful to listen to, on account of the terrible commentators one has to endure if one has to watch the Eurosport 'highlights' shows that ...

WHAT'S ON THE JUKEBOX? (AUGUST 2024) - "A playlist of top stuff that's currently setting the toes a-tappin', the fingers a-snappin' and the ears a-wormin' and generally shakin' my grooved thang to thrillin' effect." (Click on the wee lozenges to link to related YouTube clips, if you're curious.) Can "Live in Aston 1977" ◊ Man "The Welsh Connection" ◊ Anchor and Burden "Extinction Level" ◊ Ojos de Brujo "Bari : Remezcias" ◊ Portishead "Dummy" a.o. ◊ Fergus McCreadie "Stream" a.o. ◊