mintybloggydiarythingy 2.0

Week from Monday 18th November 2024 - I've had the opportunity this week to finish off a couple of MUSIC PROJECTS:- I've 'processed' the latest download from the STICK MEN (BOOTLEGS) concern, plus I've been doing the ol''DeeJay' thang and compiling another one of my famous "AMBIENT MEGAMIX" seedies, this one featuring recent space music from THE UTOPIA STRONG, MARKUS REUTER and CLOUDLAND BLUE QUARTET. Then when it was all done, I accidentally lost the finished disc down the back of a cupboard when I was moving some gear about! I eventually figured out a way to recover the disc by shifting the furniture a tad and squeezing my conveniently-emaciated arm through the gap! (In addition to the above, there's also an official STICK MEN eepee and a live CAN release due from Bandcamp on Friday.) On Thursday, the weather was atrocious, but I had to venture out to the HORSEPICKLE for a walk-in BLOOD TEST, ahead of next Tuesday's telephone consu...

Week from Monday 11th November 2024 - I paid a 'shopping' visit to GOSPORT... and with HORSEPICKLE appointments now piling up for well into the New Year, I figured it must be about that time when I acquired a 2025 DIARY to write it all down in! Yes folks, it's VOLUME TWO of "My Medical Life"! I spent a morning transferring still-relevant notes from an old diary into the new one, and I added the unwanted old stuff onto the ever-growing SHREDDER heap. I've installed the BBC SOUNDS app onto 'MY BIGGER ANDROID' and I'm tinkering around to see what one can and can't do on it. I've got last night's FERGUS McCREADIE concert off of Radio Three by way of a 'TEST CASE'. It's a well-thought-out app, but I've already found some snags. The app allows you to download programmes for OFFLINE listening (for up to thirty days after the broadcast), but I can't for the life of me work out where the 'downloads' are saved to on...

Week from Monday 28th October 2024 - British Summer Time is officially over and the clocks went back... Some folks saw that as "an extra hour in bed" but I didn't. My own bodyclock now says it's time to wake up an hour 'EARLIER', regardless of why the one on the wall says. It's in no way relaxing 'cos I have to get up anxiously and have a poo'n'pee before seven, instead of a more sensible time! (Too much information!) Then there's the fact that it gets dark at teatime now and I already feel tired 'EARLIER' in the evening... Why do we still do it, eh? (...so 'SEVEN IS THE NEW EIGHT'. But now that I think about it, waking up at seven probably suits me BETTER now. I've got to be up and ready to catch an eight-forty-five bus this coming Saturday...) The most depressing news of the last few days is the announcement that next summer will be the last time that the TOUR DE FRANCE will be free-to-air. ITV are dumping it. So n...

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...