mintybloggydiarythingy 2.0

Week from Monday 18th August 2025 - I took a trip down to Gosport, but I'd forgotten that the Print Shop chaps were on holiday all week. Nevermind, I needed to go downtown anyway, to stock up on GAFFA TAPE... (I made the trip again a few days later, so that I could run off another bunch of CD covers.) It's been a quiet sort of week, hence there's not been much to DIARY about. I've busied myself with a couple of "MUSIC PROJECTS", mostly involving turning PROMS things into either CDs or MP3s. I've also been doing some fairly deep listening of 'new' stuff via BANDCAMP. Week from Monday 25th August 2025 - Ooh look! another ruddy 'ORE GUSHED BANG COLLAR DAY'... I'm spending a huge chunk of the day binge-watching the entire six episodes of the spy drama "THE VEIL". It's compelling stuff, but I think it's fair to say that I probably wouldn't have had the time to get into it if we didn't have a 'DAY OFF'. ...

Week from Monday 4th August 2025 - I've bitten yet another bullet and visited the virtual CURRYS, to order a new TELEVISION. I thought long-and-hard about which to buy, as I have to consider how it will fit my shelf space and how it will connect to my various other devices. It hasn't escaped my attention that tellies don't have SCART sockets anymore, so some ADAPTER CABLING is in order. Too many of the models nowadays come loaded with a bunch of "SMART TV" software which I refuse to use. I've plumped for a 24-inch JVC which should fit my FREEVIEW needs. While I wait for it to arrive, I'm sketching wee diagrams in my notebook, to figure out how to 'plumb' it into my existing system... Having completed listening to ('THONNING!) my own REAL WORLD RECORDS collection, not to mention having compiled a fairly thorough spreadsheet documenting it all, I thought I'd pay a visit to their BANDCAMP facility to see/hear what else is 'out there'...

Week from Monday 28th July 2025 - I took a trip up that horsepickle for a comprehensive selection of BLOOD TESTS, ahead of this week's telephone chat with the Daktari (strikes permitting!). There was quite a lot of 'PATIENT WAITING' involved, as there were about a dozen folks ahead of me in the 'queue' this morning. But with that out of the way, I went down into Pompey to poke about in one or two CHAZZAS. I found poundsworth seedycopies of SANDY DENNY's "The Best Of The BBC Recordings", JOHN SCOFIELD's "A Go Go" and the "Great Composers" volume of BACH's organ works. The latter two items are 'upgrades' for ones that I already have on cassette. The TOUR DE FRANCE is done and dusted. It's been a long (and mostly gripping) month, but I'm kind of glad it's over, so that I can now concentrate on OTHER things! It's a LOVE/HATE thang. As I mentioned before, close attention to a sport can occupy far TOO MAN...

Week from Monday 7th July 2025 - Another week for clearing up a few overdue 'MUSIC PROJECTS', mostly stuff to go on the "Miles-Related" MP3 disc... I've also initiated a new 'THON on my soshul meejer. I'm attempting to play EVERY CD or TAPE in (what I have of) the REAL WORLD RECORDS catalogue, in chronological order. And with a lot of 'fake news' circulating about there being a "NEW KING CRIMSON STUDIO ALBUM", I dug out the mix CD that I did a while back, of all the 'new' material from the Seven Headed Beast's live albums. I should really get around to printing a cover for it! But first I have to GO OUT... I've combined my routine Tuesday Poundlanding with a trip up to the hozzy for a routine blood test. I don't think this involved any more footslogging than usual, but I'm somehow left with VERY sore feet this morning. This might be because my BLOOD PRESSURE seems to have dipped a bit lately. We'll see what t...

Week from Monday 23rd June 2025 - No 'OFFICIAL BUSINESS' on the cards this week, so I can tackle a handful of 'MUSIC PROJECTS'. DGMLIVE.com have now released all of the shows from the KING CRIMSON 2015 tour as downloads, so I have availed myself of the BRIGHTON DOME concert that we attended (almost TEN years ago!?). But rather than do a 'double CD set' of the whole thing, I'm assembling one of my famous 'SINGLE DISC HIGHLIGHTS' 'listening' seedies, while also archiving the unedited show in its entirety as an MP3 disc. I'm also getting around to giving some MILES DAVIS live recordings the attention they deserve. They'd been sitting on the harddrive for who-knows-how-long? Audio quality is not of the essence, so I'll probably assemble those onto a MP3 disc. Then I have a good quality 'naughty' recording from the time when JOHN McLAUGHLIN and his 4th Dimension Band toured the Americas with JIMMY HERRING's Invisible Whi...

Week from Monday 16th June 2025 - For once, I have no actual NEED to go anywhere this week; no pressing MEDICAL or vitally important FINANCIAL visits. Which is nice. But the WEATHER is rather spiffing at the moment, so it would be a shame to waste it. A DAZE-OUT to a 'different' shopping centre is called for. I hopped on a train to EASTLEIGH. Not the most picturesque of settings, I'll grant you. But I do recall that there are a goodly number of CHARITY SHOPS on its streets, so the browsing's often good. It is also the home to one of the best "FURNITURE & ELECTRICALS" branches, so plenty to ponder over. RESULT!!! I now have a 'new' CASSETTE DECK, a PIONEER CT-S609R, to replace my dead Yamaha. It's packed with interesting features that I'm probably never going to use, but most importantly, it SOUNDS splendid through my amp. I have a couple of quality cassettes that I usually favour for 'testing' tape machines, namely RICHARD THOMPS...

Week from Monday 2nd June 2025 - My INTERNET connection was working appallingly S-L-O-W last week, so I reported it to the TALKTALK concern. They "guarantee" speeds of never less than 10Mbps, but a few days ago it dropped as low as two-and-a-half for a while! It didn't affect my activities TOO much, and it didn't make any difference to the landline phone (Yes! we still have a landline!). But we shouldn't have to put up with it, considering how much we pay them every month! Several text messages were exchanged and I think that they eventually fixed it from their end (I also did the "try-turning-it-off-and-then-on-again" thing with the router). It's now a lot more stable than it had been... but today, a man from OPENREACH came and checked things over anyway. I'd planned on doing a 'BITS'n'BOBS' shopping trip into town, but I stayed in for his visit. Just as well really, 'cos the weather's horrible... I spent a day failing ...