Clearing the Brain Fog, One Task at a Time...

Defo had my fingers
crossed when I typed the
 opening lines.

Hurrah for the summer! How marvellous to have such tropical weather! Isn't everything lovelier now it's warm?

Regular readers of this blog will know everything I just wrote is bollocks. I hate summer, the heat is stifling, and I long for an evening that requires a log fire and jumper rather than one needing every window open, enabling the local flies to interrupt my sleep for weeks on end. But still. This is where we're at. I'm dealing with it.

Oh look, it's me in the summer.

Everyone else in the country, it seems, is far perkier about the sunshine than me, so fair play. Crack on and live your best life. My problem with the heat is that not only does my body feel sluggish, but my brain too. I find all mental processes take longer - whether that's realising I need to scratch the itch on my arm, to responding to emails, or creating literary magic. (Assembling the Wingpeople - pre-orderable at an online bookshop near you soon. Happily completed before the hot weather arrived.)

But look, you know this about me. And if you know it, then I certainly do. This is my 44th summer on the planet and I'm used to dealing with my foggy faculties. To help myself function over the coming weeks, I need my brain to keep ticking over. I need an array of mental workouts to fight the fog and get the gears grinding at more than a glacial pace. So in no particular order, here's my list of brain-enhancing activities with which to start the day. Some people have coffee, some people do yoga, I do... this sort of thing.

Pssst... here are Friday's answers. 
Keep them to yourself. 

Guardian crossword

Other crossword providers are available but this is my preferred version. None of your cryptic nonsense here. Just old fashioned, bog-standard, daily crossword fun. Obviously I cheat most days and use the REVEAL button on the clues I can't get, but it's mostly doable. And the archive that goes back years is available too. Crosswording fun for as long as you want it.

Fifteen minutes and a hundred and
ninety-seven countries to type.

Name All the Countries

This is possibly my greatest achievement. Forget writing novels or passing my driving test, this is what I want on my grave. I can name every country in the world in under fifteen minutes. Sometimes I manage it in ten. I should make clear however, that this was not an overnight job. I found Sporcle - the quiz site where I got this workout - and started small. I focused on one continent at a time. It took a while but eventually I could put them together. The fact I can now recite 197 countries, unaided, without the use of a map, is a talent of which I am deeply proud. I accept it doesn't make the world a better place, but still. It keeps my brain ticking over and that can only be a good thing.

Lots of boxes to fill, but if you 
type AND, UNI, DEM, and NOR,
you're in for a good start.

Name All the Countries in Three Letters

A variation on the above theme. This time, you have seven minutes to name all the world's countries, but you only need three letters to get them. So by typing AND you box off anything that ends in LAND. And UNI gets rid of the UK, UAE, and US. It's trickier than it looks, mainly because some countries don't share three letters with anywhere else so you have to scramble about as the time ticks away. But see what you think. It definitely provides the mental work out you might be looking for.

Who knew there were so many?

Name All Agatha Christie's novels.

Ok, this is where we can get a bit niche. I've recently taught myself this one. Mainly because I like Agatha Christie, but there really is something for everyone on Sporcle. How about all the Madonna songs? Or all the popes? What about all the tube stations? There are literally hundreds of choices of quiz available. Search in the box for your favourite topics and see what you fancy.

Zitti e Buoni Lyrics

Right, moving on. As I may have mentioned once or twice, Italy won Eurovision and I love their song. Usually when I love a song, I play it on repeat and belt it out - in the house, in the car, whenever I feel the need to give the world the gift of my music. But here's the thing. Zitti e Buoni, the song in question, is sung in Italian. And not only that, it's sung in very fast Italian. There are a gazillion syllables a line, and even with the lyrics in front of me, I struggle to read it at the speed of the singer, let alone sing along. So, that's my latest brain task. Learn the lyrics to Zitti e Buoni so I can sing along. I've boxed off the first verse, and I've got the chorus locked in too. It's that pesky second verse which is faster than the speed of light, that's the stumbling block. I might never crack it, but the will is there. That's got to be good for the brain, surely.

So there we are. Some fun tasks to ensure the sluggish drag of my overheated head will be minimal over the weeks ahead. Look, if you're full of the joys and gadding about in your shorts and vest tops, good luck to you. I'm happy you're happy and I hope you have a lovely time. If, like me, it's all a bit of a struggle, there are worse things you can do than learn all the countries in Asia, or recount every single queen that's been on Drag Race. It'll certainly fill the time before lovely Autumn breezes in.

Have a lovely week, folks.