I should have explained better. It was Mrs Tenkay and I who wandered up to the shops via a circuitous route. As I'm "immune compromised" I hang about outside while Mrs Tenkay risks life and limb in the shops. We're Tier Two but I'm still sensible and try to stay out of harms way.
Cryptic Crosswords, my mum taught me how to do them, a couple of my brothers also used to enjoy them. When we'd left home we used to meet up in a Pub on Sunday lunchtime, whoever had solved the most clues in the Sunday Times didn't have to buy a round all lunchtime. ( This was back in the days of it being a newspaper with strong ethics, and some excellent investigative journalism )
I'd but the newspaper on my way to the bus stop and work on it on the half hour journey to the pub. I was chatting to my eldest brothers wife on one occasion and she mentioned that he had taken to nipping out late on Saturday evening, it turned out he was heading up to New Street Station to get the earliest paper as it came off the train
There's a cryptic crossword themed book that I read many years ago called "
Pretty Girl in Crimson Rose (8)"* It is written by a South African chap who came to England, his English girlfriend was a keen cryptic crossword solver and explained to him some of the nuances. He was really taken with this and decided to dig a little deeper, he contacted and interviewed many of the compilers, including the legendary Auricaria. It's a lovely fascinating story, and a love story to boot.
* The cryptic crossword fans have probably already solved the word play in the book title
