Crosswords

Ah Friday, the end of the working week and, more importantly, a new cryptic crossword.

I've started reading the new newspaper the i. As well as being a good read with just enough news to keep me informed without being too much to digest, it also has a daily concise crossword - not so easy - and a weekly cryptic crossword - not easy at all (for me).

I first started doing cryptic crosswords back in the last century.  I was working for a charity and one of my friends was an avid Daily Express reader - back when the Express was a well balanced paper.  She did the cryptic crossword and taught me the tricks and techniques.

Of course, every compiler has their own special way of putting the clues together and these last few weeks have been about getting inside the mind of the compiler.  To do this I attempt to complete the crossword then look at the answers the following week and see where I went wrong.  Sometimes I still can't see where the answer came from but I'm getting better.

Having said that I do prefer doing a crossword with someone else.  When I was in Argentina I used to do crosswords from the Daily Express Crossword Books with my dad via yahoo messenger - there I am stuck in an internet cafe talking what must have seemed like gibberish (It's English Paolo, but not as we know it) to someone on the other side of the world then exclaiming in glee when we get an answer.

At the moment I don't have a regular crossword partner but if anyone's interested....