29 Comments
Jun 12Liked by Rebecca Holden

That postman crossword clue was HILARIOUS!

Also a suggested caption for the photo: Penpals in person 😀

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Thanks, Punit - I love 'Penpals in person'!

That crossword clue joke is one of my favourites - Jim and I were SO impressed with the chap in the pub, and we both totally fell for it!

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Jun 12Liked by Rebecca Holden

😂

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Caption: a random female has asked me for a selfie.

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🤣

What the picture *doesn't* show is the long queue of people behind me waiting for their own opportunity for a snap with their literary hero!

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🤣

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“I’ve no idea who this woman is but I’ll smile and hope she goes away.”

Crossword clue solved…once my husband explained how it worked!

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I love this caption, Helen! 🤣

And yay - well done! 😁 I'll admit that took me a while...!

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A delight, as always. Caption: No shower today!

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Thanks, Elizabeth! 🤣

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Jun 12Liked by Rebecca Holden

I loved the insight into perception's point of reference - Jim's being spacial-visual, yours being verbal. I am the same as you - words are remembered more often than setting. I wonder if it has any left brain/right brain correlation? Hmmm.

Caption for your photo:

She: Great course, Professor... except, possibly, for the hour or so of ...erm... persiflage.

He: Ah yes, however, I am famous for it. Persiflage is what my student have come to love and expect.

She: Okay, then...

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Sharron! Thank you so much for your caption - having read it I feel I need to take up my cudgels with City Lit. At NO point in the entire day did Terry use the word ‘persiflage’ - I am minded to demand both a refund and an apology! 🤣

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Jun 14Liked by Rebecca Holden

And well you might!

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LOL!

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Jun 13Liked by Rebecca Holden

Love this! What fun you have, Rebecca! My husband and I have completely different ways of finding places, as well. Unfortunately, we are both sure ours is the best way, and often, we find our destination by sheer luck!

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LOL! Thanks, Sharon! I have to admit that Jim and I very often have the kind of discussion when each of us is certain that we are the one who’s right, but it’s NEVER a conversation about navigation! 🤣 We both know that he’ll be right and I won’t, and we accept that with grace!

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Rebecca, you may have to change the name of your column now that you're finding your way - how exciting, a great step forward. And when all is said and done, it hardly matters if its words or images, as long as you get where you want to go. Flexibility is the key!

Love the pic of you and Terry and figure there's captions below that can't be bettered.

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LOL - thanks, Prue! I fear that this instance of finding my way doesn’t quite cancel out all of the instances in which I haven’t - or can’t, or didn’t, or am unlikely to!

BUT I am so thrilled to have learned that I can navigate better with words than with any other factors, so that’s definitely something to build on!

xxx

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Buddies'n Blue.

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Oooh, great caption! Thanks, Sue!

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Jun 15Liked by Rebecca Holden

Lovely photo of the two of you. Hugs from afar. 🤗🤗

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😁 Thanks, Beth! Hugs back!

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Jun 17Liked by Rebecca Holden

The crossword clues you Brits can solve are so tough for me. I can do The NY Times crosswords, but those are straight forward. These are unsolvable to me, although, once I see the answer I get it. So impressed!

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I don’t think I’ve ever managed to solve an entire cryptic crossword - I’m lucky if I can do a quarter, if that! But they’re such fun.

I had a great teacher - a friend of the family would always encourage me to solve a clue every time we visited, right from when I was a very young age. In his later years (he passed away last year, aged 95) I would often ring him up and say ‘look, I’ve solved a clue in the crossword I’m doing, but I can’t quite work out 100% how I did it’ - and I would read out the clue to him. He would only every help me out by making him talk him through every part of the clue - and then say ‘there, you DID know it!’. Amazing chap. I miss him.

I don’t do the NYT crossword online (because I don’t subscribe), but I do do the Mini, Wordle and Connections every morning. The former and the latter are sometimes pretty tough, mainly because a lot of the clues are based on US culture - which of course is fair enough, but it makes them hard for a Brit sometimes! 🤣

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Jun 20Liked by Rebecca Holden

Fantastic recounting of your time in London, love that you recognize names/street signs while your Jim remembers landmarks, and LOVE the picture of student and teacher, both looking urban poshy and very smart (pun intended). Loved the pothole blurb, too. P.S. What kind of apple did you treat Terry to? 🍎

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‘Urban poshy and very smart’ - what a delightful compliment!

I love that you’ve asked about the apple! It was a ‘Jazz’ - so when I handed it to him, sticker facing forward, I said ‘it’s even got your name on it!’ - and then had to explain to fellow students that Terry is one of London’s jazz greats. 🎷 I wish I’d thought to take a picture of him with it, but it didn’t occur to me until several hours after he’d scoffed it! 🤣

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Jun 21Liked by Rebecca Holden

That's you, RH, urban poshy and very smart!! Oh! I like Jazz apples! Did he eat it before/during/after class? 😂

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He had it during the lunch break. 🤣 He told me that he’d tried and failed to get hold of a banana of optimum ripeness on his way to the college, so it seems my bribe saved him from starvation! 🍌

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Jun 22Liked by Rebecca Holden

😂

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