Things never quite work out as expected, do they? That top is of real silk, a marvellous floaty thing with bits of gold in the dangly bits and – on the hanger – looks great. It looks great when you first put it on. In fact it lulled me into a state of trust until I was well and truly at the party and it was too late to do anything about it. It slipped. It moved. It wriggled about as if I was suffering from fleas. It also showed my underwear. (At least it did until my mate, Mary, hissed at me, “Go and take your bra off!”) The undershirt bit took on a separate life from the overbit. It fact it was a ruddy nuisance and a pain in the neck. Did I care? No, not much. It was a great evening, far too good to be spoiled by idiotic pieces of cloth, however much of a mind of their own they developed.
My friend, Angela Churm, who I’ve known for years was there. She'd driven a couple of hundred miles to be there, starting at half-five that morning. She’s great at keeping all the books in order and looking after the money. Not only that, but we sweating round Tescos in the afternoon, buying all the food and (some) drink. After that, it was all hands to the pump – thank you family! – laying it all out.
One of the things we had was a Detective Crossword.
Here's everyone hard at work, doing it. I can’t put the crossword grid on the blog for some reason, which is frustrating, but these are the clues – they’re not too hard! The “grid” is a standard scrabble board.Clues
1 Across and 2 Down Mrs Hudson’s famous lodger
3 Down: Where the coded detective lives
6 Across and 4 Down “- - - - -“ (2 words) American West Coast crime as seen on TV
5 Across and 17 Down She does her detecting in Cheshire, perhaps?
5 Down According to TS Eliot, he’s “The hidden paw” but he and The Great Detective slugged it out at a waterfall
7 Across and 18 Across Jack Haldean’s first adventure (1,4, 5, 4, 5 words)
8 Down and 16 Down “I counted them!” Richard Hannay steps up to his first adventure
9 Across A misleading fish
10 Down How many tailors?
11 Across Get on the Orient Express and you’ll end up in this continent
12 Across A favourite murder weapon
13 Across Watch it, husbands! Her indoors might slip this in your tea!
14 Across Whimsical Christian who rocks?
15 Across Not the garden of the police
19 Down A Holmly writer’s profession
20 Across “Mr Holmes! They were the footprints of an enormous….”
21 Across Write with this in a shortened prison?
22 Down The cruise of the steamer Karnack brings death on this Egyptian river
23 Across “--- - and sound? A good place for valuables
24 Down Every Great Detective has a deadly one of these
25 Across If you hear a bomb starting to do this, run for it!
26 Across According to Dorothy L Sayers, the “tailors” were these
27 Across Live and let live? Not according to James Bond
28 Across Become this, and you’ll be of interest to malefactors
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