Waitangi Day, the New Zealand national holiday, falls on a Tuesday this year. This means a significant number of people (self included) will be taking Monday 5 February as leave, if they haven’t also (self not included) taken Friday 2 February as well. It is also my weekend for pulling together the APEX clues, and circulating them to participants for judging. You’ll be getting them on Monday, I shouldn’t wonder.
The APEX work means relatively little time for writing a blog – but I have managed to put up a puzzle this time: an Enigmatic Variations puzzle from 2019. There is a fifteensquared solving blog for this one, as well as my own setter’s blog. You know the drill about the order in which these things should be read. One other thing taking time this weekend is proofreading the next EV, due in March. Further details nearer the time.
There’s a fair chance there will be no update in a fortnight’s time: that’s the weekend for the big Wellington Fun Run/Walk Round the Bays. That tends to take up a lot of Sunday, leaving Saturday crammed. There may be limited time to slip in a blog or puzzle. It may not be as warm as this week is threatening (which would be a blessing) but it’s a chance to get out and enjoy the Wellington shoreline, then wait an hour or so for the free bus back into town. As you can see from the videos on the site, participant bib numbers go up into the 20,000s. We have contestant numbers 165 and 166, and so feel quite smug about flaunting how early we booked our places. (Not our best effort – a couple of years ago, with numbers in the 60s, we spent race looking for anyone else with a double-digit number. I bagged no. 10, which I took as an honorary single-digit bib…)
So I’ll list my puzzles for all of February, in case the next update is deferred to 3 or 4 March. As it happens, the timescale for one of the February puzzles meant that this month’s Toughie slipped past on 1 February, and gave me no chance to mention it last update. But, starting tomorrow:
- 5 February: Times
- 9 February: Pangakupu in The Guardian
- 9 February: Phi in The Independent
- 13 February: Pedro in The Times Quick Cryptic
- 16 February: Phi in The Independent
- 21 February: Times
- 23 February: Phi in The Independent
- 24 February: Pedro in The Times Quick Cryptic
- 1 March: Phi in The Independent
Now to search out some comfortable shoes.
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A happy Waitangi Day to you all, and may the weather be kind. Have a great day walking around the bays. I shall look forward to seeing Marjorie’s pictures of the scenery and fellow walkers.