A very disturbing thing happened to me this morning. Somebody spoke to me on the train. After getting on the 8.26 at Concord West I sat in the only available seat next to a smartly-dressed woman of middle age who was doing the Sydney Morning Herald quick crossword. I took out my half-finished Times Cryptic from the Australian and solved a few clues. Then the woman spoke! She asked me if I could help her with her last two words. I was so startled I hardly dared look at her. Even more embarrassingly, I could not think of the words. She told me she usually completed the quick crossword before her journey ended. Then we were forced to have a strained conversation about crosswords until we reached Central and she got off. I hope she’s not a regular commuter or I will be forced to change carriages. That will be most inconvenient as I try to sit near the door that opens just opposite the steps in Town Hall station that give the shortest journey to my office desk (Three minutes and 20 seconds at a brisk pace with a clear path. Four minutes if slow people get in the way.)
In my albums
