Tagged great gifts
Crossword Compiler Reveals her Secrets
Barbara Gettinby has been compiling cryptic crosswords for more than 20 years.
Frustrated when compilers would not reveal how they arrived at their answers, she decided to compile crosswords herself. Thus Finnegan’s Cryptic Crosswords was born. Finnegan’s Cryptic Crosswords solver was the first cryptic crossword book to contain all solutions fully explained. Barbara released 10 volumes in magazine format throughout newsagents in Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.
In 2005 Barbara released two books entitled Cryptics Made Easy, a blue and a purple edition (now out of print).
Read more
Recipe for Budget Travel
Budget Travel Secrets – SE Asia
What Tour Operators Don’t Want You to Know
By Des Gettinby
Recipe for budget travel
Take:
6 kilos of clothes
1 small onboard size backpack
$25 a day
Return air ticket
Add a good mate
Mix with a healthy dose of humour
Bake for 4 months in SE Asia
Read more
Top Ten Budget Travel Tips
By Des Gettinby
1. Buy a good quality travel Guide Book . Everything you need to know in one compact book. Find a bed, a feed, a train, plane or bus – it’s all there
2. Be brave. Book your flights and go. Budget travelling can be easily achieved. Apart from your return air ticket, all tour bookings, sightseeing, accommodation and ongoing transport can be easily and less expensively organised when you arrive at your destination. Keep your eye out for discount air fares.
Travel South East Asia the Budget Way
Start with cheap flights to Asia by logging on to the Air Asia website. Whilst in Asia we were alerted (by fellow backpackers) to free airline tickets from Air Asia. Literally free (except for taxes, of course). We were lucky enough to grab 2 tickets from Phnom Penh to Bangkok and I have to admit the flights were fine – a simple, low cost, no frills airline that still has a good safety record. What more do you want? Just a quick note that if you are planning on joining a connecting flight, Air Asia does not have forward baggage agreements in place with all airlines so you might have to collect your checked luggage then re-check for your next flight. Allow time or, even better, only carry on-board luggage. It saves time and headaches.
Read more
Cryptics Uncrossed
Double dealings, hide and seek, back flips….sounds like a day in the Australian parliament but instead these are just a few of the cryptic crossword techniques revealed in a ‘how to’ hands-on book. Cryptic Crossword Secrets shows readers all the tricks and tips for mastering cryptic crosswords.
The first pages of the book are filled with examples of the ruses used by cryptic crossword compilers. These include similar sounding words, words that appear in reverse, abbreviations and some much-used devilish and dastardly decoys.