This
year again I choose an easy way out. Each day I'm going to solve the Wordle
of the day, using as starter a word beginning with the letter of
the day. I hope to post every day at noon my time (GMT +2. Dang you DST!).
As the alternative badges,
as supplied by Lissa suggest travel I'll prefer travel-related words
as starter words, and if at all possible, I'll avoid words containing the
same letter more than once.
I'll maybe add a few words about my chosen starter word if fancy takes
me and I have time and energy for it, else I'll just post the solution - or not in the case that I did not
solve it.
Today my starting word is
Ferry. It was not that bad, and as the average today is 4,7, I am back to average once again:
Wordle 1.753 5/6
⬜🟩⬜⬜⬜
⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
🟩⬜🟨⬜⬜
⬜⬜⬜⬜🟨
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
Ferry This has a lot to do with travelling. But as I come from Elsinore, my associations go somewhere else. I wrote about this in my Susan's tales. But as most of the non-magical stuff there this is from my own experience, you can substitute Susan's name with mine in the following excerpt from Susan's trip to Sweden. Susan, come here!" Mum called. "What are your plans for today?"
"Nothing really," Susan answered truthfully. She had some vague ideas about
drawing their cat, reading a bit maybe, studying some Icelandic and spells
and NOT do her homework until tomorrow, Sunday.
"I have some
complimentary tickets for the ferries, they expire Monday. Would you mind taking
a trip to Sweden and back? You can have all the tickets validated on the way
there, and then buy cigarettes for me with all of them*. They are all return
tickets, you only have to show one of them when getting on board in Sweden."
"How can I have all the tickets validated? I'm only me ... one
person?"
"Today miss Hansen is at work. If you greet her from Dad
when showing the tickets, she'll do this as a service for us."
"Do I
have to go back with the next boat, or can I go for a walk in Helsingborg before
I return?"
"If you have time, there's no reason why not. These tickets are good for all day
once validated. I even have some Swedish coins. You can go and buy an ice
cream or something."
After Mum told her this, there was no doubt in
Susan's mind. She loved soft ice, and in Sweden you could have her favourite
variety. Pear flavoured soft-ice. "Oh yes," she said. Let me get dressed and get
my book and a basket while you get the tickets and the money.
Susan
returned, fully dressed even to shoes carrying her favourite basket with the
contents covered up by an old scarf. "That way no one can see all your
cigarettes and be tempted to steal them," Susan told Mum, who smiled and handed
Susan a wad of tickets and a big bank note, "This is enough for cigarettes both
ways. Don't lose it!" Susan shook her head. Mum the gave her a small handful of
coins, silver and bronze together: "And these are for ice cream and what else
you can get." It was mostly small coins, bronze 1, 2, and 5 öre, and worn silver
10öre, but also some of the bigger iron 25 or 50 örer and even some large,
silver 1 kronor coins. "Thank you Mum," Susan said, "I'll take good care of
them." She took her small red purse from the zippered pocket in her skirt, put
coins and tickets in one compartment, and the banknote in the other before
putting the purse back and zipper the pocket again. "Good Susan," Mum said. "I'm
sure you'll do fine. Remember that the tickets are only valid for the big
ferries, no idea in you trying to go by the small boats."
Susan smiled. "Won't
do." she agreed.
Susan decided to take the shuttle bus to the
ferries and walked down to the small, cosy square from where it departed. It was
only a short trip to the other side of the harbour, but she would catch an
earlier ferry. As instructed, she greeted the lady from her dad and had all 10
tickets validated. This meant she could get a whole carton of cigarettes each
way. But first she had to get aboard. As Denmark and Sweden were part of a
union, she did not have to bring her passport - she did not even own one - or
any other personal papers. But she had to go through the customs. and as usual
the customs officer looked at her and decided that she was suspicious.
"What do
you have in that basket, young lady?" he asked,
"Oh nothing
special," Susan answered. "My books, some candy and
a couple of pencils." She folded back the scarf and let him have a
look.
"Aren't those extra salty liquorice?"
he asked suspiciously.
"Why, yes, of course," Susan said. "I like it. Do you want
some?"
"Oh, no thanks. I was just asking. You can board"
Susan wondered why she was
almost always controlled, and what they were searching for. They were of course on the lookout for fireworks, which was cheaper and better in Sweden - but not in the summer, and not departing from Denmark - so why she was always searched remained a mystery to her. She just regarded this as one of the laws of nature. She was not afraid for the return
journey. the Swedish customs officers were always very lax when it was not the season for fireworks.
_________________________________________________
* The ferries between Elsinore (Helsingør) and Helsingborg sailed
international waters. Hence the shops on board could sell tax free
tobacco, liquor and candy. In order to limit the tobacco to 1 packet per
person per trip (one way = one packet) you had to show your ticket and
have it stamped. (The one-way tickets were simply taken by the
salesperson). Cheating with this system was a sport among the
inhabitants of Elsinore.
To buy liquor you had to stay in another
country for over 24 hours - thus irrelevant - and the duty free
candy mostly was not really cheaper.
And now for today's Wordle
