Death of a Friend

Don't panic! It's not a human being that has passed away. It's not even Bob the Triffid either - he's quite content watching the world go by on my window-sill. (Well, at 7am this morning he wasn't watching the world go by, he was watching a desolate street with no signs of life whatsoever!)

So who is passing away from my life?

...many moons ago my sister bought me a Christmas present. It was an ebony rune stone with magical symbols printed in white on one side. It arrived in a black pyramid, and at first I was a little puzzled. Puzzled, was to become a very appropriate word indeed!

This stone was the 'key' to logging into a new website, appropriately called http://www.thestone.com/ Once logged in, a world of cryptic picture puzzles lay before me. Many more were hidden, only revealed when certain others were solved.

Months went by. On and off I worked my way through them. My sister got involved, my ex-wife was involved, even the pet goldfish had to listen to me shouting at the computer screen. At times it was verging on the obsessive. I had printouts of some of the tasks in my wallet. I had lists of 'outstanding' puzzles in my e-mail inbox. I had evented a whole new definition of the verb 'stoning'

In recent months, I even had other people logging on, on my behalf. I was determined to complete them all....but time has run out. I logged on today, and was greeted with the kind of news it's hard to take. The Stone is closing down on April 3rd.

I've no idea if the site will remain open, but with no support. I've no idea if they will publish the solutions to all the outstanding puzzles I have. I really have no idea if I'll cope without the opportunity to go 'stoning' any more.

.......Black armbands all round next month please.