Time taken: 12:47. It is still New Year’s Day here, so Happy New Year from the Eastern part of the USA.
I got off to a quick start, but a lot of answers, particularly on the left hand side of the grid took a lot more teasing out, and I was a little bit outside of my usual time. The usual gang of early solvers are not yet out in force, but there are not many fast times so far. This is a good puzzle – the wordplay for the unusual entries is difficult but fair, and everything makes sense in the end.
Today is a bumper day – I expect most of you checking in here have done it, in case you have not, I got a lot of enjoyment out of today’s Quick Cryptic. Templar should have a lot of fun writing it up.
How did you get along?
Add your introduction here
Definitions underlined in italics, (ABC)* indicating anagram of ABC, {} deletions and [] other indicators.
| Across | |
| 1 | Impression made by Napoleon in the field? (4-4) |
| HOOF-MARK – cryptic definition referring to Napoleon the pig in Animal Farm | |
| 5 | Plant plants killing time in vacated area (6) |
| ACACIA – CACTI(plants) minus T(time) inside the exterior letters of AreA | |
| 9 | Stevie perhaps bored by nasty mean barbs? (9) |
| NICKNAMES – Stevie NICKS (best known as a singer with Fleetwood Mac) containing an anagram of MEAN | |
| 11 | Brazilian capital essentially dynamises province (5) |
| REALM – REAL(Brazilian currency, pronounced “hay-is”) then the middle letter of dynaMises | |
| 12 | Best flirt organised rescue if all routes blocked? (7) |
| AIRLIFT – AI(best), then an anagram of FLIRT | |
| 13 | Charlie installing electrical unit in satire (7) |
| LAMPOON – LOON(Charlie) containing AMP(electrical unit) | |
| 14 | Queen’s beloved pop icon meets with Italian group (6,7) |
| PRINCE CONSORT – PRINCE(pop icon), CON(“with” in Italian), SORT(group) | |
| 16 | Factories circling island anger small flush person (13) |
| MILLIONAIRESS – MILLS(factories) surrounding the island of IONA and IRE(anger), then S(small) | |
| 20 | Studio had story right (7) |
| ATELIER – ATE(had) LIE(story), R(right) | |
| 21 | Dubious naked maiden by meadow recalled prophet (7) |
| ISHMAEL – FISHY(dubious) minus the external letters, M(maiden), then LEA(meadow) reversed | |
| 23 | Paradise for the large part is swell (5) |
| HEAVE – HEAVEN(paradise) minus the last letter | |
| 24 | Garment left poor Colin hot (9) |
| LOINCLOTH – L(left) and an anagram of COLIN,HOT | |
| 25 | Musical replacing opening with another key line (6) |
| CREASE – the musical GREASE with the C replaced by G(another musical key) | |
| 26 | Most tiny powerless lights put back in case (8) |
| SMALLEST – remove P(power) from LAMPS(lights) and reverse, then LEST(in case) | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Exhibit artist mounted for BA workshop? (6) |
| HANGAR – HANG(exhibit), then RA(artist) reversed. BA referring to British Airways | |
| 2 | Take place of wretch bolstering bare rock (5) |
| OCCUR – CUR(wretch) under the internal letters of rOCk | |
| 3 | American topless in tiny bathing suit (7) |
| MANKINI – YANK(American) minus the first letter inside MINI(tiny) | |
| 4 | After depression it gets you hopping from the chair (6,7) |
| REMOTE CONTROL – cryptic definition referring to pushing a button | |
| 6 | Lug wax from odd space below church (7) |
| CERUMEN – RUM(odd), EN(space) under CE(church). Not sure how well known this medical term for earwax is. | |
| 7 | Noisy fool leaves lesson in love (9) |
| CLAMOROUS – remove ASS(fool) from CLASS(lesson), then AMOROUS(in love) | |
| 8 | Warm Sea periodically laps second egg fossil (8) |
| AMMONITE – alternating letters in wArM sEa surrounding MO(second), NIT(louse egg) | |
| 10 | Circles ‘misfit’ sadly in judgement of one’s worth (4-9) |
| SELF-CRITICISM – anagram of CIRCLES,MISFIT | |
| 14 | Theft of extremely fine cloth hidden by mansion? (9) |
| PILFERAGE – external letters of FinE, RAG(cloth) inside PILE(mansion) | |
| 15 | Sensitive way to stop Mickey’s horde cycling? (8) |
| EMPATHIC – PATH(way) inside MICE(Mickey Mouse’s horde) cycled | |
| 17 | Parisian’s here with head cold that’s severe (7) |
| ICINESS – ICI(“here” in French) then NESS(head) | |
| 18 | Fabric hoisted across tops of the hips isn’t proper (7) |
| ETHICAL – LACE(fabric) reversed surrounding the first letters of The Hips Isn’t. I’d give this the hat tip for COD based on the clever use of isn’t as part of the wordplay | |
| 19 | Most of English town ultimately felt dated (3-3) |
| OLD-HAT – OLDHAM(English town) minus the last letter, then the last letter of felT | |
| 22 | Solitary marine creature abandoned by sailor (5) |
| ALONE – ABALONE(marine creature) minus AB(sailor) | |
I dug this! AMMONITE, HANGAR and AIRLIFT were my last three in. So we have both Tarzan’s LOIN CLOTH and Borat’s (!) MANKINI (does anyone ever seriously wear those?). Very familiar with CERUMEN…
DNF
Napoleon the pig never entered my mind, leaving 1ac impossible. NHO Stevie Nicks; the only Stevie I know is Wonder. DNK Oldham, but easily biffable. DNK CERUMEN, had to look it up. I got CONTROL, couldn’t come up with REMOTE–I would think the remote would obviate hopping from the chair. George, you’ve given the pronunciation of ‘reis’, the plural of ‘real’.
I think hopping refers to channel hopping.
I didn’t think of that, clearly.
I missed the point as well. Also failed to parse SMALLEST and built the NHO CERUMEN from the word play. Great crossword for a day which still feels a bit holiday-ish. No idea of time as completed over several visits around other activities.
When I see Napoleon in a crossword I always think of pigs. But I messed up and for a time had TANKINI without entirely understanding how the wordplay worked (TINI?), which made HOOF MARK impossible until I fixed it up. But my real downfall was at 6D where I put CHRUMEN, which works just fine except it’s not a word and the equally unknown CERUMEN is. So DNF.
Well, I thought my mind was well and truly programmed to recognise that, nine times out of ten, when CAPITAL is mentioned, we’re looking for currency. Instead, I spent ages trying to work out how Brasilia or just B fitted into the clue. DUH!
I entered PRINCE CHARLES instead of CONSORT even though I knew it was a stretch, but CLAMOROUS soon made me think again. NHO NICKNAMES as barbs. Never read Animal Farm so HOOF MARK was a guess. COD to AMMONITE.
Thanks G and setter.
Around 75 minutes. When I started I was going so quickly (for me) I thought I would beat my best time of 35 minutes. FOI ALONE, then OLD HAT, LOINCLOTH, SMALLEST, SELF_CRITICISM, ISHMAEL and ETHICAL. I filled the bottom in 10 minutes but the top brought me to a grinding halt. On the NE I got slowed by biffing PRINCE CHARLES completely forgetting Prince Phillip. For Napoleon I didn’t think of pig. I had FOOT MARK and HOOF MARK and picked the latter visualising Napoleon on his horse directing the battle with his horse leaving hoof prints in the mud. LOI HANGAR
Thanks G
I think the relevant Prince Consort is Albert. I rather think Prince Philip wasn’t given such a title.
He wasn’t given the title, but that’s what he was even so, just as our present queen is a Queen Consort, regardless of whether or not she or the King chooses to style her as such. The Queen Mother was also a Queen Consort, but no-one bothered whether or not to call her that. I think the controversy – mostly now lost in the mists of time – regarding Queen Camilla is probably traceable back to the expressed wish of our last Queen Regnant that she become Queen Consort (there being some feeling at the time in some quarters that she should remain Duchess of Cornwall when her husband succeeded his mother). Queen Elizabeth wanted Camilla to become Queen Consort: she didn’t say she wanted her to be styled in that manner as far as I can recall.
All of which really is a load of flannel, even to a committed monarchist like me! Just part of what makes us British, I guess. 😊
The answer is PRINCE CONSORT which must be Phillip or the whole clue is wrong.
The reference is probably to Albert, Victoria’s Prince Consort
I did finish, even though I thought Napoleon was a horse and not a pig, and believed ish meant dubious. I agree cerumen was tough; the structure of the clue clearly points to lug wax being the.literal, but it took me a while to interpret it correctly.
Time 41:55
41 minutes, which I consider quite good for me considering there are a number of unknown words or meanings here.
Like Vinyl1 I parsed the ISH in ISHMAEL as ‘dubious’ because we’ve had ‘-ish’ in wordplay several times clued by something along those lines. If I’d spent more time thinking about it I might have wondered what ‘naked’ was doing but I’m not sure I’d ever have thought of it as a deletion indicator and come up with {f}ISH{y}.
Suffered liver problems with the NHO Stevie Nicks. Can anyone quote a dictionary definition that supports ‘barbs’ = NICKNAMES? The answer went in because it fitted but this was yet another clue in which both routes to it in the clue were blocked to me.
Collins lists “derisory” as one adjective that might describe a NICKNAME. Hence the question mark.
Stevie Nicks was memorialized by my karaoke friends in our session immediately following her death.
Interesting as Stevie Nicks isn’t dead.
On ‘barb / nickname’, I’d say it’s tenuous at best. If you look up ‘barb’ in any of the usual sources you won’t even find ‘name’ let alone ‘nickname’. In my view it’s a hurtful, cutting remark which would consist of more than just a nickname, even a derisory one.
Yeah, I wonder what occasioned the Stevie Nicks thing going on that night. Seems like there had to have been some reason… (Or am I utterly confused and that was someone else? Ha)
Donald Trump’s insulting monikers for his opponents have consistently been called NICKNAMES in the press.
Dictionary.com, “ a name added to or substituted for the proper name of a person, place, etc., as in affection, ridicule, or familiarity:”
Merriam-Webster just says “a usually descriptive name given instead of or in addition to the one belonging to a person, place, or thing” OR “a familiar form of a proper name (as of a person or a city).” “Stevie” is of the latter type, not descriptive as laudatory, derisory or neutral.
I don’t dispute any of that, but the clue has barbs = NICKNAMES and I still have yet to see an entry under ‘barb’ in a dictionary in support of that, or even one such as ‘rude / insulting name’. I agree one might get there indirectly via a reverse 3-point turn starting from ‘nickname’ but that would be tenuous in my view. Anyway we got to the answer and it doesn’t seem to have caused anyone any difficulty, and that’s the main thing.
Perhaps you were remembering Christine McVie the other female vocalist in Fleetwood Mack
No, she died in November of ’22.
Interesting. Having started ‘Moby Dick’ recently, the third word of the first paragraph being ‘Ishmael’, and having ???MAEL for maiden and lea reversed, ISH for naked fishy/dubious jumped out at me straight away. Yet, in the same crossword ‘Brazilian capital’ led me a merry dance for quite a few minutes without even thinking about money. All about wavelength I suppose.
I assumed that ‘barbs?’ was an example – the nickname for Barbara.
I think it’s meant to suggest that too. But deceptive capitalization is allowed, while uncapping a word always capped in real life is not, strictly speaking…
47m 54s and enjoyable.
“Call me ISHMAEL” must be one of the finest opening lines in literature, surely. It ranks alongside Anthony Burgess’ opening to ‘Earthly Powers’:
“It was the afternoon of my eighty-first birthday, and I was in bed with my catamite when Ali announced that the archbishop had come to see me.”
Like Jack, I parsed ‘dubious’ as ISH in ISHMAEL.
LOI: CERUMEN
8.21, good stuff, with CERUMEN looking more likely than CHRUMEN at the death, although I’d have been pretty miffed had it been the latter.
I thought of Napoleon the pig straight off, but could only think of HOOF-PRINT until I had some crossers. Stevie Nicks’ appearance was fun, although in-flight I just thought of “Barbs” as a nickname for Barbara, which neither agrees with the plural answer nor adheres to standard crossword rules around capitalisation, so there we are. Like others, I don’t agree with the dictionaries that a nickname is a barb, but setters have every right to rely on the dictionary’s authority.
Thanks both.
O what can ail thee, knight-at-arms,
Alone and palely loitering?
The sedge has withered from the lake,
And no birds sing.
(La Belle Dame, etc. Keats)
25 mins pre-brekker. I enjoyed it. Ishmael was clear so I didn’t spend long puzzling over ‘dubious naked’. I just thought “….ish” made the … dubious. But clearly (f)ish(y) is a better explanation.
Ta setter and G.
A long 47 minutes, luckily plumping for CERUMEN at the end. (Have we had “cere” or “cerecloth” in the past? It seemed oddly familiar, but maybe I’m remembering something from the Grauniad rather than the Times.)
I’d have been faster if I’d remembered the Real, or thought of Stevie Nicks before Stevie Ray Vaughan or Stevie Wonder…
I think the Latin for wax is “cera”. I remember my Latin master saying that some people thought the origin of the word “sincere” was the Latin “sine cera” (without wax).
Some lovely intricate clueing today, I particularly enjoyed CERUMEN and REMOTE CONTROL. A breakfast-interrupted 29:57. I tend to think of pigs as having trotters not hooves so HOOF MARK was my LOI. Thanks both.
51 minutes with LOI a constructed CERUMEN. I’d spotted it was a word for EAR WAX as I read through the clues as I started, but I didn’t know it. That initial read through also gave me NAPOLEON the pig too, so I was otherwise quite slow. Good puzzle, COD to ISHMAEL. Thank you George and setter.
A slow 48 mins. Apart from Stevie => Nicks I failed to spot the spot the intended meaning pretty much everywhere until the crossers were in place which is what we mean by off-wavelength I suppose.
Only CERUMEN was NHO.
Thanks to both
Great crossword. Had heard of Stevie Nicks but couldn’t have told you her group. Constructed CERUMEN piece by piece. COD to REMOTE CONTROL. I did Animal Farm for ‘O’ level, so eventually got 1ac.
15′ 45″, thanks george and setter.
No particular problems today but I was lucky with 6dn having once used ear drops which were called Cerumol, for reasons only now becoming clear.
How nice to see Stevie Nicks, though I thought they should have got rid of her and kept Lindsay Buckingham, myself, rather than the reverse.
21:07
I’d had some stinkers recently but I found this quite straightforward for some reason. I dawdled towards the end and I had to trust the cryptic for the unknown CERUMEN but otherwise no real problems. Normal service will no doubt return tomorrow.
Thanks to both.
Like Amoeba above I was left with a choice between CERUMEN and CHRUMEN at the end, luckily I went for CERUMEN. For a while I was struggling but somehow I got in the swing and finished in 28:44, inside my half hour target. I think it was getting MILLIONAIRESS and PRINCE CONSORT got me moving. Once I finally got going there were no real problems apart from the ear wax thing.
Thanks setter and blogger
Good fun! Had to guess Cerumen, and sadly came up with cerumin thinking in a place, and sort of knowing cere was wax from sincerely. The Rum was easy, church was easy, just the last syllable, Grrr! But thanks, Cx
Phew! Couldn’t finish the NW even with the Cheating Machine.
I immediately thought of the pig at 1a but it’s a long way from a pig to a hoof mark, especially as I had biffed Tankini at 3d. That’s (y)ANK in TINI, almost tiny. Silly of me as mankini, that improbable garment, must have occurred before as in C.M. 9a NHO Stevie Nicks and DNK barb=nickname. Having cheated for 1a by coming here I managed to force the rest in eventually even the Nickname. Stevie added to C.M.
14a Prince Consort was a long time coming, I didn’t trust SORT=group.
25a Crease took a long time, didn’t think of Grease, nor was I expecting that kind of musical. Where is Evita when you need her?
21a Ishmael, just assumed dubious=ish, never worried about “naked” in the clue, or just thought that helped to reduce maiden to M.
Another who glossed over the dubious/naked/ish part of 21a. I thought of Napoleon the pig straight away, but HOOF was one of my later entries considering that pigs have trotters. I share the reservations over barb/nickname too. I was able to construct the very vaguely familiar CERUMEN. HANGAR was a long time coming, as was the AIRLIFT that came just before it. That left me with the SW corner, where EMPATHIC cleared the way for HEAVE and LOI, GREASE. Liked REMOTE CONTROL. 28:39. Thanks setter and George.
This seemed to move quite easily for me at about 25′. In saying that I did have similar semi-parsing experiences as others with ISHMAEL and a few others. Stevie Nicks came easily (as part of the later, definitely second best, line up for Fleetwood Mac). LOI HOOF-MARK once I realised we weren’t referring to the small Frenchman. Thanks George and setter.
31:40 – rather tough. Didn’t parse ISHMAEL anywhere near correctly and initially shared the aforementioned quizzical eyebrow at barbs being a definition of nicknames, but on reflection the question mark seems to settle it reasonably fairly.
37:07. Lovely puzzle. I liked the juxtaposition between the sublime (MANKINI) and the ridiculous (ISHMAEL). I was held up wondering whether pigs have hooves (I thought they were trotters), but HANGAR dispelled any doubt around the answer to the clue (though not about the original question). thank you both!
14.42, a rare finish within a smidge of George. The pedant in me wondered about pigs with hooves, barb-erous NICKNAMES and a prophet called ISHMAEL – he is, of course, but principally amongst his Islamic descendants. And how someone in a LOINCLOTH can get unfortunately hot, but then that’s the joy of cryptic clues.
In my opinion, CERUMEN is high on my list of design flaws in the human machine: I have yet to find a way to stop it developing, though my hearing aids have developed a capacity for removing it a tiny bit at a time.
I share George’s (unexpected?) delight with today’s Quickie. Nemo expectat…
Pigs have cloven hooves, which is why pork is not kosher.
Nearly. Cloven hooves are kosher: cows, goats and sheep. Not chewing the cud is what disqualifies pigs.
I think I’ve had it backwards all my life. And never knew about cud.
In English expect the S has disappeared, but the Latin has it, exspectare ( showing its derivation from ex and spectare).
Quick but wrong. Lovely puzzle, which gave me great satisfaction to ‘complete’ in about 20’. Unfortunately I invented ASMENITE in order to ‘finish’.
COD CLAMOROUS.
Thanks all.
8:45. On the wavelength, it seems.
I have no problem with the things queried by others: a trotter is technically a hoof and the question mark covers the DBE in NICKNAMES.
I don’t usually do the quickie but will have a look today.
Enjoyed this, finishing in 45 minutes after a long hold-up in the NW. But it turned out to be a DNF as I misspelt CERUMEN. No serious issues, though like Inverleith and others I am a trotter man rather than a hoof man as far as pigs are concerned, and I don’t really think of NICKNAMES as barbs.
FOI – ATELIER
LOI – HOOF-MARK
COD – ETHICAL
Thanks to george and other contributors.
Thanks for the blog. One question, why is space EN? Can’t remember seeing that before
It’s a term from printing relating to spacing. I assume it’s the width of an ‘n’, as there is a longer version called the ’em’
They live on (sort of) in the en dash, or -, and the longer em dash, which is —
Thanks! New to me
All correct, but got an ‘unlucky, not quite right’ message, and I then realise I’d typed in HOOO MARK, which was my LOI.
No problems with CERUMEN, as I’d done ENT lists for many years. Liked SELF CRITICISM and REMOTE CONTROL, which opened up the puzzle.
Thanks George and Setter.
30:25
Enjoyably chewy tussle. CLAMOUROUS saved me from putting PRINCE CONCERT . A slight pause because of trotters v hooves. REMOTE CONTROL is my clue of the year so far.
CERUMEN sounds Tolkienish. An aunt once told me it tastes like chicory. I’ve never verified this.
Thanks to George and the setter.
Cerumen, the deaf wizard?
I’m v new to this & have a NY resolution to do (or try to!) it every day .
Please could someone explain why EN means space in 6D (lug wax from odd space below church). Would be most grateful.
EDIT: cross posted and see has been answered above
The remote control one made no sense to me because if you depress the button then you don’t need to be hopping from the chair at all!
Good luck! Once you’ve been doing these for a while, you’ll catch on to the tricks – some of which pop up so often that I don’t always put a full explanation in the blog. Printing spaces (and dashes) come in two flavors, en and em.
Hopping refers to channel hopping. Cryptic definitions are my least favorite type of clue, but this is a particularly good one as everything in the clue has meaning in more than one direction, but as a whole is a description of the answer.
Finally finished in two sittings. Untimed but about 45 mins. Pretty tough I thought, the SW holding out til the last.
I had a dodgy patch half way through until I opened up the middle with REMOTE CONTROL & PRINCE CONSORT.
Some very clever clues it has to be said..
Thanks G and setter.
65 minutes of the usual nowadays struggling, especially in the NW corner. I missed the Napoleon-Animal Farm link and thought “these wretched CDs, you just never know”. Never heard of Stevie Nicks (and I agree that NICKNAMEs are hardly barbs). Couldn’t understand ‘naked’ in 21ac, being an -ish thinker, until George explained, nor the hopping from the chair in REMOTE CONTROL. Sort = group (PRINCE CONSORT) doesn’t seem right until you realise that they are both verbs.
10:28. Felt like I was slightly off the wavelength but as others have said I thought this was a good puzzle.
Nicknames = barbs? In which dictionary?
Collins: “a familiar, pet or derisory name given to a person”
Chambers: “a name given in jocular or fond familiarity, or in contempt”
Collins is usually the go-to for a definition in the Times.
The problem I still have with that is it’s not the way the clue is written, i.e. barbs = nicknames. Maybe as has been suggested it’s supposed to work as a DBE, but even then to me it seems tenuous in the extreme
– Took a while to think of Napoleon the pig, and even then HOOF-MARK wasn’t exactly obvious despite having all the checkers
– Didn’t fully understand how REMOTE CONTROL worked, and only now do I see what meaning of ‘depression’ was needed
– NHO CERUMEN so had to construct it from wordplay
Thanks glh and setter.
FOI Realm
LOI Cerumen
COD Ethical
25 mins. Fleetwood Mac fan here, so I got NICKS but was trying to put it at the end of the word. As often happens, I did most of it in 20 mins, got a bit stuck, then came back to it couple of hours later and it was easy….
Managed to get through with a longish solve on paper. Came here to check CERUMEN as I didn’t know whether it was that of cHrumen. Opted for the former just as it sounded better.
19:00. Good fun, on the whole. I got all the way to 24A on my first read through the clues before I got an answer, but the downs got me going. Held up at the end by taking a while to see HANGER/HOOF-MARK. I’m another who couldn’t equate NICKNAMES with “barbs”, but the wordplay was clear once I thought of the right Stevie. CERUMEN unknown but derived from the wordplay. Clever stuff but I thought a number of the surfaces rather unconvincing. I liked ATELIER and ICINESS, though. Thanks George and setter.
36 mins. Nice puzzle. Like others I was and am still dubious about nicknames = barbs, but – like others – thought of Barbs (in the Royle Family?).
Some checking here and there but otherwise really enjoyed plugging away and ultimately finishing this one. Couldn’t parse ISHMAEL and had to remind myself what an ‘en’ was but I did at least know CERUMEN. Really liked HOOF-MARK and REMOTE CONTROL. Many thanks all.
43:35
Last two in were HOOF MARK and CREASE. CERUMEN was unknown.
I missed the Fishy parsing of 21a, seeing ish=dubious and not working out how naked fitted.
Thanks glh and setter
Couldn’t do any!
Liked this one apart from HOOFMARK – pigs have trotters, and barbs, as others have mentioned. Some good obscure clues all of which I nailed. Maybe a 40-minute job ( I use pen and paper).
Pretty average time (for me) [probably around 25 minutes. I didn’t know CERUMEN and like others considered CHRUMEN but checked and my preferred guess was correct (I’d have counted it a DNF if it had been wrong).
44 minutes. First one I’ve finished this week. I’m surprised to learn that pigs have hooves. CERUMEN surfaced after 35 minutes which helped complete the NE and I finished off with EMPATHIC and CREASE, having had GREASE for a while.
Another Fleetwood Mac fan here (up to Rumours but not beyond), so no problem with the beautiful Nicks. Interesting group. I like to obsess about the “lost” middle period in between departure of Peter Green and arrival of Nicks and Buckingham. Danny Kirwan and Jeremy Spencer and then Bob Welch and Christine Perfect (as was) and a couple of others. They’d definitely run out of inspiration by the last album (Heroes are hard to find) but there was some good stuff on the way. 25 minutes wrecked by a misprint.
30.29
Struggled a bit with stuff going on around me (ie everyone was being normal and I was trying to find some peace to do the crossie). Eventually got some of the longer ones and the rest came with a rush, the penultimate letter of CERUMEN causing a hovering of the final finger tap at the end
Thanks setter and George
Did it but one hell of a struggle in the nw corner. First one over an hour for an absolute age. NB 20 mins is quick for me. I cant seems to keep my log-in details.