Catch up post! DA #20,588 and LR #20,584

I'm around! I've not disappeared. I've just been neglectful here and distracted with the kids on school holiday and a fraught home-office based husband who's ready to do battle with iinet and Telstra over our woeful internet.

We were completely without internet for the last week because my daughter downloaded two full seasons of Game of Thrones and didn't tell us and took all of our monthly bandwidth.  We had to buy top ups and cut the kids off internet for a week - you'd think they were going to die! I had access over my phone for emergency stuff but 2.5gb doesn't go far either. We are back to full capacity again and the DTs are abating. Kids going back to school very soon will be good, too.

I've only made time for Friday and Monday puzzles but my head has not been there to finish any others. I've spent a lot of time in the crossword groups on Facebook too. I had a friend challenge me to start writing my own clues; he said that would help me be a better solver. I scoffed and said I'm pretty terrible at writing clues. A few months later and I've given in and had a go. I even had one recommended as Clue of The Month, so perhaps I'm not as bad as I thought?

I'm at least three puzzle posts behind - sad how fast time flies! I'll do short posts of those three working in reverse order from Friday10th's DA:

I'll run through the one's I'm unsure of:

19A - Ride and run to display tattoo? (10)

I think "ride" = NEEDLE as in to pester or "ride someone's ass" in a nagging, niggling manner and "run" = WORK as in something's in working/running order. what is the point of the word "display" here because I'd first thought it was hidden word signpost but for such a short clue with a long answer that quickly was discounted. Is it for surface?

26A - ...that winged NZ parrot (5)

I had to unwrap Saturday's paper to get the answer for this (and 9D). I'm sure it's linked in some way to 24A which I got from wordplay and had to google to confirm I had the right answers - I love cryptics for introducing me to new people to investigate. (I'd never heard the term "Bush Bard" either. If you'd asked me to define the term before looking up Les Murray I'd have thought "someone who wrote songs or poems just to get laid"). I thought something "winged" would be taking its first and last letter and the only NZ parrot I could name was a Kakapo which was too many letters. Were do we get the HA to make HAKEA?

6D - African renegade type hating shanty hubs (8)

I had cross letters in place to guess EGYPTIAN was the answer. I guess "renegade TYPE" is anagrind and partial fodder but don't how G-IAN is worked into the clue or how to mangle "shanty hubs" if that's right.

9D - Ecstasy party fracturing quiet street first off, then arrests (9,4)

I tried to work "event" and "st" together somehow but just couldn't make it work.

16D - Pigeon English? (3)

I just want to know if "english" could have been any language at all to make this like "pigeon speech" to get COO or was there a specific reason for "english" to be used.

That's it for the most recent post. I think my scribbles describe my thoughts on the other solutions but anyone wants to discuss one then by all means pip up in the comments.

Monday the 6th of April was an LR and I liked this puzzle. I shared several of the clues on the CCLearners group. Even though LR apologised for his 1A VULTURISH I thought the clue was fair.  I loved 20A and 23A. I was able to parse all the clues, too so it was full a on puzzle win. I would like to see LR get a weekly spot. Here's that pic:

I'm running out of time so I'll not put up the DA from the 3rd - unless someone really, really wants to see it. I have it filed away. Don't laugh! I've had enough moments of "Hey didn't someone do that a few weeks ago?" and now I have a file folder where I keep all the printouts. Yep, pretty sad but I don't care. You just cannot set me free in an Officeworks.

Hope everyone has had a lovely weekend. LR tomorrow?