I had a patient today who told me that every morning when he takes his dog for a walk, he passes a fuchsia plant which appears red when he views it through his spectacles, and blue when he looks at it without. I was tempted to ask if he's been wearing a pair of 3D glasses from the local cinema, but instead I told the man I had no idea why that might be. So he proceeded to give me the name of the exact variety of fuchsia, in case that made any difference. I told him I haven't yet covered that genus in my training. He seemed a bit disappointed.

But that wasn't the only puzzle I tackled at Horsham Hospital today. In thirty-six hours I'll be on my way to Newcastle-upon-Tyne for the British Association of Retinal Screeners' 9th Annual Conference (feel free to peruse our agenda here), so I decided to invest in a puzzle magazine for the journey. Six hours on a train with seven female colleagues might not be as entertaining as it sounds.

I ended up in the Horsham branch of WHSmiths at lunchtime today, buying a book of Nonograms. Although the book in question calls them 'Hanjie'. I've no idea why. To be honest, I'd never even heard of them before today, but I tend to judge a book by its cover, and I liked the picture on the front.

Anyhoo, having spent the afternoon tackling the first puzzle in between patients, I think I'm hooked. Admittedly, having been at it for a good three hours, I feel I probably should have completed more than about ten percent of the least challenging puzzle on page one, but you don't have to be good at something to enjoy it. After all, Lisa loves cooking. And at the rate I'm going, it's the best value book I've ever bought. I know I'm a slow reader, but I'll still be on this one when I'm eighty.