Scrabble with Grannie

Scrabble with Grannie is a ritual that involves a pot of tea, (inc. tea cosy), home made queen cakes and usually an obscure Scottish word that doesn't appear in the Official Scrabble Dictionary that would have given Grannie a triple word score, if only the masses could speak proper Aberdonian English.

It was a sad day then last week when the "X" tile went missing, presumably hoovered up into the great abyss that is the Bridge of Dee sheltered housing complex where she lives. An X is an extremely important tile and the game of Scrabble is not the same without it.

Grannie takes the game very seriously. She plays to win, which means any manner of word can go on the board. Recent installations include "bum", "boner", "sex", (although not now given that she no longer has the X factor), conjugating (not consummating) the verb to make "sexy" and thus go for the double word score, "cunt" (yes, this is not made up) and "shit".

Once, I played the word "fuck" and she added "er" to make a triple word score. This is all at the age of 94....

So, it was with great relief, when I sent an email to the makers of Scrabble to explain the spot of bother we were in with the missing X, that Grannie received not one but two "X" tiles in the post from the kind people at Mattel.

With an extra "X", who knows what word Grannie will come up with next?