UKC

Answers are Exotic Locations (countries, cities or features outside Europe)

1. Male could be the holdup, we hear. 8 letters

2. Note a note - the same one. 5 letters

3. If I do, perhaps she'll tell me. 6 letters

No. 2 is Miami

1 is Mandalay

wow U good! 

Not really, I can't get that last one!

Me neither!!

Alaska

If alyson is free ..youd make a great couple!!!

#3 is Sod off.

Perhaps Alaska then!

(Badum tish - you set them up etc etc ...)

Bl**dy hell, although it's obvious in hindsight I have absolutely no idea how anyone could get those answers from those clues.

That's a depressingly familiar feeling from my schooldays all those years ago, when equations seemed simple once they'd been explained, but still baffling when presented with a new one.

Well, for Alaska, I was looking for a place ending in "a" (="her") because the clue was telling me I was going to do something to her. So I started running through country names, then US state names, then bizarrely cruise destinations with 6 letters - not so many of those. I was looking for something that sounded like a verb in the middle of the name.

I've only recently picked up on (easy) cryptic crosswords and there seems to be a standard set of conventional "moves" you can make to get the answer. I can't be bothered learning them so I get lost on the harder clues. Yes, just like equations at school when all of a sudden everyone else got it and I was left wondering what they'd seen that I'd missed.

Embarrassingly, I'd got as far as "ask her" and was saying 'aska? aska?' over and over and STILL didn't get to the answer! I think my mind was stuck in warmer destinations.