Aged 9 my Dad giving me War and Peace to read, " it's a bit of a chew but have a go at it ", "chew" is ok although in my case, it was as tough as eating leather boots, failed miserably, managed it at 12.I was thinking it stood for something like: "Central Heating E..... Water", but couldn't work out the "E" bit. Urban dictionary was no help. So chew is a bit arcane, then? Sorry to be a pain!
