Wasjig 37

 This one is labelled Hotel Fiasco and it seems the newly arrived guests have landed to see the construction crew living it up at the resort. They made sure the pool was finished first so they could use it but as for the rest it can wait.  We have had this situation on numerous occasions to arrive in the middle of renovations or other work. Even as recently as Darwin earlier this year we stayed inside the renovation wing while they were finishing it off.  I had to hustle to get this one done as there are small guests arriving tomorrow and it will be fun to try and find the small details. Eg  where can you find a worm and a snail? What are the mice doing to the cat?

Balloons Again

 Puzzles and sunny days don't really mix but this one has been on the table for a while and I made sure to finish it in the morning which meant there might be time for an activity later. This balloon puzzle was a tricky one with a single standard classic balloon shape comprising 99% and just three others more easily distinguishable. See if you can find a rooster, a duck and an ice cream.  This should not surprise me as when we did the real thing all the balloons were standard which must reduce the cost of making one. Not sure if it is too late in the season to start another puzzle one which was given to me last week. Maybe the weather will tell me.

Dolphin Puzzle

 No not actual dolphins although we do get plenty of them going passed our door. Maybe there is a dolphin season as we only seem to spy them in the warmer parts of the year. More likely we are indoors while they are outdoors during Winter. I have not done to many puzzles this time around. I did finish this one recently and picked it for the dolphins being the stars of the scene. These 1000 piece efforts are ideal for the folding table that can disappear when the clouds have gone. I have just cleaned this one away and brought out another which is topical from a year ago, being balloon rides.

Shells

 The indoor activities have continued around here. I did poke my head out the door considering a beach session maybe even bring the shot put. The wind has not quite given up its two day force so I went back inside. Last year we went to Asher's school fete.  It was huge and at the end, the $5 stall was giving it all away and I was handed a jigsaw puzzle.  I could not remember where this unopened box had come from until after I had finished it. This one took me weeks limiting myself to around 30 mins a day. We have picked up a lot of this stuff on our beach and maybe I could make my own puzzle.

Shall I ?

Neuschwanstein Castle

 The windy weather has blown in a bit but I wanted to test the replaced tooth with some bicycle exertion.  Cold air was giving me some trouble but now that the nerve is covered, it is back to normal. I have been working on a puzzle for a few weeks.  Winter is coming to the end so I am making this the last one, as it has also proven to be the puzzler. Previously I have worked thru areas of sky or water however this puzzle has a large slab of forest which is tricky.  I will need another few hours for this.

Lanterman's Mill

 I have a few borrowed puzzles I am working thru from our beach friend Jill. Having a dedicated table in the corner is handy for just spending a half hour here and there. This puzzle has a good European scene and I think I have stayed in a mill just like this one.  It was eight yar ago in central France. The room was all massive timbers with wall paper covering the daub. The puzzle suffers from the same problem as the last one ie I have done 99.99% of it.  Maybe the bext one will be all there.

Villeray Mill

Newbeary Plaza

 I was half way thru this puzzle before I figured out it had a bear theme going on.  At least this one has a box cover picture to refer to and I did see the bear in the middle but there were subtle bears all over it including bears in the clouds.  It was an indoor day today, except for the emergency dash next door where our neighbour had another fall. He seemed ok after picking him up off the floor.  The wind outside meant I could finish off this puzzle inside. However looking at the picture below you will spot the jigsaw dilemma. It wasn't me, it must have come that way. I even moved the couch.

WasGij 42

 I had plenty of time to work on this jigsaw last week but I was where the jigsaw wasn't.  Now that we're back I was able to give it the last hour it needed to finish off.  I don't recommend this style although there are plenty of practitioners out there like our cleaner Michelle and our beach friend Jill who love the no reference puzzling.  Michelle saw the half finished version and was raving about it.  I still need a box cover to refer to.  This one is going back today and I would have preferred the picture below before I started it.  So to those out there giving this one a try, be my guest, as here is a high definition photo of the finished scene.  To quote "The Rock Maui"  Your Welcome.

SawJigs

 It was a cooler wetter day so it gave me a chance to do some puzzling.  I don't like this idea of jigsaws without a picture to refer to. It's like those cryptic crossword puzzles without the frame of reference to fill in your answers.  These guys call their version a wasgij but it is not really a backward puzzle is it.  Now that would be hard eg trying to assemble a puzzle face down.  Just like trying to do one that is all the same colour, which I did about 40 yar ago and never again. I am at least half way thru this one but it is hard going.

Main Street Complete

 Debbie helped to start this puzzle but in the end I finished it off and it took a few weeks to do so.  One of the issues was that the cutting pattern was not unique for every piece.  So some pieces slotted in perfectly but did not match their neighbour.  I have packed it away now and started another one which seems way more harder, as it does not give the proper puzzle picture on the outside of the box.  There are clues there like the puzzle action is what the people on the box are looking at.  They are judging a performance of some sought so there must be a stage etc that they can see.  At least these pieces are oddly cut. 

Main Sreet

Main Street Update

We started the puzzle two weeks ago after setting up the new table. A blindman could see it wasn't finished and could not really be moved and another blindman said bad luck you have to move it anyway so I can get at your blinds. I would say we have done one third in the two weeks. As for actual time spent it varies each day but the maximum for a day would be no more than an hour. I have also found that the time of day makes a difference.  If you try at late afternoon with angled sunlight then it is much harder to see the details.  There are five puzzles in this series.  I don't think we need them.

Main Street

1650 map

When I was drawing maps back at MMBW at 1:2500 the first thing you would do is close the outside boundaries. So knowing your outer edges were correct then you could fill in towards the centre knowing everything would fit. I have taken the same approach with this puzzle map as well, get a handle on the frame then fill it in.  I also spent an hour or so up the olive tree again this time the yield was four kilos and there is plenty more. On the density front we have rediscovered sardines, a fishy snack we used to eat before kids. Not sure why kids and sardines don't go.

1800 to go

I need a bigger tub

King Oscar

H Payne reserve

The other day we took Asher for a walk down the end of their street to Payne Reserve.  43 yar ago that park was different because I had my 21st birthday party there and there was a building or a hall with a stage and a kitchen area that I can remember.  It was a bit of a country knees up affair but there is no sign of any kind of construction other than a toilet block.  I had a look at Google Earth and the photos only go back to 2000 but that means sometime in the 24 yar between 1976 and 2000, somebody made off with a building. Unless I am in the wrong place. I looked for some other photos and can only find two which were taken inside.

Someone must have other photos?

I found the old MMBW plans that I used to work with.  This one shows why there is a Reserve (circled) as West Breen creek used to flow thru it.  So it would have been filled in and a pipe placed underneath.  But does not show any building in the lot to the North.

This reserve is a Payne

Da Vinci Room

Escape rooms are games where you have to follow clues and solve cyphers to get yourself out of the room. A 3D puzzle as such. I have heard that there are more elaborate schemes like this involving a whole house in Flemington.  Our team had enough trouble with one Da Vinci room.  The post mortem discussion suggested that we reveal the hints (QR codes) in a more timely way perhaps then allowing more progress through the maze rather than trying to get the lowest score. Our 50 minutes was up and we had to be let out.

Dan Brown we're not

Wardrobe Reveal

The Puzzling Photo

It has been said that the fifth sign of retirement is doing jigsaw puzzles. I beg to differ.  The below photo of the Red Circle was completed some 30 yar ago and was a tad difficult. Also in the recent video of the AT I posted the other day, you may have noticed an open to the public community jigsaw puzzle just sitting in the common room waiting for a passerby to add a piece here or a piece there. It just so happens I did complete a puzzle the other day which was unique in that I took the photo that is it's subject.
There is a measure of control over your own puzzle experience when you are responsible for deciding the content, especially when the cut out frame does not produce sufficiently unique shapes for each piece. The Red Circle was essential in having uniquely shaped puzzle pieces.  The Bay of Silence puzzle had a sand section that I am still not sure is put together correctly, as some pieces seemed to interchange.
This puzzle is another way of reliving our recent Europe trip. There is a black art in selecting the puzzling photo. The detail here was good in three quarters with boats and apartments divided by the bikini girl but more towels or people were needed on the sand.

The Red Circle

Bay of Silence

A Key Outcome

I geared up for a major expedition. Gathered a tote bag for knife, torch, gaffer tape and should have had a breathing mask. Yes I was going under the house. Go back two days though, to our bathroom where I took a towel off the door knob which flicked the door key out of the lock and pirouetted it neatly through the bars in the floor grill. The key entered at speed and came to rest two metres down the tube.  Underneath, after winding through a maze of tubes, wires and cables I reached the target.  Slicing through at the lowest point, there was a flood of dirt, lathen plaster rubble and debris. This had been lying in there and wafting dust upward with the warm air for years but I did get the key out.

Now this key has two locks

Nongkhai conundrum

Went to a 31st  dinner for James at NongKhai.  Along the way it seems that what is old is new again like conundrums.  I was thinking that you could set up a whole online conundrum service. You could send out the scenario by SMS.  Attend to questions and answers via an email group and even drop a hint  like "How important his job is!" in my blog just now. This would also gain readership stats. So

 

"He died because he didn't see the sawdust."

 

 

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