Even Ice Cream Doesn't Help!
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My car when I got out of work!
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Most of you are aware that there's been a bit of a heatwave in Europe recently!
It started whilst I was in Italy for the IPP and then hit with a vengeance when
I returned home. The UK is uniquely unprepared for high temperatures despite the
fact that we have had them for the last few years. Our houses retain heat (they
are built for cold winters) and it feels like hell inside (most of my house was
29-33ºC for the last week and my back garden, being south-facing reached 48ºC
for long periods of time). During all of this I have been sick with the lurgy
that I caught on the plane and feeling like death warmed-up! The only thing that
could possibly make it worse would be to share that hellish space with a "woman
of a certain age". As a result of the conditions at home, both physical and
psychological, and despite being sick as a dog, I was grateful to go and work in
an operating theatre with air-con bringing the temp down to 18ºC. I went from
boiling sweaty hot to freezing my nuts off back to boiling again.
As a result of this my puzzling skills were even more sub-par than usual!
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Nicely presented with a bag and a card
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The Cooby Scroo puzzle had been
Andreas Roever's exchange puzzle last year in Tokyo. It was brought to my attention at an MPP
afterwards when a couple of people were showing it off and extolling the virtues
of such a simple idea, so beautifully created. I even had a play with it and
marvelled at the incredibly confusing movement and how it came apart easily but
was impossible for me to put back together. This was going to be brilliant -
tempted...
When a few people placed it in their top 3 puzzles of the year at Peter
Hajek's end of year puzzle party, I broke and contacted Andreas for a copy and
arranged to pick it up in Italy.
I got a choice of colours when I picked it up and chose a lovely blue, grey,
black and white combo.
When I got home and having taken some photos to show off how it moves, I shied
away from actually dismantling it for fear of failure yet again.
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One pair moved
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Second move possible and it gets scary
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I showed it off at work and after getting an appropriate "Oh my God!"
response. I stopped playing and put it away again. I did the two beautiful
moves again and again at home, trying to make myself familiar and comfortable
with the conformational changes and eventually I was holding it slightly wrong
and it fell apart on me....Aargh! I should have known that would happen
eventually.
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This might be how it remains!
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I recalled how impossible it had been for me at the MPP and I quailed at the
thought of getting it back together. It is relatively easy to make pairs or even
a trio of pieces:
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This should do it - he hopes
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This looks great but isn't helpful!
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Over the last few days, in the blistering heat with an angry hot woman in
the background, whilst feeling like death, I have repeatedly attempted to
reassemble this bloody thing! It shouldn't be this difficult! It's only 4
pieces and has only 2 main moves but you mustn't forget how bad I am at
puzzles. Yesterday evening whilst muttering to myself and considering
femicide as a way to get a little relief, I suddenly managed to get it
together. OMG! The relief! Did I dare take it apart again? Not straight
away... I needed to relax a little and then try and redo it slowly.
Today, I can now disassemble and reassemble it to order. I can see why so many
people loved it. This puzzle is an absolute masterpiece of good design. All we
need is for someone to make it in wood (I guess that might be nearly
impossible) or possibly make it in brass.
Steve or Ali
- what do you think? Maybe a collaboration with Andreas might be in order?
Gelateria from Alexander Magyarics
During a heatwave, there is nothing better than a fabulous refreshing cool
Gelato. I thought that attempting the Gelateria puzzle might be refreshing for
me. Yes, I was wrong!
Alexander was a "greenhorn" at this IPP and previously they have not been
allowed to exchange. This year the committee made a change to the rules and
newbies were allowed to do so if they created their own design. Alexander has
quite rightfully earned his place attending an IPP due to the HUGE number of
amazing puzzle designs he has created over the last few years. You can tell
that they are really really good when craftsmen like Brian Menold and Jakub
Dvorak use the designs to produce gorgeous wood creations. I have reviewed
quite a lot of his designs over the last few years and it was simply amazing
to meet him in the flesh after such a long time. Unfortunately, we were both
so busy that we didn't really have much time to chat and properly catch up.
Whilst I was assisting Jerry Loo in his exchange, I saw Alexander's puzzle and
decided that it looked a lot of fun and determined to obtain a copy at the
main puzzle party the following day.
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Just a few challenges!
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Alexander is a "completionist" - he finds a simple design, modifies it to add
extra complexity and then looks for as many associated challenges as possible.
I have quite a lot of these in my collection and I am absolutely terrible at
solving them. Maybe this would be better? It is at its heart a tetromino tray
packing puzzle. We have all played with these as kids - I know I used to play
with one belonging to my older cousin when I was about 8 - I loved it. The 5x8
voxel tray can be fitted with 10 tetrominoes in many ways - that is easy.
Alexander has created a LOT of challenges (the sheet has 48!) to decrease the
options and make it MUCH tougher. The tray has holes in it and you re provided
with a set of black blockers that can be inserted into it. The tetrominoes are
now restricted where they can be placed because they must straddle the
blocker. To get you used to it, he gives a couple of challenges with 8
solutions, 3 with 4, 1 with 3 and 9 with 2. All the rest have just 1 possible
solution.
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8 possible solutions - easy?
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| Hell, NO! |
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I also took this to work and during a rather long boring orthopaedic operation
(after 4 hours and no end in sight, I needed something else to think about),
Colin and I set to work on one of the 8 solution challenges.
This is really REALLY difficult! Neither of us were able to solve it in about
an hour of attempts. I have been trying at home in the heat and still cannot
get it. I need a way to think about these challenges. There must be a logical
way to work it out but I am seriously struggling to get my little bwain around
it.
I appear to have Scroo'd by Alexander as well! Maybe I need another hobby? Whack! Ouch!
If you get a chance to buy a copy then you should absolutely do so. There
are so many challenges and they are so approachable even if they are
impossible. Alexander's puzzles are sold by
PuzzleMaster, by
Tye Stahly
and possibly by Alexander himself via
Facebook
or
Instagram. Drop him a line. He is delightful to chat to and his puzzles are
amazing.
I have not yet tried the One Way or Another puzzle which won a Jury honourable
mention prize in the
IPP design competition. That is quite a feat!
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