This is Supposed to be Relaxing? AKA I'm an Eejit!

Euklid for Nick - I just cannot solve it!

I'm sorry guys, today I have nothing solved to write about and no new arrivals to show off. I got into this hobby as a result of something horrific which occurred at work with the aim of taking my mind of things and helping me relax. I even started a website about it to encourage others in their puzzling pathway. I have maintained at least a weekly post for almost 10 years with something new for you...until today I'm afraid! In fact the last couple of days have been incredibly stressful as I desperately try to solve something so that I can blog about it. I have had to admit defeat (actually Mrs S has got fed up with my groaning and swearing as I tried and failed) - a relaxing hobby? Nope, actually it's now quite stressful!

This last year has been horrific for all of humanity and especially for those in the "caring" professions. Work has become all encompassing and leaves very little time or energy to play with my lovely toys. I was lucky to have a whole weekend off work this weekend for the first time in ages and was hopeful that I might be able to solve something in that short time to show off to you (as well as to boost my confidence). My friend and fellow CFF editor, Theo Geerinck recently showed off that he had made a copy of Euklid for Nick for himself and had even managed to solve it without much difficulty. A quick discussion on Facebook had him advising me to Think© outside the box which I have tried to do for nearly 2 days now and have singularly failed! I'm an eejit = I'm an idiot (at least when it comes to packing puzzles). If you wish to torture yourselves then it is sold out at the Pelikan website but still available from PuzzleMaster.

At one point during this I made a lovely sliding and rotational movement which I thought was so perfect that it had to be correct but it still left me unable to insert one last block and then to my horror I couldn't reverse the beautiful move to take the pieces out. I spent a horrible ½ hour puffing, panting and swearing at myself thinking I had permanently locked up my toy. This really pissed off Mrs S and she forced me to stop torturing myself with the question, "I thought that this was supposed to be fun and relaxing for you?" She's not wrong, I gave up trying to solve it for the time being and here we are with nothing solved and only a tale of woe for you. Allard loved it and solved it but he's a much better puzzler than me. Can you do it?

I did also try to solve the Legal Packing puzzle which others have raved about

Legal packing

Nope! I couldn't solve this one either! I have lost my Mojo.

I hope that my solving powers will return soon or this is going to become a very boring blog for you all to read! Unfortunately I have to work the next two weekends in a row and won't have much time to figure something out - the pressure is on! Sigh!

Keep safe everyone! The vaccinations are underway but it will be a very long time before the world is safe.