Tuesday 1 January 2019

A puzzling time

Well, it's New Year's Day, so, in keeping with Thorley tradition, the decorations are down and the hostess trolley has gone back in the loft for another year. Order has been restored, so that can only mean one thing: it's time to start the new jigsaw.

Guidelines for successful and harmonious jigsaw completing

  1. Measure the table before you start, and allow generous margins all round for elbows.
  2. No dangly sleeves allowed. Woe betide he who lifts an interlocking section from the table with his cuff.
  3. No food or drink allowed on the table.
  4. On opening the box, any pieces that are already joined together must be separated and returned to the pool to be rediscovered individually at the appropriate time.There are those people who celebrate pre-connected pieces. These people are wrong. These same delinquents will pause the TV to give themselves longer to solve the Countdown Conundrum and Google the answers to a cryptic crossword.
  5. The search for pieces must begin with edges and, especially, corners. Note that Rule 4 applies. 
  6. Only the owner of the puzzle may insert the final piece. NB It is never funny to hide this and then reveal it with feigned surprise at its discovery after everyone else has spent an hour on their hands and knees looking for it.
 Have fun!



10 comments:

  1. What a fun tradition! I love jigsaw puzzles. I just never have time to work them. Actually, I love any kind of puzzle, jigsaw, crossword. But this sounds like a great New Year's Day tradition. Have fun!

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  2. Hey, we have the same rules at our house! I was cruel and gave two friends those colour gradient puzzles. They're tough!

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    1. Blimey, that is a bit mean! (Only joking, of course.) I quite fancy having a go at one of the wasgij puzzles, where the picture is a mirror-image of the puzzle.

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  3. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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  4. I admire your tradition of taking the decorations down so soon - I haven't quite managed it that early yet and will probably leave the last few until Friday or Saturday! It's so long since I did a jigsaw but funnily enough I was eyeing them up before Christmas. I didn't actually buy one, so maybe another year. All the best for 2019!

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    1. It was strange driving home in the dark last night and seeing houses still decorated. It's over, people! It's certainly time to take down the 'Santa, please stop here' signs.

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  5. 2 words …. "control" and "freak"

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