Notes from Puzzle Palace

Monday, March 5, 2012

Long over due

Well this thing called life got in the way.  I had every intention of putting up 4 posts after last weekend but work and other stuffs managed to take up all my time.  Well, better late than never.  So here goes the next puzzle report....More to follow.

Every other weekend or so I do this examining thing and there is a lot of down time. On days when I am on for the full day there are 3 long breaks in there as well.  Since I examine in hotel rooms, there are just so many things one can do during those breaks:  I don't watch tv so that is out; Um the obvious hotel room stuff is unacceptable, and a girl can only take a bath for so long.  That all leaves me with puzzling.  And that is what I do.  I bring them along and I puzzle away.

The first in my line up is called the Round dozen.  It was this years exchange puzzle from James Dalgety.  A nice little packing puzzle that comes with a free coaster!  And not just any, it't the kind that lets the water drip through to your table.  (I really hate the kind where the condensation stays inside)  So what is the puzzle?  12 circle chips need to be placed in one circle.  Easy enough I would think.  But it is a bit tricky. I think this one took about 6 candidates worth of downtime to solve. (the breaks between candidates are between 5-8 minutes.  And don't forget to add in the brain recovery/getting back on track time)  There was a lot of trail and error for me with this one but I got there in the end.

I want to add that James very nicely put the numbers on there for  a second puzzle.  The first is just to fit them in.  The second is to fit them in with the number being the number of circle chips touching the piece in question.  Puzzle number two took the next 5 candidates down time and my lunch break.  That one is just a bit trickier.  On the packaging it also says there is yet another puzzle available if we contact the designer....I may just have to do that.

The photo of a solved puzzle here, is not solved!  I smashed those bits in there and you can see the shadows all over.  They are not flush with the table, but rather "bumped up".

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