Puzzle party at Oskar's

 

Sunday Morning.  Oskar came into my room and wished me a good morning.  When he did, I was digging through my suitcase looking for a puzzle and he joked about bringing mine down when the guys came over.  While I was digging, he asked after my Berrocals and I dutifully dug them out.  As a general puzzling rule, you don’t take something apart unless you can get it back together.  I took David to bits and handed it to Oskar.  He mentioned it was the first time a Berrocal entered his house and then set about solving it!  Bravo!  It only took him 10 minutes or so. 

We woke late(ish) and had brunch.  I must say, I was too excited to eat much.  Today is the puzzle party!  I’ve been looking forward to this for a few weeks.  I knew TomZ, Wil, Chris, Franz, and a few others were coming.  I was eager to see my friends again, and to see the toys they brought along. 

The first to arrive was Peter, followed by Jaap.  A real surprise for me!  I am glad to finally have met the man who is responsible for my early collecting bug.  Another and another showed up.  An then Wil came in and the hugs started….

(by the time they left, everyone got a hug from Rox-as usual.)

José passed out tea and cake and puzzles started to come out.  I ran upstairs and got my bag of goodies and placed them on the table.  I took personal delivery of some of the Streetwise metal puzzles (including the egg) and was told I could NOT pay in kisses.  Mean man that pusher is.

I played and photographed and played some more.  The majority of the time everyone spoke Dutch, but it didn’t bother me.  I was having such a good puzzling time that I didn’t care.  I also noticed that Dutch and German are fairly close so I was able to understand bits and pieces of the conversations. 

 

Jaap brought along a good collection of toys I hadn’t seen before along with a fair few I had.  I was especially pleased to see the two recent ones that have come up for auction lately. 

TomZ brought some 3d printed puzzles he made on his new machine, and Will had a few packing puzzles.  Oskar pulled out a few of his and we played on.  There were others, but I forget who brought what.  Even José got in on the puzzling for a while.

We puzzled the afternoon away and around 6 Oskar started the BBQ.  We had steak on a stick and hamburgers, salads…a nice spread.  Of course, the puzzling moved out doors and we carried on for a while.  The guys had to go home and all broke away before 9. 

Oh yes, I forgot:  Oskar is VERY WELL HUNG!

It was a great puzzle party and I thank Oskar and José from the bottom of my heart for making it happen.

Tomorrow, my final day with Oskar and José.