Puzzle exchange. Day 8

Christmas in August.  Enough puzzles to take a year and then some to solve.  The solution to all your purchasing woes....

Day 8 of my trip was the puzzle exchange.  This is a truly amazing event.  Not in just that I exchanged 100 puzzles and brought a suitcase full home, but in the people I get the chance to hug and talk to.  This is why I go to IPP.  The people, and today was no exception.

I was first invited to IPP in 2010 and Pantazis Houlis asked me to be his exchange assistant that year.  Since then, I have tried to ask a first time IPPer to be my assistant and this year was no exception.  My good friend Otis from Beijing, via Hong Kong was invited for his first IPP and when I found out, he had no choice but to assist me.

I took great pleasure in watching the look on his face each time I made an exchange.  I gave Otis my list of exchanges to tick off and advised him to tick off any puzzles he would be interested in purchasing the next day.  He did that.  It tickled me when he tried to explain my puzzle a few times in the beginning.  But then he got into the groove of the exchange and I even stopped introducing him because he took over doing that himself.  You've come a long way baby!  When I first met you, you were a shy kid.  Now!  You did good!

Each puzzler must walk around the room exchanging one puzzle for another. In other words, you have to give your little puzzle talk 100 times.  Wow!  That's a lot of talking.  It took all of 6 hours to do it too.  That's a lot of talking.  By the end, my throat was dry and I was exhausted.  I'll admit, I'm slowing down now.  Ok.  Maybe not slowing down.  Maybe I'm just getting smarter.  If I take a nap during the day I can party all night and wake up again early in the morning and restart.  It is a boys and toys after all!

I've been asked to give my little talk so here goes.  (Sorry Friend. it was there and besides, no one reads this anyway.)

Allard being subjected to Rox

"As you know, I'm a bit of a twisty girl and wanted a twisty puzzle for my next exchange (2014).  On the way home from Tokyo (IPP33) I invented a puzzle and brought it to my good friend at Mf8 to mass produce.  He said sure Rox no problem and I left it in his hands.  Well round about January I got a call and Mr. Fok said 'Hey hun, we are so busy making all these crazy cubes and I can't make yours.'

Now, I'm desperate. The puzzle review is coming up and I've no puzzle.  Well, desperate times call for desperate measures.  In desperation, I called Wil and we all know Wil loves desperate women and he came to my rescue.  He found me a puzzle made by Jean Claude Constantine.

The puzzle is still a bit twisty because that's what I like. All you have to do is move the three pieces around and find my hole.  Now you know you've found my hole when your ball(s) fall out."

Tell that to a room of around 95 men.  :)  Total enjoyment for me.  Slightly risqué but not overly so.  Sorry Nick.  I just had to!

Find my hole

It's that time again

Once again it's time for the biggest puzzle party of the year.  The one everyone looks forward to.  That's right.  IPP!

I'm sitting here at home getting ready to take off for the airport.  In 18 short hours or so I'll land and be picked up by a dear friend only to drive onwards back to Warwick and the good couple Allard and Gill.  MPP is Saturday morning and then Sunday will bring a puzzle hunt at some undisclosed location.

From there its a few days of visiting with friends in the UK before heading over to the main event!  Yes, this little girl is excited yet again.

After a bit of panic and what now is worth laughing over, Uwe managed to get quite a few puzzles sent off to London for me. All are waiting at the hotel we will be staying at.  Thank heavens they got there on time.  I'd have been very upset if they hadn't.  I'm pretty sure the recipient would have been too.

Right, time to take a shower and lock up those suitcases.

Stay tuned for postings on my take on IPP again this year.