Just less than a week after returning from DCD we’re all
meeting up in the Barnt Green church hall for MPP LCVIIII – thanks to some bad
foresight on my part and a slightly later than usual DCD.
Once again I don’t have anyone staying over so I have a
relatively leisurely start to the morning, loading up virtually all of the
puzzles I’ve brought back from Houston and DCD for everyone to play with. A quick
stop at Tesco to pick up the sodas and milk before opening up the hall and
starting to set everything out. Phil, Mike and the Monkeys arrive pretty soon after
that and they all muck in to put out the tables…
I almost manage to stop Steve
from creating a culturally inappropriate symbol in the centre of the hall using
tables, and the puzzles are soon brought out to play…
Between us I reckon we end up with three or four sets of
exchange puzzles so there’s plenty for everyone who wasn’t at IPP to have a go
on. Steve and I ended up having a long philosophical discussion before putting
the world properly to rights before we also dived into the puzzling delights on
offer.
I’ve taken along my set of bits for an orderly tangle of
pentagons from DCD in the hopes of getting someone to assemble it for me – I AM
a lazy soul! I get my hopes up when Chris bites and assembles a perfectly
interlocked chain of pentagons and declares it topographically equivalent to
the orderly tangle… I’m not convinced and then Steve gets in on the act to
experiment with making any shape but a pentagon… the pile of sticks is still a
pile of sticks on my desk as I write this a week later… I missed Louis!
Several folks had a go at the Pelikan Safe – and I suspect
most were successful although the final hurdle slowed everyone down a bit, as
you’d expect!
I tried to get a few folks to have a go at Stefan’s exchange
but the first stage proved a bit too challenging for puzzlers in search of a
quicker puzzling fix – there was simply too much other shiny stuff around…
speaking of shiny stuff, the Monkey’s had all their latest toys for sale, as
did Phil so several folks ended up Sliding Away home and Making Love Easier –
you’re welcome.
As usual Kevin had brought along copies of all the latest goodies
from Pelikan and they had a jolly good playing with. The Raichos proved to be a
big hit with all the box-lovers in the group – albeit some of them took an embarrassingly
long time to open the simpler of the two.
By the time we got to the High Street for pig buns, we found
they’d sold out an hour and a half earlier – it seems the locals have taken to
eating them for breakfast now, meaning our chances of finding any at lunch time
are getting significantly smaller… pity!
Kyle ended up making a lot more progress on Jammed Coin that
I’d managed to, and ended up completing the solve later that evening at my
place… which is a pity because that sort of ruins my excuse (“clearly it’s
broken”)!
Robin had brought along a few constructions that amused
Steve for ages while he assembled them, and then for a split-second while he
spun them gently apart with those around cheering loudly. Robin was also the
only person who took some of Ali’s giant (Monument!) Hanayamas apart – he shrugged
it off, but we all recognised the mad skillz!
Anthony generously gave pretty much all who didn’t already
have, a copy of his Robert Reid-designed space-filling tilings and I managed to
get rid of a couple more exchange puzzles and several copies of my IPP42 gift
Morph… which was also making a king-sized appearance courtesy of designer Mike,
along with what appeared to be a close cousin, although, knowing Mike, no doubt
the solutions will be nothing alike!
Several of us had a play with Steve’s clear prototype of Kawashima’s
Duet Box – in spite of all of the side panels being clear acrylic, there still
appeared to be something magical happening between some of the panels that was
totally invisible…
With sunset coming earlier and earlier we packed up the hall
and head for The Badgers where the puzzling continued on the dining room table
until the fish suppers arrived.
As usual the cutest of the Karakuri boxes got a good playing
with until the Gentleman Crocodile stopped all in their tracks… and not just
because one of the legs was unceremoniously ripped off… the three-legged croc
stubbornly refused all attempts at opening it and I was pretty sure I knew what
needed doing… it remained firmly locked up until the next day when I confirmed
my recollection of the solution was indeed spot on but it still wouldn’t budge.
Remembering that I’d previously had a similar experience with an eager puzzle
ripping off a leg I explored the theory that an earlier repair might be to
blame for the current lock-up… and indeed that was the case – I’d helpfully
glued the secret compartment shut… it’s fixed now for anyone who wants to try
it again… but please don’t pull off his legs!
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