Thursday, February 19, 2009

Skiing Holiday With a Puzzle

I really have been neglecting my blog! One of the reasons has been my work and the computer classes. I have a new Finnish blog Kompuutteri about computers and updating that for the students has taken me more time than I ever would have expected. Explaining programs and Internet as clearly as possible is not as easy as it may sound. Things I consider matter-of-course can be totally unknown to someone else.

Now I am having my skiing holiday. It has been a tradition in the Finnish school system as long as I have been involved, either as a student or a teacher. We don't really have skiing conditions here in the south by the sea but I prefer the old name instead of just a winter holiday which is used nowadays.

I had very many good intentions about my blogs and cleaning the computer files as well as cleaning the house but I needed some relaxation after the tiresome week in school. I subscribe to a couple of Japanese magazine and the latest issue of Logic Paradise had a huge 110 x 175 Pic-A-Pix included. I decided to give it a try:

After the first day I had some progress to keep my spirits up:


There were mental distractions as well as physical :) Piitu is actually an experienced solver. I have a picture of her solving a puzzle with me when she was a couple of months old.


After two days I was confident I would manage it:


And then I was hooked! I had to take breaks but soon my mind started to wander back to the puzzle and there I was, solving the puzzle forgetting all about the other things I should have done. The totally white spaces in the picture are reflections from the flash light. The paper is glossy and the it is not straight any more. At certain angles all the light reflects back.

As you can see I have made some attempts on the right by counting the overlaps but they did not get me very far. The solution advances along the picture. At some points when I have thought I was stuck, the next step was found after a break with a clear mind. There have always been clues which I just did not notice the first time.

Even though I have not followed my original to-do-list I feel so relaxed and happy. This is something I could do all the time.

2 comments:

Betsie said...

Oh Leena! That puzzle looks so awesome! I've never seen one so large before. I love the puzzles that have highly detailed solution pictures. I look forward to seeing how it all turns out. Thank you so much for sharing this with us... I love the photo with Piitu =)

~ Betsie

Anonymous said...

WOW..!!! you do a great job...
I love the photo which contain a dog hahah so cute :D