The Happiness Continues and Yukari Placates Mrs S

The second delivery of the week!

There might have been more than one delivery of new toys this week and this, of course, makes me very happy (even if Mrs S is not so sure). The photo above shows two deliveries received yesterday and these were not the first to arrive this week. The 2 leftmost puzzles came from Juno and Yukari's Pluredro store - they are the final puzzle in the "Suits series", the Spade case and the Tangled clip burr. Yes yes yes! I know I don't collect boxes but the suits puzzles are technically called "cases" and so I am allowed (sort of). I reviewed the others here and here (where someone left me a little humorous message inside). The other puzzles in the picture above were my puzzles received from Tom Lensch (OrdiNARY burr, Pushbutton burr, Galette and King box. These should keep me happy for quite a while!

The other package to arrive this week came from the Doctor of wood, Eric Fuller. His recent update on Cubic Dissection had quite a few I wanted to add to my collection but funds and fear of Mrs S kept me down to just 3 new toys from him (one was from the much cheaper Artisan collection which saved me a little money). This delivery also made me very happy - the new toys were lovely and my inquisitive little boys loved the box!

They cannot resist!

Neither can I!

After receiving 3 packages in such a short time I was very happy and Mrs S was thinking of ways to reduce my happiness and maybe even inflict pain! I was still working on the wonderful Happiness cubes from Alfons that I showed off last week. Having solved the first one, I seriously struggled with the next few but alternating with working on that damned Jigsaw 29 puzzle, I began to have more and more success - these are seriously clever interlocking puzzles with a couple so far having rotational moves too for the final disassemblies:

OMG! How awesome are these?

The happiness kept on coming all week as I worked through these and then my deliveries all arrived. To top it all off the coming week is all annual leave and there will be more happiness as a) I am not at work and b) there might be another package on the way......or two! Shhh! Don't let on to Mrs S! I will have to pay for all this happiness with quite a lot of work around the house and garden! My study has degenerated into a shithole again and the pre-winter gardening needs to be done and to top it off, I need to collate my tax return information too! But....my happiness will not be abated!

Spade case

Having received the Spade case from Juno and Yukari, I started on it last night whilst watching TV with Mrs S. This made her happy because there was no jingling and no swearing either! Made from:

"Karri, American Black Walnut, Koto etc."

It is a really lovely little case. The etc. becomes clear only after it has been solved! It measures 89 x 89 x 60mm and at first sight would appear to be just like the Club case in mechanism with a sliding lid and another sliding panel at 90º to that underneath it. There are a few very simple and limited moves possible with the 2 sliding panels and they do seem to interact rather like those of the Club case but within just a few mm of movement it comes to a stop and despite the feel of an interlinked maze on the panels, the maze seems to end in a blind end. I sat watching TV and just did the same 5-7mm of movements again and again and again feeling to see if something different was inside or I was missing an exit. It did not seem to work so I turned it upside down and tried again whilst listening to it much to the amusement of Mrs S. As expected, this didn't work for me either.

What is happening here? I have no idea!

I did notice that there was an unusual feature visible through the spade on the top and contemplated what might be going on for a while. Is the maze blocked by something that needs to be shifted? But then, this does look like a blind-ending is blocked here. Having watched a whole program on TV without getting any further, it was time for a little pre-bed green tea and another period of thought and investigation. Feeling my way around the maze very gently, I suddenly noticed something VERY subtle! He is a very subtle man that Juno! Having felt something strange, I gnawed at that feeling for a while until it became more and more obvious. Within another few minutes, I had made some very significant discoveries and something new was revealed to me (in fact a couple of somethings new) and I can honestly say that I have never seen these before in any other puzzle. The new thing I had found was not the entire mechanism but it allowed me to deduce something that was occurring inside and attempt to use it later on in the solution. Another few minutes and I had the puzzle opened and could peer inside to find Juno's Hanko but there was something else there:

Solved, but what is that?

A little mystified I removed the contents of the box to see that, yet again, Juno and Yukari had been having a hilarious little dig at me! I showed it to Mrs S when she wondered why I was giggling to myself and she was equally delighted - yes, the happiness continued all around!

Yukari sent a handbag!

In the bag was a letter!

Many amongst the puzzling community are aware that Mrs S has a bit of a "thing" for shoes and bags! She might have quite a few of them - I couldn't possibly say on the internet how many there are but "quite a few" is the safest way for me to describe her collection! Her collection doesn't include the very expensive ones like Chanel/Dior/Vuitton but Mulberry has been my/her downfall. Obviously, Yukari knew about this habit and allowed me to capitalise on it! This little addition, yet again, absolutely made my day and made both of us laugh out loud! No loaves of bread this time but what a great way to finish up!

The Spade case is a clever little box with a very unique mechanism - it is not hugely difficult (as Juno has said himself) but the Aha moment and the final understanding, when you get to see the underside of the plates, is fabulous! This is well worth adding to your collection even if you don't get a miniature handbag inside. I am delighted to have obtained the full set and am looking forward to playing with the other puzzle that arrived from him!