Puzzles

I was thinking about the way I use games like Bookworm and Bejewelled for fun and also as a distraction/calming mechanism when struggling mentally or emotionally. And about the phrase peace in puzzles I've heard a few times. I had little motivation to write this evening and was procrastinating playing Candy Train and Bookworm. My mood has been an issue the last few days.

In the end I decided to write about puzzles. I had expected to write something that featured a character using puzzles similar to how I do. Once I started writing however I got quite into it, it was easier than I expected and it went off on a completely different tangent.

I surprised myself and enjoyed writing this.

Puzzles

Puzzles. You either love them or you hate them. Kate loved them. Or at least she thought she did. She'd only recently gotten into them and her track record being what it was it was probably too soon to be declaring her love for all things puzzle. But that didn't stop her.

She'd done that with fly fishing. Spent several hundred pounds she could hardly afford on rods and tackle. All the latest gadgets and gizmos any fisher woman could ever need. And then used them a grand total of twice. Impulsive, that was Kate.

She'd done it with skiing. Several days on the beginners and easy slopes and two hours of tuition and she knew it all. It was time for a challenge. A black run. Or more a black fall in this case. One that ended in a broken leg and a multitude of bruises. Running before she could walk was a frequent problem Kate had. This time was just a lot more painful than usual.

She'd done it with her Spanish lessons. Loved the first half term. Booked a holiday to deepest South America, deliberately chosen a place where she was unlikely to meet English speakers. Kate had been really proud of herself for that one. The actual Spanish lessons had tailed off not long after she made the booking. But she'd bought a phrase book and practiced those important phrases like "can I have a vodka, please?" and "which way to the loo?" She was set. This was going to be the one time it worked out. Kate had kept that optimism until she got off the plane. And discovered that they speak Portuguese in Brazil. Our Kate never was one for checking her facts.

But puzzles. Puzzles were different. She really was getting into puzzles. They were the thing she really was good at. Things didn't go terribly wrong if she failed to plan properly. They weren't expensive, didn't require a lot of equipment and weren't going to kill her. Her puzzle book was also the only thing she could do. It was a long flight back from Brazil and the movies were shit.

♥ Emma