Sinister: Squandering a Sunday on a 1,999 piece jigsaw puzzle...

[Jeremy Tweddle]

Hello all,

After my first post tested the waters with trepidation, I figured I'd leave
a little space between me and the outbox for a while.

I've been spending my time over the last few days slowly piecing together a
jigsaw puzzle. On the box is this lovely picture of a  Swiss lake, and when
I actually took the lid off and examined some pieces at random, I found that
they were infact just varying shades of grey, with a little hue of this and
a hint of that thrown in. For instance, the grass is green-grey, the sky is
blue-grey, the roofs are red-grey and the mountains are the colour that you
get when you mix every colour from a children's paint set together.
Admittedly the box does show the picture a little bit smaller, and thus in
focus, but nowhere on the box was there a warning saying "Warning: All
colours are infact just varying shades of grey".

All this pondering of placement of pieces within said puzzle got me
a'pondering on matters more peripheral. Actually, I was just thinking about
the human fascination with jigsaw puzzles. Why do people (including myself)
feel the need to complete something that nobody in their right mind would
bother with, when the picture that they're trying to create is on the lid of
the box for their instant perusal? Is it like colouring by numbers? Do they
think that once they've slotted that final piece in the sky, they can frame
it and claim it as their own masterpiece? More likely it's one of two things
1) People who are too boring to leave the comfort of their own home to
experience the unadulterated excitement and reckless abandon of watching
paint dry on fence posts.
2) People who are so amazingly self-obsessed that they would neglect their
own basic need for food, water and shelter if it meant they could finish
that 10,000 piece circular puzzle of a blizzard in Alaska before any of
their "friends".

Luckily I fit into the first category. I'm only doing the puzzle because I'm
unemployed, and plus The Lucksmiths told me to. It was one of those moments
that occur from time to time when you draw inspiration from a song that
happens to be playing, and decide to carry out some of its contained
suggestions. Now I'm starting to regret ever pulling the damn thing out of
the pile of board games, I should have been content with watching the fence
post. Oh lord! If only I'd chosen the fence post!

Well, all of the foreground (focussed parts) has been done, and now I'm
working on the mountains and sky. For some unknown reason, the going has
been getting gradually tougher as the hues accompanying the grey are
steadily vanishing from the pieces. Soon all that will be left is an
assortment of different shapes of grey to fill sky, mountain, lake, tree and
perhaps a little field or town here and there.

Hopefully I'll get a job before I start the next one. It's a Phantom of the
Opera puzzle and it's 80% black.

Jeremy

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