World's Most Difficult Jigsaw Puzzle, Kittens edition - Solving tips

The World's Most Difficult Jigsaw Puzzle series was released in the 90s, and as a huge cat fan and lover of jigsaw puzzles I was given this Kittens Edition puzzle when I was a teenager. I'm not usually one to choose very difficult puzzles, but I couldn't resist the image on this one, and I remember solving it without too much difficulty. 

I was able to solve it because I realised that there is a bit of a trick to completing it, and it's not nearly as difficult as it is made out to be. So today I thought I'd share how I completed this vintage puzzle, to show that it's not as daunting as it looks!

Why so difficult?

This 529 puzzle is double sided, depicting the same artwork on both sides, rotated 90° with respect to each other. The puzzle is then die cut once from each side so top and bottom are identical!

Why is it not so difficult?

All the pieces are the same shape and size, and they fit in a regular pattern. The cats are distinctive, with different shades, eye colours and patterns. There aren't really that many pieces, and if you have a decent sized table or puzzle board you can lay them out all at once for a clear view. If you spend time sorting the pieces using the method that I'll explain below then once you come to the assembly you are familiar with the pieces and you can put it together pretty easily. Also the description of the rotation is misleading, as that's not quite what is going on.

How to solve the World's Most Difficult Jigsaw Puzzle

The way this puzzle works is that the reverse side image is reflected along the diagonal, which runs from the bottom left to the top right corners. My son has better spatial awareness skills than me and helped me to understand, I still don't really get it but you just have to imagine a diagonal line running across it - I've included a photo lower down to illustrate it!

Start with the edges

There aren't many edge pieces. As you look through the puzzle pieces, you will notice that the majority of the pieces can be put together in pairs with an identical albeit rotated part of the image on each side.

This is the key to solving the puzzle. 

So sort out the edge pieces, then group them into their pairs. You will be left with two corner pieces which each have the same image section rotated, and two corner pieces which pair together. You need to find all the edge pieces before you can start putting them together.

Pick out one of the corner pieces that has the same image rotated front and back. In this puzzle, they will be the bottom left and top right pieces. Place the piece down, and this first piece will determine the top side of the puzzle. 

Then take all the edge pieces and separate them into their pairs. Turn one of the pieces over to show the reverse image. Keep the pairs clearly together! Now you have all the parts of the image laid out, so you can put together the edge. Start from the corner, and choose the piece from the pair that fits on one side. If it doesn't fit then use the other piece. Then the remaining piece will go the opposite side of the corner piece. It shouldn't take too long to put the edge together!

Sort the remaining pieces

I won't lie - this is a big job. But it's absolutely worth doing! You need to got through all the remaining pieces, and sort them into their pairs. Don't worry about which way up they are, just make lots of little piles of two pieces. The image on each will have the same orientation.

Not all the pieces have a pair. The pieces that run along the centre diagonal from bottom left to top right, in this puzzle nineteen pieces, will have the same part of the image on both sides, but rotated. Keep these to one side, but don't forget about them when assembling! You can place them down the middle if you like, but you won't know which way up they go until you place pieces around them.

Tips for sorting the pieces into their pairs

* When looking for pairs, remember that because the pieces are double sided, the match that you are looking for might be face down.

* Look for distinctive pieces, for example those that are all one colour or in the case of this puzzle the eyes are a good place to start.

* If you can't find a match for the piece that you are holding, turn it over and hunt for the reverse image.

* Group all the pieces with one dominant colour, and when you've established that they don't pair with each other then turn them over and look for the other side.

* Because the pieces are all the same shape you can orient them all the same way which makes it easier to find a match.

* Many pieces can be placed the correct way up because of the cat's face or ears, which helps when finding a match.

Ready for the final assembly!

That's the worst bit over with!

Take all your pairs, and like before place them together and turn one of the pieces over so that all the parts of the image are visible. Keep the pairs together! Ideally you will have enough space in your puzzle area to lay out every piece clearly.

From your pairs, one of the pieces will go one way up and one the other, but you don't know yet which is which. So I find it easiest to start from the edges. Once you have placed one piece, you know that the other piece in the pair will fit in the corresponding place on the reverse side. If the piece doesn't fit then you know that you need to use the other one from the pair. You can see the reflection in this picture:

I've tried to explain it more clearly by placing a line across the board showing where the image is reflected in the photographs below. You can see how the irregular groups of pieces that I have already placed at this point are reflected across to the other side of the puzzle. It took me a while to work this out, and even when I knew how the reflection worked I still found it tricky to work out where to put the second piece - often I had to flip the next piece over to see where to put it! You just know that if you've connected the first piece to an existing piece then the second piece will fit somewhere!

Once you've got going, you have lots of places that you can work off and it's not so difficult to spot the pieces that you need. Keep all the pieces oriented the same way to make finding them easier, and as I keep saying, don't muddle up the pairs!

Completed puzzle

All the pre-sorting really does pay off, and completing the puzzle shouldn't be too difficult. I really love this puzzle, it's a vintage reminder of childhood and I've done it lots of times now so it's easier each time as I remember all the different little cat faces.

Other puzzles in the series

There were lots of other puzzles that were a part of this series. I saw one in a charity shop not that long ago which was a repetitive pile of sweets, and decided that it wasn't for me as I was looking for easier puzzles at the time. There was a Baked Beans one too I'm sure. They do pop up quite often on eBay so they are still around in cupboards all over the country - If I spot another on my charity shop trails in the future I'll probably pick it up, just so I can see if it's solved in the same way!

What I did while my husband was away

I'm used to my husband being away for work one or two nights a week, but occasionally he goes away for a longer stretch. Recently he was away for over a week, and now that the children don't need my attention quite as much as they used to I enjoyed having some time to myself.

The first thing that I did was to build myself a 'nest'. I set myself up on the sofa in our orangery and I had plenty of space to lay out all my things without being disturbed. There is space to do a jigsaw, keep a pile of books, my cross stitch and my notebooks. Of course I have a lovely warm blanket, cushions, and space for a drink and snacks.

On the screens I had a list of television programmes to work through. My son and I watched the latest season of Percy Jackson, and we also watched the Royal Institution Christmas Lectures that we didn't get around to over Christmas. I had a playlist filled with longer Everest documentaries - my current fascination - and I've also recently been investigating Substack so I had fun setting that up and finding some new writers to subscribe to.

I wanted to make sure that I had plenty of screen free time too. I'm working on a cross stitch which although small is quite complicated, and it's stitched on dark fabric which means that I can only really work on it during the day. It's vaguely Christmas themed, so it would be nice to have it complete ready to display this winter!

I treated myself to a book order from World of Books, delivering me a nice new selection of Everest books. I'm building up quite a collection! Some of them are quite niche, so buying second hand is the cheapest way to get them. I also had a big pile of fiction books borrowed from a friend to add in the mix.

I worked my way to the end of my pile of new and new-to-me jigsaws, and I'm planning on re-doing some of the older ones in my collection before passing them on to new homes. I very rarely want to do a puzzle again, especially when it's so easy and cheap to find new or secondhand jigsaws in charity shops. This large Zodiac puzzle was only £5 new from Hobbycraft, and free to me as I used my Hobbycraft birthday voucher to buy it!

As well as indulging myself in my hobbies, when my husband is away it gives me the chance to clear the decks a bit. I gave his desk a good clean and got all the washing done that he had left lying around. I also saw the chance to work through any food that needed eating up. We spent the week eating leftovers from the freezer - like the roast potatoes and Yorkshire puddings from Christmas that I had forgotten about! 

Of course I can and do indulge myself in my hobbies when he is at home, but it is nice to be able to catch up on some of the things that I enjoy doing by myself so we can do things together when he gets back!

An experiment in AI recipe creation

When it comes to AI I am conflicted. I can see many advantages to the technology, and I have been very impressed with some of the ways that I've used AI. But I'm also worried about the future - already a huge amount of the content that I see online is AI generated and it is becoming more and more difficult to tell what is real. Not to mention the number of jobs which are at threat - like online content creation!

My particular interest in AI is how I could use it to improve and enhance my daily life. I use ChatGPT and I've tried it out in various different scenarios - for example I've used AI to generate images for blog posts, experimented fairly successfully with AI for holiday planning and I've even completed an AI generated jigsaw puzzle.

This week I thought I would see how good ChatGPT was at recipe creation. I had some eggs that I wanted to use up, and I fancied doing some baking. With my new year's intention being to eat more healthy food I wanted to come up with a savoury recipe that would be nutritious, with plenty of vegetables. I had in mind something like vegetable muffins, but as a larger cake baked in a loaf tin.

I had a few conversations with ChatGPT where I clarified that I wanted the recipe to use eggs, vegetables, and to be vegetarian. I was after something that would be suitable for a light lunch, to be eaten hot, and that could be kept for several days. I narrowed down the vegetables that I wanted to include, and it suggested adding quinoa for some extra bulk, which was great as I have a pack in the cupboard that needs eating up.

After a bit of going back and forth this is what we came up with:

Cheesy Quinoa Vegetable Slice

Ingredients:

60g dry quinoa, cooked in 120ml water until absorbed

2 eggs

80ml milk

80g grated cheese

50g self-raising flour

1 courgette, grated

1 red pepper, diced

1/2 an onion, chopped

salt, pepper and 1 tsp dried herbs

Method:

Mix the eggs, milk, salt, pepper and herbs. Add the cheese, cooked quinoa, courgette, pepper and onion. Fold in the flour until combined. Bake in a loaf tin at 160 for 30-35 mins until a skewer comes out clean. Leave to rest for 5-10 minutes before slicing.

Verdict

I'm enough of a cook that that I was reasonably sure the recipe would at least create something edible. I did ask ChatGPT whether I could trust an AI recipe and it admitted that I probably couldn't trust it entirely, in particular the cooking temperature and times. It also told me that the images I was given were also not to be trusted.

The quantities of the ingredients were just right to fit in my loaf tin. However the baking time was off - I ended up baking for 45 minutes and even then I didn't feel like it was cooked as well as it should be. It looked good out the oven, but when I came to slice up the texture wasn't quite what I was hoping for. I was after a cake like texture, but instead it was more like a thick omelette.

Even though it wasn't exactly what I was hoping for, I don't like to waste food, so I decided to repurpose it as vegetable fritters. I cut it into slices and then fried on both sides. This worked much better, the slices were tasty, and it would make a great protein and fibre filled breakfast or lunch.

I had fun experimenting with ChatGPT recipes and seeing what ideas it came up with. Adding the quinoa is something that I wouldn't have considered, and it helped me to think about which ingredients would work well together. I'm not going to be using AI for my recipes on a regular basis, but if I was looking for ideas to use up ingredients that I had lying around then it's not a bad place to start!

Learning to drive!

When I started writing this blog way back in 2011 I intended to document my children's milestones - but I never imagined that I would still be writing it when those milestones became adult ones like learning to drive! 

My son started driving lessons a few weeks ago, and he has already passed his theory test with flying colours. I began learning to drive shortly after the theory test was introduced and I don't remember it being that difficult, but having recently done a few practice ones I can say that now it's not easy at all! In particular I found the newer hazard perception test videos very difficult. I realised that when I'm driving I'm constantly aware of hazards - to the extent that I perceive almost everything to be a potential hazard - so I was clicking away on the videos like mad every time I spotted something that might develop into one!

One important decision to make was whether he should apply for a manual or an automatic licence. While I think that the future of cars is definitely automatic, especially if you intend to drive electric cars, I do think that there is still a need to have a manual licence for the time being. For example he may find himself needing to drive a manual hire car or a work vehicle. Luckily we have an older manual car which he can practice in, and once he has the manual licence he will always have it, even if he never needs to bother with a clutch again!

He's a natural!

We were very lucky to discover that one of his former secondary school teachers is also a driving instructor, and it is really helping him to have a teacher that knows him and that he's comfortable with. He has been progressing really well each week, moving up through the gears, going into reverse, and moving on to some busier streets.

Booking the test is a bit of a worry, because of the well-publicised backlog. It's not such a problem to wait six months for the first test, because it will take most learners longer than that to be test ready. The issue is if you fail it, and then have to wait another six months before you can retake it. I failed my first test but I only had a few weeks to wait for my second, by which time I was much more prepared and passed easily. It really piles on the pressure to pass first time.

However that's not a worry for the time being as we are still early days. It will be a while yet until I even feel brave enough to take him out for a practice in our car!

Some books that I've enjoyed recently

I feel like I've been reading a lot over the last few weeks! And I've really been enjoying what I'm reading too - I started the year with an almost empty to be read pile and so I've been filling it up with books that I've either received as gifts, borrowed, or bought myself.

Something that I'm a bit obsessed with recently is books about Mount Everest, so I spent some time researching interesting sounding books that I wanted to read. Many of them are a bit niche or out of print, so I've been buying them from World of Books, which I always find is a great value place to buy secondhand books. 

So here are some of the books that I've really enjoyed reading recently:

No Shortcuts to the Top - Ed Viesturs. This book isn't just about Everest, it's about Ed Viestur's successful attempt to climb the 14 Peaks - all 14 mountains that are higher than 8000 metres - without supplementary oxygen. I was very pleased to discover that World of Books had sent me a signed copy! I found this book a fascinating read, with plenty of information about how to prepare for this level of mountaineering, and interesting details about logistics like clothing, food and equipment. The subject matter sounds as though it would be quite dry but it really wasn't, there was a good balance between personal stories - which included his female conquests as well as the mountaineering ones, and the dismaying reality that many mountaineers die while indulging in the hobby that they love.

Dark Summit: The Extraordinary True Story of Everest's Most Controversial Season - Nick Heil. An account of the 2006 climbing season on Everest, in which 11 people died while attempting to reach the summit. A particular focus of the book is not just the number of people that died (because many years do see a similar number of deaths) but the fact that two climbers in particular were ignored by many other groups of climbers while they lay near death. Although I'm never going to come anywhere near climbing Everest myself it's an interesting moral dilemma to grapple with - if you put yourself in a situation in which no-one can safely rescue you, should you expect people to risk their lives and those of others to try and help?

Everest Inc.: The Renegades and Rogues Who Built an Industry at the Top of the World - Will Cockrell. My particular interest in Everest is about the companies that take money to guide clients to the summit, and the problems that this can cause for both individuals and the mountain as a whole. This book was a great source of information about the history of climbing Mount Everest and how the industry started and continues today.

Photo credit Surya Singh via Unsplash

Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver. I had been wanting to read this for a while after it won many literary awards a few years ago. It didn't disappoint - I found it to be a gripping and engaging read. It's a retelling of David Copperfield by Charles Dickens, and it tells the difficult story of a young boy who is born to a teenage mother with a drug addition and grows up in a variety of different foster homes. It wasn't an easy read in places but I enjoyed the slow pace of the story and all the descriptive details.

Cleopatra and Frankenstein - Coco Mellors. After loving Blue Sisters by the same author, and Goodreads reviews telling me that this book was better, I had high expectations and luckily they were met! A story of disastrous impulsive marriage, I found it to be a very readable book, quite sad in parts, with characters and their stories that really hooked me in.

As always, you can see what I've been reading and enjoying by having a look at my Goodreads profile.

Planning for the garden

My poor garden is really suffering at the moment. We've had so much rain, and everything is waterlogged. The two lavender plants in soggy pots that I bought last year look are looking particularly sorry for themselves, I've tucked them up against a wall for some shelter and I'm keeping my fingers crossed!

The weeds have taken over too but I just can't face going out in the cold during a rain break and getting all muddy. However lots of my bulbs are coming up which I'm really pleased with as I planted all sorts of different ones! I'm hoping to have enough flowers that I can pick them and have them in the house.

I couldn't wait to start planting some seeds. I have a tray of snapdragons which I planted months ago, they grew slowly over the winter and are now picking up. I harvested the seeds from the plants which I bought last year, so if they grow well then I've saved myself a few pounds on buying new ones this year!

I received a box of flower seeds for Christmas which contains seeds for about twenty different types of plant. If they all germinate then I'm going to be overrun and I'll need to buy more seed trays! I've started with the three that said they could be planted in February - sweet peas, stock and agastache. I've grown sweet peas before but not the others, so I'm interested to see how they turn out.

As well as flowers, I'll also be planting up my vegetable patch. I had great success with my tomatoes last year so I'll definitely be doing those again, probably with a mixture of plants I've grown from seed and plants that I will buy. I will have yet another attempt at courgette and cucumber, which are usually spectacularly unsuccessful, and I'm hoping that my strawberry and raspberry plants will survive the winter.

One project that I have for this year is to create some kind of a living wall on the blank wall of our garage. I'm not really sure where to start so some research is needed - there are expensive kits available, but maybe it's worth it if I have no idea what I'm doing!

I'd also like to add some kind of trellis to the front of our house which has always looked rather plain. I want something that grows on the trellis rather than the wall so as not to damage the brickwork. Probably some kind of colourful rambling rose is the way to go, but I've never grown roses before so  it's another thing that I need to research!

I can't wait for some warmer (and drier!) weather so I can get back out into the garden properly!

How I decide what to read next

I keep all my unread books in a 'to be read' pile on my bedside table. I have a mixture of brand new books that I've purchased or received as gifts, second hand books from charity shops and online, books that I've borrowed from friends or family, and occasionally library books. I also have a slightly hidden 'to be read' collection on my Kindle - books that I've downloaded free from Amazon at various times.

Although I enjoy reading down through the pile, I don't want to actually get to the end because I enjoy having a selection of books to choose from. I read a variety of books, from light fiction to longer reads, recent releases and classics, and also plenty of non-fiction. So I want to have at least one or two books from each category to choose from!

I generally only read one book at a time, and as I approach the end I'm always eyeing up my next read. I try to mix it up, so if I've read an easy book I'll look for one with a bit more depth or I'll swap to one from a different genre.  

If I know that I've got a busy time coming up then I'll look for easy to read books, planning to pick them up and down for short bursts of reading. If I know that I've got some reading time coming up, like a long flight or a relaxing holiday, then I'll reach for a nice chunky book or a classic novel.

Photo credit John Michael Thomason via Unsplash

But how do I choose the books that I'm adding to my 'to be read' pile?

I find book recommendations in lots of places. I learn about new non-fiction books from the podcasts that I listen to, which tend to be in the wellbeing or technology niches. If I've listened to an interesting podcast I'll often have a look at the book they are plugging, read a few reviews, and see if it looks like a worthwhile read. I've found some great books this way, most recently Enshittification by Cory Doctorow and I've got my eye on The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt. 

I have a friend who lends me lots of brilliant books that she's found, and I usually have one or two on loan. She is very similar to me in terms of reading taste, and I'm very grateful!

I'm always listening for people talking about books. Sometimes I'll catch a reference to an old classic book and think 'I really should read that'. The classics are usually available for free on Kindle because they are out of copyright - I've just downloaded David Copperfield after really enjoying the modern retelling Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver. 

If I hear about a book that appeals but I can't justify paying full price then I'll look over on World of Books. I have a running list of books that I want to buy saved in a Notes file, and I try to buy in batches of four as they usually have a 'buy 3 get one free' promotion that covers many of their titles. World of Books is great for books that are a bit niche or out of print as the prices are very reasonable - I've been stocking up on biographical books about Everest which are expensive to buy new.

I don't really listen to any podcasts or shows about new releases, because I would find everything too tempting! But if I find out that one of my favourite authors has released a new book then I'll add it to my wish list in anticipation of a birthday or Christmas gift. I'm also often swayed by the Booker Prize shortlists, I rarely actually buy the books but I make a note of any that sound good for future reading.

Finally if I really have reached the end of my 'to be read' pile then I can always find something that I want to read in the library. Sometimes it's another book by an author that I've enjoyed, or a book that I've seen mentioned online. When I'm browsing I definitely judge a book by its cover, so at least with a library book I don't have to worry about wasting money if I've misjudged it!

I love hearing from other readers about how they choose their next book!