Autumn Mornings

 Today I missed the bus, so I chose to walk to work instead. I had time and I am really glad I did, otherwise, I would have not got to see the spectacular scenery of fog that was blanketing the city.

Where I live in New Zealand, we have a river, and obviously when the temperatures and cloud are all lined up, we get fog.

It doesn't last; it moves by early morning. These pictures were taken at 7.15am and even 90 mins later, it would have been mostly cleared.

I love autmn in my city, some amazing natural beauty to be seen, and it never gets old looking at it.

Temu

 Oh the wonderful power of Temu shopping, the dark hole we all fall into and then surface from, minus a healthy balance on the credit card!

I don't think I know of one person who has ever not bought some crazy little thing from Temu, thinking it will be crap, happy to spend the small amount of cash for it just to see what it is like, only to then find it is the best thing they have ever bought and wonder how they survived life without it all this time! Ok, I do also know that there really is some total crap on there too!

When I shop there, which I do not make a habit of doing, I have found some good items on there at times, although jigsaws tend to show in the suggested section. I have often wondered about their 1000-piece jigsaws for only $7-9? Are they any good, are the pieces going to be paper thin and useless staying together. Are they going to even go together?

On my last order, I tempted fate and ordered a jigsaw, just to see what I got. I was prepared to sacrifice $9 for the cause.

I chose a design that I thought would be fun to complete, but also maybe a little on the semi easy side due to the main bold colours that would be easy to sort.

It came in my parcel a few days later, they are actually quite fast at getting deliveries to NZ, almost like it has actually come from NZ! 

Now, immediately, when I removed it from the delivery bag it was obvious there was going to be an issue but there were also the odd positive to start with. It came in a nice solid plastic box, and it had a poster of the picture too. It also had the alphabet on the back in a grid fashion so that you could complete sections if you wish by collecting all of the pieces with the letter 'A' and complete that section.

The quality of the pieces was good, nice thick sturdy pieces not paper thin, and they joined together very well. The only one downside of it all.......

The size of the pieces, yes, the box was no bigger that an A5 sheet of paper and the pieces, well a Paracetamol capsule was bigger than the pieces!

Yes, I had hit the one main problem with this jigsaw, it had micro size pieces. Now I don't remember seeing anything on the page that suggested it was a small jigsaw when finished, measuring maybe only A4 paper size and if I was to look at getting another jigsaw from Temu, I will definitely be checking the page thoroughly for finished measurement size!

I will report back more when I actually complete the jigsaw but for now, I would say the size is probably the only thing I can find wrong with it, so giving it a 9/10 on the product for what I can see, feel and establish that it seems to be a reasonably good quality jigsaw, just a little small!

Holdson Jigsaw

 Holdson has become my least favourite puzzle brand recently, after all the issues I have had with them, I have found the other brands to be a better quality. Will only get them off of marketplace now and not purchase them brand new.

Just not worth it as getting very bored with their designs and actually saw the other week, that they had taken a design that I have already completed by another brand and it had been reimagine, by the artist, to create a new one, but it was only small subtle changes that had been made so knew I had already done that design. 

New Holdson design

Come on, at least come up with new designs!

Are they that desperate for images to use that they have to work with the same artist from another country and recreate, when they could come up with something new.

Where Do They Come From?

Where do I get all my jigsaw puzzles from people often ask me.

For a while then yes, I did buy them myself when I saw them on special or received them from the boys as presents on birthdays and Christmas.

Then I found Facebook Marketplace, and, in my city, there is quite a movement of jigsaws between people. Mostly costing about $10. I only stay in my city and don't travel long distance or pay postage for any. 

Back in April 2024 someone put a post on marketplace about some jigsaws she was selling, she had heaps and I saw many that I wanted. So, I went and visited to buy some. She had been completing jigsaws all through covid, had been storing them in a storage unit and now wanted to get rid of them. She had a wall full, and I mean there had to be nearly 200+ puzzles in her room. I have only seen that amount in a shop, not someone's front room of their house! Lots of Holdson jigsaws come in sets of 4 and she had all four from the collection, so there were many that I wanted.

Well, 25 puzzles later ($210), I left her house. I got most of the ones you have seen me complete this year and last year from her (if Holdson brand) and I have moved them all on since then by selling them back on marketplace for $10 each, so I am pretty much equal on the money front 😎 the odd one hasn't moved but it is a minor loss for all the enjoyment they have brought me and savings of getting them for $5-10 instead of $28-40

This was one picture I took of some I got from her and as you can see, many are of the same design and collection. This pile is only 9 jigsaws so you can imagine, I had jigsaws all over the house, still do if I am honest!

This year, whilst I have still purchased quite a few, always on special and when my local Jigstore has good specials on, or damage box sales (just because the box is dented doesn't mean there is anything wrong with the jigsaw) then a majority have come from marketplace, although a few weeks ago I did actually do a swap with a lady of 3 puzzles. Saved me giving her $10 only to have her give it back to me for one of mine. from now on, I will be putting this on my posts that I am open to swaps.

I would say I have probably spent about $500 on jigsaws throughout the year but when I sell them, I get a little bit of that back, but it is not about making the money back.

So, gifts, purchasing and marketplace is my place of choice, although the odd one does still get loaned from family/friend.

I do also loan them to family and friends and that has started to happen a little bit more, but they always come back to me.

Already

 I totally understand that nowadays, with the cost-of-living etc, that people need to prepare and plan and organise, but Easter eggs in January seems a little far from Easter?

Is chocolate at Easter really that big a deal that people will need to start buying it 3 months in advance, so they have it, or is it just that it is chocolate, and people will buy it in a different shape to eat at any time of the year?

Transport

 Now that I have moved back to the family home, I have realised that using the car to get to work each day is becoming expensive.

By the time I have paid for the daily parking ($6), not always guaranteed either! The petrol and wear of the car then I am looking at about $7-8 a day.

Now I only live about 5-7 minutes (about 4 km) drive away from work, in the morning it is quicker to get there as I leave before all the traffic but in the evening I end up taking maybe 10-15 minutes due to traffic, which for the city I live in is not bad, so I really have nothing to complain about, compared to some others around the world (joys of living in NZ with only 4.5 million other people and only 180,000 in my city).

I am happy to walk, which would take me about 30-45 mins but I usually have a heavy bag to carry and I found that this just wasn't suitable and then I had to take other shoes to wear once at work plus you needed a coat/jacket when you start out, because it was cold or raining, but by the time you got there you had taken it off as you are now warm. I decided that I didn't need that amount of crazy stress at 7.30am just to get to work.

So, I took at the bus

It is a 1 min walk to my choice of 2 bus stops and both buses run every 30 minutes. The price per journey is alright and I actually save $1.20 per day on parking costs and guess I save all the wear and tear on the car, plus petrol costs, so a win win all round.

Does it mean I can do a quick stop at the supermarket on the way home? Yes, if I want to walk there and then catch the bus from there, which is totally do able but carrying 6L of milk is not such joy, so someone else can grab the milk!

The extra steps I get in the day walking to the bus stop and getting off the bus a stop earlier and walking up a large flight of stairs to work is also good for me, especially as I am trying to maintain my steps per day.

Guess I will be taking the bus more often. It will take some good planning and ensuring my calendar is up to date and correct, nothing like realising that you forgot an appointment and then realising that you don't have the car to get there! But I don't have appointments too often, well apart from on a Thursday, so I guess I can take the bus 4 days a week, which I will be happy doing, even in the rain (I have several umbrellas)