This week has mostly been a lonely time for working at The Laundry, at least one of us has been away the whole time. So today I thought I’d write about games to play by oneself .  (Not that I would be playing games at work. Or that I would have time to with the absence of my esteemed colleagues Perhaps you have some ideas to add to my lonely-busting list?

Solitaire- the classic. Also known as ‘Patience’ is one we know and love- with many variations including ‘clock patience’ where you lay the cards out in the style of a clock with 12 piles and match the cards to each position on the clock in a race to get all cards turned face up before 4 kings are revealed.

Or, the version on the computer that I remember playing A LOT of in IT classes at school (hmm no wonder it’s taken me a while to get to grips with excel spreadsheets) and does the fabulous finale of whirling card shuffling graphics, totally worth it.

Rubik’s Cube. Oh my dear god. This is something I have never been able to do. But totally puzzling and compelling in a strange way. The frustration of something that requires a mixture of frantic minute manipulation with your fingers, and some sort of over-arching strategy is a recipe for loosing hours, then feeling demoralized when it becomes clear you won’t be able to get all the stupid coloured squares on one side.

3 D Maze’s Those plastic covered mazes where there’s a silver ball and you have to try manoeuvre through the labyrinthine plastic walls to a central hole. Veeerry tricky to have any sort of control as the ball is always so small and light.

NB. Cluedo- To anyone who was wondering: You can’t play Cluedo on your own. When I figured this out as a young whipper-snapper it made me sad. When you get all the cards dealt to you it doesn’t take long to deduce who did the nasty with the candle stick in The Lounge. And I love Cluedo, I really do.

PS. Sam our lovely Msc student ( see? I’m not really by myself, I’m just creating email fodder that sounds more dramatic!!) used to play chess by himself- this involves taking your move, then getting up and sitting opposite where you were, then ‘really trying to be objective’ about what move that person would take if they were playing against you!

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