Political World Map

Brand: Ravensburger
Pieces: 1000
Size: 70cm x 50cm
Product Code: 156528

Like a lot of people around the world, I have recently begun to stay at home during this corona-virus crisis. While our Government is still allowing my workplace to remain open (despite the fact that it really is not an essential business), I have decided it will be safer to stay home and avoid working in a shopping centre. With so many other stores closing, I hope that my boss will soon follow and allow my colleagues to also stay home. 

As for my other job, I think I will still continue to work there as long as they are able to remain open. They are technically an essential business (because they cater to the agricultural and dairy industries) and there are only five of us (including me) in a huge warehouse-type space. We're way more than the required distance apart and there's plenty of room! I also need the money, with one stream of income cut, so we'll see how that goes! 

In the meantime, I have dug out a really old puzzle that I remember purchasing while at university (over 10 years ago!) The population figures may no longer be correct along the bottom, but it was still a fun exercise to try and remember my geography while putting the puzzle together.

Hopefully we'll all get through this very soon. 

Stay home and stay safe.

Hello From Around The World

Brand: Mudpuppy
Pieces: 500
Size: 51cm x 51cm
Product Code: -

Time for another cute one! 

When I first saw this puzzle from Mudpuppy, I knew that I had to add it to my collection. The cute imagery, along with the pastel colours and the 'stamp design' made it absolutely perfect! It didn't even bother me that I had to import it from the USA, as it was not available (as far as I could tell) from any Australian suppliers. 

As you would expect, this one was quite quick to complete, but I absolutely loved every minute of it- the illustrations that represent each country's stamp are just too cute!

I really enjoy the designs from this brand and will continue to buy them if I come across them in the future.

Flags Of The World

Brand: Eurographics
Pieces: 1000
Size: 48.89cm x 67.63cm
Product Code: 6000-0128

Over the last week, we in Australia have been lucky enough to have some English royalty gracing our shores- Prince Harry and his beautiful wife Meghan, who have travelled here to see some of the best that the country has to offer. 

They were also here for the Invictus Games- an international sporting event that was created by the Prince for wounded, injured or sick armed services personnel and veterans. This year the event was held in Sydney from 20-27 October. 

I decided to post this puzzle featuring the flags of the world to commemorate this inspiring event, While many of these countries didn't actually have representatives at the Games, some of them did, and some of them have fought alongside or for some of the countries whose flags appear in the above puzzle. 

Produced by Eurographics, this puzzle was fairly easy to do (although some of the flags were similar) and quite educational. Each country's name is listed under its flag, as well as the population, the size of the country in square kilometres and the capital city. 

For some reason, I've always been interested in flags, maps and the like, so this puzzle went down a treat, as it would for anyone else who likes this sort of thing.

World Map

Brand: Hinkler Puzzlebilities
Pieces: 500
Size: 91.4cm x 60.9cm
Product Code:  HB22-FEB16-08

With all the turmoil going on around the world at the moment, I thought I might put up a puzzle of the world map today, just to remind people that no matter what's happening thousands of kilometres away, we're all still living on the same planet. 

The last few weeks have seen so many unfortunate events- there have been natural disasters like the devastating earthquakes in Mexico, Hurricane Irma in Texas, and the imminent eruption of a volcano in Bali. There were also a few earthquakes in New Zealand but I don't think there were any casualties this time round. 

There has also been a lot of political unrest around the world, with the murder of hundreds of Muslims in Burma (which has sadly been under-reported in the media) and, of course, the tensions between North Korea and the rest of the world. In Australia, the government has posted out a ballot, asking people to vote on whether same-sex marriage should be legalised- there are staunch supporters for both sides, but hopefully commonsense will prevail, discrimination (in this case at least) will be stamped out and everyone will have the opportunity to marry the person that they love, regardless of their gender. 

Now, I've gotten through my little rant so I can talk about the above puzzle! 

The pieces in this puzzle were quite large (although that is mentioned on the box) and made from a thin, relatively low-quality cardboard. If you have a good grasp of geography, then the bright design will be simple to complete.

This would make a good educational resource for someone learning about world maps, as it provides an adequate amount of basic information.