Thread:Nugu54/@comment-33437691-20171113214449/@comment-33437691-20171118174632

Hi (would you prefer me to use your real name? You used it once, but I sometimes type my own by accident!)

Good to hear from you, but don't worry, I suspected real life intruded. I'm just glad it was something mundane like work. Lucky you to have a house, and now to have a new kitchen refited! Oh, I dream (of a lottery win, that is); I'm still in a rented apartment. My son used to ask why I don't own my own place until I explained that being alone with him and needing to pay for a 2 bedroom place all these years...in the 2nd most expensive place to live in the world (apparently)...even inheritances and a well paying job couldn't get me over the hump. I simply can't afford a million dollar apartment, let alone a 3 million dollar house. This is to live in a good but not hugely expensive district. I imagine London prices are similar. I may well end up moving to Nova Scotia or Quebec in the next couple of years; prices there are actually affordable--for good, solid housing. But every place has its pitfalls: out east, it's the heating bills that knock you for six.

I have started on the puzzle; simple substitution gives me EQAXTQV....as a start, so that's clearly not the solution. I just wrote it out quickly by hand, but a visual clue like the cards may help. Then I discovered I don't have cards: my son and I used to play poker, but he has the chip container and with it, all the cards we used to play with. Off to the dollar store I go.

Yes, I have a keyboard--old fashioned in these days of touch screens, but very effective and easy for all of that. I read somewhere on the forum that people were wearing out the "home" button on their iphones. I cannot even imagine playing this game on a smartphone, with such a tiny screen. Even my laptop (for my other account) is pretty bad: when I zoom in, the picture goes all fuzzy, and it's a relatively new computer. With Santa's presents, I probably don't need the other account now, but it may be useful to get a second talisman during the challenges. I will see.

With winter here, I have other things to do, like make quilts...which is a variable skill, as I discovered. Some people make very simple quilts, with straight designs; on the other end of the spectrum, there are hugely complex and time consuming quilts with intricate and beautiful designs, both in material and in stitching. I used to think mine were hugely complex and time consuming with intricate and beautiful designs until I saw those which truly fit that description, so I won't be entering any of mine into any competition! But I have 3 quilts already...and I am enjoying SS:HM... so we'll see about that, too.

I'm not quite getting what you mean about the lower-framed pictures. All of them are cheaper to play in the early stages of play and get more expensive as you advance through to Magistar. I was referring to the early pictures like Venice, Buddha's Square all the way through to Witch's Hut, Winter Street...even Mayan Temple etc. But the ones out on the sides, like Farm, Wigwam, Cosmos...etc...are hugely expensive, both to unlock (150,000 coins vrs 15,000 coins) and then to play them, you need 100+++ points of energy to play them even at the novice stage. With an energy total of 2,000, you would only be able to play 12 to 20 screens, depending on which picture you choose and what level you're at. For most people that's fine, as time is limited. I have a bit more time and I like to play it to death each session. And, of course, during challenges, you still only get 1 or 2 of the essential lanterns, pods or whatever regardless of the energy you have to pay to play, so you collect more by playing Venice, Winter Street etc than by playing Farm/Tavern etc. You, of course have gazillion points of energy so this is not at all a concern to you--and I wish it wasn't for me because it does get tiresome playing the same pictures over and over. So please ignore my wishlist: I will be asking Santa for more inkblots!

Thank you for your generous offer of collection items, and I will take you up on it because I'm harvesting talismans to make the most use of the energy I do have: like the Magister's Amulent which increases energy gained by investigating pictures by 80%. Right now I need violins (type in "Music Award" in the collections panel--or even violin); and for the "Great Dragon" collection I need dwarves, dragons and unicorns. I have lots of all the other items in the collections but zero of these, and it doesn't seem to matter how many times I play the relevant picture, I seldom get these guys. I'm guessing that other players have the reverse situation: getting dozens of the items I need, and none of the ones I have.

Yikes! I may be a fast typist, but time still passes and I have to go out--five minutes ago. Bye!