Or: Why is Colouring as an Adult  Popular and Lego Is Not?

Their amazingness becomes more apparent as once again, I’m going traveling for an extended period. Everyone reacts to this in their own way. Some I’ve had meals with, others I’ve gone out with, a few we’ve just had chats. As one mentioned “it’s a little unfair that everyone gets use to you (me) being here again and then you’re (I’m) off.” She’s right. I’ve become use to it too and developed new routines as a result of being out of corporate life. It has been great to have extra time to catch up with friends!

This afternoon / evening, we did something totally different.

We played with Lego.

The last time I had done this was with my brother’s space Lego when I was about twelve or so (at a guess). He was particularly creative, I needed to follow the instructions. Today, the instructions were once again necessary. We were building something that was rated as “Expert” level and neither of us felt confident with being designated as experts. I figured there should be some sort of training at least or we had to earn a certificate of some sort. As it turns out, that idea may have helped us.

Lego is another one of those activities where I can only focus on it and nothing else at the same time. Particularly at ‘Expert’ level. This particular friend is the same, so the idea was a good one.

We were putting together a billion piece (give or take) Ferris wheel complete with little ice-cream stands and full of moving parts. There were so many pieces that they were split into many different bags and each bag was numbered one through to four depending on what stage it was needed. Naturally there were more than four bags.

Starting with the first, we opened the various Number One bags and began sorting the pieces into neat little piles. While this made it easier for us, we would have been helped by checking the bags thoroughly before throwing them into the recycling bin.

We power constructed over three hours and a bottle of red wine.

Yes, there were a few errors. These were quickly rectified until we noticed that a cog didn’t fit correctly. It also didn’t match the picture we had. Or the instructions. Flicking backwards to review where else in the monstrousity a cog could possibly hide, we found none that matched our specifications. Until we checked the rubbish.

Deconstructing and then reconstructing wasn’t easy. There was laughter, there was frustration, there was more laughter. And wine. There was more wine.

Crisis averted.

Stage One is now complete and I am due to fly out on Tuesday night without completing the remainder. I will be relying on my Lego Counterpart (and possibly her husband) to complete it and give updates as it progresses.

While Lego seems to have become more complex and more expensive, we decided it is still fairly well-priced when we broke down the cost per hour of playing with it and dividing it by two. It worked out to be about USD10 per person per hour. That’s not too shabby.

You know you have good friends when you don’t even talk about leaving until you’re walking out the door as you know you’re all no further away than a Skype call. You also know that it is highly likely that you will see each other during the travels. Plus, you know that a few of us don’t like to think about leaving and prefer to think about it as a “see you later” type of arrangement.

See you later!

* Thanks to The Lego Movie for the title to this post and such a catchy tune for a soundtrack.