Puzzling people – Finding fun in jigsaws


Arvida Ilam community residents, Ruby Roberts and Rod Syme enjoy puzzling.
They met six months ago, when Rod moved in and saw Ruby working on a jigsaw in their community lounge area. He decided to join her and now they often work as a team on jigsaws.
Ruby explains they both look for the 1,000 piece puzzles and enjoy the challenge and satisfaction of fitting the pieces together.
“Rod mostly stands up to do the puzzles and so I leave the top pieces for him to do,” says Ruby.
While Ruby’s completed a few puzzles in her time, Rod remembers a particularly challenging large puzzle he completed. “It was called 'Polar Bears on Ice', which had a lot of white pieces and it took me a good couple of months to finish.”
Ruby recalls a recent tough puzzle they did, depicting the Tower of London, where the colours were very similar and hard to tell apart.
As residents of the Christchurch Living Well Community, they also like the convenience and comfort of both living in serviced apartments.
A resident can tailor a package to suit them when living in a serviced apartment- from cleaning to meals and laundry services.
Ruby says, "I have my breakfast brought to me and I prefer to do my own laundry. The team here make my bed and change the sheets on a Friday and give my apartment a good clean. On other days they come in and take the rubbish away."


