Summer's over!

Blog entry for October 2012

Wore a sweater today for the first time this autumn. And I was late as usual updating the Puzzle of the Month. Featuring the gorgeous red maples and brilliant yellow ginko trees that make this time of year so colourful, so I was slightly shocked to notice how the range of these puzzles has shrunk, so there are only six on the "Autumn" page at the moment. I shall immediately scan the catalogs for more to order.

Speaking of which, Apollo, manufacturers of the Peanuts series and other puzzles, has become part of the Epoch Group; although the brands are being kept separate at least for the time being, there's a new combined Epoch/Apollo catalog of over 200 pages. So despite generally tough economic conditions, the Epoch range is definitely growing rather than shrinking.

The latest new puzzles from Epoch are also being made in China. I think we can assume that the quality will be absolutely unchanged (though I had better do one just to see!) as Epoch is one of the most stable companies, always trying new things gradually, to test the response.

Unfortunately we are still stuck with the yen at a crazy level (Japan's ratio of government debt to GDP is much higher than Greece's, and the savings are expected to run out in two to four years), and I'm aware how high this makes prices in dollars, euros, or whatever. We will carry on giving the best discounts we can...