The Rubiks Cube – Great Puzzle or Drive You Nuts

I am old enough to remember when the Rubiks cube first came out, yes I’m that old!! I’m an 80’s child of big hair, shoulder pads as I got older, Madonna and Duran Duran. What’s not to like with a bit of Like a Virgin blaring out of our tape players. But the Rubkis cube was a phenomenon. I was a little too young to be able to do it properly at first, but I tried. I got frustrated, but tried again. My dad who is one of the most intelligent people I’ve ever met, he was a scientist, he managed to do it. His logical brain in gear. My mum not so much, she always said she was too busy for such trivial things like that.

I tried again, twisting, turning, trying to prize the coloured stickers off and even in sheer desperation trying to pull the blocks off. Nothing worked. I got a line and felt renewed hope, I got one whole side and was jumping up and down with joy. Could I get any further, could I heck. I was beat.

Now I’m a very logical person too, I’m a trained software developer, I’m a problem solver, why can’t I complete a Rubiks cube? Please tell me I’m not the only one? I love this fact about Rubiks cube, it might explain why I’m so bad at it; there are actually 43 quintillion (43,252,003,274,489,856,000 to be precise) possible different Rubik’s cube configurations.

I don’t have one in the house at present, but I’m seriously considering ordering one. I came across websites recently which give your tips and tricks to complete it. That’s it I’m ordering one and I’m making it my mission to complete it.

This is my childhood memory of the Rubiks cube, do you have one? The people at John Lewis Insurance have launched a campaign to celebrate the love of toys called ‘Your toy story’.  Once a week they will launch a retro toy which will be hopefully bring back some of those lovely childhood memories. I love the fact that John Lewis are focusing on a toy at a time rather than a bunch of them. I’m looking forward to seeing each one, each week. I really does make you think about the type of toys our children have compared to the ones we had. Not always sure all these electronic, battery operated toys are a good thing. Maybe sometimes we need to go back to the more traditional retro toy. What do you think?

Lewis Insurance would like to hear your special childhood toy memories, share them on Twitter (@johnlewisretail & #mytoystory) and Facebook. What toy will it be next week?

This week it’s the Rubik’s Cube and you can learn a bit about it on the John Lewis Insurance microsite. 