Dubai: A discarded jigsaw puzzle has triggered a unique sense of community spirit among residents in a gated neighbourhood.
Sounds bizarre but that is exactly what has been happening in Springs 8 ever since Australian expatriate Sarah Laventure, 33, recently chanced upon the puzzle outside a villa and took it home to assemble it.
The 1,000-piece jigsaw puzzle is a scene of London’s Waterloo Station in 1848 and 1948. The top half shows the station in 1848 and below it is its transformation 100 years later.
Sarah and her husband spent nearly two weeks to the put it together, and after accomplishing the feat, passed it on to their neighbour Lizel Rowlings who spent a week solving it with her husband.
Now there are other families waiting for their turn to have a go at it.
Obsession
“My husband and I were walking home one day from the pool in Springs 8 when we noticed a number of discarded household items on a table outside a villa. There were clothes, toys, books etc, but what caught my eye was this 1,000-piece jigsaw. We took it home and, for the next two weeks, my husband and I spent every evening building the puzzle,” said Sarah.
“It became an obsession and we would work on it for two to three hours every day. It was fun, but it was quite challenging and we had to be patient since it was a massive puzzle to solve.”
South African expat Lizel Rowlings, 31, cannot thank her neighbour enough for giving her the game.
“My husband and I made use of the long week of Eid holidays to solve the puzzle,” said Lizel.
“It was a nice break from TV and social media, and the two of us spent quality time together. Every day we would religiously cover the puzzle so our children would not spoil our work. The next day we would be excited like children to complete the rest of it.”
Sarah tried to contact the original owner of the game to thank him/her, but has remained unsuccessful. So she posted a ‘thank you’ note on Facebook which has received a huge response from the community.
Gratitude
Her post reads: “Very random but wanted to say a big thank you to a neighbour in our street. We don’t know you, but a few months ago you put out a table with some things on it that you were giving away….When walking past we saw the jigsaw puzzle and since I hadn’t done one in years … picked it up… spent 2 weeks doing it and loved it! … Just wanted to say a big thank you - what lovely community spirit and wanted to let you know that two families have benefitted and enjoyed it.”
After reading her post other residents of Springs 8 have asked for the puzzle as they too are eager to work on it with their families.
