Happy Sunday!
Hope your weekend has been fun, just like your hobbies. :)
This is the first edition of Hobbies are Fun, and in it I’m interviewing… myself.
Hey, it seemed like a good way to kick off! But because I’d rather not be in the unfortunate position of talking to/about myself again next month, please email me if you’d like to be interviewed about your favourite hobby.
The hobby I’m sharing with you this month is Sudoku. For those of you unfamiliar with it, it’s a puzzle that looks something like this to start:

And you want to make it look something like this:

The 9 x 9 grid has 81 cells. The goal is to fill in the cells so that each row, column and block has every number from 1 to 9.
Really, it’s way more fun than it sounds!
So let’s get to ‘the interview.’
Who are you and what business do you run?
My name is Charmaine Dymond and I’m a copywriter for sustainable and socially conscious businesses.
How long have you been enjoying this hobby?
I just started playing Sudoku a couple of months ago. I usually solve a few puzzles most days, though there are gaps in this.
What led you to start playing Sudoku?
My husband and my youngest son like doing puzzles and started Sudoku some time back. I’m not really a big puzzle fan and was especially not interested in Sudoku because I thought it was a complicated math thing for smart math people. (Like my husband.)
One day he shared a video with me of someone playing Sudoku. Yeah, I know. A video of someone doing a puzzle? Edge of your seat excitement, I’m sure.
Never ever — like, EVER — would I have suspected that this video would be so compelling. I warned my husband that I was only going to watch for a few minutes, but ended up watching the whole 25 minutes and 47 seconds!
I started playing myself a couple days later. At the absolute easiest level!
(I’m not the only one who found that video to be “riveting entertainment.”)
What do you love about it?
Other than I just enjoy the process of doing the puzzle and the satisfaction that comes with completing one, I really love that it’s easy to fit into my day.
A puzzle for me usually takes about 10-20 minutes to do. (Though the full range has been 5-60 minutes. I’m slow!) I can solve one on my lunch break, or while I’m drinking tea — times that before I was probably just scrolling Facebook.
Fess up — have you ever considered trying to make money off this hobby?
Not this one — I’m innocent, I swear!
Do you find it difficult to fit hobbies into your life? If so, how do you manage it?
Ah, yeah. Mostly because I tend to go overboard when I am interested in something, wanting to spend all my time on it and do all the things related to it.
I think activities like Sudoku that are fun but can be done in small chunks of time are a good fit for me.
Also, I’m trying to remember it’s OK if I abandon a hobby for a while. If I really enjoy it, I’ll come back to it eventually.
How do you recommend people get started with Sudoku?
Get an app. I think paper-based Sudoku would be much more challenging and frustrating. I prefer paper for many things, but for this I’ve embraced technology!
This video goes over the rules and the most basic strategy for solving. Once you master that, there are other strategies to learn as the puzzles get more difficult. There is no shortage of YouTube videos discussing these; this website also gives a good overview.
And when you want an even bigger challenge, look for puzzles like X Sudoku and Hyper Sudoku. They add extra rules to the classic version of the puzzle.
What do you think might surprise people about Sudoku?
That you don’t have to be good with numbers! It’s all about patterns and logic. Even folks who aren’t naturally inclined that way can learn to do it because the rules are simple. Trust me — if I can do these, anyone can!
That’s a wrap for this first edition! Thanks so much for reading. And please do get in touch if you’d like to share your favourite hobby with readers in a future edition.