Sudoku? AAAARRRGGHH!

Am I the only person who is driven up the wall by these 'puzzles'? I have wasted a good 45 minutes today trying to fill in the boxes before I came to my senses, jacked it in and decided to vent my spleen on this blog.

The worse thing about these 'grids from hell' is that I can't honestly see a purpose for them whatsoever. They only tentatively seem to cling to existence for one reason, namely frustration! After a good forty-five minutes, I began to not only lose my temper but also the will to live.

In the end I simply had to concede defeat and cut my losses. As my copy of the Guardian was jettisoned across the room (followed shortly by the desk itself) I tried to compose myself to think about something much more wholesome, namely public flogging for Sudoku's inventors and a double helping for those smug people who rattle them off at a near alarming rate on the morning train from Wigan to Salford Crescent.

I hastily made my escape into the bathroom and rinsed my face with water before taking a long hard look at my disheveled face in the mirror. Through my panicy, blood shot eyes I studied my soul carefully and wondered why should ANYONE waste their time trying to do these infernal puzzles?

Our world today faces so many problems. Issues which demand the highest level of brain power from the elite of society. Yet things seem to be getting worse, not better. Then the penny dropped.

Rather than working on global economics or clean cell energy development, all the people who consider themselves to be clever are too busy doing these puzzles! No wonder we are in such a mess!

Deep down, as I felt my frustration simmer beyond the healthy limit and as my fingers clenched through a few pages of the lifestyle section, I knew that Sudoku just had to be evil. I realised as as someone who is, essentially good, I would never be able to decipher this code. My mind is just physically unable to complete even the simplest Sudoku and as those numbers loomed larger and larger, I wondered if Bletchley Park's Enigma code breakers would have fared much better than I?

Sudoku, as far as I am concerned, your numbers up!