You have eyes of a hawk if you can find the hidden beach ball on this busy summer scene in less than three seconds
WITH the sun desperately trying to make an appearance, what better time for a warm weather brainteaser?
As summer fast approaches, the experts at UK-based online printing company
Advertisement
2
Here, we have a fun brainteaser - but there's only three seconds to find the hidden beach ball
Credit: Instantprint
So are you up for the challenge?
According to the pros, everyone can spot the umbrellas and windbreakers on this beach, but can you find the hidden beach ball in this sunny seaside illusion?
You've got just three seconds to spot it - yes, you heard that correctly - so time is of the essence.
Your eyes are sure to be in for a challenge as you scan the sandy scene packed with beach towels,
Advertisement
Read more on brainteasers
But you'll need to really focus if you want to spot the beach ball in time.
And it's so well hidden, will you give up minutes after the time runs out?
The experts acknowledge that this puzzle is no walk on the beach and even the
So take a deep breath, dive in, and see if you can find the hidden beach ball before the time is up.
Advertisement
Most read in Fabulous
It's a true
Nail it, and you've got seriously impressive observation skills.
You have eyes of a hawk if you can find the missing bunny in this colourful Easter-themed brainteaser in 30 seconds
If you get stuck, luckily for you, we've got a simple clue.
You'll find the beach ball around the middle of the picture, nearer to the left hand side of the image.
Advertisement
So you'll need to search for a tiny splash of rainbow colour in the crowd to find it.
Are you eager to see if you've got
Set yourself a timer and try not to get too distracted by the bright colours and beach-goers.
How can optical illusions and brainteasers help me?
Engaging in activities like solving optical illusions and brainteasers can have many cognitive benefits as it can stimulate various brain regions.
Some benefits include:
Cognitive stimulation
: Engaging in these activities challenges the brain, promoting mental agility and flexibility.
Problem-solving skills
: Regular practice enhances analytical thinking and problem-solving abilities.
Memory improvement:
These challenges often require memory recall and can contribute to better memory function.
Creativity:
They encourage thinking outside the box, fostering creativity and innovative thought processes.
Focus and attention:
Working on optical illusions and brainteasers requires concentration, contributing to improved focus.
Stress relief:
The enjoyable nature of these puzzles can act as a form of relaxation and stress relief.
Brainteasers are excellent for your noggin because they stimulate cognitive function, improve problem-solving skills and enhance overall mental agility.
Advertisement
They also challenge different areas of the brain, including memory, logic and spatial reasoning.
So what's the benefit exactly? Improved neuroplasticity, which is the brain's ability to adapt and form new neural connections.
As well as this, activities like brainteasers, puzzles and riddles require you to think critically, which also sharpens your analytical and reasoning skills.
Some studies even suggest that challenging your brain with teasers may help delay age-related cognitive decline.
Advertisement
And research has found that such mental exercises can lower the risk of dementia and Alzheimer's by keeping your brain active.
So have you found the hidden beach ball in this image?
Are you still struggling to find it? Scroll down for the answer below…
Advertisement
Regularly solving brainteasers will help keep your mind sharp, enhance your ability to tackle complex tasks and provide a satisfying mental workout - click here for more.
Unlock even more award-winning articles as The Sun launches brand new membership programme -
Sun Club
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You have eyes of a hawk if you can find the hidden beach ball on this busy summer scene in less than three seconds, SUPPLIED
Credit: Instantprint
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The Irish Sun
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With an Irish mother and a Jamaican father, both proud of their heritage, 'it was very much instilled in me that we're here but we're not from here, and that was a bit confusing,' she says. [ Aunts fictional and real matter more to us than they may know Opens in new window ] 'The English were the baddies in my family history – the queen was bad, the empire was bad … But then here is where I live, and here is all I know.' McDonald finally found a sense of belonging in youth theatre. Her father first sent her to drama to bring her out of her shell. 'I was extremely shy … undersized … with big, thick glasses and a big afro. And I really struggled with my identity so just wanted to not be seen. And my dad rightly recognised that this isn't going to pan out well for this kid.' While they 'weren't a book-buying family', her father 'was kind of this aspirational figure that would turn up every now and then and bring us books that he wanted us to read about black history and bring us food that we might not have tasted before. I remember him bringing avocados. No one on my estate had ever eaten avocado, [or even] knew what an avocado was.' After drama school, where McDonald met her ex-husband, the two founded a small theatre company together. They wrote 'bits for that' and a play for young people that got commissioned by Half Moon Theatre in London. But it wasn't until her 40s that she began writing in earnest – first as part of a writers' group 'just for the fun at our local bookshop, kind of dilly-dallying with short stories and poetry' and then more seriously in an MA in creative writing at Goldsmiths , University of London. As a black writer, whether we do it to ourselves or whether or whether society asks it of us because of that underrepresentation, we do have that question that white writers wouldn't have, which is, how am I portraying these characters? — Orlaine McDonald The MA, she says, was 'an absolute game changer. It just blew my mind. Two years, one day a week, of being immersed in literature, writing, process, having access to writers who would come and talk to us, one-to-one tutorials, sharing work on a weekly basis. It was just everything I could've dreamed of.' McDonald got divorced shortly after the MA, and writing was backburnered until she had the time and space to pick up the pen again. This is the 'first time I've ever lived on my own and not been a carer,' she notes, 'because I had caring duties from when I was very young.' Alongside the theatre company, she worked in education, bringing drama to vulnerable kids and working as a learning mentor. She started writing No Small Thing in the mornings before her day job at the end of 2018, although 'some of the characters were making themselves known' earlier. Then, when lockdown hit, with no social commitments outside of work, 'it gave me this unadulterated time that I'd never had before'. The chapters of No Small Thing alternate between the perspectives of Livia, Mickey, Summer and their upstairs neighbour, Earl. Earl watches the household with interest and befriends Summer. He's drawn to them because he too has experienced what McDonald refers to as an 'interruption to his mothering': we flash back to a tragic police intervention in which he watches his mother die at the hands of the police after a false accusation of drug possession. Despite wanting to do better by Summer, Mickey's own lack of mothering bears its scars, and she develops an alcohol problem. In a literary landscape where black protagonists are woefully underrepresented, and working-class black women especially, I'm curious if McDonald was worried about portraying them as flawed characters. 'I asked myself the question a couple of times,' she says, 'but I then just ignored it. I think, by then, these women were just so alive to me. As a black writer, whether we do it to ourselves or whether or whether society asks it of us because of that underrepresentation, we do have that question that white writers wouldn't have, which is, how am I portraying these characters? I hate those best-under-30 lists. I couldn't have written this in my early 20s. I didn't have the life experience 'And it annoys me that I had that question. It annoys me that I questioned it myself. But it very quickly became something [about which] I just thought, well, actually I'm not going to go down that road, I'm going to write very truthful characters.' The book, I tell her, is all the stronger for it. 'A lot of that is the people in my family, the people that I know, people in my friendship group,' McDonald says. 'None of us are perfect, and that's what makes us interesting and human, isn't it, the contradictions?' I ask if publishers' diversity initiatives are succeeding at all. 'It can always be better,' McDonald says. The attention it was given 'after George Floyd and Black Lives Matter has tailed off, and I think that's a real shame. It's got to be in publishing that that changes because publishing is the gatekeeper of what people read.' As with education, while there are people of colour in junior and support-staff roles, 'the people in charge are white, middle-class people. So until it changes right up there … ' And while McDonald says she hasn't experienced any ageism as a midlife debut novelist, 'I hate those best-under-30 lists,' she admits. 'I couldn't have written [this] in my early 20s. I didn't have the life experience.' Before I head back out into the sunshine and McDonald goes to spend time with her three-and-a-half-year-old granddaughter, Forest ('the light of my life'), she lets me peek into her office. Like the rest of her home, the decor is cheery and colourful, with a turquoise wall, yellow couch and an orange-potted Chinese monkey plant. 'I feel extremely lucky to have a room to write in,' she says. A yellow shelf above her desk holds talismanic works, including books about writing, such as Mason Currey's Daily Rituals and Jami Attenberg's 1000 Words . I also spot Feel Free by Zadie Smith, whom McDonald counts as an inspiration along with writers including Diana Evans, Kit de Waal, Bernardine Evaristo and Anne Enright . Claire Killroy's Soldier Sailor, her current read, which she's finding 'fantastic', is on her desk. [ Claire Kilroy: 'I haven't met one mother who didn't talk about failure' Opens in new window ] 'I like short, punchy novels,' she says, citing Niamh Campbell's This Happy and Natasha Brown's Assembly as other examples. McDonald is working on a new novel – 'first draft vibes' – which is in the precious incubation stage, so too early to share the details for fear of jinxing it. A tiny cutting of the Chinese monkey plant sits on her desk in a little turquoise pot, like the seedling of her work-in-progress. Perhaps unsurprisingly, given the acclaim that's greeted No Small Thing, writing a second novel 'feels a lot scarier,' she says. '[I'm] working very hard to try to take away the editing voice and just concentrate on the story.' Above her desk are Post-it notes with quotations cheering her on. One, from the critic Maris Kreizman, reads: 'So write the thing that you want to see in the world. You're the only one who can.' It's no small thing. No Small Thing is published in paperback by Serpent's Tail
