I remember when I was a kids playing with the Rubik’s cube. I could do one side and its crown but that was about it.

A few years ago, my company had some promotional cubes and i looked up on the internet to try and get further. i learned how to do the middle layer.  i did not do the last layer as it seemed to require memorizing some long formulas.

This summer, i was in the Sequoia Forest with the kids, away from internet, so when planning the trip, i thought it would be a good idea to see whether i could do it.
I got a new competition cube and a book:

I was amazed how easy this cube turns. it can be operated with one hand!

and

I played with it a little bit every day and learned the formulas of the “easy” way.

After a couple of weeks i was down to about 2:30 minutes.

Recently i tried the 4x4x4 Cube and the Mirror Cube 3x3x3.
The 4x4x4 is different in that there is not once center piece but 4. One way to solve it is to place all the center pieces first, then the edges (2 pieces per edge) finally to do the corners like it was a 3x3x3. I have not done it yet; maybe next summer!

The mirror cube is interesting in that the pieces have the same color, but their size vary as the center of the cube is offset to a corner. It’s a bit disconcerting at first but one can get the hang of it fairly quickly. Some people recommend doing the side with the tallest sides first so the last layer is the flatter one.