A Regular Headache Aspley, Queensland, Australia
By that ^*$][.?\^* EngPhil on 23-Dec-14. Waypoint GC5J0D7

Needing a cache to keep my little challenge going and ticking along. I had this one with a solved sign on it, I was not sure how I got it but I saw it was a nice little walk and not far from home. Bluewattle and I jumped in the car and made our way to what I thought was an easy access route. Turns out there are some large fences along the perimeter of the area. The path on the map is lacking, so we followed an old dried up river bank area. Walking along I then found a little gap in the fence which worked out nicely. Crawling under we were now in the right spot to get to the cache. We came across an area as to where someone is leaving feed out for the locals, four brush turkeys and a pretty face wallaby were gathered around. We soon made our way to the cache and opened the cache. We signed the log and replaced all as found. By this time it was pretty dark and making our way back was a little fun. Thanks for the cache

Back here again while waiting on my daughter to be finished at the nearby shopping centre. It has been quite some time since I solved this, so I was not prepared at the GZ. And my usual skillset for dealing with such setbacks failed. Luckily I had reception and could find the way in. TFTC!

What the actual had help with this one, and it ticked off a much needed DT combo, but cache was found in good condition. TFTC.

Found It!This one really was a headache. Initially I had multiple solutions but after a lot of careful reworking I finally had a unique solution to the crossword that I was fairly confident was correct. But then what? How do you turn some censored expletives into coordinates? A few more headaches later and I had an idea that surprisingly turned out to be correct. After getting a tick on the checker, I went for a walk to the final location with Davidwazza today. Found the cache easily enough but wasn't expecting the extra field puzzle. Stared at that for a bit before we eventually worked out what we needed to do and finally got the cache open!TFTC

Regular expression... regex... what can I say? With a strong logic and coding background, I hadn't encountered regex, but it seemed simple and straight forward enough. Several months ago, I worked through the regex tutorials, continued to expand my skillset, and progressed through various problems. I thought I was ready to commence this puzzle, but the difficulty change was still quite high; it felt like I needed to work through the crossword via trial and error somewhat before everything fell into place, so after making a few attempts, I parked it. I raised these three regex puzzles with [Laighside Legends](https://coord.info/PR3BCW0) who I knew from my Adelaide days, who was a computing gun and had other programming geocaching puzzles himself, and through highlighting a few other resources that I came across, he managed to solve the two difficult puzzles, which included this one and [A Regular Problem](https://coord.info/GC509KW). I can certainly admit that I relied completely on his skills for obtaining this GZ, and the step between decoding and obtaining the set of coordinates appeared to be mastery.As we walked through the vicinity, we detoured past this geocache location, and after checking a couple of spots, we soon spotted the hide. We were not expecting the additional field puzzle, and deduced that even those who had a set of coordinates for this cache may be stumped at this final hurdle if they didn't know regex. We conversed on the different lines, and again after attempting to help, I relied on the decryption from [Laighside Legends](https://coord.info/PR3BCW0). We started on those lines that allowed that information, and I soon got another crash course with the significance on those symbols, before obtaining the required entry, and sweet sound of the unlock popping out. Otherwise, the cache container and logbook were in good shape. I regretted not bringing a TB to place in this cache, knowing it would be very safe from muggles and accidental Geocachers from taking those and not logging. Thanks EngPhil for the cache placement and ongoing maintenance. ---------- This afternoon, I caught up with [Laighside Legends](https://coord.info/PR3BCW0) to find a few geocaches in the Chermside West - McDowall area. I revisited a reserve that I had walked a couple of times before, and then jogged around the tracks of Cabbage Tree Creek, before returning home to assist with dinner.

All exactly as it should be, no surprises since I just had a full report that is except for the pothole near gz that my foot sank into, sending me tumbling to the ground…

12/2/2023 Find #5695
All the words I would like to say, but cannot write in this log to my rather nasty brother, as this is supposed to be a family game.
However I know you are ALL thinking the same things about him anyway!
You see, he really is quite evil, and the cache he calls A Regular Headache has been nothing short of a constant migraine bordering on a stroke for me ever since I began caching. Especially as time went on and this became my closest to home unfound cache, and unsolved puzzle.
Oh yes I have said many unprintable things.
They say you can choose your friends but you can’t choose your relatives. Luckily for me, I have chosen some amazing friends, friends who understand my pain, and are there to help and support me.
And so it was that I turned to such a friend for some compassion when it comes to this infliction of mine.
And this friend was more than willing to lend the support required to help me move on and stop my recurring migraines.
I should add here that discovering exactly where this cache was and knowing just how many times I have walked past it over the years was like turning on a Halogen light and shining it straight on the migraine sufferer. Or having a class full of kindergarten children on an exhibition-winds day AND during a full moon get overly excited about something when they know you are in a moment of migraine weakness already and just trying to make it to 4pm.
And so it was that today, despite the insufferable heat, I headed here to alleviate all symptoms once and for all.
And then I arrived at GZ. And I could feel the twitches start once more. Because apparently you can never just get rid of a migraine without some form of aftershock.
Thankfully post-migraine aftershock is relatively short lasting, and I could be rewarded with a clean bill of health and my name in the log before too much longer.
The thing with suffering for all this time is that I’ve had plenty of time to think about my revenge.
Don’t worry, there is definitely something in the pipeworks!
Thanks for the cache EngPhil…… I think!

Was very hard to work out but got there eventually.

This requires the skills of a mathematician

5969

Friday. Eventually, with a huge shove from a previous solver and a bit of sipping and solving, we managed to get this one with some good looking co-ords. We headed off early-ish today to grab some solved puzzles that have been sitting in our pile of ever-growing 'puzzle solved but not found' list. I certainly did have more than a headache after this one. I could see in my mind what I needed to do, but with so many puzzles coming out, my brain is fading away instead of growing. Yes ^*[].?\^* EngPhil - this puzzle is a doozy 5. Loved the location of the container. We parked where we thought we could head off to GZ, but not to be - definitely needed to go further down the road. Headed off and you wouldn’t have known it had rained here in the last couple of days. Nice walk in a lovely area.

This was the 5th of 15 caches found on this outing.

Thanks ***EngPhil*** for showing us this place

I was in the area looking for other caches and as I had this one solved some time ago I decided to stroll past it.

Now I found that I had another barrier to break down to get to the log book and I made a PAF call to a smarter colleague who worked out how to break down that barrier.

All good with the cache.

TFTC EngPhil

Well well well... this puzzle haunts me no more!

I have always had this puzzle in my too-hard basket, and mental ignored the blue dot taunting me on the map. As COVID struck, I had enough free time to look at it again. Nope, still too hard. But boredom does interesting things to people, and eventually I organised to hook up on zoom with a bunch of similarly frustrated caches to try and crack the first nut.

With time pressure I perform well, and thankfully, we had #1 solved in less than two hours. Fresh from success, I wondered if this one was really as hard as I had initially imagined. I sat down to think it through, and after another 2 hour session (made easier with some liquid braint lubricant) I had a solution. Wahoo, done! Now for puzzle #3...

It looks deceptively simple. Much smaller than the others. But what does THAT mean, and also, are you being intentionally obfuscative? Damn sure you are! @#$@#!@#

I had half of it solved OK, but try as I might, the other half would not appear. Then one more cell, then another, and soon enough only two cells to go. With no real way forward, I just brute forced the rest of it :p. And Bob's your... well... I don't have an uncle Bob.

This one has sat in the solved pile for a few days now, and today I snuck out of work (well, home) to go and grab it. Still there, still in great condition. Oh what's that, the torture hasn't finished yet? Good thing I genuinely solved the puzzles, or I would have been totally lost here. Signed my moniker and silent let out a whoop whoop. Great location, even managed to drag one of the geokids with me.

TFTC! I shall stop cursing you now! Throwing in a FP for the ingenious puzzle design, and the hours and hours of "entertainment".

TB visits

Maintenance check. Cache and hide are looking great. Finally reattached the thing that had become detached — thank you to the finders who have replaced it carefully in the meantime!

A long long time ago in a country far far away, I solved A Regular Puzzle and A Regular Problem. Solving this regex puzzle was a little more painful but I have had good practise with these things by the time I got to this third puzzle. Besides, it has been such a long time I think I have now forgotten just how painful the exercise was.

The good thing with regex is that it is unambiguous. If only GC puzzles are as clear. The problem I had next was trying to figure out what to do with the solutions. Anyway, I must have added a million crosses to the checker. All the while I was seriously wondering a SES style search in my favourite patch of bush. As it turns out, if I was to have taken a walk in the bush everyday, I probably would have found this thing in less than two years and therefore would have resulted in a sooner find.

However, a walk in the bush everyday had to wait. Life offered plenty of distractions and slowly the bits of paper got shoved in a drawer and I gave up hope of ever signing this log.

The stars all aligned and earlier this week at Traveling Jack's event, Pprime provided a lot help towards what I needed to do next. I got home and couldn't find those bits of paper! I thought a must have had one of those very rare cleaning up urges and decided to bin it. Anyway, had a geocaching look and eventually very relieved to find my old notes.

I finally got a tick from the checker and today I arrived at GZ. The container presented one last challenge but that was easy peasy in comparison. It really isn't going to trouble anyone who has gotten this far. I soon had the pleasure of scribbling my name to mark one big milestone of my journey.

Everything is in good condition and the note on the outside is securely tucked in. Pprime, thanks for your help. And EngPhil, a big thank you for the adventure.

*(...continued)*

Summer five years ago - my 5km circle was essentially empty and bing bang bong three nasty looking puzzles by that ^*$][.?\^* EngPhil - apt - popped up in there. But, no worries ... it's regex, I know regex, I can do this surely? (spoiler alert .... no, not then). This one was actually closest to home, but I quickly put my focus on the, ahem, easier one first. A mere two and a bit years later and I finally had that one cracked. Phew. And so I turned to it's compatriot, and after many more headaches and the start of an alcohol problem I worked it out in a mere 18 further months. Sigh. This third one I had never abandoned effort on, but nothing ever snapped. Except my patience - several times. Over the past year I have invested way way too much of my spare time, train travel time, holiday time, dreams, and nightmares, and lunch hours (I don't get lunch hours really - but I invested a few in this anyway). I have also managed to use up several reams of paper, and a printer cartridge (or two) and at least three pens have been fully emptied.

I did recently get a bit of a shove forward. It boiled down to remembering who the CO is, and how such a mind works. This turns out to be an amazingly elegantly crafted multi-phased puzzle, engineered to perfection. Far more so than I gave it credit for. But being so long between puzzle solves I had to more than once re-solve the first two (they are easier once you remember the process and part of the answers) - as practice and a reminder, and the description did say I would need it.

And then. One fateful day - stuck at home, unwell, bored. I believed. I believed that this would make sense. All of it. And put in some answers, and wow. They made sense, almost. A bit of a tweak later and I had a new puzzle. Or two. But these ones made some sense to me and so I went searching for the last time I'd solved the first two puzzles (I have a messy office now - but that's not important to this story). And yes, I have ... well, I am not sure what I've got, but it 'felt' right to me. Popped it into the checker ... and no, I was not right. Hmmm. But I believed, I felt it had to be on the right track ...a stray memory and I tried something else and bing bang bong ... I HAVE COORDINATES. Happy dance. Another happy dance. It's dark - did I say already that I was unwell? Not going outside tonight. And as it turns out not for a fortnight as I'm too busy, and away. Damn. This is gonna be a loooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong two weeks.

And now it is today. Today is the day! Yup indeedy it is - I drove Suzee out to my chosen carpark nearish to GZ, kitted up and headed off. Up hill, down dale. Along the switch back, over rocks and a little creek (no water to speak of today despite the recent rains). Saw a little bit of wildlife, birds, roos, lizards. Probably a snake, or maybe a lizard tail, but not close to GZ. Not sure how long it's been since the fires through here - I guess more than five years although it's taking it's time to regenerate.

Got a bit of bounce at GZ, but I gravitated to a likely spot - and there she is .... oh wait! Yes, pretty much what I was expecting (have I started mind reading this CO? God help me). Some aspect of the past five years has worked because lickety split I had my hands on the logbook and the name of Prime was etched forever therein. Thank the good lord above for that.

It has been a couple days now. The shaking has stopped, I even slept a whole night last night. I do still twitch at the sight of a backslash, asterix or dot. But the tremors are easing. I might have to send flowers to the CO's mum. But till then, a little FP to add to the collection.

Thanks that ^*$][.?\^* EngPhil for torturing me this past half decade. No truly, my unending thanks for all this.
*{Overall find #7048}*

Well. First I would like to publicly apologize to Engphil's mum. Over the past few years I have called her nasty names, horrible, horrible things. Accused her of some most unnatural acts. I am truly sorry for all the unearned grief I may have caused her.

And I should also apologize to my neighbours. My home office overlooks their front yard where their kids used to love to play and laugh - well they have apparently heard me expressing my thoughts about this puzzle and its fellows - at some volume, repeatedly - and, well, the kids are now spending all their time inside drinking beer. But I digress.

*(Continued ...)*

I can't believe the headaches this cache has given us. Two years of tears and pure pain. We worked with a number of people over 2 years ago with different ideas but just couldn't work out the last piece of the puzzle. Even the CO tried to give us hints but we kept getting a no from the checker! I believe the CO had a full head of hair before trying to help us.....I wonder what he has now? Talking to a previous finder and every now and then revisiting the other 2 puzzles, the penny finally dropped! Yippee, happy dance all around. This was a must to get on this extremely short visit to Brisbane as it was the closest none solved cache from where we are staying. Having committed to picking up our son from a railway station we thought we could quickly grab this one on the way. We knew the area well as it used to be our walking area when we lived near here! Brought back some great and some sad memories but with our 19 month granddaughter, in a pram we had forgotten about the unfriendly pushing pram track! Lady membsec decided to walk ahead in hope of finding the cache quickly and sign the log book to save male membsec the trouble of pushing the pram. Cache found quickly and oh ok!!! A bit of thinking and bingo cache open and log signed!!

Woohoo, no more headaches, hopefully for awhile! Thank you so much EngPhil for the cache, help, headaches and then joy! A favorite point.

21/2/17, 6:18 pm Find #1765 Unknown #463

Puzzles are a funny thing. You sit back and look at the solution and think "that wasn't so hard," completely forgetting that only five minutes earlier, you were sitting there thinking "I will NEVER solve this puzzle."

I never though that I would say that solving the regex crossword would be the easy part. But once I'd got that out of the way, like a few others, I sat there thinking "ok, what do I do now?" After reading everything over about a million times, I thought I knew the how but not the what or the where.

The CO confirmed that I was on the right track but there were just so many possibilities. I got a small nudge from a previous finder. That didn't seem to help either. I think I added at least twenty red crosses to the checker.

This morning after my walk I was sitting down eating brekky and decided to try a few idea. The first two bumped the red crosses up a little bit more but then I got the coveted tick!

I thought about rushing out there straight away but just didn't have time to do that and get to work on time so I had to sit on it all day which was really hard.

After work, I headed straight there but missed a turn and got waylaid on the Riverside Expressway in peak hour traffic for twenty minutes.

I eventually arrived although I'm not convinced that my Nuvi took me to the best entrance point. There seemed to be an awful lot of uphill. I finally got there, out of breath, and had to take a moment or two to collect my thoughts before tackling the final sting in the tail.

Thanks for a really challenging series. I am going to half to find something else to give me headaches now. Maybe I should look at Cacher's Theorem again.

TFTC EngPhil

This being one of my favorite puzzle caches I thought I might drop by to check that it was all ok... uhm yep it's all ok... chances are that I may come back later...

Stopped in to check on this one today. The note has come unstuck from the cache, finders please ensure it is suitably attached before you leave, until I can get back here and fix it properly.

Everything else is in order.

A TB seems to have fallen out of my pocket and landed in the cache, too.

#7 today, around 6am.
Headache? What headache? Oh, you mean that incredibly frustrating niggle which comes from having everything except the very final solution in your hand? Golly. I found this third puzzle even more demanding than the other two, but after gradually securing a couple of nudges about this and that, managed to finally secure a tick.
I then chose to save the find for today, as the D/T combo is a great one for the Challenge. I was worried about the field puzzle aspect, but thankfully it wasn't too bad. I must mention that I found something has come astray on the container... I would say it is the effect of the weather and possibly just wear and tear, though with very few visitors, you wouldn't think so. Anyway, I think I have resecured it for the moment, but the CO might like to pop over with some more adhesive...
Pipper Pointer accompanied me for the first 30 or so caches today, but chose not to sign the log, having not solved the puzzle: there's geo-ethics for you!
TFTC and an end to the torment!

This entry was edited by Teamtinda on Wednesday, 07 October 2015 at 07:24:13 UTC.

Got it! 8 months after first reading the puzzle I finally got there. I think this should be a 6 or a 7 Difficulty...

Solving the base puzzle was fun, but as many will attest, the "what next" had me stumped for months. Eventually I clicked on the checker and noticed that I had been trying to find the wrong thing - ahh epiphany one out of the way. But even then, I was not getting the right answer. Eventually explained my approach to CO who gave me confidenc, and suggested my proposals were too long... A few more attempts, then a second epiphany which yielded a green tick.

Got out to GZ today and was relieved the field puzzle was not too taxing.

Took butterfly, left car.

TFTC and puzzle and panadol addiction

Boy am I glad but also quite chuffed to have this one sorted! (I think it is a very common feeling when one is forced to use regular expressions to solve a difficult problem!)

This all started with the publication of "Problem" and "Puzzle" last December and I thought they were quite clever mystery caches that had me puzzling away happily for a while. Then EngPhil released this terror upon us! I made some significant headway on the puzzle and sought confirmation at a couple of points from the CO. He was encouraging but at the same time tight-lipped about where to go next. In retrospect, the hints that he published were quite useful and vague at the same time! Much like reading someone else's regex strings actually!

Finally, with a little collaboration with Mr Tinda, I got the affirmative from that seriously nasty "certitude" and plans were made to collect a smiley at my earliest convenience. Well, family illness aside, that day came today and I had a pleasant walk to GZ. I enjoyed the final hurdle very much EngPhil, cunning to a fault! Thanks for the fun of the last 8 months and thanks also to Teamtinda for the moral (& psychological!) support!

Golly gee, a thumbs up at last! I concede I needed a bit of a shove with the final step of this, but I also feel for the CO as I know what it's like to try to provide a hint which is helpful without giving the whole game away.
The temptation to race over there now is pretty strong, but I have my sights set on the '25 D/T in a day' challenge so I think I had best let this one sit for the moment, especially as I am still struggling to overcome a bout of flu. Looking forward to the final showdown with this beast, I can assure you!

Hmm, three more crosses... maybe it's time for another hint.....

.... do you think I might have had a reason to chose that particular geochecker instead of one of the more usual ones around here?

*blink*

Did something just change?

Based on feedback, and the Certitude figures, and with the blessing of those who have already found it, I am upping the difficulty to 5.

*FTF* with EggInTheSky
01:11 24-January-2015

/(Th)(e )(pe)(nn)(y )(fin)((((al)l)\5)d)(ro)p\3(d )\((I was )((a )littl\2)(em)(ba)(rr)(as)(se\12)(I ha)(dn’t )s(een )((th)at )(((ea)r)l)ier…\)( j)((us)t )((be)for)\2l\28(vi)((ng )for)((( d)i)\4er w)((i\25) )f(ri)(en)ds(\. )\13((pre)(tt)\5)sur\2\24\21\12\25\2((co)\18(ec)t )app\11(ach)(( an)\12)(I )\10(so)( k)n(ew) I\38\22(ha)(v\2)(\25\2)\48(re)f(er)\43c(\2m)(ate)\42\10! A\18gh\44\54\49ul\12ch\50k m\5ide\15but not get \60full\53sw\62 \32\2w\2\58\12to h\28\12out, \55\37\19 \14int\62s\3r\20w\40m\2tryi\36to sc\42bbl\2out \15\49upl\2\55lutions on \60\17ck of r\50eipts\44Fi\59hours lat\62 wh\43 \54actu\7i\12get \55m\2tim\2\54\55on \58\12\60answ\62\52c\62titud\2sai\12yes! Ph\57\.\n\nNot \33i\36an FTF tragic \(ho ho ho\), \19 \55on \19 li\47l\2boyo w\19 snuggle\12into \33\12\54grab\33\12m\5phon\2an\12m\5w\28\25\62 p\11of vest\52s\3\12off to \60dark sid\2\(or w\19 \24\60nor\25 side\?\)\44\54pinge\12Eggs, who w\19 up\52k\23\55 w\2hooke\12up\52w\62\2\55on r\28d\5to plung\2into \60mildl\5dark,\39amp b\31h to look for \60c\51e\.\n\nLuckil\5Eggs is \10ways \46pa\61\12an\12\58\12b\11ught torches [:0] \55 w\2\55on na\34g\64\12to \60c\51\2an\12\54shudde\61\12j\30\14wh\43 \54saw \60a\47\42but\2f\28tu\61\44Well aft\62 \60warm up \21ndle\12\24on\2\45e\19il\5an\12it w\19 \55on blank log\29o\5time! Woo hoo\.\n\n\1anks for \60puzzles Phil\44I\39e\6itel\5woul\12not\56now n\26\5\19 much \61gex w\41out \25\16… \1anks too for \60ibis p\11o\6g [:p] mad\63\2actu\8l\27n \55me\25ing\44\54am now looki\35war\12to \15futur\2w\40onl\5on\63or\2\61gex \(an\12mayb\2\49m\46ssion\) ch\9\43ge\./

Well that was anything BUT a regular cache or a regular cache find... Or for that matter, a regular caching evening and time.
Ftf with keepingupwith.
Thanks for the cache and puzzle eng Phil...

I'm amazed that nobody has worked this one out yet. It seems everyone is better at solving regular expressions than at reading plain English....

Ditto Jossie2. Not a headache, more like a migraine!

This entry was edited by NeverLostAu on Wednesday, 21 January 2015 at 06:50:15 UTC.

I honestly didn't think it was that hard. Maybe I should up the difficulty

Curiously, the part that I had expected to be the difficult bit doesn't seem to be what's tripping people up [?]

I'll drop another hint here if it still hasn't been solved in a couple more days...

Think we solved the regex puzzle but have no idea what it means.

Published

So all you need is:
* A RegEx cheat sheet
* A print out of the puzzle
* A HB pencil
* An eraser
* A brick wall

Steps:
* Look at puzzle
* Walk to brick wall
* Bash head against brick wall
* Then back to step one...