Escape Rooms - A New Experience

Escape Rooms   

Have you ever been to one?

                                                           Do you even know what it is?

                Do you like to be scared?

                                                     Do you like to be trapped?

Are you good at figuring out puzzles?

                                                     Do you overthink the obvious when it comes to a mind challenge?


If you said YES to any one of these, you would love the Escape Rooms.

I've just learned about them and have now had first hand experience at one in particular.

My girlfriends invited me, so there were 4 of us.

"Sure"! I said, "Lock me in a room with 3 of my friends and keep the key!"

In London, Kipps Lane, on Wednesday, Feb. 17, 5 pm we met.

                                                      We walk down a narrow cement well-lit walkway to an entry door.

The door has a window but it is dark and we can't see inside.

On the door is a combination challenge which we need to figure out in order to key in the code to

unlock the door. After a few minutes of 7 heads brainstorming, (others were trying to enter when we arrived) together we succeeded.

                                       And so it begins!!

Unfortunately, we had a bit of a language barrier between us and the Asian host but we got enough from his instruction to understand he was locking us in a cold dimly-lit room with two doors. 
We were each "armed" with a flashlight (oh no!) and a walkie talkie to call for help/hints/freedom if we needed it (yikes!). Our phones and cameras were seized upon arrival so we could not take photos so the ones I have posted here are from their web page only.
Not much in the line of explanation, really.

It is a see it to believe it kind of experience and our challenge in particular placed us in two rooms which needed to be unlocked.

We brave gals chose  INVERSE WORLD

In a galaxy far far away, there exists a secret, isolated planet unknown 

to mankind. Coincidentally, your friends and you have been 

transported into this world. You find that everything in this 

strange planet is upside down so you decide to call it “Inverse World”. 

How to get out of this strange world remains a puzzle!

This theme is recommended for 4-10 people: Panicking and in despair, 

you are desperate to find a way to escape this strange, unforgiving 

world!

Now doesn't that just get your anxiety up?  The good news is that we didn't chicken out. We entered, we bumped heads, we muddled, we laughed, we complained, we called for help our allotted 3 times and finally opened the doors for release.

Lost City Escape Room in London, On

There were combinations to be unlocked, signs on the wall, puzzles to decipher, ropes to configure and boxes to open. Good thing we had a direct line to the front desk.Luckily we had no need to stand on our heads (inverse, get it?) although yes, we tried!

Would we do it again? Absolutely! We had fun and we succeeded! It was a great way to spend time with friends and to celebrate our escape we went out to dinner.

My partners in crime, Laurie, Heather and Laurie.

Thank you for reading about our adventure and if you are so inclined, check out an Escape Room in your area.

Here is a link address to the site: 
http://www.lostcityescape.com/portfolio/saw-2/

Step Challenge

Nothing gets some of us moving like a challenge.

It could be an eating challenge, we've all seen those gross displays of people mowing food into their mouths at a county fair or on television.  Ew!

                                

It could be a foot race. 5 k, 10 k, running or walking. These are usually truly dedicated movers. My hat is off to them!

It could be a political debate, and these are almost as silly as the eating ones above, in my opinion.

This week, a few people at the south end of our building have been invited to participate in a Step/Pedometer Challenge. This invite did not come without some grovelling on my part that went something like this "We want to play tooo, please let us play, we'll behave, we won't tell anyone else!" Yah, something like that exactly!!

I wore better clothes though.

The Education Centre, we call it The Big House because it is where most of the bigwigs have their offices, often holds contests, sales, bake sales, charity events etc. within their four walls. To me, someone always has their hand out for something! Things are just different in that building, not better or worse, just different.

I've been quite happy in my own personal space.

 This time, however, an email mainly directed for Education Centre staff was received on a few of our monitors. Bling "You've Got Mail". We started chatting to ourselves about the contents and it involved a delightful little step challenge they are holding, amongst themselves. Awards and prizes and cake, oh my!

This kind of challenge is right up my alley ever since I got my Fitbit. So! On behalf of 10 interested walkers, I did the grovelling in such a manner that they allowed us to participate provided we didn't invite anyone else. 

For 12 days all we have to do is our regular daily activities plus any extra curricular activities we want to do to increase our daily steps. With Mother Nature playing havoc with our weather, we have really had some challenging days to increase our steps, let me tell you! 

The spring days are really encouraging and not only do I get out myself at lunch and break times but I see other leggers getting out for theirs too. I walked further and down new paths just to add to my count.

On the extra icy and wintry days, I mostly choose to stay indoors and catch up on my reading instead. 

Safe rather than sorry. On the days I do need to bump up my steps, I put on my Sorrels with an extra grip. I don't need to be slip sliding away!

I made up our cheat sheets and as the self-named Captain of our team I named ourselves aptly after our street as The Leathorne Leggers. (Don't laugh! I was under pressure!)

We are doing remarkably well, all of us. Some are not as pumped as others but that is okay, we each have our own agenda.

The "official" challenge is drawing to a close but I have heard from 2 or 3 already that are so pleased with themselves, how this has encouraged them and that they want to continue in our own little world. 

Here is a picture of our group.............as many as willingly showed up for a photo shot!
                                        

So, we'll see at the end of the day tomorrow who wishes to carry on and I'll update my board. I've got 17 days left to be their guide/Captain/secretary. :)