The Crystal Maze Experience- London

Last Christmas, my Stepmum and Dad bought CBC and I a really cool present together with my sister and her boyfriend. A voucher for us to visit the Crystal Maze Experience in London.

For a child of the 80's/90's, this is the ultimate excitement!

In case you don't know what I am talking about, the Crystal Maze was a game show which began in 1990.  The premise of the game was that a team of 6 were quickly hurried through four adventure zones by a Maze-master.  The four zones were The Medieval zone, the Industrial zone, the Futuristic zone and the Aztec zone. In Later series, the Oceanic zone replaced the Industrial Zone.  

In each zone,the team's elected captain was asked to select the type of game they wanted to play:

Physical, Mental,Skill or Mystery.

They then selected one of their team to play it.  The team member was then grasped by the host/Maze Master and then taken to a closed door. They were told they had either 2minutes, 2 and a half minutes or  3 minutes and thrust through the door whilst the rest of the team watched through a window or a screen.

The selected team member then had to figure out how to solve the puzzle/challenge with help from the rest of the team shouting out.  

If they were successful, they would win a crystal which would be grabbed and the team member would then bang on the door to be let out.

Beware though, if you didn't get out in time, you will get locked in!!!

The only way you could escape from the locked room would be if the team sacrificed one of their precious crystals.

The first host of the game was the wonderful mercurial Richard O'Brien, Creator of the Rocky Horror Picture Show!  He was wonderfully eccentric and really created a brilliant atmosphere.  After several series, Richard O'Brien left and was replaced by Ed Tudor-Pole.

The game was revived a few years ago with Richard Ayoade as host.

Back to the present, finally, it was hugely exciting to know it had been made into an experience that everyone could have a go at but I'd never got around to investigating it!

It was so exciting when we received it as a present but we didn't really get around to booking it.

We finally booked a date for last Sunday but sadly, last minute, my sister's boyfriend couldn't make it as he had a job interview about 4 hours drive away. Luckily, my stepmum came in his place.

So...what was it like?

We arrived and were sent to wait in Figaro's bar upstairs, a really pretty and attractive place to wait. You can just go there for drinks if you want.

Teams were fetched and asked to leave their belongings in a locker. You aren't allowed to take phones or cameras with you, to keep the maze secret.

We were then ushered into a vestibule where they played the theme music and credits on a screen and our maze master appeared through a door!

Our host was called Byron and he was really sweet and fun and had all the energy necessary for a Maze Master.

We went into the Medieval zone first.

We'd selected my sister as Team Captain and me as Vice Captain.

The first game was a mystery and I offered to go first.

Before we'd gone in, they all knew I didn't want to do a physical if possible as I am very clumsy and uncoordinated!

When I ran into my first game, I was DELIGHTED as it featured a set of different sized bells on the wall, all tuned to a different pitch with colours. Those colours were the same as my glockenspiels as my school instruments!! I took one look at the first set of colours and named the tune without playing it as it was one I actually taught to my kids this week (and I use the colours on my work sheets!). The third one I just sang to check what it was. The second tune was a little harder to know without playing it so I played it on the bells and my Stepmum named it! I won my crystal!

Next, CBC played a Skill- which was IMPOSSIBLE! No crystal!  My sister followed with a Physical- also hard- no crystal! My stepmum played a Mystery and won her crystal!

There are always new teams going through the maze behind you so they move you on quickly. You get 4 games in each zone, the zone is subdivided into two parts so they can move another team in.  There are lots of rooms- I was itching to know what was behind all the other doors!

The Medieval zone had really cool decor and I really did feel nervous and scared like it was the real TV show!!!

Going between each zone was really fun with some active crawling or climbing, sometimes in the dark!!

Next, we went to the Futuristic zone where we had 4 games- each of us had one. I had a Skill which was sooooo close- I ALMOST completed it but for dropping a kidney at the last minute!  CBC won a crystal with his mental- we helped alot! My stepmum did well again! My sister did a skill one and hit all the targets - we all helped with morse code but we couldn't work out the anagram!!! My sister did another physical which was an automatic lock-in- she aced it!!!

The futuristic zone was really cool and modern with and lots of space themed games!  We had to crawl through

In the industrial zone, I had a mental game- AHGH!!! It was a mental game where you had to press buttons to light up a board. BUT, some of the buttons switched off the lights and you had to begin over and over again!   I had a terrified feeling about getting locked in but didn't!!!

Frustratingly, I  got down to ONE LIGHT!!! No crystal! My stepmum did amazingly with a mental game and skill game as did my sister- another physical!

Our final zone was the Aztec zone. You had to go down an incredibly cool slide to get to it!!

We all played a game there except my stepmum- my sister played her one instead, as the last game!

CBC did a mental game but we didn't get the crystal. My sister did a physical again (oops, we made her do them all except one!) - I managed to guess exactly what the game was before they opened the door! She got her crystal!

My game was a skill featuring a prop from the original series! It was IMPOSSIBLE!!!! No crystal!

Luckily, I managed to help answers to 2 riddles which helped my sister win the final game which was a mystery!

Our stats were:

Sister: 3 physicals, 1 skill, 1 mystery= 3 crystals

Stepmum: 2 mystery, 2 mental = 3 crystals

CBC: 1 physical, 2 skill, 1 mental= 2 crystals

Me: 1 mystery, 1 mental, 2 skill =  1 crystal.

Total:9 crystals = 45 seconds in the Crystal Dome! 7 is the average apparently!

I could have predicted that outcome. My skill and coordination skills are very lacking. Mental and Mystery were my only hope for getting a crystal. However, I helped with other games, so I helped in some useful way!

The final stage was going to the Crystal dome!

It was very cool to get in there! It was bigger than I thought and it was really hard to catch the tickets! You aren't allowed to pick up any from the floor!

We managed to collect 129 gold tokens! Sadly, not a record, but considering we were only a team of 4, this was good apparently!

It was actually much better being a small team because we all got to play 4 games (stepmum gave one of hers to sis) rather than just 2! They really have done a good job on the experience and I DEFINITELY want to go again!!

It is located on Shaftesbury Avenue in Piccadilly and costs anywhere between £60-100 per person. A lot but it really was fantastic!

I found this wonderful documentary on Youtube you can watch about the show and below, I have linked to the very first full episode of the show!

After that, my stepmum and sister had to get home sadly, but CBC and I went to Bali Bali, also on Shaftesbury avenue for dinner. I'd remembered it was there. Bali Bali serves Indonesian cuisine

We ordered the Indonesian platter:Lumpia- Spring rolls, crab claws, breaded prawn, chicken wing and sate on a bed of prawn crackers- scrummy but v filling!

For mains, CBC ordered Nasi Lemak which is boiled rice with a lovely coconut- based sauce and sea food bits with picked veg on the side.

My mains were Cap Tjai- a dish of vegetables in a sauce and Tahu Goreng- fried tofu in peanut sauce and crackers on a bed of pickled vegetables.  They were pleasant BUT I was a bit disappointed with them as Cap Tjai was my favourite dish in Bali and it wasn't the same at all. I am used to it in more sauce, much spicier, the vegetables cut much smaller and with egg in it.

There were so many more amazing dishes on the menu I wanted to try- but I hope to go back another time!

The Tofu was in peanut sauce which I didn't realise and I'd already eaten lots of it for my starter so it was a bit too rich and sweet for me at the time. I definitely had food regrets!! Luckily, I had brought containers with me and I took lots of my two dishes home- CBC and I appreciated them for dinner the next night!

My Sunday was really lovely!!

xx

My favourite 11 Board and card games

I LOVE Boardgames.  And yet, I don't play them very often.  But I gladly would. Sadly, CBC is not as keen as I to play them.  Mainly,  I believe, because I beat him!  Sore loser I say.

Anyway, I thought I would share my favourites here. I'd love to hear which ones you like best!

1. The Big Taboo
The original game, Taboo, is a game where you have a limited time to describe a word/topic/item to your team without using 5 taboo/forbidden words, e.g.  the word is RAINBOW and you can't use 'colours', 'spectrum', 'refraction' 'arc', 'sky' to describe it.
In the BIG Taboo, there are 4 different challenges that you might land on on the board.
The first of these is as described above but you have to describe as many cards as possible within the egg timer and you move on one space for each one.
The second challenge is 'Draw it'.  Within 2 turns of the egg-timer, you must draw what is on the card and your team guess it.  E.g.  You might draw a saucepan with steam coming out of it to describe 'Cooking'.   Every time your team get one right, you move on a space and you try to draw as many as possible within the time limit.
Challenge 3 is called 15 words.  Within 2 turns of the egg timer, you must say as few words as possible to describe a topic/item/word- your team have as many guesses as possible.  Within the round, you as the player are only allowed 15 words IN TOTAL to describe as many of those topics as possible.  E.g. answer 1 may be 'Triangle'- I might say, "Shape" and hope my team guess it quickly- that way I have only wasted 1 word and I have 14 words left for the round to describe other words.
Challenge 4 is the funniest and is called 'Bendy Bob.'  You have a purple puppet and the puppet has to act out as many of the categories on the card as possible within the time.  This is hard as one of the clues I had in the past was 'Balloon modelling!'
This game is SO much fun. I absolutely adore it!

2.  Party Edition Pictionary
Oh, SO many happy Christmases spent playing this game at my Godmother's house. We would always go over to her house on Christmas eve, or the 23rd December or Christmas day evening or New Year's Eve and we would play this game. It is like Pictionary but instead of drawing on paper, you have two big whiteboards hinged in the middle which slot into the box and you draw big for your team to guess the answer.  So many hilarious games of this as several of the annual players were TERRIBLE at drawing!!!  If you don't know the original game,  'Pictionary', then in this game, you have to draw in order to reveal what the answer is- your team have to guess it.  There are different categories for this such as 'Science, Film and TV, People' etc.

3.  The London Game
This is a game that I was introduced to by my original blogging inspiration, my uni friend Rach when I went to see her to get some books that she had used for her PGCE.  I LOVE this game but it is incredibly frustrating!  I was delighted to find this in a charity shop fairly soon after I was introduced to this game which I do think is utter serendipity!

So, the game takes place on a London Underground tube map.  My edition is quite old and I am not sure if it has been updated. In my version, the Jubilee line ends at Charing Cross and Aldwych only just shut!  Each player receives 6 destination cards and the aim is to visit all 6 destinations on the board, declare your destinations as you arrive and get back to the main line station that you started the game at.  You can choose which mainline station you start at once you have got your destination cards and strategically plan your journey.  Every time it is your go, you throw the dice and you can move any number of stops along your tube line up to number you threw.  So, if you threw a 5, you can move, 1,2,3,4 or 5 stops.  If you want to change tube lines, when you get to an interchange, you must declare that you are changing lines and then take a HAZARD card.  These can be good or bad to either you or the other players and they can make or break a winning streak! e.g. a card might say, "Gather all the other players and go boating on the Serpentine. All go to Knightsbridge." and you may have JUST worked your way right across the board to Liverpool Street and be highly annoyed.  OR, like me in the above picture, your dear husband with one Hazard card, sent you to Wembley central and with the next hazard card, trapped you with an OPEN AND CLOSE station card at Wembley Central  (the only way to open a closed station is to throw a 6....). This is SUCH a strategic fun game but is incredibly frustrating at times. I am hoping CBC is feeling more benevolent towards it as he won both games we played of it this week!

4.  Screwball Scramble
When I was a little girl, at the end of each term, you were allowed to bring in your own toys/board games to play.  I was always envious of the people who owned Screwball Scramble.  This game was a race against the timer to get the metal balls through an obstacle course.  I loved it so much and remember the year my Dad bought it for me for Christmas. It stayed at his house so I never got to take it to school but I always liked to play it at his house.
It is a race against the clock.  You have a large silver ball bearing which you have to get through an obstacle course before the time runs out.  I found a Youtube video of it.  Watch from 1:30 to see the game in play (without timer)

5.  Pass the Bomb.
I think my favourite games are to do with words.  In this game, you have a BOMB.  This clever device has a button you press that begins the bomb ticking. It has a clever variable timer which counts down a different amount each time. At the end of the countdown, the bomb 'explodes'.
So, what do you have to do?  Each person starts off with 5 lives.  Well, you throw the dice which has 3 symbols on it which appear twice on the dice.  1 symbol means 'Not allowed at the start of a word', the 2nd means, 'Not allowed at the end of a word' and the 3rd means, 'Allowed anywhere in the word'.  You then pick a card which has a letter string on it, .e.g    ED.    Once you have revealed it, the person whose go it is starts off the bomb timer which begins ticking.  You must say a word that has that letter string in that order but depending on which dice symbol you threw determines where it can go.
So if you threw the 'Not allowed at the start of a word' symbol, then you cannot say, EDucation, EDit, EDitor but you COULD say, callED, rEDdening. And you see what I mean?
Once the person has said a valid word, they pass the bomb on as quickly as possible to the next player in the circle who has to then say another word which obeys the same rule.  Other players can challenge any repeated words or forbidden/tenuous words.  The bomb will 'explode' at some point and whoever has the bomb in their hand at that point loses a life. The winner is the person left with most lives at the end of the game.  Again, this becomes highly heated and frantic.  Just the way I like it!


6.  Junior Edition Trivial Pursuit
I really like normal Trivial Pursuit but some of the questions are tough. And the Genus edition is impossible. But the vintage Junior edition from the 80's/90's which I happily found in a charity shop but was made to get rid of when we moved from our rental house 2 houses ago (grr, regret it) is much easier and is full of answers I know.  Anyone who doesn't know this game, it's basically a trivia quiz and you move around a board with a 6-space mini-pie dish. Every time you land on a colour, you must answer a question.  If you get it right, you gain a piece of pie in the category colour for your pie.  First player to get back to the middle with their rainbow pie complete is the winner!

7. Articulate
Articulate is actually very similar to Taboo which I described in no.1 but there aren't taboo words. You have to try and describe something to your team without saying that word and if they guess it right, you win a move.


8.  Scrabble
Scrabble is a game which is a bit like Marmite. Some love it, some hate it.  CBC does not like playing it with me because he always beats me.  My mother-in-law always beats me but I still like it lots.  If you don't know it, the premise is that you pick 7 letter tiles from a bag and try to build words on a board, strategically positioning your tiles so they garner bonus points from 'Triple word score' or 'Double letter score'.  You can build words off other words. 
My friends Tacye, Amy (who used to blog here- Stev/phen you remember Amy?!?) and I  invited our own version of Scrabble once on a rainy afternoon. We sometimes get really frustrated because we have made great words but there is no available space on the board. So we invited 'Collaborative' Scrabble and the aim of that game is just to play together and try to build the best words you can with your letters for the sake of enjoying interesting words, not to win points.   I play Scrabble by myself, against myself too if there is no one who will play with me.

Here's some cards I made with a Scrabble tile box.

9.  Slam
This is a simple card game which I was first taught aged 13 by my friend Liz's German penpal Johanna. You only need a pack of cards for this and you can play with a minimum of 2 players or more.  The aim is to get rid of your cards as quickly by laying them on top of consecutive cards as fast as possible and SLAM the smallest pile of cards eventually ending up with cards to be overall winner.  It may take me a WHILE to explain this, so I googled and discovered that the Guardian wrote a guide for how to play it which you can see here.  I giggled to read about SLAM rage.  Yes, I can get a bit vicious when I play this!!

10.  Spoons
This is another card game and a great one for parties.  You need a quantity of spoons, one less than the quantity of players.  You sit in a circle and the spoons are placed in the middle.  Each player is dealt 4 cards.   The aim of the game is two gain 4 identical cards or a run of 4, e.g. four 5's or a 3,4,5,6 in spades.  The first player or dealer picks up one card from the pile and refers to their own cards. They either swap it for one of their cards or immediately lay it down between themselves and the player next to them and then pick another from the remaining Deck (the next player does the same and then there is a constant stream of cards. The person who is last before the dealer lays down the cards into a new pile.   When a player has got the 4 cards they need, then they take a spoon.  As soon as the other players realise someone has grabbed a spoon, they too must grab one.  The last player to grab, i.e. who ends up with no spoon is out.   Each time you play, you take away one spoon until it gets to the final and there two players and one spoon.  Again, this is a great fun party game and gets incredibly competitive!  A variation on this is called PIG and instead of grabbing a spoon, the player who has won puts their hand on their nose.  Last player to put their hand to their nose is the loser and adds a P to their name. When someone has added PIG to their name is out!

11. Boggle
Any games involving making words using a set of letters are one of my favourite things. I can tell you the exact time in my life when I realised this. My year 4 teacher, Mrs Linton used to give us challenges.  One day, she put the words, HAINAULT FOREST up on the board and gave us 5 minutes to make as many words as possible out of those letters which we had to write down, e.g. 1.Fire, 2.  Rain, 3. Let, 4. Rest.   I made the most words and gained 5 points for my house team in class, the Yellow team.  That was one of my happiest moments in year 4 and I have always loved those word building games from that point onwards.
In Boggle, you have a set of 9 letter dice which sit in a box, you shake them and they fall into position.  Within the egg timer, you must try to make as many words using the letters as possible but they must be in consecutive order and you can't use a letter twice.

So let's say this was the set of letters you got

E   A   R
T   F   C 
S   O   E 

The words you could make include:
1. Tar, 2. Farce, 3.  Fat, 4.  Soft,  5. Race, 6.  Cafe
E   A   R     E   A   R      E   A   R     E   A   R
T   F   C      T   F   C      T   F    C    T    F   C 
S   O   E     S   O   E       S   O   E     S   O   E

But you couldn't make CARE because the E is not next to the R.  You couldn't make ACT either because the T is not next to the C.
The winner of the round is the person who gets the most points.  The longer the word, the more points you get, the more words you get, the more points you get.


I've got a brilliant book by Giles Brandreth which is full of fun games to play, most of which only use paper and pencils or eyes so maybe I will share some of those at some point!

What about you?  What are your favourite board or card games?

xxx

Scrabblicious!

One of the first reasons I really started making cards in earnest, some 10 years ago now, was my wish to be creative with packaging and items that would otherwise end up in the bin.  This was before my local authority did cardboard recycling so I was always trying to think of ways to use old, clean packaging.   My first card-making session, I made about 12 cards, all of them reusing certain boxes and packets!  Whilst I have evolved over this last decade, to include bought items and pretty papers, this art of recycling packaging might be old, but never forgotten! I've got stacks of bits and pieces in my stash from packaging!!That summer, I cut around 3000 mosaic tiles from packaging to make mosaic cards with the kids at our church's summer mission!

This Saturday, I finally unpackaged my Scrabble tile fridge magnet set and attached to a pretty large metal heart which is now hanging in my kitchen- it's alterable art- and I will show you sometime!

A friend came round for a cup of tea and stayed for quite a long while.  Thus, while we were chatting to him, I sat with the packaging to the magnets and cut out all of the Scrabble-tiles or logos on the packaging.

Then, I decided what I could do with them and this is what I came up with.


All of the above, I quite like because they'd be suitable for men/boys (if they like Scrabble) too.  The top one is intended for my brother in law and the rest, well, you'll just have to wait and see!
The top right one shows you what the anagram of Fridge magnets is- that's what the large tiles originally read! Admittedly a little random as a card, but you know, it's just a bit of fun.
All I used is some 3d pads, scissors and some black card I have had in my card stash since the very early days of card-making.  I forget about it from time to time but it always comes out, every so often!!

Linking to
Creative Mondays with Claire Justine


Daring Cardmakers weekly challenge with my Old, but never forgotten art!  Hope this isn't too tenuous, but it did put me in mind of my early days when I read your post!

A tale entitled "Sunflowers are hazardous to your health OR "Bergerac to Bridoire"

Continuing my tales of rural France: On the Sunday, 2 days after arrival, Monkeygirl, S and I decided to set out on an adventure.  CBC had to stay behind to work on his MA dissertation and J, her sister and husband (who came to see us on their way to the Pyrenees) just wanted to enjoy the beautiful garden.  

We set off for the picturesque town of Bergerac (after Cyrano of the big nose!) .  Now, CBC has been to this place we were staying before and he had seen the glory of a myriad sunflower fields.  IN fact, I had visions of wandering through fields of flowers in a pretty dress and CBC being all Darcy-like and chivalrous.  However, ALL the fields of sunflowers around us were dead and brown- it was really sad- they looked like rows of the exiled Biblical Israelites from the Old Testament, going off to Babylon in Exile- in the Good News Bible, their heads downcast, walking in row upon row.

However, as we were driving through miles of beautiful green scenery, all of a sudden I shouted, "STOP the car, there's live sunflowers!!!!!!!!"  Yes, I had spotted A LIVE FIELD OF SUNFLOWERS!  S stopped the car and I had my camera lens out (they were set back quite far from the road).  I leapt out of the car without looking.  To my horror, the ground was not where it should have been - we were in a really high People-carrier and I tripped over.  In a bid to save my precious camera, I didn't attempt to save myself and spun in a circle, ending finally with a sickening scrape and thud on the ground, arm stretched out (camera saved from any impact!) .   Monkey girl and S heard the impact of my fall but hadn't been looking so they looked on, fraught as I lay stretched, worrying that a car would come cannoning down that road at any moment.   Let me tell you, that road was hard and rough!  I was scratched and bruised all over my knees, elbows and landed badly on my bad wrist.  Luckily, I got a photo of the sunflowers above! 

Minutes later, I sat quietly mopping at blood with my hankie as we drove on until we reached the beautiful town of Bergerac.  The weather was utterly perfec as you can tell from these turquoise blue skies in the following pictures.

Bergerac was really interesting architecturally- it is a bastide, a medieval town and it has all these Tudor houses which are wonderfully picturesque- it's really weird seeing what I've only ever seen in England, in France.

We were happy to meander the streets and soak up the atmosphere.  It being so hot, MG and I decided to have a little waterfight in this water-fountain.  I don't think the well-behaved tourists at their restaurant tables across the road thought much of our very tame splashing!

 It seemed fitting some minutes later that we found these fountains which MG and I ran along- getting rather deliciously soaked- perfect for a hot day!

 Here stands Cyrano De Bergerac with his generous nose!

 This amazing sand-blasted church was amazing- it was so impressively large!

We headed off to a nice restaurant for lunch where I ordered the Omelette des Cyrano which listed eggs, onions, tomatoes and one other vegetable in its ingredients.  So I was slightly dismayed when it arrived with CHAMPIGNON absolutely stuffed in every inch.  We all know how I loathe mushrooms.  In my terrible French I managed to say that there were mushrooms in it even though they weren't in the menu and could I please have one without (honestly, if there had been a few, I'd have just picked them out but it was more mushroom than omelette) and it ended up being delicious second time round!

We spotted an impressive ice-cream parlour which boasted 60 flavours (and it did!) so we couldn't resist the opportunity!

Trying to be adventurous, I went for lime-sorbet which was utterly gorgeous...

S and MG went for Kinder flavoured and mint-choc chip respectively.

We walked along the river which shimmered beautifully and sat and ate our ice-creams.  Both MG and I had brought swimwear in hope of a river-dip but it was much too murky for that.

An interesting discovery we made was that a form of hydro-electricity was produced and supported the entire town in around 1900 here and here is the machinery that powered it- it was pretty impressive, the info we read about it.  Now, it wouldn't even provide 8% of the town with their power but it was an interesting insight into sustainable energy a while back!
We picked up a flyer (oooh, and I went in a vintage shop though didn't find anything I liked.  I had high hopes of coming back with some gorgeous French dress of yesteryear-  not to be) for a newly opened, renovated chateau which had been restored for years and had never been open to the public until now.  We decided to give it a try.

When we arrived, we weren't sure what we've get for our 8euro entrance fee but thought it was worth a try...

The fairytale exterior should have been a sign of the beauty and joy that awaited us within.

Inside the ramparts, the castle itself looked all the more magical

The surprise of the day, and the best thing about it was the grounds.  They had created a medieval games, activity and action gounrds where there was plenty to entertain and delight anyone of any age.  It literally was the Medieval zone of the Crystal Maze (oh how I miss that programme!) with all its challenges.

In our bid for our first crystal, MG took on a physical challenge which was an automatic lock-in.  You had to get through the web of ropes without ringing a bell (they were attached to all the ropes).  It was really hard and if this really had been the maze, we'd have all been locked in!  Great fun though- I could have done it for hours.  We thought about how easily you could make one of these for your kids in your garden or a playground or even as a fun challenge for guests at a wedding!  All you need is an old frame, bells and rope/string!

In this round of skill challenge, you had to do something with this topple-table.  MG got it whilst I wandered off.

This was a sort of 'Hungry hippo' game in reverse- you each had an air-bladder which you had to use to shoot the ball away from you and defend your goal from the other three players- great fun!

MG and S went all Alice in Wonderland playing croquet.

To this day I am not sure if we were supposed to be touching these- but we had fun getting into the spirit of Medieval knights.

More Alice activities ensued when after the three of us had had a go at a variety of throwing arrows, darts, balls, bean-bags and the suchlike and concluded that we are all useless at aiming and throwing (surprisingly, I was more successful than them- HOW?!), MG and S played lawn chess.  Quite a crowd turned out to watch them which was embarassing for them as they weren't really taking it that seriously!

I set my sights on the Chateau itself and I cannot fail to gasp, even now, looking at this picture.  I am quite sure, the Princess Aurora, Cinderella, Beauty, Rapunzel and all manner of fairytale princesses were living in this castle. 

The great thing was, there was none of this 'Keep away from the articles' business you get in NT properties (I understand why you have to), you could go up to things and examine.

I became hideously excited in the drawing room when I saw this panelling as there was a hidden door which you couldn't get into!  It COULD COULD COLD have been that secret passage that it is my life's mission to discover and explore!

The billiards room was fun as you could have a game. Can anyone explain the rules to me?

It had a 'Cave' underground which all 3 of us mistook to mean a labyrinth, catacombs, great scene of exploration and adventure.  To be fair, it was quite cool and exciting but it did just turn out to be a wine cellar and a place to leave your enemies to rot....

Onwards and upwards, we found where Rapunzel was hanging out. (I am trying to persuade them to put this on their wedding invitations!)

Your could see right into the tower and see the wonderful craftsmanship of the room weaving.

And peek out the windows and see the roofs.

Yet another thoughtful feature for visitors was the quill room.  Paper, ink and quills had been left for you to practice your calligraphy.  Here Cyrano de Bergerac writes his.... Ah wait, that's me!

The family chapel was serene and a sanctuary.

Ineresingly, when you climbed the stairs to the second floor, you could see just how much work they had had to do to restore Chateau Bridoire.  The second floor is yet to be restored, I imagine they've opened so far to raise more money.  But in a lovely un-British (it being France!) way, there was no anxiety about health and safety so you could actually come and see this and look at it (and several other rooms in a similar state of degradation)

It was a real privilege finding this gem of a place to visit.  It was well well worth the entrance fee, they had set it out so thoughtfully. The games and activities (there were stacks more than I featured) were a particular
boon and you could happily spend an entire day there playing with a family or as a group of adults. If you ever go to the Dordogne or rural Bordeaux, do look it up- here are the web-details.  I love the sound of their next Courtyard day- replacing 300 window panes sounds like fun!

On our way back to Taillecavat, we saw many interesting sights including this lovely decoration in a village and some sort of flying event in which all sorts of people were landing on a big field in all sorts of tiny aircraft.

It was a real highlight to visit- fun, interesting, informative, historic and yet light-hearted and relaxed.  The only thing that would have made it better is if CBC could have enjoyed it as well but MG and S are really good company- they are fun, interesting, intelligent and considerate people who I was lucky to spend the day with.

Would you like to visit?  It really is a lovely area of France! 

Christmas activities and quizzes for you with love from Kezzie x 2: Meanings connected to numbers

Hello all!  Hope you liked my Christmas tube quiz day one.  If you missed it- check here for a quiz connected to London's tube map.

Today's fun family activity is connected to numbers with meanings!   Take for example:

100 L on a C

Hmmm, 100 has lots of different associations. BUT 100 L on a C

Well, actually translated it is:

100 Legs on a centipede.

(technically, according to Wiki this is not so but I'm sure like me, you all believe the myth!)

So here is the rest of the quiz.

The number quiz round

Think historically, think mathematically, think cultural references- decipher what the letters mean in order for the phrase to make sense!


e.g. 4 C B in the T D of C = 4 calling birds in the twelve days of Christmas.


Or 100 C in a M = 100 centimetres in a metre

Clue:


10 G B H on the W


21: K to the D


24 B B in a P


12 D of C


100 D C= B P of W


1066 B of H


12 L of H


7 D S


7 W of the A W


52 C in a D of C


6 D of S


5 G R in the T D of C


1001 A N


366 D in a L Y


11 P in a F T


1760 Y in a M


14 P in a S


10 Y in a D


5 S on a P


13 in a B D

I have it as a Word document. Just leave me your e-mail address in the comments box if you want a copy of it (and the answers). I'll post the answers at a later date .

If you are unlucky enough to be stuck at work during the festive period with not much to do, also could be a good e-mail to send to friends!

Hope you enjoy it!  Let me know what you think (and that includes you random person who was searching for a polka dot dress on google!)
 
Wearing: Emma Watson for People Tree dress, M&S Sequin jeans, Shooting stars handkerchief (worn as scarf) and shooting stars cinema handbag both Cath Kidston.  Shoes- Tescos.  (Lost for a year and then found in the electric cupboard where the electric metre and all the fuses are!  Bizarre what one does to hide mess when trying to avoid the wrath of one's mother regarding said mess!)