TREASURE HUNT: Coventry

 

Many, many moons ago Rose bought me a 'Treasure Hunt' for something (we're not quite sure... birthday or wedding anniversary presumably). Well as it was winter when she gave it to me we set it aside until spring, but then of course spring came and two weeks later it was too hot to be outside. So now, with autumn approaching and the heat thankfully dissipating, we decided we'd better get on and do it before the voucher expired.

Well originally we were going to do it in Leeds... I'm not quite sure why, but then we decided we would do it closer to home, so we chose Coventry as it's not too far and we didn't know it that well so it would be interesting to look around.

They send you the clues out the day before and there are 50 things to find and photograph, and one of us had to be in each picture as well. They ranged from signs, buildings, plaques, statues, to a pub sign, all sorts of things. 

Some of the clues were anagrams and some had words underlined like 'check' which hinted at a Czech war memorial. There was also one which said 'Observe Near = _____ _____'. I thought it was 'Seeup Close', which is hilarious. It was of course 'Watch Close'. Which makes far more sense since it is near the Coventry Watch Museum. 

We had to go into the new Cathedral to photograph this stained glass panel wall, which was pretty cool, and also outside there is this very unusual statue hanging on the wall! 

It took well over three hours to get round it all and we did a LOT of walking (some of it in the rain, indeed as we left it really started to rain quite hard... so all the people we'd been taking the piss out of all day for wearing coats and hats were finally vindicated!).

Overall it was good fun and we'll definitely do it again. Much better than that disappointing treasure chest thing we did last week!

ESCAPE ROOM: Dead Man's Chest (Hortons Emporium, Northampton)

Having completed all three of Horton's escape rooms, we returned once more to attempt the 'Dead Man's Chest' puzzle game. Yet again we were greeted by Gina, and yet again she seemed to have no memory of either of us. Oh well, I guess we are not that memorable, haha.

So Dead Man's Chest is literally a chest that you have to work through, guided by clues from the 'Dead Pirate' (you pressed something on the chest when you need help)... in much the same way as the 'Rucksack' puzzle game in Oakham.

Things didn't start well as we failed to work out the first puzzle and after two clues the 'Pirate' told us the answer. I mean, I don't know how anyone could have 'worked it out' as the answer seemed quite tenuous, unfortunately there was a fair bit of this as things progressed.

Once we got the lid off, things improved a bit, and some of it was logical, but equally there were times where things just seemed to 'happen' without us actually knowing what we did to make it happen. I suppose if your only aim is to complete the game then that's fine, but I don't find it terribly rewarding to just randomly do things and then it works, I'd much rather apply my brain and work something out.

At one point in the game Gina reappeared and helped us open the next part of the chest as there is no clue for this apparently. I think we would have got there eventually but I imagine it's a sticking point with so many that she's just got used to jumping in.

She also had to help us with the compass and coins thing which wasn't very obvious.

All in all then it was okay, but definitely not one of our better experiences, which was a shame as I thought the rucksack challenge we did previously was fantastic. Oh well, Hortons are building a new room downstairs so we'll probably be back to do that one at some point.

GIG: Forbidden (Manchester)

 

Almost a year to the day since my last Forbidden gig (that time at Rebellion in Manchester), where Craig Locicero stood onstage and told us that a Forbidden club gig in the UK wouldn't happen again in a hurry... how wrong he was, eh?

I was in two minds whether to make the trek again, but despite the fact that the Bread Shed is definitely not as good a venue as Rebellion, I definitely enjoyed this gig more than the first one. And while that's partly because the band played their second (and best) album in full, it was also because I made the effort to listen to the first two albums repeatedly in the days leading up to the gig.

Last time I thought I knew the songs quite well, but really I just knew the choruses of a few songs, so often I would be wondering what song I was listening to until I got far enough in to recognize it. No such problems this time as I recognized every song immediately.

The band was the same as last time with Chewy from Voivod still on second guitar and Chris Kontos (ex Machine Head) playing the drums. 

As I get older it gets harder and harder to make these journeys, driving 250 miles in an evening and getting home at 1:30am. But on this occasion it was worth it, Forbidden played really well, the sound was great and Norman hit all the notes you could expect in a live setting (some of Russ Anderson's vocals on the Forbidden albums are insanely difficult to reproduce live).

I hope they come back, but maybe to the Rescue Rooms next time...

GARDEN: Garden Flowers and Petunias in the Window Box