Will we get out in time?!?

With an hour to escape and one of our party still on a tube in London somewhere, I had doubts over our ability to crack the clues and escape.

The clues. Confusing in themselves. Pieces of paper detailing strange notes, wooden cylinders with Xs and Os on them and numerous posters on the wall were all meant to help us crack the code to get into the vault, get the money and escape.

It started slowly - we found some keys, worked out how to put the wooden pieces into the rack, then worked out the codes on the ipad, transferred these to the map on the wall and finally managed to match the symbols to the poster. Bingo - the shutter opened!

But then - the laser beams!  Quite possibly the trickiest part, we finally managed to cross these and work out how to use the clock in the other room. Then it was onto the vault. As luck would have it, having recently visited Krakow, I was able to work out the map and we finally got the second key needed to open the safes.  With a couple of minutes to go we then had the task of working out which money was not counterfeit and which was worth more.

As the buzzer went off we escaped!

With just under half a million pounds in our suitcase we'd done well, even with the deduction for the clue we had to use to help us.

Great fun and definitely worth doing!

40 before 40 - Update. Where am I at?

Below is my progress so far. 2 years and 17 to go!

Slightly concerned I won't get there but then there are some small challenges that are easy to tick off and these are the ones I shall focus on next year. Larger challenges - The Great Wall and Vegas may need to be changed if, due to time and funds, I cannot complete these. I do have some ideas on standby.  A few changes are also noted below...


Before I am 40 I want to...

1. Go in a hot air balloon
2. Get two more tattoos - After getting my second tattoo (first additional one), I actually think I am happy with the two that I have. Both are discrete, will not annoy me when older, are personal and have meaning to me, plus part of me is now wondering if I got a third whether I would be getting one just for the sake of it! So I think I'll stick with two! 
3. Go husky sledding
4. Snowboard down a blue run without falling!
5. Try microdermabrasion  - to see if it is as good as others say!
6. Go down the slide at the Orbit in the Olympic Park.  Originally I wanted to go busking and make enough money for a meal - but actually how much would this stress me out, rather than add value to my life?
7. Wild camp and watch the sunrise
8. Visit Jerusalem
9. Go rally driving
10. Do the three peaks challenge
11. Eat at a Michelin starred restaurant.  Whilst afternoon tea at the Ritz was lush, I have never eaten a full meal - 3 courses or more! - at a restaurant with even 1 Michelin star.
12. Zip wire in Snowdonia
13. See the Northern Lights
14. Stand under a waterfall
15. Feed a penguin - Or monkey or any other cute animal for that matter!
16. Do a triathlon
17. Give blood - something I always mean to do but have never got round to it.
18. Walk the West Higland Way, or a similar long distance footpath.
19. Camp in a tipi
20. Go up the shard.
21. Sit in a hot tub, looking out at snowy mountains whilst drinking cocktails!
22. Go to Vegas
23. Create a piece of artwork that I am proud to have on display in my house
24. Do an escape room game. Psychics can wait. I've had enough bad news over the past two years without hearing a so-called psychic babble on about things which may or may not come true!
25. Go zorbing
26. Write a blog
27. Do a skydive
28. Fly first/business class - even better if I get an upgrade!
29. Visit Venice
30. Buy a DSLR camera and learn how to use it
31. Learn to knit - and actually produce something useful!
32. Go punting
33. Drive a jet ski
34. Cycle in the Velodrome at the Olympic Park
35. See baby turtles on a golden sand beach
36. See a film at the rooftop cinema
37. Visit the Great Wall of China
38. Visit Auschwitz
39. Run another marathon. Gatecrashing an extravagant wedding - great fun and great idea but so few and far between!
40. Have visited 40 countries by the time I’m 40 - currently on 36, 37, 38, 39 I believe, so achievable in 5 years!

And one additional one that is not a 'fun' one, but a necessity!

41.  To not smoke another cigarette from summer 2014 onwards -  especially when out drinking or stressed at work. 5 years smoke-free is certainly achievable if I stick at it from now :)

I tri-ed!

I had initially signed up for a women's only tri, way back in July, and due to numerous reasons never made it down to Dorney Lake that Sunday morning. Then, whilst on a short break to Belfast, I got an email that I had won an entry to the Wonurn Tri two weeks later. I could enter any distance and only had to pay for parking - result! So, I used my sensible brain and picked a Supersprint - 400m swim, 10K cycle and 2.5K run, all distances I could complete with ease individually.

So, with no training under my belt and with my 1990s heavy mountain bike stowed in the boot of my only slightly bigger car, I drove the 90mins to Woburn Abbey on a very cold Spetember morning.

Wedged into my ever so slightly too small wetsuit, I entered the lake. 16.1 degrees felt like ice! The hooter went and we were off.  With reeds trying to grab my ankles and pull me under and the water having a fair amount of sediment circulating, I decided that breast stroke was the way forward. 2 strokes forward and 1 back seemed to be the order of the day. The wind had picked up and the lake became choppy. My predicted 8 minute swim turned into 11..... And then the exit ramp was upon me. I dragged my weary body out of the water, pulled off the top half of my wetsuit and speed walked to transition, conscious of the fact that I needed to prepare my legs for cycling.

Transition - I was not the slowest by far and within 2 minutes I was on my bike and heading out of Woburn. It felt like the longest 10K cycle of my life. All way going well until a hill. A big hill. At 7K I could have done without it and, like the other 4 cyclists just ahead of me, I cheated and walked the steep 200m uphill, mounted my bike at the top and peddled like mad back to transition.

T2 (see, I know the lingo if nothing else) was speedy. Dismount, jog to my racking position, bike up, helmet off, turn number belt round and grab a drink. Out to the run.

2.5K - On it's own should take me 15mins max! This took a little longer with my jelly legs and the 300m hill up the slippery grass at the end.

But I finished! I was not last and despite being 20mins slower than I had hoped I was not too disappointed, given my lack of training, the cold day, my heavy bike and complete unpreparedness!

Woudl I do another? Maybe, but flat, it'd have to be flat!

A hamster ball, you say?

And so, in the deepest, darkest depths of Surrey (Whyteleafe to be exact), I found myself strapped into what can only be described as a giant hamster ball opposite my friend of 25years, Becky.  The restraining pole was removed and we were off, me going backwards and her forwards, down a 140m slope for all of about 40 seconds. Utterly terrifying and fun at the same time, especially when the zorb collided with the side barriers and we were thrown around a little more than we had anticipated!

At the bottom the net caught us, then released us so that we were hanging by our harnesses upside down! This was soon rectified by the staff who righted our zorb and helped us out.

Did we want to go again?  You bet!

This time it was the hydrozorb. No harnesses but a couple of buckets of water to help us slide around in the ball.  This one seemed more gentle, until the final few metres when we lost our grips and tumbled over each other. At least we were still laughing at the end!

Great fun and I would definitely go again!