Month: April 2019

A few months ago, I finally got around to assembling an elite team of puzzle solvers and booked up to do the rooms at Escape 60 in Folkestone. This weekend, we completed the three escape rooms at Pressure Point in Ashford. As a group we have now completed 6 escape rooms and I absolutely love doing them. They really appeal to the part of me that wanted to be a detective but also to the part of me that only likes using my brain for enjoyment.

We’ve got it down to an art form. We randomly split off as soon as we get into the room, all get confused by our own little puzzle and then eventually we’ll start talking to each other and piece it all together. Finally we will some how manage to stumble out of the room victorious.

It’s difficult to really explain why I love them without giving away any spoilers for the ones that we have done. They are a great combination of a puzzle solving and physical experience. A bit like the Crystal Maze (which is also great fun) but with more coherence through each of the puzzles and more of a teamwork element.

I cannot recommend them enough but I’m sure people may have some reservations about doing an escape room.  Let’s talk them through.

Firstly, you might worry that you’re not great at puzzle solving. There will be games where you where you might not seem to do much. There’s no I in team. If you get out, you all win. Then there might be a game when you seem to do loads of the puzzles. The addicts seem to go in groups of 2, or maybe 4, so that they can solve more of the puzzles. I haven’t done anything in a group that small as we’ve had our team of 6 in each of the rooms, but I think I’d prefer to have more people around me to help. You will be given advice at the start of the game, they will point out what things aren’t puzzles (usually plug sockets and the like) and will usually explain things such as that everything is there for a reason and that everything generally has one use and one use only.

You might be worried about literally being locked in. Rest assured that this is not the case. They want you to get out so that they can get some more people in for the next game. There are also fire safety rules which prevent you from locking people in rooms, so the door you came in through will always be unlocked. Handy if you suddenly need to pop to the loo, although the timer won’t stop and you might ruin the immersive experience.

You could be frightened that the room might by scary. Some of them apparently are. The scariest things we’ve had so far are a drunk hobo doll (the host of the game was still with us at this point) and when I tricked Matt into putting his hand in a hole where there was a toy rat. Generally the theme will be something like zombies, serial killers or something similar. If that seems like too much for you, check out something with a lighter theme (there seem to be a few pirate ones around. Who doesn’t like pirates?) but if you’re in any doubt at all, ask the organisers. Remember, they want you to have fun. They get enjoyment from that and if you go and tell your friends that you had a good time, they might want to go as well and therefore to company will make more money. They also want you to solve the puzzles. The people who run these events are often fans of the games themselves and they want you to share in what they enjoy. After the game, they will talk to you about what you got right, what you missed and (if you’ve played all of their games) will give you advice on other escape rooms nearby that you might enjoy.

Where should you go? Well, I can recommend the ones that we have tried – Escape60 and PressurePoint. They’re definitely on the less scary end of the scale, good fun and the people who run it are really nice and helpful. If they’re not near to you or the themes don’t grab you, I’ve compiled a list of all the rooms in Kent to help us decide where we’re going next which I handily include for you below. If you do decide to go, let me know how you got on so we can compare times, or you can tell me what rooms you think we might like to do next!

Ashford

Pressure Point
https://www.pressurepointescaperooms.co.uk/
Murder on the Dancefloor
Broken
Into the Moonlit Wild
Max 6: players – £17.00 each

Canterbury

Marlowe’s Ghost – Canterbury Marlowe Theatre
Max: 6 players – £19.00 each
Seems to end August 2019

Canterbury Escape Room
https://canterburyescaperoom.com/
(now closed)

Escape in the Towers
https://www.onepoundlane.co.uk/escape
Crime and Punishment
WW2 Comms Room
Magna Carter Murder (coming 2019)
Max: 5 players £19.00 each

Escape Kent
https://www.escapekent.com/
Kidnapped
Pirates of the Stormy Seas
Vice Versa
Alien Attack
The Haunting
Saving Santa
Magic Portal (outdoors)
Operation Mindfall (outdoors)
Max: 8 players. £17.50 each

Chatham

Escape Plan Live
Chain Gang
Murder at the Pier
The Naughty List
The Orphanage
The Séance
Terminal
The Witching Hour
What the Dickens?
Large group sizes, varying prices

Hysteria
https://hysteriaescaperooms.com/
Aftermath (max 8)
Motel California (max 5)
The Forgotten Realm (max 6)
£13.00 each

Dover

Get Lost
http://www.getlostescaperooms.co.uk/
World Fair Hotel – ‘murder hotel’
Abandoned Cottage -witches
The Krevokar Programme – top secret research
Director’s Cut (opens 24 May)
Neverland (opens 24 May) – for Children
The Hunt (coming soon) – versus or single, shape the universe
Max: 7 players – £18.00 each

Faversham

Clever Dilemma
https://cleverdilemma.com/
Dracula’s Chambers
Murder at the Wild West Quest Saloon
Max: 5 players. £15.00 each

Folkestone

Locked In Rooms
http://www.locked-in.co.uk/
The Bunker
Asylum
Max: 8 players £16.00 each

Escape 60
https://www.escape60.co.uk/
The Compactor
Serial Killer’s Lair
Max: 6 players – £15.00 each

Gillingham

Mythologic Escape Room
The Game (locked chest)
Hypnos
Penn13wise
Max: 6 players. £15.00 each

Gravesend

The Panic Room
Wizard of Oz
The Sacrifice
The Dollhouse
The Don
Old Father Time
Resurgency
Dinoland
Enigma
Revolucion
Van Escape
The Mind Pod
Ten Fathoms Deep
Loop
Secret of Pocahontas: The Lost Pages
The Grape Escape
Defective Detective
Prison Van
The Happy Institute
CSI: Mobile Escape Room
Max: 8 players – £16.50 each

Margate

The Escapement
https://escapementmargate.co.uk/
Pirates of Polaris
Egyptian Tomb
The Pit
Max: 6 players – £16.50 each

Maidstone

Prison Island
https://www.prisonislandmaidstone.com
Max: 80 players (?)
Large Groups split into teams of 4. £25.00 each

Escape Hub
The Laughing Lair
Inbound
Mr Brenchley: Diamond Theft

Extraction Room
1 room – max: 6 players. £15 each

Ctrl Alt Esc
https://ctrlaltesc.co.uk/index.php/en/
Frankenscape
Detention
Spacescape
Ghosts on the Go (Outdoors, coming soon)
Max: 8 players. £16.66 each

Paddock Wood

TimeQuest
Agent101
Saving Operation Neptune
The Quest to Save Camelot
Max: 6 players. £13.33 each

Ramsgate

Breakout Room
http://www.breakout-room.co.uk/
Charlie & The Chocolate Factory (possibly closed?)
The Crypt Haunted Graveyard
Down the Rabbit Hole (Alice in Wonderland)
Max: 8 – £16.00

Real Life Games
https://www.reallifegames.co.uk/
Feline Fiasco (coming soon)
Extinction
Max: 8 players – £14.00 each

Strood

Time2Escape
https://www.time2escapestrood.co.uk/
You’re Next
Break Out (Prison)
Max: 6 players £12.50 each

Last year I set myself 2 New Year’s Resolutions at the start of the financial year. I liked this because it gave me 3 months to think of them after everyone else did, and so I am going to do the same again this year. Two of these are repeat and/or slightly altered resolutions and then there is one big new one at the end. That’s the headliner so it comes last.

Resolution 1: Run 200 miles

Last year’s target was 365 miles, one for every day of the year. I liked this at the time because of the challenge of it and the fact that it averaged out to one mile a day. However, it is not possible for me to run 1 mile a day. I am a grown up and I have Responsibilities. They are annoying, I know but it means I can’t do it every day. As I struggle when I get to slightly longer distances I think lowering the target is a sensible thing to do. I get numb feet somewhere between 2 and 3 miles usually. This is something that I went to see a podiatrist about last year and hopefully the situation is improving, but we will see.

Resolution 2: Get to a weight the NHS thinks is healthy

This is another roll over from last year’s resolutions. As I was exercising my weight dipped but it is now pretty much back at the same as the start of the year. I would need to lose around 3-4 kg to get into this banding.

Resolution 3: Go vegan

This is the big one for this year. I have been vegetarian for what I would guess to be about 15 years now. It has become much easier to be a vegetarian over that time as it has become more popular. I have noticed that restaurants will offer much more choice (I actually don’t like this – it can give me analysis paralysis. I much prefer to have to pick from 2 or 3 items), there are more vegetarian restaurants springing up all time time and it has become a lot less niche.

The same can be said for veganism over the past few years. You can now walk into WH Smiths and see a wide range of vegan cookbooks which I’d have never imagined possible when I originally went veggie.

So why am I turning vegan now? The main reason is that I have had a few occasions where I’ve had an upset tummy which seem to be mainly when I have a lot of dairy. Pretty much any time after eating a pizza is a good example.

Over the last couple of months, I have been slowly replacing the dairy in my diet with substitutes. Milk has been replaced with Oatly. Butter has been replaced by Vitalite dairy free. Cheese has been replaced by Koko (this has been the biggest sacrifice as it basically tastes like cardboard). Yoghurts have been replaced by Alpro. I’ve basically become a vegan when eating at home. And it hasn’t been difficult. There’s nothing I am missing really, I am feeling less unwell and it has been a positive in my life.

I’ve got an awesome cookbook called Bosh which not only has a cool name but has given me a lot of inspiration for meals and has even make me grow as a human being and start making a dish that contains mushrooms (I bloody hate mushrooms).

Now all I need to do is to ensure that when I eat out, I am also eating vegan which is likely to be the trickiest bit. I live in a small town and there probably aren’t too many options available at all the restaurants and definitely none available at some of them. It will be ensuring that if I pick any snacks up, or forget a packed lunch or anything similar that I am ensuring that what I am buying is vegan.

So one element of it is that it now seems like a feasible option for me. The reason I went vegetarian was primarily because I realised I could live without causing animals to die. Now I have realised that I can live without causing them pain and that feels one step better.

I have never be preachy about vegetarianism. If anything I’m apologetic. I’m British, that’s our thing. So I don’t intend to be preachy about veganism although I would be happy to talk to you about it if you wanted.