Treasure hunt!

Greetings, one and all.

I hope you all had a very merry Christmas and a relaxed and fun-filled Boxing Day.

I am enjoying my first official holidays over the Christmas/New Year period in some years. I had hoped to perhaps write something every day, but that ambition was promptly sunk by the prospect of doing not terribly much at all. 

One thing I did manage to pull off, however, was a super fun Christmas treasure hunt for The Wah. 

I had bought him a very shiny new present, but I felt it was something that required working for. Given that we had a quiet Christmas at home this year (our respective families being out of town), I thought it might help add some extra zest to the morning.

I worked out all the locations for clues a few days beforehand, wrote them up in dodgy rhyme, then printed out and sealed them on Christmas Eve.

The Wah is a very light sleeper, so it was some kind of Christmas miracle that I was able to get up and out of the house at 6 o'clock in the morning without him catching me in the act. I walked around our local park, planted the clues and buried the present (something I was a bit uncertain how to do until I surreptitiously managed to borrow a gardening trowel from our friend Dan). There was the odd jogger and dog-walker out, but no one paid much attention.

As I wandered back home, I did feel a small amount of fear at the fact I'd buried a rather expensive bit of kit in a public place. Had someone found any one of the clues, and had half a brain, they probably would've been able to uncover it. That would've been a fun insurance claim to make.

Thankfully they were all still there when The Wah opened his card with the first clue and we set off on a brisk jaunt to find the treasure.

I suppose treasure hunts are usually considered as activities for children and/or pirates, but The Wah seemed to enjoy it. I would heartily recommend it for anyone wanting to give a fun experience along with a present - or hell, just do it for fun one day.  It's fun for the recepient, but for the mastermind it's entertaining as well, as you watch the person try to figure out riddles and give as many - or as few - hints as you want!

Tomorrow I'm heading up to the Woodford Folk Festival, where I shall be a panellist on the comedy quiz show "Game On" for four nights (Saturday 28, Sunday 29, Monday 30, Tuesday 31). It's on at 7.30pm in the GreenHouse each night, if you're planning to be at the event at all during those times. 

I'm hoping to do more blogging while at Woodford to see in the New Year with a renewed vigour for this poor, neglected site.