Columnist: The art of escape...

However, I’m not one of those people! This week I completed my second ever ‘Escape’ room with the in-laws, and a great experience it was.

Maybe it’s having grown up in the 90s watching Richard O’Brien running around the Crystal Maze that does it, but on both occasions when someone’s mentioned a group of us doing these puzzles, I’ve jumped at the chance to have a go.

It’s such a simple concept – a group of people enter a room, are locked in and have to solve a series of puzzles to get out within a one hour period. The puzzles that are required to be solved vary in style and difficulty, but it’s great fun turning the room upside down searching for clues and then trying to solve them in a bid to open padlocks and ultimately find a key to unlock the door.

These days there are many of these sorts of rooms popping up all over the place, many with different themes but all working on the same concept – if you get the chance to complete one, I’d definitely recommend it.

It was a weekend of flatpack furniture building for me. After buying a new bookcase – so I could finally empty the last of the boxes after 18 months in our home – I spent time helping an elderly relative with their Ikea purchases. Turns out Mr D and I now have a good flat-pack building relationship/strategy – he does the physical building while I supervise and read him the instructions. Otherwise, like many men he’d just dive straight in and try to second guess which screw or dowel goes in which hole.