Jungles, Goal Celebrations And Escaping Rabbits…?

Jungles, Goal Celebrations And Escaping Rabbits…?

14 September 2018

How has another weekend disappeared already? It was nice to see the sunshine make an attempt at an appearance, albeit too shorter one for my liking…! This weekend was one of challenges for me – fun ones, admittedly, but still they got my brain going at a faster pace than a weekend would usually require!

Challenge Number One – An Escape Room
I have now done 5 escape rooms, and I can’t get enough. I love the adrenaline rush that comes from a time limit, I love the team work element, I just love everything about it. 3/5 of the escape rooms I’ve experienced have been done with the same group of people (long suffering friends, and one lucky husband), but the other 2 have been with different groups. This weekend I had the pleasure of being chained (literally) to Beth and Marcey for a jungle escape. We managed it, saved from hungry cannibals with one minute to spare – but it was a hard-earned victory! I have to say, I do consider myself the weakest link in all the teams I’ve been part of in these rooms. I’m the team member that puts a key in their pocket to use later, and then forgets all about it. I’m also the team member who fixates on things – which in those rooms, is not a particularly helpful skill – attention to detail is great, but not when you’ve only got an hour and lots of other puzzles to work out!

Challenge Number Two – Dele Alli
I didn’t actually want to be sucked into this challenge. I saw the photo just before I went up to bed, so I tried it…and failed…and tried…and failed – but I wasn’t giving in. After an hour, as we were about to see midnight, Rich suggested I google how to do it so we could go to bed. At this point, I’d tried to manoeuvre my poor hands into all sorts of weird and wonderful shapes, and had almost being defeated by cramp several times, so I gave in and asked google. The answer was irritatingly simple. You might have spotted our Briars attempt on Facebook – a challenge everyone was keen on doing first thing Monday morning…!

Challenge Number Three – Runaway Rabbit
Rich and I have two beautiful bunnies, Treacle and Benjamin. They have been with us for four years, since they were tiny wee buns, and they are just lovely. We have a fairly laid-back approach to the boys being in the garden – we did make them a run, but it felt unfair to restrict them when we were in the house, so we just allowed them free rein. For four years, this has worked beautifully – until they decided to star in their own version of the Great Escape. With ‘Tunnel King’ Treacle working on ‘Harry’ Benjamin ‘Big-X’ executed distraction tactics in front of the hole. Just as my dinner was coming out of the oven, we realised the tunnel king was no longer in the garden. We ran next door and explained the situation to the neighbour, who let us in to retrieve our tunneller – but he’d already moved on. In a bold move, he’d quickly crafted his next tunnel to reach the next garden along – cue another sheepish knock, this time at the next neighbour’s door. Meanwhile, Big-X decides this is the time to make his break – I caught him just as his fluffy white tail disappeared to the other side. Rich managed to catch up with the tunnel king in garden number 3, who at this point had made himself at home by munching their grass. I managed to encourage Big-X to return back home with a bit of bribery (an appetising carrot and kale combination).

Meet the Boys – Treacle ‘Tunnel King’ on the left, and Benjamin ‘Big-X’ on the right…

So, what did I learn from these three challenges (apart from not to trust the seemingly innocent bunnies…)? Patience is key, communication is key. In the dental world, we’re very aware of these two important lessons. For many of our patients, coming to see us is a challenge in itself – even picking up the phone to arrange that first appointment can take someone out of their comfort zone. For any patient, but especially nervous patients, we allow all the time we need to make a challenging situation both manageable, and comfortable. We have recently introduced the role of treatment coordinator to our practice to give our patients a point of contact to vent their worries and concerns before they’ve even touched base with a dentist.

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I would highly recommend the escape rooms if you ever have a chance to go – they vary in degrees of difficulty, so you can normally find one to suit you (just remember, no keys in pockets!)!

I hope you all have a wonderful bank holiday weekend, rain or shine! 😊

Amy x