Treasure Hunt at Hampstead Heath

Hampstead Heath

I did tell Beccs to not let me sleep past 9, so when 9:20 came and she knocked on my door I was fairly surprised. The night before I went to sleep (with a little help from the pharmaceutical companies) at a reasonable hour, but then woke up at 2 and my body understood this to be the time to get up. Down goes another pill.

To avoid third degree burns whilst trying to get clean I used Beccs

shower, as the one I shared with the non-visible roommate had weird temperature issues. Feeling quite human again I sauntered into Beccs kitchen for some of her homemade spelt bread. Akin to Irish soda bread, Beccs was trying out some new recipes with her bread maker and quite successfully too.

Half way through the morning Daralee showed up! So lovely to see her, she was the original Jumpsen girl to make her way to (and leave her mark on) Canada. She'd just come back from a quick trip to Ireland to see a friend who was in the Ministry School for Kingdom Proclaimers there. She brought back some lovely traditional toys for the baby (due in September). We all chatted for while over coffee and took some pretty pics of ourselves too.

Soon though, Beccs and I had to go as a treasure hunt awaited us. Dars headed out with Zuri for the day and we all agreed to meet up later for drinks. Back in the car (this time I went to the right side, and by right I mean left) we headed out for Kenwood House located in Hampstead Heath. As I sat giggling at the road signs I brought a few things to Beccs attention that she never really noticed before. In London speed bumps are called humps. So you'll see signs that say HUMPS 250 meters. And then if you see speed bumps combined with a crosswalk you'll see ZEBRA STRIPED HUMPS 250 meters. Seriously, I dare anyone not to laugh when they see that. Then Beccs shared with me a common expression in the UK, to be irritated or get you back up is to "get the hump." Yeah, dont think I'll bring that one back to Canada.

So driving through the town of Muswell we saw the rich houses. All still made of brick, only bigger and standing alone- no rows upon rows of connected houses. To be honest the rich houses here didnt look any bigger than the ones we may see on Sumas Mountain back home, but I'm sure they are. They must be otherwise why would they charge 34 million pounds for one?

We finally reach Hampstead Heath, very busy as its good weather and a bank holiday (civic holiday for us Canadians). We quickly meet the treasure hunt co-ordinator, get assembled into a team and are given instructions. Our team consists of me and Beccs, husband and wife team Elchan and Tesio, their son Alexander, niece Elizabeth and a lovely Hungarian girl named Gabby. First we must pick a team name. One minute of deliberation (us standing around with blank looks on our faces) we agree upon Mojito Spirit. Done, and we're off and running.

The treasure hunt took us all through the lovely park, winding pathways, past the small lake and miniature fountain, up near the stables and finally back to the house. And of course, we were asked to

do numerous ridiculous things to prove our hunt successful. Several pictures had to be taken of items we found, many selfies (including one of us jumping in the air), one video of the Mexican wave, and 2 voice recordings: one of us barking like a dog and one of us singing twinkle twinkle little star.

At the finish the winners had to have all the answers right(or proofs right) and have the best time. We were the third group to finish and still had to wait for a few other groups to finish their search so Beccs and I went to the cafe for tea and cake. Real tea in England does taste better. Finishing up with that it was getting close to closing time for Kenwood House and Beccs and I popped our head in to use the loo. Tall ceilings, decorated ceilings, odd squeaky floors and beautiful paintings everywhere, it was a lovely historic house that several people would recognize from films. Take a look at the pic and see if you can name the movie that house appeared in as a movie set.

Being ushered out of Kenwood House we arrived at the hunt group just in time to hear that the team that took first place was Mojito Spirit!! WE WON!! Our prize was a giant box of candy! We all took our one piece and then handed out the rest to the group- the kids were ecstatic. I give credit to Beccs as she knows the park very well and knew several of the landmark clues.

After that we both were pretty tired and so headed home for risotto and more visiting.

All in all, a fabulous first day, jet lag didnt even touch me. Tomorrow may be different though, I hear it often is.