My First Escape Room Experience

I am a huge fan of puzzles and mysteries. I love reading Nancy Drew, Sherlock Holmes and other detective novels. I also love to watch mystery movies and crime series like CSI, Sherlock and etc. I love listening to mysterious songs too! Okay the last line is an exaggeration.

Ever since I've heard of live Escape rooms in Manila I've always wanted to go. Escape Room games are live adventure wherein players are locked inside a room and they have to observe and use the things inside the room to  find clues and hidden objects,  solve puzzles and escape the room within a set limit time.

When I've heard that one will be opening in Davao, I didn't pass up the chance to visit it when they invited Davao Bloggers to try it out. 
 

Excited to Channel Sherlock Holmes and oh that's my husband on the mirror

There are 3 rooms which are Lucila's curse, Secret Agents on a Mission and  Murder at Apartment 999.

Your team which is composed of a maximum of 6 members will be given an hour to escape the room. When your time is up and you still haven't escaped the room then your doomed  you will automatically be let out of the room.

Before entering the room there will be a game master assigned to brief you on your task. The game master will also accompany your team inside the room but will only observe and not participate. 

There are three levels of difficulty, Houdini, Difficult and Easy. Houdini level means no clue, Difficult level gives you two clues and Easy level gives you five. The clues will be given by the game master but you have to ask for the right questions first thus each question should be carefully thought of. You can have a chance to downgrade your level once inside the room. Only those who chose Houdini level will have a chance to be featured in the leader board.

So here's our escape experience, there are four members in our team namely my husband, Lovely and Mickey. 
 

We came, we lost but we had fun!

We chose to be detectives and solve the Murder at Apartment 999. We also chose the Houdini level but after a few minutes we downgraded to difficult and after more minutes we downgraded to easy but still we failed to escape the room *sigh* I felt disappointed with myself but I am very challenged to try it again soon and hopefully be able to escape in time.

MysterEscape

Location: Mezzanine floor of Adelfa Building,
Km.6 J.P Laurel Avenue, Lanang, Davao City, Philippines 

Operating Hours: 1:00 PM to 9:00 PM on Wednesdays to Sundays Tuesdays 

Website: http://www.mysterescape.com

Facebook Page: MysterEscape

Project Hygiene Kit for Yolanda Victims

The whole world is aware of the Super Typhoon Haiyan or Yolanda as it is known in the Philippines which is the strongest typhoon recorded for the year 2013. Everyone is aware of its devastating effect on the Philippines specifically in the Visayas region with death toll reaching up to almost four thousand and still counting while it left more thousands homeless.

Everybody is doing their own share in helping out the victims in any way they can. It is very heartwarming to see the whole nation and even the world help out by sending relief goods, medical teams, rescue teams and etc. I even can't help but be teary eyed when I saw a Japanese Kid break up his Piggy bank which he probably saved for the whole year to donate to the victims.

The Davao Bloggers Society which I am a part of, launched the Project Hygiene Kit. 

Aside from food, water, clothing, we also recognize the need for hygiene materials for basic cleanliness and self esteem. We aim to send 1,000 hygiene kits which cost P100 each thus amounting to P100,000 in total. Each hygiene kit is estimated to last one week and contains the ff:

For males:

60g Soap
Weekly pack Shampoo – 8 sachets x 4 mL each
3 packs of 30 g Toothpaste
Toothbrush
40 Pulls Pop Up Tissue
10 g Cotton
75 mL Alcohol
2 x 3 mL Deolotion
12 mL Insect repellant
Resealable Zip Bag
Total Cost: PhP95.60

For females:

60g Soap
Weekly pack Shampoo – 8 sachets x 4 mL each
3 packs of 30 g Toothpaste
Toothbrush
40 Pulls Pop Up Tissue
10 g Cotton
75 mL Alcohol
2 x 3 mL Deolotion
12 mL Insect repellant
2 pcs Sanitary Napkins
Resealable Zip Bag

Total Cost: PhP100.00

We will be sending each kit along with an encouraging note from the donor. For online donors you may e-mail me your note at florainea[at]gmail.com

I know most of you have donated in some way or another so I would highly appreciate if I could call on your generosity once again to donate P100 or $2.50 and help us in this endeavour. Let us all unite to help the victims overcome this tragedy.

Thank you very much! Maraming Salamat! 

For goods, the drop-off point is: Mam Bebs Bakery

Location: CVA Building, CM Recto Street, Davao City

(fronting City Triangle, adjacent to Ateneo Claveria Gate)

Mondays- Fridays, 10:00 AM to 6:00 PM 

You may also send your cash donations via PayPal to merchant@alleba.com. Send the confirmation email (or a screenshot of it) to: bloggersforreliefPH@gmail.com.

Feel free to contact bloggersforreliefPH@gmail.com or Facebook Page  for all your inquiries and questions. Please also help us disseminate this information to those who are willing to help and contribute. All kits and other donations will be turned over to Ateneo de Davao University.

You may share or link this post to your social media accounts with hashtags #bloggersforReliefPH #YolandaPH

Mindanao Blog Awards 2013 Best in Home and Parenting Blog

Last night was truly a milestone in my blog life! This blog was recognized by the Mindanao Blog Awards 2013 as the Best in Home and Parenting Blog. Wooohooo! I really felt ecstatic and honored.

I really didn't expect to win because the other finalist in this category were all really good and are way better than my blog that is why until now I still have a feeling of disbelief that I won.

I am really thankful for the people who voted for me and to the judges as well. Now I realized that blogging is not about having a dot.com, high PR Rank, number of followers, number of traffic and other statistics but it really is about writing from the heart and finding joy in sharing to the world your life and experiences. I am really happy that the community recognizes that.

Receiving this award renewed my energy in blogging and I promised myself I would strive more in keeping this blog updated and to continue sharing relevant information to other parents out there. 

Thank you everybody and I dedicate this award to the loves of my life, my husband Mike  my son Kulay and future Baby.

Kulay's POV: Davao Bloggers Acquaintance Party 2013 !

Hi I am Kulay and I am 2 years and 5 months old. I am not a blogger but Mom and Dad made me attend the Davao Bloggers Acquaintance Party 2013.  They were really excited about it and I don’t know why. They just told me that we will be going to SM Lanang Premier and that there will be donuts and games. Well I got excited too because SM Lanang Premier means waterworks show and I love watching the lights and water dance and ran around the fountain court.

When we got there, I saw lots of familiar faces from previous blogger events. You see, Mom and Dad let me tag along every now then when Lola and Lolo can’t babysit me. Mom and Dad got busy chatting with old friends and meeting the faces behind the blogs. I was busy kissing some pretty ladies.

I was happy to spot my friend Miel, I attended her first birthday last March. Mom knew her Mommy Miah through blogging. Mom said that the greatest thing about blogging is you meet a lot of people and  you develop real friendships on and offline.

I also saw Dear Daniel (Hello Kitty's friend) at the atrium I thought he was a blogger too!

Miel wasn't in the mood to have our photos taken but Dear Daniel is so game

Bigby's Trivia Night

Did you know that the Roman Godess who haunted crossroads, graveyards, and was the goddess of sorcery and witchcraft is Trivia?

Did you know that the real name of x-Men's Wolverine is James Howlett?

Did you know that Blue Bears exist?

I didn't have the slightest clue about those things until I joined Bigby's Trivia Night. I am a voracious reader but I usually read fiction books. There was a time though when I was a kid that I cut out and collect a section in Philippine Daily Inquirer about Trivia facts. Now I wonder where are those clippings and whatever happened to that PDI column? 

Anyhoo, Bigby's Cafe and Restaurant Abreeza Ayala Mall and SM City branches in Davao host Trivia Nights every Wednesday at 8:00 PM.  I have always wanted to join since I first heard of it but life got in the way that I was only able to join it late last year with the Davao Bloggers team. After I first joined I really got hooked that I try to make it a habit to be there every Wednesday.

So what happens every Trivia Night? 

Quiz Master: There is a quiz master who will torture ask us with questions and a Scorer who records the points each team gets.

Competing Teams:To join, you just show up with your friends and you will be given a whiteboard and marker to write your answers with. Each team has no limit in number of members, there was even a time that one person represented himself and sometimes a single team can have as many as 15 members which is often the case with the Davao Bloggers team.

Questions: There are 4 sets of questions. Each set is composed of 2-3 categories. Each category has 5-8 questions. Most questions are read but one set uses visuals wherein pictures will be shown on the TV Screen. The questions are sooo varied with topics ranging from politics, entertainment,sports, geography, geology and etc.

That's me on the left "pretending" to think and the kid on the right is my son which my husband and I sometimes bring. 

Prize: First place gets P500 worth of GC and bragging rights. Second Place gets a cake and a bit of bragging rights. Sometimes there are sponsors who will throw in other prizes like sausages, prepaid load or more GCs.

It is really mentally challenging and fun to rack your brains for answers. Testing your memory is the real challenge because at some point in your life you may have known the answer but forgot about it.Sometimes we just rely on  "tsamba" or luck in making educated or wild guesses.  Sometime we have the right answer but the wrong spelling WTF!

I joined Team DRC during their first time to join the Trivia Night and we won by pure luck!

Davao Bloggers won first place on this pic :-)

What motivates me to join is not because our team always win (unfortunately we have more losses than wins) but because I find it a good exercise to flex my mind muscles , bond with my friends and learn those trivia facts while nibbling on Bigby's goodies :-) 

Photos courtesy of Ria Jose .