Whodunnit!

At our last board game evening, my neighbour, Isabelle, mentioned that they had seen an upcoming "Whodunnit" event to be held in Annecy and did I want to go! When I jumped at the chance she went ahead and got tickets for herself and her husband, Philippe, and for Jen and me for last Saturday's "Sherlock Holmes" whodunnit being held about 20 minutes from here. Now Annecy is stunningly beautiful and on a sunny day it can be hell as it gets so crowded, but even though we had trouble getting into our preferred parking lot, and considering over 800 people (as it turns out) had signed up for the event, it really wasn't too crowded at all! So a definite win there, even before we started! (All pictures taken from the Annecy Tourist Board site).

The old prison!

Lake Annecy

When we arrived at the starting point we were given a map of the city with (I think) 36 different locations marked out, all indicating places where clues could be found. We then downloaded their app, walked over for a small "pep talk" by one of the "cast" and set off. Now, considering there were over 800 people taking part, it really wasn't too bad at all as departures seemed to be pretty staggered, with all teams having three hours, more or less, to solve the crime.

In a nutshell, the "crime" took place around 1892 (I can't remember the exact date), with someone blowing up a car factory in France causing two deaths. At the same time, the local town was gearing up for the imminent take-off of a zepplin/blimp, but we had to try to solve the crime because we knew the culprit also intended to blow up the blimp!

We started off pretty slowly, looking for clues at the closest spots indicated on the map. The organizers told us that we didn't have to visit all the clue sites, and that indeed some of them would prove to be red herrings, so to be careful how often we used the app to "question" potential suspects as doing so would score points against us! Turns out most, but not all, of the clues were on yellow cards tied to lampposts and such like!

The clue to be taken from this card and punched into the app was 03403!

After we had solved a few riddles we reached a location where a cast member was handing out a newspaper "published" on the day of the explosion and containing more details of the crime, but also more red herrings!

As time started to run a bit short we split up into two groups of two, sending Philippe and Jen off to locate the clues at the most far-flung spots (we're not daft are we), while Isabelle and I tried to locate clues around the cathedral area. Trouble is, once we got to the cathedral we couldn't find clues anywhere! We wandered round and around for a good 10 minutes but nothing doing - that is, until Isabelle took a closer look at a local artist in the square!

Turns out, he was the clue! In "jigsaw puzzle" pieces attached to the back of his shirt were snippets of the code we were after but which he kept well hidden by the cloth over his shoulder and by constantly turning his back away from us! In the end, we had to volunteer to draw something on his canvas, after which he handed us his cloth to "wipe our hands" - and stitched into it was the code we were after!! Clever huh!

Anyway, the four of us met up back at the starting point and tried to hash out what we made of the clues we had collected! In the end, Jen figured out the killer and his motive! I was really stunned, but then as a psychiatric nurse I reckon she always had the edge!!!! As for me, frankly I was about as useful as a chocolate teapot! Seriously! I guess it's just the way your brain works, but whichever way you look at it I was useless! Just as I can not do cryptic crosswords! Ever! My sister can bang them out in record time while I don't even get off the starting block! Still, having participated in one event now I reckon I'd have more of an idea what to look for next time, but in the meantime, thank God for Jen!

When I got home I knew I wouldn't be able to sleep straight away so I stayed up (until 2 a.m. as it turns out) and watched a 1998 de Niro/Samuel L. Jackson movie called "Jackie Brown". And you know what, it was really good! I'm not a great fan of de Niro as I find he always plays the gangster, and this film was, indeed, a "gangster" movie with all the inherent bad language! But it was still a very clever and entertaining film about a corrupt air stewardess who couriers dirty money from Mexico back to the States for the bad guy (Samuel L. Jackson). When things go horrendously wrong, she tries to not only get herself out of her dangerous predicament but also to put one over on both the police and the bad guys! You end up feeling strangely sympathetic to "Jackie Brown", as played by the very sexy actress Pam Grier! Very well worth staying up late for!

And finally, today is my birthday, and while being 61 feels a bit weird, it definitely beats the alternative doesn't it! I didn't see my kids because André is still in Korea and Jordan worked very late, but I'm sure I'll see them at some point. What I did do was attend my regular Tuesday afternoon yoga class with my neighbour, who came out of there today in raptures about how "she didn't have a single ache or pain in her body for the first time in years"! Result then - I'm so glad I was able to nag her into it in the end! Then when I got home my friend was just getting ready to leave my place (I told him I wouldn't be home that afternoon but he is, and always has been, a law unto himself)! Anyway, he had bought a birthday gift over for me, which was all the more remarkable since he always used to whinge about the one-hour journey over to my place! He must be going soft in his old age huh! And judging by the birthday cards I received from my sister and my friend, I guess the "classy" image I try to project in my daily life isn't exactly working for me!

The birthday card from my sister - that's not me by the way - as if I would drink beer!

And the birthday card received from my friend.

But I forgave her when I opened it and found this.

It's a photograph taken from the brochure for our trip next Saturday. We're heading up to Gruyère (in Switzerland - where they make the cheese) to see the "désalp" - or where they bring the cattle down from the mountain pastures at the end of the summer! And she'd only gone ahead and paid for my ticket too!  So all in all, it was a lovely way to spend a quiet birthday!