Why : I bought a Living Socials Voucher for 2, to go a Murder Mystery Night including overnight stay.
Where: Down Hall, Near Harlow.
When: Sunday 27 November 2011.
What happened: We were told to make sure we had got there by 6pm, so set off from London at 3pm. We wanted to arrive early as we wanted to view the grounds, as the place looked stunning. After few wrong turns and stopping off at a local pub to ask directions, we got there just after the sun had set at 4.30pm. However, this added to the spookiness of the evening.
On driving up the narrow tree lined driveway, we were greeted by a stunning building, all lit up and inviting. The entrance and ground had been decorated ready for Xmas, and looked gorgeous. We were both pretty impressed by the façade.
Inside, it was a maze of corridors and entertaining rooms, and very quiet and a lot people eating cream cakes and drinking tea. After an initial snoop around inside we headed to our room. All thoughts of exploring the cold evening quickly went out the window. We were both knackered from the weekends parties...so we chilled out in the room, drank the free hot chocolate and got ready for 6pm.
We went downstairs and asked where we were to meet, but were told, no it starts at 7pm. What to do.. Well, I had snuck in a bottle of wine with me...and we had read about a games room...wicked, Drinks and Snooker competition time it was. We had the games room to ourselves, and after we saw the vast area of games, gigantic connect four, boules, chess and so on, and decided that after the Mystery, this was where we were going.
What happened next: We all met in a large room, with a mini bar in one corner and had no idea what to expect. There were all sorts of people here...the first one we saw was this chavy lady stating to the bar tender " I know what I will have, a Large Merlot, I want to get pissed". We chuckled and then started chatting to a young couple, who also had no clue of what to expect..We spent the next few mins assessing everyone in the room and deciding who was an actor, and who wasn't, as there were plenty of overdressed and odd couples. We thought we had it all figured out, at least 10 people there must be actors.
After an ice-breaker where I had to act out a Grandfather Clock and Ian was a Lobster Pot (he got told his was crap by one lady, as he was doing a crab impression with his hands then smoking a joint - I thought it was good), the the actors came in, and we watched as 3 of them set the scene with an initial auction. The actors who started off the show were definitely very odd characters and none of which we thought were in it yet.
We got shown to another room to eat..tables of 8 were set out, about 40 people for the event. We sat with the couple we had met "Hannah and Jessie", as they had been very amusing, and met the rest of our table. A girl our age "Helen" with her mum "Sandra" and then this couple in their late 40's /50's? "Sue and John" who we thought they had were definitely two of the actors...Nope! Ooops, luckily we never told them this.
We were handed out some clues, and things to read and we got to know everyone at our table.
Here are snippets from the conversations during the meal:
"Is lady bird poo orange? I know it is, even my ginger haired friend does, and she know everything orange"
"This soup is crap", everyone agreed and laughed, then a few mins later, one waiter split soup all down Hannah's hair and back - she returned 15 mins later in time for the main course. She took it well, but wasn't happy.
Hannah returns to find a ladybird on her knife, eating the crap soup, that had flown onto our table when she was cleaning off the soup from her hair. Unfortunately it never pooed to prove her argument.
"I once saw a lady die when I was in Majorca, from analphalitic shock, I looked over at what she had ordered, 4 courses and a bottle of wine, I wanted to go over and take it while they tried to resuscitate her, what a waste of food and wine"
"I tease my wife she is racist, so at a murder mystery dinner party I selotaoped a golly wog toy to the wall and wrote about her being racist, the next day a guy came to check the electricity meter, I was just letting him in when I realised he would see the wall...I had to run and slam the door before he saw it, he was of course black"
Entertainment: I hate to admit it, but I found the people at my table more entertaining, The actors were average, but they got us all talking, and they were very nice when they moved from table to table and came under the hammer from us. We were meant to ask them about the murder and so on....but instead they got asked..."what colour is ladybird poo?" and "have you ever had a girlfriend?" and so on...They handled us well.
We did enjoy the mathematical puzzles and dingbats "say what you see" and by the last one, a letters and numbers code cracking one, we were all quite merry and shouting at John what letter went with what number...he flipped and shouted as us, saying " if you know it do it yourselves"..to which Ian and I chuckled and stepped away :).
At the very end, we had to decide who did what...and how...and our team name was Soup or Boil, and it wasn't just us that thought that another's team names was "Crap Soup". I think you can probably guess how well we did...We didn't get the right answer, however, we were having the best time. And our table, all retired to the games room, to have a 2hr epic game of boules...to which Ian won - though there may have been some cheating going on..
Also after the boules, we went and had chip butties in the quiet cocktail bar that had no cocktail list, and met the chavy lady, who asked us how the murder mystery was...it seems that she had got pissed off with the game, and had thought that we were there to "eat dinner then play Cluedo", so she walked out after the main and went and had 2 fags and drank some more booze and waited for people to finish..
Why not rating: 7/10
Additional Comments : Loved the hotel . The dinner could have been nicer, but breakfast was good.
It felt like some of the actors were missing. There were only 4 actors, not the 10 we had thought :). At the end during the the show down of who did what, the female actor put on a dodgy wig and beard to pretend to be another actor, to which Ian shouted out " its Jeremy Beadle" and got many laughs.
Met two contestants from the show "Take Me Out". They were very sweet.
Loved the grounds the next day - had the swimming pool to ourselves, and sauna, and I beat Ian at a large chess game - stale mate for him, however I have since learned that this is a draw :(.
Where: Down Hall, Near Harlow.
When: Sunday 27 November 2011.
What happened: We were told to make sure we had got there by 6pm, so set off from London at 3pm. We wanted to arrive early as we wanted to view the grounds, as the place looked stunning. After few wrong turns and stopping off at a local pub to ask directions, we got there just after the sun had set at 4.30pm. However, this added to the spookiness of the evening.
On driving up the narrow tree lined driveway, we were greeted by a stunning building, all lit up and inviting. The entrance and ground had been decorated ready for Xmas, and looked gorgeous. We were both pretty impressed by the façade.
Inside, it was a maze of corridors and entertaining rooms, and very quiet and a lot people eating cream cakes and drinking tea. After an initial snoop around inside we headed to our room. All thoughts of exploring the cold evening quickly went out the window. We were both knackered from the weekends parties...so we chilled out in the room, drank the free hot chocolate and got ready for 6pm.
We went downstairs and asked where we were to meet, but were told, no it starts at 7pm. What to do.. Well, I had snuck in a bottle of wine with me...and we had read about a games room...wicked, Drinks and Snooker competition time it was. We had the games room to ourselves, and after we saw the vast area of games, gigantic connect four, boules, chess and so on, and decided that after the Mystery, this was where we were going.
What happened next: We all met in a large room, with a mini bar in one corner and had no idea what to expect. There were all sorts of people here...the first one we saw was this chavy lady stating to the bar tender " I know what I will have, a Large Merlot, I want to get pissed". We chuckled and then started chatting to a young couple, who also had no clue of what to expect..We spent the next few mins assessing everyone in the room and deciding who was an actor, and who wasn't, as there were plenty of overdressed and odd couples. We thought we had it all figured out, at least 10 people there must be actors.
After an ice-breaker where I had to act out a Grandfather Clock and Ian was a Lobster Pot (he got told his was crap by one lady, as he was doing a crab impression with his hands then smoking a joint - I thought it was good), the the actors came in, and we watched as 3 of them set the scene with an initial auction. The actors who started off the show were definitely very odd characters and none of which we thought were in it yet.
We got shown to another room to eat..tables of 8 were set out, about 40 people for the event. We sat with the couple we had met "Hannah and Jessie", as they had been very amusing, and met the rest of our table. A girl our age "Helen" with her mum "Sandra" and then this couple in their late 40's /50's? "Sue and John" who we thought they had were definitely two of the actors...Nope! Ooops, luckily we never told them this.
We were handed out some clues, and things to read and we got to know everyone at our table.
Here are snippets from the conversations during the meal:
"Is lady bird poo orange? I know it is, even my ginger haired friend does, and she know everything orange"
"This soup is crap", everyone agreed and laughed, then a few mins later, one waiter split soup all down Hannah's hair and back - she returned 15 mins later in time for the main course. She took it well, but wasn't happy.
Hannah returns to find a ladybird on her knife, eating the crap soup, that had flown onto our table when she was cleaning off the soup from her hair. Unfortunately it never pooed to prove her argument.
"I once saw a lady die when I was in Majorca, from analphalitic shock, I looked over at what she had ordered, 4 courses and a bottle of wine, I wanted to go over and take it while they tried to resuscitate her, what a waste of food and wine"
"I tease my wife she is racist, so at a murder mystery dinner party I selotaoped a golly wog toy to the wall and wrote about her being racist, the next day a guy came to check the electricity meter, I was just letting him in when I realised he would see the wall...I had to run and slam the door before he saw it, he was of course black"
Entertainment: I hate to admit it, but I found the people at my table more entertaining, The actors were average, but they got us all talking, and they were very nice when they moved from table to table and came under the hammer from us. We were meant to ask them about the murder and so on....but instead they got asked..."what colour is ladybird poo?" and "have you ever had a girlfriend?" and so on...They handled us well.
We did enjoy the mathematical puzzles and dingbats "say what you see" and by the last one, a letters and numbers code cracking one, we were all quite merry and shouting at John what letter went with what number...he flipped and shouted as us, saying " if you know it do it yourselves"..to which Ian and I chuckled and stepped away :).
At the very end, we had to decide who did what...and how...and our team name was Soup or Boil, and it wasn't just us that thought that another's team names was "Crap Soup". I think you can probably guess how well we did...We didn't get the right answer, however, we were having the best time. And our table, all retired to the games room, to have a 2hr epic game of boules...to which Ian won - though there may have been some cheating going on..
Also after the boules, we went and had chip butties in the quiet cocktail bar that had no cocktail list, and met the chavy lady, who asked us how the murder mystery was...it seems that she had got pissed off with the game, and had thought that we were there to "eat dinner then play Cluedo", so she walked out after the main and went and had 2 fags and drank some more booze and waited for people to finish..
Why not rating: 7/10
Additional Comments : Loved the hotel . The dinner could have been nicer, but breakfast was good.
It felt like some of the actors were missing. There were only 4 actors, not the 10 we had thought :). At the end during the the show down of who did what, the female actor put on a dodgy wig and beard to pretend to be another actor, to which Ian shouted out " its Jeremy Beadle" and got many laughs.
Met two contestants from the show "Take Me Out". They were very sweet.
Loved the grounds the next day - had the swimming pool to ourselves, and sauna, and I beat Ian at a large chess game - stale mate for him, however I have since learned that this is a draw :(.
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| Jeremy Beadle |
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| lady bird |
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| Take Me Out |
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