Doctor Who, how to change a door handle and escape the escape room

Today was a day I will remember for ever. We laughed so much I had tears rolling down my face.

We started the day eating spaceship pancakes in defiance of the poor Dr Who shows recently. “We defy you Dr Who Team.” For all those missing real aliens, monsters, time travel and a decent story, here is one of my pancake space ships. (Yes my Husband David and I had sweet pancakes for breakfast, and according to someone special, we are adults so we can have what ever we want, even chocolate cereal)
  Be warned BBC, it is carrying a new life form that was cloned from Steven Moffat and Matt Smith. It will be known as a ‘Smatfat,’ It will write great stories and act them out with exceptional aptitude. There will be no long boring scenes talking of morals or feelings, as this is not what Dr Who is all about. Time travel will be beyond our earthly thoughts and the aliens will be of such awesomeness we won’t be able to get out from behind the sofa.

Spaceship pancake

The day started well, yummy pancakes, the rain had stopped and we had lots planned. However things don’t always go to plan, do they.

A few months ago I asked David to check the handle of our smart room as it was getting difficult to turn. Now we call it our smart room as my husband gives our grandchildren computer lessons in the room, however it was certainly not the smart room today, we couldn’t have been more stupid. 

My husband is building a model railway in the room and we were moving a huge sheet of thick plywood around the room ready to attach to the wall. In order to move the sheet of wood easily I pushed the door shut. We adjusted the plywood in a Chuckle Brothers manner “To me, to me, to you, to you” and then my husband looked at the door and with a horrified look on his face announced we were locked in the room. He had removed the handle but not the catch as one of the screws had stuck. 

Railway model board

We then spent the next 2 hours trying to open the door using movies we had seen for reference. We had no phones to call anyone and no tools to help us escape. Other than leap out the upstairs window, we were stuck. 

Firstly we tried the ‘James Bond’ method. We had no credit card to slip between the catch and the lock, but looking at the catch the rounded side was not facing us, so it wouldn’t have worked anyway. 

Secondly we tried the ‘Tower heist’ method. We tried using something to pick the lock. Now as the handle was gone, all the bits to turn the catch were gone too. And we didn’t even have a hair clip it was pretty futile trying. 

Thirdly we tried the ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ method. We tried to remove the pins from the hinges to take the door off. Only the middle hinge pins could be removed fully, and the top pin of the other hinges, but we did enjoy an hour of hammering and trying prise the pins out with a coat hanger and the smallest screwdriver you can think of, Oh and for a hammer we used a rubber book end which just bounced about a lot.

After 2 hours desperately trying to escape from our own ‘escape room,’ we started laughing and couldn’t stop.  It was just such a ridiculous situation to be in, and there was only one thing left to do. David would have to kick one of the lower panels in. Now when we purchased the doors he insisted on buying sturdy thick wooden doors, so we were unsure if it was at all possible. After quite a while of hitting the panel with the other bouncy book end, he used his feet and managed to knock out the panel. I did let him know At this point I could crawl through to get something from the garage to help us open the door,  but he insisted he had to make the hole bigger. After he kicked the second panel in and he realised without a saw the middle section was too strong to break, he only then allowed me to try to crawl through the first panel which I did easily. Proving my husband thinks I’m fatter than I actually am! He has some serious back tracking to do from that!

So after some hammering with a huge mallet and chisel we could finally get the door open. It was at this point the final hinge pin fell out and the door finally fell off it’s hinges. We were uncontrollably laughing at this point. 😂

The door now sits on our driveway as a reminder for David to listen to me in the future. If he had just fixed the door properly when I asked months ago we would still have a door. 😉

Just like the time I asked him to be careful with the car keys when we went on a dive. He locked them in the boot and we had to wait for an hour in our dry suits for the AA, as all our clothes were in the boot. 🤣

And the time I asked him not to balance the huge tin of fence paint on the garden chairs in the garage.... yup, I am sure you are ahead of me. He did clear up the mess but we had to throw out the chairs! 😩

We spent the afternoon laughing about the door. People were giving us funny looks when we were out shopping and in the cafe. But we didn’t care. Ok hubby messed up, but that’s life, and after the awful few months I have had recently this was a welcome moment of madness. I know we will recall and laugh about it for days, weeks, months and possibly years. And that’s what life is all about with someone you love.

Well until next time
Love and Light peeps x
Dbee