It’s spring. Soon, it will be summer. Time to get out of hibernation and enjoy the city (or town) you live in. In my case, I am quite fortunate that there are so many things to do in London. And most of the stuff that I enjoy doing do not cost a penny, apart from my tube fare.

One activity is visiting museums, although not all museums. My favourites in London are luckily located in the same area in South Kensington – the Science, V&A and the Natural History museums. All three museums have late night openings each week. Both the V&A and the Natural History museums are open late on Fridays, while the Science Museum has theirs on Wednesday.

On 26 March, the last Friday of March, I went to check out the Friday Late event at the V&A. The theme for the month was Playground. The programme was filled with games where the public can participate but there were two that were of most interest to me: ‘Silent Relay’ and ‘The Sky’s the Limit’. ‘Silent Relay’ involved an operation around the museum following a recorded set of instructions on an iPod for a 4-man team. Unfortunately, we were not able to sign up for this activity as the organisers were a bit all over the place. We did manage to get listed on ‘The Sky’s the Limit’ event.

According to the event description on the programme, ‘The Sky’s the Limit’ is a balloon race. The game consists a team of people (at least 3 for each team), balloons (of course!) and a list of challenges. For each challenge completed, the team is given a piece of string that extends the balloon to the ‘finish line’. The team who completes 15 of the 25 challenges, in 25 minutes, wins (15 pieces of string = finish line). Judges were present to verify the completeness of each challenge/task. It sounded simple, however, the challenges cannot be completed by a single team member. There had to be at least 2 members doing the challenge/task and 1 had to stay at the base to guard the balloon. Plus, some of the challenges required to go to different areas in the museum and there were at least 2 that were difficult to impossible.

Our team had completed 13 when the winning team shouted their victory. Eventhough we didn’t win, it was so much fun. Thanks to Tuna Technologies for organising the event!

Here is the list of challenges/tasks along with some proofs of how we completed each:

1. Present a line-dance with at least three participants – Step left, cross right, move left back, step right forward
2. Sing a song about balloons, lasting at least twenty seconds – 99 a luftballoons, da dih da, la la la, enger… blah di blah er tuft mallon… eng di fret si long de frizer… eng ma lot de sen da lot… na ni na na… (lyrics of 99 Luftballoons are in German, so they wouldn’t know if we were saying the right words or not!)
3. What is written in a circle above the three silver lions? DNC
4. Present a drawing of yourself, drawn by someone else – there was a drawing
5. When you leave the museum by the grand entrance, there is a phone box to the right. What is its number? DNC
6. How many statues are lying down in Gallery 46b? 10 (no proof, they just had to take our word for it)
7. Present a photo of an OAP wearing a baseball cap – we completed this but the photo is in the phone of my teammate who I only met on the day
8. Present a business card from someone with ‘assistant’ in their job title – DNC
9. Present a piece of origami, but not a crane – DNC
10. Present a photograph of someone with a beard standing next to the mosaic of Henry Cole on the ceramics – DNC
11. In the middle of the Silver Gallery, there is an attempt to create the largest ever… what? DNC
12. There’s a game board in Gallery 62. What games is it for? DNC
13. How many birds are on the alphabet poster in the V&A shop? 28, see photo
14. Present 5 people all wearing mismatched shoes – see photo
15. Present a smiley face made out of people – DNC
16. Compose a limerick about someone from the V&A – DNC
17. Present us with a ‘group photo’ from the cafe with at least ten people waving at the camera – DNC
18. Who is on the cover of the Spring 2010 V&A magazine? Grace Kelly, see photo
19. What is the largest bag you’re allowed to take into the Exhibition Courts? DNC
20. What is the number of the Sackler Centre coffee machine? DNC
21. What’s missing from the back of David in Gallery 46b? DNC
22. Present a copy of any of today’s newspapers – we borrowed somebody’s newspaper
23. Present a photo of someone taking a photo of you – again in the phone of my teammate
24. Tell us how much a pot of peppermint tea costs from the cafe – £2.20, see photo
25. Present a picture of 2 people kissing – see photo

DNC = Did Not Complete

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