Doog’s Mother of All Weekends*

(* that was Doog's name for our Whatsapp group... in hindsight, it seems appropriate! Otherwise it was going to be Alpine Puzzle Party 1... in the hopes that there might be more of them.) 

A little while back Doog reached out and asked if I’d be interested in assembling an MPP crew to spend a weekend puzzling in the Alps. He’d shared some pics of the ski slope running past his garden in winter and the stunning scenery in summer and it all looked jolly idyllic. He’d suggested a couple of months when the place wouldn’t be totally mobbed with skiers, mountain bikers or runners and we managed to find a weekend that would suit a bunch of us and Doog and Laura… so we fixed the date, booked some hotel rooms and a rental car and all met up at Geneva Airport last Friday.

Louis had volunteered to be chief driver (since he was used to driving on the wrong side of the road!) and we met up in the coffee shop at Arrivals while the delayed flight from Luton brought Steve and Ali and Rich and Dan. We claimed our people-carrier and headed for the hills with Steve navigating up front and the rest of us asking if we were there yet.

We checked in at the Rocky Pop Hotel and lurked in the lobby until Doog arrived for dinner with us. Quick introductions for those who didn’t already know Doog before we settled down for dinner and some puzzling. Doog had brought along a couple of his boxes, including a couple of copies of the box we’d be making over the weekend – Yes, Doog had offered us all a free puzzle-box-making workshop over the weekend – as if we needed any encouragement whatsoever!

The dinner was excellent – their Classic Burgers were indeed classic and dessert didn’t disappoint! There weren’t any complaints about the beer either, come to think of it.

Those sample boxes both managed to beat me and over the course of the evening a few of the guys managed to open them and encouraged the rest of us to try a suitable strategy… Doog left us at a pretty sensible hour after we’d made plans to grab some picnic food from the supermarket and meet him at the gondola station at the base of the village hill.

We gathered for breakfast and selected the sunken seating area so that we could enjoy the view of the surrounding mountains… that, and we could all amuse one another at how we got in and out of the pit – some of us slightly less elegantly than others… at least there was video evidence of some of them!

After brekkie we did a few laps of the local supermarket collecting bits and bobs for our picnic lunch – pretty much all opting for a DIY feast rather than the somewhat simpler pre-packed sandwiches. We met up with Doog over at the carpark and got some day trip tickets up (and down) the hill. The views of the surrounding mountains on the way up were brilliant and luckily, we didn’t have anyone who wasn’t a fan of heights.

At the top of the hill we admired the view a bit before Doog marched us up to the local hostelry in the saddle – we pushed a couple of tables together and hauled out the puzzles after slathering on some factor fifty – the sun was already pretty warm on top of the hill just after 10 o’clock… it was going to get a lot warmer! We ordered a few rounds of drinks and some sunshades, both of which went down well!

I’d taken a couple of Perry McDaniels’ boxes for Doog to try and he spent a while playing with a few Bonbons before moving on to something even better. I spent an absolute age trying to solve a new Dovetail Bar puzzle from Rich – something that Ali appeared to have solved in mere minutes…. 

I made heavy weather of the early part of the solve and managed to speed up a bit on the latter sections, albeit by now Rich was beginning to nudge me in the right direction having taken pity on my feeble solving skills. There was plenty of encouragement for him to make it more widely available, potentially with a couple of little helpful additions.

The scenery from our lookout was simply stunning – the mountains surrounding Mont Blanc to our right still shrouded in snow with an occasional paraglider circling round the peaks – down to the lush green valley on our left and literally mountains wherever you looked… it was hard not to feel exceptionally privileged playing with puzzles up here.

Louis and Doog end up swapping stories about their trips up Mont Blanc and the surrounding mountains – each identifying where the other is describing a particular incident on the mountain… Around lunchtime we decamp from the hostelry to the top of an adjoining ski lift in search of a tiny bit of shade – have I mentioned it’s HOT!? We break out the picnic stuff and everyone enjoys making a sandwich or three from the fresh baguettes, fromage et jambon… along with several other assorted snacks – we don’t stand a hope in heck of finishing all the food we’ve brought!

We take a couple of group pics on and around the ski-lift before wandering back towards the gondola for the ride down – spoilt by another stunning round of glorious vistas. We load up the people carrier and follow Doog up the road at the end of the village to his place where Laura welcomes us warmly. Doog rigs up a sunshade over a pair of picnic tables in the garden and we start unloading puzzles onto the tables and drinks into the fridge – puzzling is very thirsty work after all! 

 

There follows an hour or two of puzzling – some of us foolishly trying to solve some of Doog’s one-off boxes with names like The Impossible Box – with the throwaway comment that nobody’s every solved that one. A few more folks have a play with Rich’s new Dovetail Bar and I feel slightly less bad about my slow solve…

Around the middle of the afternoon Doog gathers us all around the picnic table and we dial up Nick on t’internet for the beginning on our box-making workshop. Doog gives us the overview of what we’re going to be doing and dishes out the guts of the boxes that he’s already prepped for us. We spend a while sanding down the outside and making it pretty, before slicing off the top and neatening the joints. We prep a few bits of the innards and stick a key piece in place, all the while checking that the next few steps are all going to be properly aligned… it’s very obvious from the instructions and words of advice that Doog imparts, that he’s done this many times before and know what pitfalls to keep an eye out for – it’s clear he wants us all to have a properly functioning puzzle at the end of this! We managed to keep Nick in the loop, although his kit’s been a little further progressed as Doog knew he wouldn’t have access to his table saw. We end up with some partially assembled and neatly oiled boxes ready to be put aside for their glue to dry… until the morrow… so we bid goodbye to Nick, and Doog fires up the barby.   

There is a chunk more puzzling, The Impossible Box retains its record and there is a lot more snacking… with several cheese board and bread and crackers making their appearance (and disappearance!). The sun goes down behind the ridge right on cue, the sunshade comes down and we spread ourselves out a bit more across the two tables… Doog does a superb job on the barby and there’s a veritable feast of kebabs and local sausages with several salads and piles of tatties, all washed down with plenty of cold bevvies… 

We end up chatting quite late into the night before Louis drives the bus back down the hill to our hotel on the other side of the village. We're surprised to find the bar deserted and half-closed but we manage to order a round of drinks before we get moved on to the lobby so they can clean up and close for the night – it’s a hardship! I head off and duly crash, exhausted from a long day in the sunshine and fresh air… I don’t think I’ve done this much puzzling outdoors in a very long time! And it is good!

Next morning we start out at a similar time and head straight up to Doog’s where he’s been up for ages and has everything set out waiting for us… there are more of Doog’s special boxes to play with and we’re plied with coffee and snacks yet again….

The weather isn’t quite so good on the Sunday, so Doog’s planned a couple of activities around the house, including an escape room game he’s quite keen for us to try in smaller teams, so we split up with one team heading indoors for the main event while we remain outdoors and tackle Doog’s escape room in a toolbox – another game he’s concocted to amuse the crews on his yachts.

 We start out with a locked toolbox, a petty cash tin locked to the picnic table and a clock to time our progress – albeit it doesn’t seem particularly active. The game is a wonderful romp of discoveries with Doog’s wit merrily laced through them all – I loved the cassette tape marked “Blanc” on both sides given where we were. We go deeper and deeper into the toolbox, via Dolly Parton’s greatest hits until we finally unlock the key to our escape…

With the toolbox escape dispatched, Louis turns his attention to The Impossible Box and duly manages to open it, understand it, and cook it…. We all pile in and sign the (formerly empty) solvers’ log before resetting it and not letting on that we’ve solved it… (everyone agrees that watching someone solve a puzzle is as good as solving it yourself, right?!).

The other crew finishes their quest and after a short period to reset, caffeinate and snack, the B team head up to the kitchen table for our go on the main event… which starts out with a modest looking box to attack, but before long there are piles of bits and bobs around the kitchen table and we’re trying to keep track of what we haven’t used yet… because they’re bound to be used for something, right?! This one ends up taking us quite a bit longer than the other team, although in our defence we had Rich sitting there observing and offering words of advice which we’re sure weren’t aimed at throwing us off the scent… this time we end up having a few “A-Ha!” moments that are immediately followed by a “What? Seriously?!” moment – Doog’s commitment to his craft truly knows no bounds… and we’re delighted when we finally finish this adventure and write our names on the log of solvers with a fairly decent time, in spite of Rich’s “help”!

In between all this Doog offers us a couple of workshop tours… for two people at a time – because that’s literally all that will fit into his well-insulated 2m*2m shed. Rich and I enjoy the tour of what must be the tidiest and most well engineered workshop around. Designed to work like a galley kitchen, Doog can literally stand in the centre and reach anything he needs without moving… there’s space for all his tools, partial projects and wood waiting to be turned into projects. The spaces between his steel cabinets have been filled with custom drawers sized to perfectly hold his standard wood sizes… and the benchtops are pristine – there’s no dust anywhere. Doog likes a clean shop. We end up chatting for about an hour about how he thinks about his processes, how he designed the space and what he’s considering next… for a bloke with that much talent and ingenuity, he is a wonderfully down-to-earth guy with lashings of humility – he still comes across as being surprised there are folks out there prepared to pay for his boxes and fund his passion and his side-hustle.  

Lunch is another veritable feast with some more gentle puzzling until Nick o’clock. Foul weather (gentle rain!) has driven us indoors so the afternoon’s build session takes place at Doog’s kitchen table. Nick joins us for the next session of fettling and glueing with Doog offering plenty advice and guiding us all through the process of epoxying some key goodies firmly in place – I’m proud of my assembly with virtually no excess glue to be seen while some of my compatriots find themselves mopping up globs of the stuff rather than waiting until it had dried and cutting it off. Nick suffers a bit of an epoxy failure when his fails to set but he promises to try again with a new batch. By the end of the session we’re all merrily locking and unlocking our rather handsome boxes, with even Steve’s box functioning properly… unlike some other box workshops we’ve attended recently. We even manage to get a group pic with all of us and our boxes, although Nick is partially hidden behind a box. 

We tidy up the kitchen and Doog sets about rustling up dinner for the masses – he’s been talking up his tartiflette all day and a couple of us end up chewing the fat while we watch Doog cook dinner – Doog’s cooking is as meticulous as his puzzle-making and the kitchen remains spotless all the way through the process – he’s my kind of cook!

The puzzlers assemble for the main event and it is every bit as good as Doog’s made out – and there is plenty… when we all can’t eat any more we switch to chatting and a bit more puzzling. Dan’s picked up The Impossible Box and at one point he gets wildly animated and rushes out of the room, and about a minute later there’s a loud “You bastards!” from the room next door… he’s just gone to add his name to the solvers log and found it’s no longer the blank sheet he was expecting. There are some good laughs when we tell him (and Doog) what had transpired earlier on in the day… Dan remains slightly gutted.

We say our goodbyes (and THANK YOUS) and Louis takes us safely back to the hotel where we pretty much all head off to bed – it’s been a long couple of days and some of us aren’t used to all that sunshine and fresh air!

Next morning is an early start for some breakfast before heading back out of the valley and on to Geneva where a traffic jam, temporarily being unaware of our location while filling the van up with diesel, and then navigating around the car rental return conspired to try and get me to miss my flight – in the end I made it and on the plus side, I didn’t spend much time queuing for boarding!

Doog and Laura were amazing hosts to our gang of six MPPers who ended up coming to visit a bit sooner than they might have thought. It was a privilege to spend time in Doog’s part of the world and get to know him a bit better and he went way above and beyond to make sure we all ended up with a puzzle box that we’d contributed to (even if he’d done all the hard work!). Thank you both for an unforgettable weekend among some literally jaw-dropping scenery – I hope we can do that again sometime! (...and there's always a bed for you guys in Barnt Green.)