1000 Fields of Roses

Last year, around this time, I participated for the first time in GISH – the Greatest International Scavenger Hunt – one week during the year where normality falls away, and kindness rules, and where our entry fees and other fundraising during the week goes towards helping people around the world. This year entry fees went towards protecting people in Laos from unexploded bombs and providing prosthetic limbs for those who have lost theirs.
It was a week where I figured out how to do stuff I hadn’t done before, and remembered skills I hadn’t used in a while. It was also a tiring week
Obviously, I had to sign up for this year!

For this last week I’ve been painting, drawing or shuffling like a zombie, while other members of the team I was a part of did their items as well. Not only did I happen to have a team this year who were creative, inspirational, and participated enthusiastically, I also had my Babe and Sweet Bean on the team. What a busy, amazing, fulfilling week 🙂

Here’s my items, in order of completion…

“Write your resume as a haiku”

It’s amazingly difficult to sum up enough information for a resume in three lines…

“A tiny painting of Misha and the Queen on a coin, made using toothpicks instead of brushes. “

I was quite pleased with this one. It’s not perfect – I was going for Wedgewood, but ended up with Splodge… still, I think it worked well.

“I’m not saying Jared Padalecki is a big softie, but here’s a portrait of him toasted onto a marshmallow. Just the way it should be.’

There were tears over this one… I had a great idea for the method, but the execution of it didn’t quite go to plan. It involved twisting wire into shape, heating it over the stove ring, then pressing it into the marshmallow. Sounds great – but didn’t toast at all. Melted marshmallow is stickier than I’m happy with. Still, I’m fairly happy with the finished result. Here’s the wire stamp I used –

Next item – “Make an Assbutt of yourself in public. Literally.”

This wasn’t actually my item, but I took the photo and submitted it 🙂

The next two are a family collaboration, with the help of a friend with amazing make-up and camera skills.

“FAST-MOTION. Everybody always thinks zombies are after their brains, but they’re just really into “tag”, as evidenced by the 3 zombies playing slow-speed tag in your local mall, then speed it up and send it in”

It’s strange wearing zombie make-up, but it also becomes strangely comfortable after a while (at least, it’s easy to forget it’s there). We went in to d’Arcy Doyle place for this one… we didn’t seem to be noticed by most people, but some had a laugh – except for one kind person who wanted to make sure Babe was OK when he went to top up the parking meter. He was able to assure her that he was fine…
After our gruelling time filming we needed a coffee, so went down the cafe, where they certainly practise what they preach…

They were very welcoming, although we were a bit worried we’d leave bits of ourselves behind…

“Spoiler alert! Nobody has time to really sit down and read anymore. So, bring the stories to them. Recreate major plot points of classic books by acting them out at your local library. But in deference to library “rules”, you must be silent, so you’re going to have to use interpretive dance on this one. Note: If you’ve submitted a photo, you will still get credit.”

We were flagging a bit by this stage, but the local library was open late on Thursday, so we became lovelorn teenagers for half an hour. We messed up the order of events in the death scene, but I don’t think it matters.

“Create a haiku for an animal on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species that tells of the animal’s plight and why we should protect it. Next to the haiku, include a hand-drawn picture or origami sculpture of the animal.”

“Create a HairBnB for head lice. Showcase all the amenities in photos. But don’t post it on AirBnB! Instead, hang your flyer where your clients will see it: at a local hair salon.”

The local hair salon was very helpful and understood that scavenger hunts can be quite strange…

“Tatsuya Tanaka creates miniature worlds with everyday objects. His scenes are whimsical, which is how the world should be… but is not always how tiny-world actually is. Create a miniature, dismal and tragic scene using small reimagined objects.”

Good thing I saved all those dead insect parts…

“You know that this is the 50th anniversary of Woodstock. But did you know that Woodstock the bird from Peanuts first appeared 2 years earlier? In 1967? So actually Woodstock the bird is 52. He’s drunk a lot of beer over the years and can’t hide it, but he is vain, so he’s had lots of work done. Tons of collagen and botox. He wears a toupee. He dyes his feathers. Show us what he looks like today.”

I enjoyed this one, and it came out better than I thought it would.

“PUZZLE. New Item, Who Dis? 3×3=9, null=0. And that’s the Tea. Don’t get your wires crossed! When you think you’re done, the fun’s just begun…”

This was the last one I did, or at least partially did. The strings of numbers below translated to clues using a T9 cipher, but I only worked out some of the answers to the clues… It was about Pierre Frederic Sarrus, who created the Sarrus rule (mathematics), and involved General Sarris, the villain from Galaxy Quest. I didn’t get much further than that, but others solved it, so I eventually found out that I should have done a cross stitch of Sarris calculating the Sarrus rule.
Here’s the original crossword –

Here’s my response –

My Babe also did his items – the first two were done on the same day as the zombies.

“You’ve been out fishing for compliments, and you just snagged a whopper.”

He thought the best compliment would be a proposal ❤

“We’ve seen the pictures of dogs catching treats by German photographer Christian Vieler. Let’s see a high-speed photo of your teammate catching treats in the same style and photographic detail.”

This one was done with the previous night’s mashed potatoes, to help it hold together a bit.

“TIMELAPSE. This means something… Subtractive food sculpture. Start with a block of cheese or a massive mountain of mashed potatoes and without using tools, eat your way to an ornate re-creation of a famous statue.”

The last one was designed and created by Sweet Bean. He worked very hard, and I think he enjoyed his week 🙂

“They say stepping on a LEGO is the greatest pain one can experience. We Gishers laugh in the face of pain. Make shoes entirely from LEGOs – no fluffy socks or insoles allowed- and demonstrate them in use. Post it to social media and tag the LEGO accounts and @GISH.”

I’m proud of the work we got done, and awed by the work done by the others in the team. We’re definitely looking forward to next year!