Jon sits down with Sarah, Mark, Colin and Jeff from CTRL+ALT+ESC and chew the proverbial cud within spitting distance of their very own Escape Room Bar. Topics include Why notes Are Important, Knowing your Puzzling Weaknesses, Pet Hates, Disastrously stupid customers and a Five Year Plan (that doesn't involve a failed agricultural revolution leading to the starvation of millions). It's all here!

Join Jon as he ventures out into the real world for a sit down with CTRL+ALT+ESC of Margate, one of our favourite rooms! Apologies for the tardyness here, folks, editor Jon has spent the last few days intensively rehearsing, and then being Andy Warhol at a charity Gala Ball. Why? No idea. But someone offered him money to do it. So he did.
 

This week, Jamie and Mike are joined by Anna and Lisa of Scarlet Envelope to have a little chat about last week's episode - Let's Do The Time Loop Again! - where we chat about how difficult time loops are to pull off, discuss the entirety of Wales's contribution to rock music, and a short interview with Anna and Lisa about the highs and lows of running a puzzle-by-mail company.
 
Time stamps for those who like to skip ahead:
00:45: Who's drinking what?
05:36: Chat about last week's puzzle episode
16:02: A Q&A with Anna and Lisa
41:50: Recommendations
Here are our recommendations for stuff you should check out:
Catfish and the Bottlemen - The Balcony [music]
 
Babel by R.F. Kwang [book]
The Devil's Plan [TV]
Marry My Dead Body [movie]
Chants of Sennaar [video game]
Our special guests this week are Anna Lysova and Lisa Levina of Scarlet Envelope. Check out their Puzzle Christmas cards at https://www.scarletenvelope.ca/christmas and keep an eye out for discount codes on their website around Black Friday.

Featuring Anna Lysova & Lisa Levina of Scarlet Envelope
 
This week, Jamie and Mike are joined by Anna & Lisa of Scarlet Envelope - a Canada-based puzzle company that offers mysteries by mail.
 
Check out their Christmas puzzle cards!
 
The gang find themselves trapped in a time loop, and need to get themselves out of this particular jam before they get themselves Spaghettified.
 
Featuring:
Way more suggestions of arson as puzzle solutions
A scathing critique of the British Empire
Several time loop Easter eggs for your enjoyment
Handouts if you want to play along:
Note found in globe
Numbers on deposit boxes
Say hi to Scarlet Envelope:
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This week's solvers were Mike, Anna & Lisa. Your puzzle maker and host was Jamie Gibbs.

Join Mike, Bailey and Annekoos as they lick their wounds after commiting manslaughter in Jon's room last week. Topics of discussion include the nerve wracking diatery advice surrounding pregnancy, the human need for causality, everything bad that Alan has ever done, and of course, the ease with which Escapees can be distracted from what's really important...

In the words of Admiral Akbar - It's a trap! But can the team find it, hidden in plainsight, in a maelstrom of simple but time-restricted tasks. Can they spot the Nasty in the Noise.
Join Mike, Annekoos, and Bailey as Jon leads them by the nose.

Spoilers ahead! If you haven't already, hop back and listen to our two part RPG special, The Bourne Kerfuffle. Or don't, we're not your handler.
As well as the debrief, we're talking TTRPG mechanics, and some red hot media reccos.
Also...it's the last episode I'm producing before going on parental hiatus! Still going to crop up in some episodes as a guest, but I'll be taking a few months off production as my wee bambino comes in to the world. Best of luck to Jamie and Jon as they man the fort!
~Mike x

And here's the second and final part of this year's RPG special - stay tuned for a pubisode next week, and then back to our normal format :D