The .......Part Two

I had forgotten to mention, importantly we were told, “There are ten meditation/prayer rooms, they will be open all of the time, no cameras will be in these rooms.” I was pleased to hear and knew I would make use of these rooms.

We were then told, “You can do as you pleased, for the next four days until the competition starts,” But none of us were allowed to leave the grounds of the university, we knew that anyway before we all came.

We were informed, “You can either go to your rooms or mingle and meet the others.” I am sure the majority decided to meet the ‘competition’ I didn’t want to go to bed I was too excited, I could have done with a sweet very chocolaty drink, but hey, I was on an adventure, there would be time to celebrate later with either a hot chocolate or fizzy ice-cold Fanta orange.

There was fish and rice for those that wanted it, I joined the queue to get mine, and finding a seat, for we could sit anywhere. The meal was lovely. I sat on a table that was empty, I like it better that way, than the other way round, me going to a table where people are already sat there, I feel like I am invading them, but this way, it feels more that I am in control, when people join me.

Soon a man came and sat at the table where I was, and others soon joined him. He told me his name is, “Bill, I am from Sweden and I am a midwife.” Well, you could have knocked me over with a feather. He went on, “I am used to working long hours and I just work nights.” I told him my name is, “Maxine, I could never work nights, I would be completely wrecked for about three days, it would take me that long to recover.”

It didn’t bother me that he worked long hours on nights, for the seven days and nights here, would level us all out, for we would all be in the same boat. After our conversation came to a natural end, I talked to the person the other side of me. She introduced herself and said, “My name is Evon and I have travelled over from Peru and I am a vegetarian and I hate fish.” I replied, “Well, this is going to be a double challenge for you, but I suppose we will all have different challenges to face, this coming week.” I was a tad curious, and asked, “Why have you come here then to do this?” Evon replied, “I am confident I can win this.” I thought, well you can’t argue with that. And said, to her, “It’s good to believe in yourself.” I met and had small talk with a few other interesting people.

The next morning, I went into one of the prayer/meditation rooms and I was instantly impressed. The room was bright and colourful, the furniture was unique, I read a framed information on the wall, “All of the furniture in the ten prayer/meditation rooms, they have been designed by children from around the world. In 2021 there was a competition for all who were in lockdown at home, for them to design chairs, sofas, stools, rocking chairs and prayer mats. In each room there are four different items to sit on and a prayer mat, each one is a one-off piece. Each child all under sixteen was given a prize of just over thirty-two thousand Yen in pound sterling this was about £200 each. So, there were fifty fabulous items all of them were then made in Japan by skilled furniture makers. “

I decided to have a look at the other items in all of the prayer/meditation rooms. And in all rooms the vibes were the same, comforting, inviting, relaxing and peaceful. Some seats were already taken.

The information on the wall also said, “In each prayer/medication room, the last four, contestants in each room they can pick if they want to an item of furniture to keep for themselves or donate it to a charity.” What a great idea I thought. Looking through all the rooms, I saw three that I absolutely loved. The first one was the very strong looking, freestanding, hessian hammock, hanging in the corner. I have never actually sat in a hammock, but always wished I could, and one made into one of my favourite materials, the wonderful hessian. It looked very well made I went and had a closer look at it. At each end it looked as if it had been twisted with wonderful very thick rope and the rope was also underneath it from one end to the other, there was four rows of rope underneath. It looked SO comfortable.

The second item I saw was a beautiful hand made chair, it looked like some very clever person had done a huge basket weave with it, (I love basket weaving, I had done it at school) all of the exterior looked well-made but hard, the thick padded cushions one for the high back and the other to sit on, had materials that tied to the back of the chair and the seat was the same, it tied underneath. It was in bottle green. The final one was a small two-seater sofa, with no arm rests it looked like a soft giant marshmallow, in beautiful navy, I sat in this one it was Very soft, Very comfy.

Then in dawned on me, is there also an ulterior motive for the comfortable furniture? I would need to be very carful at what time of the ‘day’ I sat in any of these, for it would be a case of, one minute I would be OK then, the next minute I would be zzzzz ZZZZ.

To fall asleep in one of these rooms could turn out to be costly, it could cost me the chance of winning, for the main way to know what time it was, was to go into the bedroom, for after the vibrating gentle movement of the bed woke us up, then our ‘day’ would start, for one thing would then lead to another, shower, breakfast then a gentle mind quiz of some sort.

So, the four days quickly past, tomorrow would be our first day of the competition.