New high score on Word Challenge (Facebook)

Following my earlier post on “How to get a high score on Word Challenge” I have now managed to totally beat my previous score of 70,637. Tonight I set my fingers on fire achieving a score of 108,731!

I have a few more tips for you to help you achieve a high score. I have noticed that there is often a similar set of letters in the words. Four letters that seem to crop up fairly regurlarly are S, D, E and U. From these four letters you can get ‘used’, ‘dues’ and ‘sued’. Another set of letters is R, U, E, and S – from these you can get ‘sure’, ‘user’, ‘rues’ and ‘suer’. I find because of the location of these letters on the keyboard they are really easy to type very quickly – thus you are guaranteed to add time to your clock. The more you play the game the more you spot words that crop up over and over again but that also can form a combination of words.

Good luck!

Pyramids found in Torrington!

My kids have a copious supply of Lego bricks – they’ve been bought plenty over the years but they were also given my Lego that my brother and I played with as a child. It’s one of their favourite toys and at 32 years old I still enjoy building with it too!

My daughter has a ‘set’ model that she consistently makes – and that is pyramids. She will normally only build them about 8 or 10 rows high. As I passed her bedroom yesterday I spied her making another pyramid so I suggested that we have a go at making the biggest pyramid we can, using all the bricks we have.

The first task was sorting out all the bricks. We worked together as a team one foraging through the box for bricks whilst someone else sorted the bricks into colours. One person was tasked with construction! We took it in turns to do the construction as this is quite a tedious and frustrating task (particularly when the sides collapse).

Here’s pyramid #1

The top of the pyramid is the original model that I spied my daughter building. We just decided to start adding to it. We started off trying to colour co-ordinate it but the final layers ended up being random!

The construction process is fairly awkward as you need to rest the pyramid upturned on your legs and build it upside down. The bigger it got the more delicate become and we had the sides collapse on us a few times.

When this pyramid was finished I decided we might be able to make a large pyramid if we built it in a square shape (rather than rectangular like this one). We dismantled it and sorted out the bricks into pots.

Construction of Pyramid # 2 then began.

I started with the colour bricks that had the least amount – this was clear blue and clear red (or sapphire and ruby as my kids call them). I then worked through the bricks finishing with the red bricks that we seem to have loads of!

Disappointingly after all the effort of sorting the bricks and taking care to use the colours in order of amount – this ‘square’ pyramid is not any taller than the rectangular one anyway!

Next project – Leaning Tower or Lego!

Dartington Crystal Mini Show

We paid an early morning (well early for a Sunday!) visit to the ‘Dartington Crystal Mini Show’ today. The weather was lovely – summer has finally arrived!

This event was formerly held at Atlantic Village, but after Asda arrived there they lost the venue. Dartington Crystal kindly offered their site so the event was back on. More info on the Small Cars Big Hearts website. There was plenty of Minis on show – including the new ‘Clubman’, a hi-top and even a pink one!

Here’s a couple pics:

More competition wins for me!

I realised I have received a few competition wins since my last update post so here’s the latest additions to my haul!

– The Treasures of Vincent van Gogh Book – £30

– Smash Hits 80’s CD – £9.00

– Butterfly Meadow Book – £3.99

– Lazy Town DVD – £12.99

– Waterproof Mascara – £1.79

– Garnier Goody Bag (containing 9 full size Garnier products: – £100

ultralift pro-x day cream
ultralift pro-x roll on
ultralift deep wrinkle A
caffeine eye roll on
omega skin daily renewing serum
ambre solair clear protect spray spf20
ambre solair kids rapido spf50
body tonic sugar scrub
summer body spray
hand sensitive hand cream

– 3.5 Litres of Slug Pellets – £9.99

– Signed Murray Walker Book – £35 (but probably worth a lot more as it is signed)

How to get a high score on Word Challenge (facebook).

I have recently achieved a very high score on the facebook game “Word Challenge“. At the time of writing my score is 70,637. My friends (& even my own sister. Pah!!!) have accused me of cheating but my score is simply down to playing hard, having a good vocabulary and gaining a good understanding of the game. Here’s my tips to help you achieve a high score:

1) I can touch type, this gives an advantage because you’re up against the clock. I only use the keyboard shortcuts to play (‘Return’ enters the word you’ve guessed, ‘CTRL’ gives you the bonus round or the next level, ‘space’ shuffles/reorders the letters). Time is key – you can’t pause, hesitate or hang around. You literally need to be entering words rapid fire, non stop!

2) Every word you get over 4 letters gives you more time on the clock. The longer the word the more time is added (I think?). I don’t really bother going for 3 letter words as they don’t help you gain time.

3) When you get the six letter word you then get the bonus round (a pink crown button appears to the left of the letters). In the bonus round you have to find one of your friends names in the letters and then you get bonus points. If you guess the friends name quickly you can get over 400 points.

4) You can press the yellow (ABC) button to move to the next level (and change your letters) if you can’t find any more words (but this button is only active after you have found a certain amount of words – I think it is about 5?).

5) From the games FAQ:
“The score is 25 points for the first letter, and increased by 1 point for each subsequent letter. So for example if you get a 3 letter word first, then the score will be 25 + 26 + 27 = 78. Then if you get another 3 letter word the score will be 28 + 29 + 30 = 87. You have a better chance to achieve a higher score by playing the same set of letters and find as many words as you possibly can, rather than to move onto a new set quickly.”

Enjoy!

Have you got any questions or other tips for this game? Please reply in the comments.

I have a foot and I’m not scared to use it!

It’s five weeks since I broke my foot and yesterday I had a visit to the fracture clinic to have my cast removed.

I’m now able to walk without my crutches although I do have a limp. This is because my ankle and calf muscle are really stiff and it’s these areas that are causing me the most discomfort. My heal also hurts but I am sure this will ease the more I place weight on my foot. I’m not really experiencing any pain on the break site. I have had a couple twinges around the break area when I’ve twisted/stepped awkardly. As you can see from the photo below I have quite a bit of bruising around my ankle. I’m not entirely sure why though! The blue arrow is indicating the location of the break!

The doctor has said it will take about 8 weeks for the break to heal completely and advised that it’s going to be 3 months before I can go back to running / dancing. Apparently running is the worst sport for this type of break.

I hobbled out of the doctors room on crutches with the doctor calling behind me to stop cheating and to remember I can put weight on my foot now!! I’ve decided to totally ditch the crutches as they’re just a hassle – it’s much easier to slowly limp along.

3 more competition wins & prize recap!

Since my last post I have three more competition wins.

– Virgin Vie Summertime Skin Self Tan Lotion – £10.50

– Charlie Wilson’s War DVD – £12 (not yet received prize)

-Michael Haneke DVD Trilogy – £40

and a recap of all the competition wins:

– Golden Compass Poster + voucher 1 litre tub of Mackie’s ice cream – £7

– Girls In The City compilation CD – £12

– Pom Bear Cycle safety kit (helmet, hi vis jacket, bike lights) – £25 (not yet received prize)

– Hemingway Design Hoodie – £20

– Science of Survival Family pack (includes 4 Science museum tickets, 4 Science of survival books, 2 solar power helicopters and 2 dynamo torches) – £56 (not yet received prize)

– 12 month subscription to Living Etc magazine – £28.48 (not yet received prize)

– Daytona Gas BBQ – £49.99

– Bubble Buster Game – £14.99

– Meyer Saucepan set – £150

– Virgin Experience Voucher – £50

– Yeoman Garden tool gift set – £20

– Tresemme Curl Activator Spray – £4.99

– Iron Man Book – £6.99

– Under Enemy Colours Book – £12.99

– Sowing Secrets Book – £6.99

– Camden Crawl CD – £3.50

– Missy Elliot Respect M.E – £6.00

– Espirit Voucher – £5.00

– 2 x Which Jute Shopping Bags – £10.00

– Alvin & The Chipmunks Kids Hoodie – £10.00

– Broadway Nails Kit – £15.00

– Mark Hill De-Frizz Shine Serum – £6.99 (not yet received prize)

– Anna Sui perfume secret wish – £23.00 (not yet received prize)

– Sharpie Pens Pack – £10.95

– National Trust Family Pass – £25.00

– Zak!Pak Goodies – £20.00

– Guerlain Kiss Kiss Lipstick – £17.00 (not yet received prize)

– Brainiac T-Shirt – £7.99

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WINNING TOTAL ESTIMATE: £680

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