Schindler's Lift

I attended a beautiful wedding reception last night at Marigold Restaurant!

It was really encouraging to see the couple getting married, we were in good company and the food was great! We had this really social honky waiter, also called Ben!

Left around 11:30pm. Got into the lift with 7 other friends from church.

One of them says, "Hey, why don't we do that thing where we all jump just as the lift is reaching the ground floor?"

So we did it - twice!

Apparently this didn't agree with the lift cos it decided to stop!

At first we thought we were at ground floor and the door was just taking a while to open. Then we pressed the Door Open button.

Nothing happened.

We pressed the other buttons - 1st floor, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th!

Nothing happened - "Uh oh..." someone says.

Ya... right!

We rang the alarm bell and got connected to an operator. I was somewhat surprised that someone would tbe there at this late hour to assist us...I wonder if people get stuck in lifts so often that they have staff available 24hrs to help them get out!

We explained our situation (neglecting to mention the part about jumping up and down in the lift!). She said she'd send a mechanic and that it'd take about 30mins.

30 mins!!!

Man! It wasn't too cramp but it wasn't comfortable either! There was little ventilation and the lift down-lights were hot!

We tried pulling open the lift door and succeeded in opening it about half way. We found that we were actually between the ground and first floors. A small crack in the outside lift door allowed some air in.

To pass the time we listened to songs on my phone, sang along to a hymn, and started imagining all kinds of ways to get out of the lift... or what would happen if we didn't...!

One of the guys was more concerned about his umbrella he'd left behind at the restaurant!

Eventually the mechanic arrived (obviously not from the German Schindler manufacturer of the lift cos he was asian!). It still took him a good 15-20 minutes but eventually he managed to open the exterior door and we were freed!

We had to jump down to ground level a metre or so, but we didn't care! We were free! Ah...how good it was to feel fresh air blowing against my face!

And so we managed to escape Schindler's Lift...