THAT old adage, something about not mixing business with pleasure, wasn't meant to be applied to entrepreneurs such as Marjorie Armstrong.

Fired from the job she'd held for close to three decades, she took stock of her own interests and built a company around them. The result is Fun For All, a unique business dedicated to ? well, the name says it all.

A series of events provided her with inspiration. Her dismissal, a broken foot, and a string of dull birthday parties, bridal and baby showers.

"Last June, in 2003, after 29 years in Government, I was dismissed," the entrepreneur said. "About five months after that, I broke my foot and, because I had been unable to find another job, I had no insurance.

"So things were really not happening for me. People had been telling me for years to go into business on my own ? I write poetry, I do crafts. I have close to 1,000 key chains that I have collected over the years. I make my own greeting cards with my own words, each specially made for that particular individual.

"I'd often hear of people doing wonderful party decorations and wedding decorations. But birthday parties, baby showers, bridal showers ? I'd been to a few and they were boring. I thought I could do it better ? they were all straight forward.

"You ate your food and you went home. It was so boring. The last baby shower I went to, there was a lady who had some great ideas and somebody suggested she start her own business. I said: 'Wait a minute. I can't have her go into business before me.' So I began talking to people about my plans and finally decided, why not?"

Ms Armstrong will tell you that she is not a party organiser. She is not a caterer. As a matter of fact, the mother of two married children ? Chevone and Kahl ? hates to cook. Drink, she says, is her speciality. And, perhaps her most apt title is games co-ordinator as, no matter what the event or the age, Fun For All promises good, old-fashioned entertainment.

"I found that the games actually make the party or the shower," she said. "So my parties are different. I'm old-fashioned. My shower games for both wedding and baby showers are unique ? they are especially designed for that particular person.

"A lot of them I create myself. I like the old-fashioned, traditional birthday parties.

"Today, you put the fun castle there and that's it. I have nothing against (them) but once they are there, you never get the chance to do much of anything else."

Part of the reason behind the fledgling company's success is that Ms Armstrong had already established a reputation through the scavenger hunts she organised for friends and various groups in which she was involved. "I've been doing scavenger hunts for about 15 or 20 years," she said. "Everybody always enjoyed them and said I should run them as a business. Whenever anyone usually goes on a scavenger hunt, they pull a piece of paper out of a bag and take it back to (home base) for some points. My hunts are very different. I can't tell my secrets, but I use objects, special items and special clues. So, after there was no money coming in, I thought I would give them a try."

she began her business last year, Ms Armstrong said she had run scavenger hunts for a number of organisations including local law firm, Mello Hollis & Martin, the Dialysis Unit at King Edward VII Memorial Hospital, the Bermuda Girl Guide Association, the Mount Zion Church youth group, the Salvation Army youth group, as well as various private groups.

"Last year I did one for my grandson NiQue's birthday party," she said. "It rained and still the kids wanted to do it. So I held a mini-scavenger hunt. The kids were only five. They couldn't read. So what I did, I tied things on trees and I read the clues ? which were all in rhyme. Of course I did (easier) clues than I would for adults. One was, 'Now look. There's a big book'. And there was a big book hanging on a tree. Below the tree was a bucket of prizes."

Apart from the scavenger hunt, the event was different to most children's birthday celebrations in that the kids received a party bag without the typical favours which accompany them. Instead, they followed Ms Armstrong's clues to lead them to their gifts.

"When the children arrived, they got a party bag, but it only had candy in it. Each clue led to a bucket of prizes. They'd take one, and put it in their party bag."

As well as creating clues for her scavenger hunts, Ms Armstrong also creates many of the games she organises for birthday parties, bridal and baby showers.

"In one game for children, for example, I take a piece of string and put prizes on it. They have to throw things at it. If they hit a prize, it's theirs.

"The scavenger hunts are amazing. I get members of the public to help me as well. I held one (recently) in Somerset and went to the police station, talked with people there and came up with a password, Penny Bean ? a former Commissioner of Police.

"Once the (participants gave the password) they were given a penny ? which was worth 20 points. I had one group count the slots in a piece of playground equipment. I give each a survivor kit. I placed a ruler in one last week ? they had to measure how much space there was between the cannons in Dockyard. That same group had to go to a graveyard and find the year that (a man buried there died). The answer, of course, was on one of the graves and they had to find that particular grave."

The clues provided vary from hunt to hunt. Only after careful consultation with the organiser of any particular event is the theme, the level of difficulty, and the location of play, set.

For the group at Mello, Hollis & Martin, the questions were ? as one might expect ? based on an understanding of the law. Armed with a survival package, which included a cup and a nickel, successful players made their way to the Swizzle Inn where they presented the bartender with those items ? and a password relating to the law. Once the correct password was spoken, the teams were rewarded with a bit of rum swizzle and sent in search of the next location.

"The theme of the hunt depends on where it is and it depends on the group," Ms Armstrong said. "I talk with organisers in advance to discover what they like. Every time they go to a place they have to do something.

"And each item is worth a number of points. It's not just grab a piece of paper and say we got clue number five and move on to the next. They have to do something. (One group) had to go to prison. On the prison gate, I had placed some handcuffs. They had a key in their survival bag and they had to find which key went with which handcuff and bring back that handcuff. So many people finish and say they've never done a scavenger hunt like mine before."

An average scavenger hunt runs an hour and a half, although there was one she organised for a wedding rehearsal dinner which ran more than double that time, Ms Armstrong said. Although she is solely responsible for setting the clues ? a daughter-in-law, Yalonda, helps with organisation ? would-be hunters need not worry she will soon run out of ideas.

thing the businesswoman promises is that her clients will not be bored. Players have been called to dive for bowling balls on the beach, to collect chicken bones ? for the faint of heart, they were soaked in Clorox and dried out in the oven ? from a graveyard.

"I've got so many ideas in my head. I'd been doing it for about 15 or 20 years, basically with any group I was involved with at the time ? church groups, girl guides. I'd wanted to start a similar kind of business, I think I just needed a push.

"Creating scavenger hunts comes so easily to me because I write poetry. All of my clues are in rhyme and riddles. (When writing clues), all I do is I put the alphabet on the top of a piece of paper and things come to me just like that. Basically, that's the way I do it. And if I'm stuck, I just look through the (dictionary) to see what word would match what I'm looking for."

For the moment, Ms Armstrong says that Fun For All has grown simply by word of mouth. She hopes it continues. Her goal is simply: "To make people happy."

A Fun For All scavenger hunt costs $5 per person. For more information, contact Ms Armstrong at 236-3450 or 732-7986 or via e-mail at marchekalibl.bm.