Ryanair’s new hand luggage rule is set to come into effect in the coming weeks
Ryanair is changing a key rule(Image: Cineberg via Getty Images)
Ryanair passengers have been advised to pop a bit of cardboard into their carry-ons following the airline’s announcement on Thursday. The budget carrier confirmed it will boost its “personal bag” size by 20% due to new EU regulations.
Ryanair said that, soon, passengers will be able to bring a larger bag on board, measuring up to 40cm x 30cm x 20cm, without having to pay additional fees. The bag must weigh under 10kg and fit “under the seat in front you.”
With the new bag dimensions set to roll out in the upcoming weeks, packing expert Tom Schott from Schott Packaging is warning travellers against a potentially expensive error, as he thinks the increased allowance might tempt people to overstuff their bags.
Tom said: “The new dimension is a game-changer, but only if you use it wisely. The mistake is to simply cram more in. The real victory for passengers is using that volume to pack with structure. A well-packed bag is a compliant bag.”
One of Tom’s many tips to avoid this is to pack some cardboard. He explained: “Soft bags lose volume. A lightweight, snug-fitting cardboard box inside your bag provides a rigid frame, allowing you to use every corner and prevent the bulge that attracts gate staff.”
He also recommends using sealable bags to maximise space, organising items into smaller compartments, and safeguarding valuables. Tom added: “Place a small, sturdy box in the centre of your bag, cushioned by clothes.
“This creates a crush-proof zone for chargers, adapters, and toiletries, preventing damage and leaks.” Travellers are also encouraged to “pre-plan your bag”, with Tom suggesting you lay out all your items on the floor within a 40cm x 30cm outline first, as this “provides a real-world view of what fits and helps you assemble your packed modules logically and quickly.”
Tom further explained: “These aren’t just clever tricks, but core principles of efficient packing. By applying them, you can confidently pack that extra outfit and still breeze through the boarding gate“.
“Code Green” has the trappings of a modern escape room.
We enter what we are told is a hidden bunker-turned-research lab. It’s dark, but there are clearly challenges that surround us: patterns in the walls, a cork board filled with notes and images connected by string and, before us on what appears to be a concrete table, a small puzzle board with many of its twisted pieces — something akin to strange, otherworldly tools — missing.
The trend today is escape rooms with a heavy narrative — see “The Ladder” from L.A.’s Hatch Escapes, a multidecade corporate mystery — and “Code Green” is cognizant of this. In the game, the year is 2085, aliens have invaded Earth and an important researcher has gone missing. We are to explore her secret scientific hideaway and find out what happened to her. Oh, and this bunker is flooded with radiation that can mutate us. We need to find a way to turn that off.
But it soon becomes apparent that “Code Green” is not a typical escape room. The walls? Cardboard, with paper bricks taped onto them. The low ceiling? It’s made of construction paper. Hanging blankets create the boundaries of the space. If you pull them apart, you’ll find yourself in a cluttered nook where a desk rests atop a bunk bed next to a wall filled with posters, including one of musician Andrew Bird.
The escape room industry has exploded over the last decade, with an estimated 2,000 facilities in the U.S., according to a 2023 industry report from Room Escape Artist, an enthusiast site that maintains a running database of every known room in the country.
But “Code Green” is not one of them, for “Code Green” is built inside a dorm room on the UCLA campus by 21-year-old Tyler Neufeld, a theater major with a specific interest in design. It’s cozy: Four people can’t navigate the space without constantly moving around one another. Yet for the past eight months, Neufeld, a Bakersfield native, has been running the free “Code Green” escape room for fellow students and their friends while juggling 22 units, his role as a resident advisor and a part-time job as an office assistant. On a recent Sunday, he hosted three 60-minute games.
When I visit on a Wednesday evening, the bespectacled Neufeld is nervous. He stresses that “Code Green” is intended for students only, with sign-ups done via an online spreadsheet. Participants, he says, need a UCLA email address. Though he isn’t hiding the escape room — he says his resident advisor office and teachers know about it and he posts “Code Green” availability updates on his “Dorm Scapes” Instagram — it hasn’t been officially sanctioned by the school. He’s aware that press attention may bring it to a halt (a spokesperson for UCLA did not return requests for comment).
UCLA student Tyler Neufeld gives a tour of his escape room, which he built inside his dorm room. Neufeld lives alone as a resident advisor and is scheduled to graduate in June.
(Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)
But after a moment, he shrugs, and says, “It’s worth it,” clearly wanting some recognition for what he has built.
“What happens if they shut us down? It’s fine. We made it this far,” adds Michaela Duarte, 26, a fellow theater major who has done some production design on the space.
While Neufeld’s escape room has helped expand his social circle, attracting attention from students like Duarte who want to work in the intersection between theater and theme parks, perhaps there’s also a bit of a thrill of running something of near professional quality out of a dorm room.
Most of “Code Green’s” brainteasers are text-based — a note in a research book may lead us to a cipher challenge, which in turn will reveal a map, which is actually a code to decipher the hidden pattern of the taped-on cardboard bricks. Remove the right one, and find another note.
Neufeld, or one of his friends, serves as a “game master,” hiding in the closet pretending to do alien research while offering hints, which can be verbal or written on the backside of a TV monitor propped up with cardboard.
Neufeld estimates he built the room for less than $100, and it’s constructed entirely out of found or trashed objects. “I have experience from student theater, where they give you zero dollars,” he says. “I wanted to think of what I had and what was passable. I didn’t want to to go too sci-fi, like being in a spaceship. That would look bad. But I can do stone. I can do brick. That’s not hard. It’s just time-consuming.”
Spend a little time playing “Code Green” and you’ll detect additional giveaways that this is a dorm space. That concrete slab of a table we see when we first enter? That’s actually Neufeld’s fridge, filled not with clues but with items such as oat milk. (Duarte affixed painted styrofoam to the refrigerator’s body, giving it an aged metal-like sheen.) Same with the dresser, although Neufeld noticed people couldn’t help digging through his clothes, so there are in-story notes in there.
Some puzzles in “Code Green” are visible only under blacklight.
(Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)
“Honestly, they’re in here because I don’t have anything else to put in the drawers, and I wouldn’t want the drawers to be empty,” Neufeld says of keeping his clothes accessible to guests. “It’s the same way I’m playing with the fridge. It’s very campy. … We all know this is a dorm room. No need to go for 100% immersion when you can have a little bit of fun.”
Scenic designer Andy Broomell, a lecturer at UCLA who teaches Neufeld in one of his drafting classes, heard about “Code Green.” “My first reaction was, ‘I would love to do it,’” he says, although he notes that’s not possible, citing the ethics of visiting students in their places of residence.
“I thought it was exciting, and more than anything, I love when a student will take on their own project and do something they’re passionate about,” Broomell says.
“Code Green” has evolved significantly since it began in a prior semester, and Neufeld, who graduates in June, is getting ready to move on. He’s got his second dorm escape room, for next semester, in the planning stages. He’s plotting something more lighthearted: a heist game involving squirrels.
Neufeld says the idea to build an escape room in his dorm came to him in the middle of the night, but also it was born out of that solo resident advisor life: “I got lonely,” he says.
“It was really one of those 2 a.m. ideas. I thought, ‘I have to do this.’ I can’t let this opportunity pass me by. Basically, this is a free room — yes, I’m working as a [resident advisor] to get this space — but if I were to rent a space after college, I think it would be a lot harder. That very night, it was 2 a.m., and I just started blocking it out,” Neufeld says.
UCLA student Tyler Neufeld wonders if there’s a future in murals that double as puzzles. Here he’s standing next to his “Don’t Bring Your Zombies to Work” piece, a series of painted challenges he created in a dormitory stairwell.
(Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)
It’s safe to say “Code Green” has helped Neufeld find his tribe. For L Siswanto, 21, an education major who assists Neufeld in running games, the room was an opportunity to explore a passion.
“I’m very interested in escape rooms,” Siswanto says. “I’ve only gone to a few IRL because they’re so expensive, but I had a phase where I obsessed with playing every escape room I could on [Apple’s] App Store. So when I saw there was a free escape room and they were looking for members to help out, I was like, ‘Wow. I love this type of stuff.’”
A total of 10 students are now contributing, either by spiffing up the production or maintaining the Instagram account. Duarte joined the project partly inspired by Neufeld’s conviction, impressed that he never talked himself out of something potentially illicit or left-of-center.
“When Tyler had the idea of building an escape room in his dorm, [I thought,] that’s crazy,” Duarte says. “But it’s really cool and exciting and inspiring. I want to surround myself with people who are interested in the same things that I am, and have the tenacity and confidence to just do it.”
“Code Green” helped UCLA student Tyler Neufeld, center, find his tribe. He now has about 10 people helping out on the escape room, including Michaela Duarte, left, and L Siswanto.
(Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)
There are times Neufeld admits he wishes he had his full dorm room back, such as when he has to crawl under hanging cardboard to reach his bed, but his entrepreneurial brain is also firing. He wonders if there’s a career possibility in creating puzzle murals, perhaps for bars or coffee shops. (He has one of those too, painted in a stairwell of a nearby dormitory and titled “Don’t Bring Your Zombies to Work.” It’s self-guided, meaning no need for a game master, and is a separate entity from “Code Green.”)
What’s more, building the escape room has ignited a passion for crafting environments, and he hopes for a career in the theme park industry. It’s also expanded his definition of theater.
“It’s basically a one-hour, one-act play,” Neufeld says. “But the set is all around you and the audience are your actors. It’s an extension of theater.”
Neufeld is in the process of fine-tuning a Zoom-based edition of “Code Green,” hoping the video conferencing service could help expose it to nonstudents. But despite the on-campus interest it’s garnered, living in a dorm as a resident advisor is keeping him humble. Neufeld laughs when asked what his neighbors think, revealing he tried to recruit his housing peers to come play via a post on a social media app. “I put it in the floor GroupMe, and it got zero likes,” he says.
Escaping the realities of modern life, it turns out, isn’t as easy as building your own escape.
AUSSIE showman Glenn Maxwell has revealed how a bouncer from Mark Wood sparked a mental-health crisis that threatened his career.
Maxwell descended into depression and needed a break from cricket following the 2019 World Cup in England.
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This dismissal off Wood helped plunge Maxwell into mental anguishCredit: Rex
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Wood celebrates dispatching Maxwell in the fateful 2019 matchCredit: Getty
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Maxwell walked back to the pavilion and into a personal crisisCredit: Getty
His problems started after his own team thought he was vulnerable to short bowling when dismissed by West Indies’ speedster Sheldon Cottrell and then Wood.
Against England at Lord’s, Maxwell tried to uppercut a short ball from Wood but nicked a catch behind to Jos Buttler.
It followed a dismissal by Cottrell earlier in the tournament and Maxwell says people started making “ridiculous snap judgments”.
He adds: “A problem with short bowling? Me? Are you f***ing joking? I’ve made a career out of smashing the quickest bowlers in the world all over the park.”
The Aussies beat England by 64 runs and then beat New Zealand although Maxwell was dismissed by another short ball, this time brilliantly caught and bowled by medium-pacer Jimmy Neesham.
Australia’s next game was against South Africa at Old Trafford.
The day before, when players normally avoid very fast bowling, Maxwell received a 90mph bouncer from Mitchell Starc in the nets.
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All-rounder Maxwell is back at the top for the Aussies, playing T20 cricketCredit: Getty
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Aussie pace hero Mitchell Starc also served Maxwell a bouncer – in the netsCredit: Rex Features
Then came another high-velocity delivery from Pat Cummins that reared up and struck Maxwell on the forearm.
He threw down his bat in fury, believing his arm was broken.
England’s Mark Wood hits Australia’s Travis Head on the chin with vicious Ashes beamer
Maxwell later discovered team coach Justin Langer had been talking to a group of journalists.
And Maxwell recalls: “Our coach said something to the effect of, ‘If you think he has a problem with the short ball, watch this!’ Then told our guys to bump the s**t out of me.”
A few minutes later, batsman Shaun Marsh was also struck on the arm and he and Maxwell went to hospital.
Maxwell says: “It was in that car that I came to the realisation that I wanted my arm to be broken.
“If I wasn’t delivering, and the perception was that I was a drag on the team, then f*** it — I may as well be out of there.”
The scan showed bruising but no break. Marsh did suffer a break and never played for Australia again.
Maxwell passed a fitness test but word had spread. He was bombarded by South Africa’s fast bowlers and caught behind for 12 top-edging another bouncer.
The in-form Matthew Wade was called into the squad as an injury replacement and Maxwell adds: “I was embarrassed to be in the team ahead of Wadey.
“My confidence was shot, positivity had vanished. I felt like the worst player in the team.”
After Australia lost to England in the semi-final, Maxwell broke down when he saw his parents.
He says: “Mum was just as emotional as me — everything came rushing out. She could tell her boy was hurting.”
I know this can happen again… I have a risk of spiralling as quickly as I did in 2019”
Glenn Maxwell
Instead of taking the break he needed, Maxwell played for Lancashire straight after the World Cup. And then six T20 games in Australia against Sri Lanka and Pakistan.
During a team meeting, Maxwell had what felt like a panic attack and afterwards poured out his emotions with Aussie team psychologist Michael Lloyd.
He adds: “It all came out — how sick I felt, how scared, what my mind was doing to me.”
Coach Langer was supportive and it was agreed Maxwell would play the first two of the six matches then take a break.
Maxwell explains: “I think my team-mates were stunned. Their confusion was mirrored by the public — didn’t I just smash a quick 50 and sound happy on TV?
“But using this facade to appear OK had turned me into a cardboard cut-out.”
Maxwell was at home for several weeks and consulted Dr Ranjit Menon, a psychiatrist specialising in sports people who have suffered breakdowns.
The diagnosis was depression and anxiety, with antidepressants prescribed.
After more than a month, Maxwell began playing club matches and then came a successful Big Bash campaign.
He concludes: “I know this can happen again. There have already been moments in the years since when anxiety and stress begin to build. I know I have a risk of spiralling as quickly as I did in 2019.”
The Showman by Glenn Maxwell, published by Simon and Schuster, is out today.
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Maxwell is taking nothing for granted over his mental healthCredit: Getty
