Pub quiz… one team member off visiting kiwis!

It was the pub quiz with a difference… I got ready to leave home at about 8:20, money, pen, house key, that’s all I need and I sauntered off… on my own. Husband is as usual practising with his band and will join us later, son keeping fit at a new exercise class, and daughter… well even as I write she is in the air en route to New Zealand for several weeks!

We drove up to Heathrow, I dropped her off, hugs and kisses and I set off back home, heading into the west. The quiz starts at about 9, and I arrived home in time, so I set off to the pub early to get a seat and have time to chat to the chums.

I walked in… into an almost empty pub! There was no drama group chums at the table inside the door, no Tim and his gang at the table on the right – in fact Tim and wife were sitting further along, just the two of them. Taz and one of his gang of three was at the bar… I got a glass of wine and had a brief word with Taz, then sat next to Tim, in his unaccustomed place.

The thing about a good pub is that you feel comfortable there, and so although I was on my own, I wasn’t really, and was able to sit and check on where the New Zealand bound daughter was. Our friends the ice-creams arrived, and then the inspiration for my present novel, the chap I think of as Mike Scott, joined us.

It was a quiet quiz – until the quiz-master – aka pub landlord Mark, mispronounced the name Zaphod Beeblebrox when several people shouted out the correct way of saying it. There were not that many teams, and or scores weren’t that good, but although we were beaten on one round, we did d quite well on the other!

The thing is, we reflected as we came home, even if we don’t do very well in terms of winning, we always have such an excellent time! It’s through the quiz that we have got to know Taz (who helped our son pass his driving test, Scott who is the inspiration for my current novel, and our friends the ice-creams who have an amazing ice-cream shop in town!!

Yes, it’s not just the intellectual stimulation which makes us enjoy the quiz!!