So it’s quiz night, and as I sit in the pub I am at present a team of one. Daughter is working, husband is at band practice, ice-creams are poorly and I’m waiting for the South Africans. I’m sitting on my own in the cross-benches, having had a catch-up with Tim of the 2 T’s, had a brief word with Taz and his team, and now I wait. The pub begins to fill up and before long my dear South Africans arrive. To be honest, only one is actually from the Republic, the other is a former pilot of the maritime persuasion. The other teams have assembled, the ladies, Manchu and his friends, the Am-Dams, Nigel & Co, the bar staff and JC and chum, Tas and chums, other invisible folk in the public – or what passes for the public, a lovely crowd of regulars, plus she old chap and Buster who aren’t taking part, and the third of the T’s, Terry who sits at the bar and enjoys the proceedings.
The quiz in two parts, and it’s a bingo quiz. The 25 questions are read out in order but the answers are filled in on a 5×5 answer sheet where they are randomly placed across the paper. The questions are form every category you can imagine, and to be honest we struggle. We know little about films, TV, fashion, young people, sport etc and many of our answers are pure guesswork. It’s the last evening I’ll see the |South Africans, they are flying home on Thursday and it would be lovely for them to win! However it’s the dun of taking part, or gossiping, of catching up, of commenting on issues the quiz questions raise, on what we’ve been doing since we met last week, and to e honest, we don’t much care if we win, we enjoy taking part!
We fail abysmally on both rounds: it’s a bingo quiz with the answer sheet like a lotto card so we stand a chance of winning a line, but no, sadly we don’t! We think we’ve done badly, but in act so has everyone else and the winning score is only 1 more than we have. It doesnt matter at all, we have had a fun time, we’ve enjoyed being together for the last time before they return in February, and we look forward to the next time we’re together. All in all, a lovely evening!
Lois Elsden 