Sunday 8 December 2013

Decisions, decisions

It’s one of those evenings when I face a heart rending choice. John is unavailable, and so I have to make the decision between : -
a) Do I take an evening off ( unthinkable!)
b) Do I go to the Twelve Knights again, where I’ve been going every other week for a while
c) Do I go back to the quiz where I stopped going because John can’t stand it

I suppose I’d better explain that last one a little. The quiz in question was usually a decent quiz, and often a very good quiz, and I’d even started taking my turn in the rota to do it. The problem, though, was that it had, to use the vernacular, gone off a bit. The landlord had started doing a round of Family Fortunes questions in his quiz, worth far more points than the real questions. One of the other setters had started doing this as well. Another of the regular setters also told me that she had been asked by the landlord to dumb her own quizzes down.

Now, if you’re thinking to yourself – Dave, you only stopped going because this had all reduced your chances of winning, then you know me well. However the fact was that we hadn’t won anyway in many more than a month of Sundays. The team who normally used to come second to us had grown to significant proportions, drafting in some of the very best players from the rugby club quiz, and this mega team of 7 or 8 were just too much for us. That didn’t stop us going, though. It was the quizzes we didn’t enjoy, whatever the result.

So, as I said, John can’t stand the place now, and won’t go back. Yet tonight I have only myself to please. If I knew for a fact that one in particular of the setters was doing it, then I would seriously consider it. However it is not quite as simple as that. If I were to go back, and Heaven forbid, if I won, then all I’d get would be a bottle of wine which I would give away anyway because I’m virtually teetotal ( I don’t touch tea, never have, boom boom.)If I go to the Twelve Knights then the first prize is a voucher, and I can use this to go towards the cost of Sunday lunch there. Last time when we won I had a £25 voucher, and even when we came second we had £15. So it’s the Twelve Knights then? Well, maybe so. . . only they use a ‘bought in’ quiz by a well known company. Time was that would have been enough to put me off completely. However I have to say that the last one I went to a fortnight ago was rather good. I’m not used to praising Redtooth quizzes, but credit where it’s due, I really rather enjoyed this one. It didn’t start well, since we had 4 points out of 10 on the pictures, and only 5 out of 10 on the news questions. I don’t know where they get their news questions from, but it’s not from the same place I do. Yet those were the only points we dropped all night, and the rest of the questions were by no means all easy either. Try these two list questions for size.
a) Five Beatles UK chart singles have the word Love or Loves in the title. Name all of them.
Then the best question of the night-
b)Six countries in the world have English names that begin and end with the same consonant. Czech Republic is one – name the other 5
What a great question. None of those five are easy, and it took me about ten minutes to work out all of them. Then at the end, in the last round it’s a gamble round. You can answer up to 10 questions. You don’t have to answer any, but if you do answer wrongly, then you lose all points for the round. If you get all 10 right you get a five point bonus. We had them all.

So you can see my dilemma. If I knew that tonight’s at the Twelve Knights was going to be as good as last time’s, then there would be no contest. But I don’t know that. If one of the girls wants to come down with me to help me out with the pictures, then I’ll probably give it a go. Watch this space.

7 comments:

Unknown said...

I assume the tricky one is "Real Love"?
Coincidently I was looking at the exact same country question last week - but I couldn't remember the Solomon Islands, so well done to you if you got both these hard ones.

Londinius said...

Hi WJ

Yes, and yes. I was very pleased with myself for the countries - thanks Sporcle!

Another Anne said...

Am I misunderstanding something? I make it six WITHOUT the Solomons: Czech Republic, Central African Republic, Armenia, Austria, Albania and Australia.

Londinius said...

Yes Anne - you are misunderstanding something, I'm afraid. The question was countries that begin and end with the same consonant. There are quite a few more that begin and end with vowels.

Another Anne said...

Oh, sorry! For some reason I read it as 'letter'!

dxdtdemon said...

Anne, in case you're wondering, the others are Seychelles, St. Kitts and Nevis, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines.

Londinius said...

- and for the record the Beatles' songs are Real Love - Can't Buy Me Love - She Loves You - Love Me Do - All You Need Is Love