Saturday Blether...

I was attempting a quiz in a national rag, these once a week quiz's used to be easy, and this time I found how little I know about things these papers consider important.  The quiz is intended for the readers, not people like me passing by, and it indicates how 'culture' today dominates the thoughts of the masses.  How do I know who married who?  How do I know which song this line came from if it appeared after 1974?  I did at least know what we called water that had frozen!  

I do like quizzing, especially on subjects that I know a little about.  It is amazing how much I learn from them.  However, when I used to watch things like 'Eggheads' with the insufferable Jeremy Vine as quizmaster, I found all too often the questions were on science or the like, which you will be surprised to know, left me dead.  We all enjoy quizzing, that is why so many appear on the telly, and it is great to be on the team that wins a quiz.  This I have been I must make clear, though this was back in 1967!  I have lost many since.  It's just a shame general knowledge questions these days all ask things that are not general knowledge to me!

I have this on my laptop, I hardly use the phone and find it easier to read on here, yet looking around so many people appear to consider this 'app' an urgent requirement.  I know not why.  Certainly it can be used to get in touch with people on the move, send pictures of places visited, or foodstuffs being scoffed, and also museums, companies and the like use it to advertise themselves.  But is it worth it?

For me, a couple of people I know who rarely offer pictures, several interesting museums and little else is worth looking at.  Using the search facility we see what others are offering, usually somewhat overdeveloped women exhibiting themselves, football players, young drugged up youths and an occasional picture worth seeing.  It is all very tiresome to me.

Contacting people is important, but there is 'WhatsApp,' 'messenger' and Texts, and speaking on the phone ignorantly and loudly on buses, so why bother?  Personally I prefer email, short and too the point, and long and explanatory if required.  Pictures and videos can also be added to your own pleasure, but maybe not the recipients. 

Still, it gave me something to moan about...

I've just dumped a bunch of dead and dying daffodils in the bin, and now I feel somewhat saddened by this  These delightful bright flowers have lasted about 10 days, which is not much for £1, but they have gladdened the heart.  Now, with all the care of a Tory cabinet minister I throw them out, their work completed, and it all feels like a real death.  There are others on the desk, two varieties, both doing their job for a week or so, then they too will go the way of all 'Lillie's of the field.'  We are surrounded by such a variety of flowers, some considered 'weeds,' yet they are so well designed and look so good.  Gentle, yet strong, colourful and varied in shape and usefulness.  These all come with a warning, 'Do Not Eat!' upon them, leading me to ask questions.  We need to consider the 'Lillie's of the field' more carefully I say.

Kids, Photos and Quiz's....

In my little mind there has been one or two posts wandering around.  Tonight, after a day at the museum, well half day, the mind is dead.  Lots of kids full of energy, some more than enough for a top level football team, and mum's looking forward to next week when the schools reopen and the kids are locked in.  I mentioned this to one, rather well proportioned mum who has a child who possibly has AHHD, or is it RSPCA I canny mind, and she began to dance!  I suspect next week, around about Wednesday in these parts, many mum's and dad's will be rejoicing in the quiet as the little darlings have been locked up.  Pray for the teachers who may see things differently!

The weather has become normal in recent days, you can tell this by the way I am wearing two pullovers, a jacket and my overcoat as I write.  I suspect it will be hot again tomorrow.   This I have combined with laziness and ventured out only when required and in the mood, so I have not gone out.  This means no photos and indeed nothing to show.  Even today in between the kids, mum's and other distractions (I will hide that phone one day) I usually look for photos round about but nothing attracted and the weather was gray most of the day.  Next week, if energy allows, I will go out as places will be empty with kids and parents no longer on the streets.  Where is that bus pass?

   Digital Spy 

Being slow of mind these past few days meant I have become obsessed with quiz shows.  Even drivel like 'Tipping Point' has filled the screen, followed immediately by 'The Chase.'  This features individuals competing against the clock and then against a clever quiz professional and is very well compared by Bradley Walsh who adds a touch of humour and keeps the show rolling.  These offer questions almost low enough to enable me to answer them.  Many refer to TV and media of the day which leave me cold but others are answerable.  However sitting here full of pizza makes it easy to answer questions but had I to answer them within seconds in front of a camera I may go the way one lass did recently and fail to get one right and leave with nothing, nerves played a part here.
However that is finished and now I am off to watch 'Eggheads' another version of quizzing that I like, though if Jeremy Vine was replaced it would not be a loss, and here we have both individual and team offerings.  We also get time to consider our answers, now that I like.

A Question of Rain

This was the view this afternoon.  A fine view I say after several weeks of too hot sunshine.
The truth is we were all rather glad the weather had cooled.  90% is fine for a day or two but  after a few weeks it has a debilitating effect on those not used to it.  Sleep is disturbed, irritation arises, mistakes become common and the difficulty of cooling down yet always being either too hot or two perspiring to be comfortable.  Today we have normality and the rain has fallen all day.  I avoided this by visiting Tesco before the crowds woke up and after I returned home the heavens released the rain.  It has not stopped since just after eight this morning.  This is the summer weather we are more used to and capable of dealing with.  People in Aberdeen had to go to evening classes to learn how to operate sun tan lotion, never having had a need for this before.
In nations in which high temperatures are constant folks deal with it better, rise early, midday you hide, sleep and if required work once again in the evening, Spanish football for instance often begins much later than ours because of this.  'Mad dogs and Englishmen' go out in the midday sun indeed, I noticed photos of such taken just before the Great War where men in three piece tweed suits walk around Greece visiting monuments, all the while smoking pipes and being English.  No wonder they are all dead.

In desperation for something interesting on TV I came across reruns of this quiz.  It was one of the better ones, I think revived with Jeremy Clarkson insulting people, and I always found the first five, easy, questions the hardest.  This was because they always featured at least two or three on present day 'culture' of which I know nothing.  Today there featured one chap who did not know what nation made use of TASS as a press agency.  This was not a surprise as he was under 30 years of age and probably knew nothing of the Cold War.  He eventually did not answer took his money and ran, however the answer he would have given was correct.  It amazes me how little we know about things that happened before we were born.  Actually I know a great deal but only because the major event was a world war and it was always in folks minds then but prosperity and peace do not encourage folks to look at much of what has gone before.  Also we did not spend time living in fear during the Cold War and most time was spent in indulging ourselves if we could.  Those under 30 have little requirement to look back over the previous 40 years as in their minds I suspect little happened and it would not be possible for them to understand the outlook of the times.  
I do Like 'Eggheads' when it is on, the questions are slow enough for me to consider an answer, while 'The Chase' has too many questions on 'TV culture' and is asked too quickly for my mind to answer these days.  Today I need time to ponder a question these days before I get it wrong.

  

Saturday Night Relax

Saturday night sees me sitting happily in a silent building with a remarkably quiet street outside.  I suspect most folks are on their way or have arrived at their Saturday evening watering hole and the rest are numbing their mind watching mind numbing Saturday evening TV.
I rest after my week of toil.  Working Tuesday morn was fine however Wednesday saw me halfway through cleaning the oven when I was called into the museum.  Thursday I was there all day happily chatting to the folks who came for the event and took ages to leave as they were having fun.  Friday I spent recovering from my exhaustion.  I am not used to work I have found.  Once upon a time I worked all the hours required now I faint at the mention of labour.  Today however I have done little although I did visit the veg man and stop at the museum to pay for the quiz night.  Naturally I had to hang around as the boss was almost alone in the place, the two staff having booked other events today and only the apprentice was in also.  Another 3/4 of an hour on the time sheet.  At least the boss was kind enough to pay my £5 for the quiz night as a reward for my services.  I kept saying 'No, I'll pay' as I put my wallet back in my pocket but he insisted.  I however had to ring it through the till as he could not find the 'Quiz' button!
The quiz started badly.  I arrived a few minutes before 7:30 to discover it started at 7.  I blame her for telling me lies!  However I got there as the first question was to be put and the team was at the door nearby so I slipped in and slipped out again to gather a glass of red wine.
Three rounds of questions then a break for red wine, cheese and biscuits followed by another three rounds.  The usual formula, each table with four to six people arguing over the answers and knocking back red wine. 
I had brought several quiz books into the shop and the girls in the team had been studying them somewhat as had I.  I watched 'Eggheads' and listened to 'Brain of Britain' and together the table was full of people covering many years knowledge of the world.
We were rubbish!
Each question made us think and our thoughts at each question suddenly stopped!  We dried up and when the answers came we knew we ought to have known so many more than we did.  The mind is active watching quizzes on TV but not when confronted with the question yourself.  Even the history ones we got wrong although on several occasions I had the right answer and they would not accept it.  Example, 'How many seats in the House of Commons?'  '650.' said I, though I suggested it may be 635.  They chose 635 and the answer was 650!  Bah!  The red wine appeared to be filled up occasionally I noticed but not by whom.  
We made our way through the rounds noting the leaders were the curators team.  Someone, I know not who, started to spread a dirty lie that she had been looking through the answers in her office.  A lie I must state she loudly denied, but that may be the wine talking.  Quite why she hit me I don't know. 
At the break there was more wine and as I have been banned from cheese and biscuits they placed a platter full on each table right under my nose.  Thanks a bunch.  He next to me added cakes also to the pile, al;so banned and I was keen to keep the loss of half a stone, about 8 pounds continuing.
Drinking red wine possibly slowed our/my answers but the second half of the evening was hard.  The answers were not coming and the questions were often about subjects none of use cared for.  Quizzes must cover everything but we don't sadly.  
The end came and all we won was a free pencil because the name of the team (I forget what 'VIP' stood for in their interpretation) was the best.  The pencil offered was one of a large bundle found during a clear out and dated from 1986.  We were one short and I lost out.  Mind you I have the others in the shop!
We did not receive the prize of a doughnut each which went to the team with least points (The Friends of the Museum with hundreds of years of knowledge between them) neither did we get a bookmark for being second.  The winners - the curators team, and she I have to add did not cheat - got a jar of expensive fancy jam each.  
Then we all went home, I draining the red wine bottle and slipping out into the rain.
I noticed two things this morning.  One was I had eaten little but put the 8 pounds back on and the second was the old dear from the 'Friends of the Museum' who lay in my bed. At least she made breakfast.
I wonder who she was?

 

The Letterman Quiz

The Daily Telegraph have produced a 21 question British (Pah! They mean English) Quiz.  I got three wrong, 18/21, and I am quite smug about this.  'Dave' may have got about five right I reckon.  How many can you get right?

  Telegraph Quiz.


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Adull's Sunday Night Pub Quiz.

All right it's not much of a quiz, but there again it's not much of a pub!  In fact had it not been reduced for quick sale it would have been the 'Tea Garden Quiz!'  Six simple questions, requiring six simple answers just so someone who will be nameless (but lives in Mexico) can get them all right without cheating.

1) The first British 'Prime Minister,' what was his name?

2) Name Australia's capital city?

3) Who was it that first discovered how to make 'frozen food?'


4)  In what town was Leonardo da Vinci born?


5)  George Best was a famous footballer.  With which team did he make his name?


6)  Who starred in Hitchcock's 'North by Northwest?'   


Six simple questions to test your intellectual strength.




Answers later.
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Wednesday Trivia

I discovered this interesting quiz in the Graniud the other day.  It is well worth wasting a few minutes of your valuable time to get the wrong answers here.  Have fun!

Where should you emigrate? Click here!

I didn't mean to post this but this laptop has a mind of its own. 

 I may be wrong but is that a 'For Sale' sign I see before me.....?

This beastie reflects my mood this week.  You see I had a great time on Monday.  My best looking, most intelligent, classical trained and favourite niece came all this way out of grotty London to see me.  How lovely to have a visitor.  At least the place has been cleaned up, the dust polished away and the floor hoovered.  I also found where most of those frozen peas went that time!  Hiding the remaining stench behind vanilla candles she cooked my dinner (oh joy!) and we discussed the family, the world, her future, Bartock and Stravinsky (which she has played magnificently) and all sorts of meaningless rubbish (the family) and I at least had a real good time.  Since that visit my life has been lonely, dark, empty, and shorn of joy.  The lifted heart droops when you know she will not reappear for another ten years, or at least it will seem that long.  So I look like yon joker placed there to bring fun and joy to the carnival at the weekend.  I don't think I can go on, I feel suicidal, the empty cold rooms, no bright young thing to listen to.......

Hold on, what's that?  Oh yeah!  Football starts tomorrow night!  EURO 2012.  Oh well it's just as well she isn't here. You know what women are like when football is on......  

A more important piece of trivia is shown on this picture.  It was here on the night of June 5th 1944 that D-Day began.  Men of the Ox & Bucks Light infantry landed here in gliders and took possession of the bridge over the Caen Canal.  The 6th Airborne Division thus began the liberation of Europe.  The film 'The Longest Day' portrayed this action quite well.  This is not surprising as John Howard, who led this action advised and Richard Todd, who took Howards part in the film, landed with the paras shortly afterwards to reinforce the hold on the bridge!  A further piece of trivia comes from the new French president visiting war graves at a British cemetery at Ranville Cemetery.  Many of those buried there fell in this action.  This act is notable as the French have made a point of ignoring Britain's part in freeing France from occupation.  The royal family themselves were snubbed at the 65th D-Day commemoration when Sarkozy went to Omaha Beach and ignored the British contribution.  Today's event was meant to patch up that mistake, but Sarkozy himself was not around to participate!  The French leaders have never liked to admit British help in two wars, most French people are less reticent.  

That steamroller must have been going at some speed when it hit this fellow!

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Friday Night

Friday Night. Everybody is out gallivanting, or being hassled by wives and families, possibly just getting over the week and resting the brain that has been tested once too often this week. This means they are unable to post therefore leaving us, the unwanted dregs of society, to post away into the ether. Possibly this means our scribblings may never be read, but will that hinder us? No! However it is with regret that I find myself with nothing worth posting! Tsk! So, I will scrape the barrel bottom just to fill time while my gruel is burning on the pot hanging over the fire.

I could make mention of the award given to me by that wise man Sicarii. Yes another award, (excuse me while I stand in front of the mirror patting my hair while a bright glint is seen emanating from my teeth). While I grasp this with both hands (please excuse the filth on them, I have just washed my face), I must refrain from adding it to the board itself. You see he, and many others, post specifically about their spiritual lives while I just rant and spout whenever I have had too much coffee, or the Prozac runs out. Some may have noticed this.... While gratefully received it would intimate the blog is something it cannot be and give the wrong impression. I leave such blogs to those who can properly write them, I just spout whatever flits through my mind, leaving me able to cover other important subjects, Football, er...and,.......... there must be something else...

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Quizzes
I am watching the 'Eggheads' quiz at the moment, as the smell of burning gruel drifts past, and I wonder what is it about such programmes that take hold of us? I first started listening to the 'Brain of Britain' quiz around 1975/6 time, and I have been hooked ever since! Why? What is it about the general knowledge quiz ? I very rarely miss this programme, even though the excellent Robert Robinson no longer holds sway, and thoroughly enjoy a quiz that is much too hard for my little bonce. A recent radio programme investigated the 'Pub Quiz' and the somewhat cynical presenter admitted at the end he was hooked! Small five question quizzes appear in most papers these days and several people can be seen struggling to find the answers. Such a simple formula and so satisfying when a high score is reached! TV and radio stations must have some for of quiz show. Often these are dumbed down, a simple choice of three answers from a stupidly easy question to help raise cash from those calling in, or just to offer a prize that will keep the audience eager. Flashing lights and big name 'celebrities' to ask questions helps ratings, especially when some over hyped lass is in tears at her £several thousand pound success. This begs the question,why must they all be so hyped up? A dull show we do not want but hysteria, is it really necessary? The calmer scene on 'Mastermind,' or 'University Challenge' does not detract from the show, but maybe tabloid everything is what sells best in this world. Funny how worldwide a little thing like a quiz can be so popular
Hmmm I did not do too well on this edition of Eggheads, the questions must have got harder!. And while I scrape this black stuff from the pot I will consider a little quiz for next week maybe.

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Joke

On the way to my job this morning, I rear-ended a car at the lights down the road.
Somehow I just knew it was going to be a bad day after that.
The driver got out of the other car, and he was a dwarf, poor soul.
He looked at his dented car and then looked up at me and said angrily "I am not happy"
I said, "Well, which one are you then?"

Anyway that's how the fight started.......