Trivia Night at the Local

Last week was our last pub quiz for a while because the new term of indoor soccer is about to start which means Kane's going to be busy and since we are a team of two, I don't think I'd do so well on my own!

 

Even though there are only two of us, we usually do quite well.  Last week we missed out on winning by 1 point.  I was gutted because we had two answers that we were undecided about and chose the wrong answer instead of the right one bah! so close..

 

Our local pub is a fairly large English style gastropub.  It changed hands a couple of years ago and went from English themed to Irish themed and had a bit of change in décor.  There's only two pubs in the suburb and this is the biggest and most popular one.  There's two fireplaces in the pub and since it's winter I try to get as close to them as possible!

 

//Image from Google

At the weekend the pub is pretty busy serving lunches and dinners and then they have live music at night.  They also show sports and go all out for the big games, but I'm not really a fan of anywhere when it's too noisy to hold a conversation.  I do like that it sponsors the local NZIHL ice hockey team though and we've been to the pub to watch some of the NHL games in the past.

 

This pub actually helped sell us on this neighbourhood!  After we viewed a nearby house we came into this pub and loved it and we decided that we wanted to live in this area.  We know many of the bar staff and have friendly chats with them when we visit, and we always go there for a dinner or a lunch when we have our parents visiting us.



Although we've come in for meals, drinks and we've played pool too, my favourite is the trivia night.  The rounds are always interesting and it's usually done before 10pm so it's not too much of a late night for a week night.  I have a habit of doodling on the trivia forms - I'm not a very good artist, the above picture is supposed to be a bear with a picnic basket haha!

Do you have a local or regular bar or coffee shop you like to go to?

Happy Canada Day

So, Kane and I headed out to the Canada Day quiz at the Clare Inn yesterday run by the Canadian Club of New Zealand ready to test of Canadian knowledge and meet some cool people.

We arrived and already there were plenty of people there having some food and chatting in groups.  I introduced myself to Cary Young, the club president and he was very welcoming and friendly.

We got a couple of drinks and then chatted with a nice couple, Erika and Graeme.  Amusingly, it turned out that Graemeis Scottish and moved to NZ a while back.  Erika was quiz mistress of the night so we found ourselves a team and tried to answer some questions.

I was pretty happy that my studying had paid off and I was able to answer some questions and Kane was happy that he remembered the name of the explorer John Cabot and got 10 points for that bonus question.  In the end our team came third and we won a goody bag from Marthas Backyard and an awesome trophy.

Kane and Graeme swapped numbers and everyone seemed fun so I hope to go to another of their events at some point in the future.  Good times :)

It’s been a busy week; I’ve hardly watched any TV!

I'm not very well and I'm feeling sorry for myself. This makes me grumpy and not a lot of fun to be around. I'm especially intolerant of swine flu jokes. So whilst normally I would wander around singing "woe is me" and enjoy the sympathy whilst spreading my bugs around, it's best that I avoid people – for my own sanity.

I think the events of the week have finally caught up with me and the bugs struck when I was feeling run down.

Last Sunday I was in Edinburgh for the awesome Mr Rhys Darby's show at the Udderbelly. (Follow @rhysiedarby on Twitter!) Afterwards we went to the pub to use up the £50 bar tab we had won on the Thursday night.

On the Tuesday we were back in Edinburgh for Richard Herring's Hitler Moustache show (Follow @Herring1967 on Twitter!) which was very funny and thought provoking. At the end we were all given stick-on moustaches to wear or stick on another fringe acts poster.

We were up early the next morning to go to the airport as Kane had to fly to London for business. Then the next day I went to visit my friends new flat and pick Kane up from the airport that evening.

By Friday I was glad to enjoy a drink and a giggle with the ladies but it was another early rise on the Saturday to go to Aberdeen.

My plan was to go to Aberdeen, maybe take a video for this here blog outside my old flat and further along the street to the flat that my grandfather lived in when he was a young boy (my sister discovered this from the old registers when researching the family tree). I also fancied checking out some of the shops and finally getting that Starbucks that I've desperate for for weeks now.

None of this happened.

Instead I dropped Kane off at the pub to watch football with Steve and Craig whilst I parked the car. I then wandered back to the pub had a good old natter with them then after moving to another pub, Steve's OH Kerrie came along as did Tosh and after a few more drinks were had we made our way to a restaurant for some food. We left a little later than planned, but sometimes things have a way of never going to plan and it's all the better for it.

I think by Sunday, the events of the week had finally caught up with me and that's how I got ill.

I'm planning to lay low for the next couple of days and let whatever's got me take its course. Early night yay!

Hairdo

I got my hair cut and coloured at Medusa last night. It cost a small fortune, but Ryan did a great job. I was in the hair dressers for about 3 hours and was almost falling asleep by the end.
At least I had lovely hair for pub quiz night. I was chatting to my hairdresser about the pub quiz and he told me that oology is the study of eggs – I was really hoping that would come up but it didn't. Instead we had a weird question about the collective noun for a group of sea cucumbers – I can tell you that the answer is not a salad as we suggested but in fact a pickle!
After a few dodgy rounds we picked up momentum and finished in a respectable second place (or first losers).
I was so tired by the time I got home, I made a bee-line for bed and nearly slept in this morning. That is to say, I tried to sleep in this morning but my DH wouldn't let me.
I'm doing some knitting at lunch time so I might get those fingerless mitts to match my scarf done by the end of the weekend.

Road Trip

Went on a road trip to Brechin today with my sis and neice to pick up their new cat.



They've decided since he is a pedigree to give him a designer name so they are liking Louis Vuitton.

Louis is a 7 year old rescue cat who has been abused by his previous owner. Poor baby had to have a few operations and get cleaned up and unfortunately is blind from a blow to the head. I don't understand how people can be so evil, it makes me so mad.

I'm really happy that he's going to live with my sister and her family because they love cats and will really spoil him. They spent a small fortune in Pets at Home buying him little luxuries. I'm looking forward to seeing him next weekend.

I made it back home in time for the Blue Blazer pub quiz. Alas, we didn't win the £100 cash prize or the bottle of vodka this time, but we did get some prizes and I claimed the Malibu shopper for myself :D