Something that is typically British is the good old fashioned quiz held in a pub. It has taken me three years but finally I’ve managed to get to one (that is, not counting the Who Wants To Be a Millionaire style ones we have a work of course!) However, as tonight’s venue was AKA, which is actually more bar than pub, I think that although I’ve ticked it off my list I’m looking forward to seeing what a more traditional quiz is like.

The turn out was fairly impressive. Thankfully the seats were well comfortable too! From our side there were actually about 12 of us (3 of us being Aussies) so we needed to be split up into two teams. I know that Sandra wanted all the Aussies on the one team (probably preferably not on her team so that we wouldn’t drag her down! LOL) but that didn’t work out because somehow I ended up getting kicked off the one team (Santa Carolina) thanks Natalie and joining the other team (Geordie Dancer). Results wise it worked for me as Geordie Dancer tied for second (losing in the tie breaker) and Santa Carolina finishing about fifth last. Both results apparently being a lot better than the last time the group did “battle”.

The teams are below and more photos are here.

Team: Geordie Dancer	Team: Santa Carolina
Jenny, Me, Shona, Jon, Sandra and Fatkins	Claire, Tom, Dom, Pauline, Natalie and Andrew

The format of the quiz was 6 rounds of 10 questions each: France, Flags (picture round), Science Fiction, Grange Hill (picture round), World Movies and Songs by Guitar Only. The wildcard in the quiz was the bugle where you could bugle at the beginning of the round when you know the topic only and not the questions and then you would get double the points for that round. The rounds were conducted in pairs so we had Rounds 1 and 2 and then had about a 45 minute break and then the next two rounds and so on and so forth. Our “quiz master” was fairly average and not all that funny but I guess he did the job.

Despite my team’s great result I think its fair to say that I contributed absolutely nothing to our team total. I think we did fantastically mainly to the amazing knowledge of Fatkins, Jon and I think Shona. However, I still maintain that my one correct answer was the point that allowed us to come equal second! The question is too embarassing to repeat but lets just say it was in the Science Fiction round and leave it there. We were even on the verge of coming equal first when there were claims from the room of cheating by the winners but they were only jokingly accused – maybe.

As we were tied for second there needed to be some sort of tie-breaker. Young Jonathan had to strut or actually show is flare for the air guitar:

Cheer-wise I think it was fairly even with the bar man eventually siding with the other team. 🙁 Still we ended up with a bottle of champagne as third placers and it was definitely a good result for the night.

Today Caro took one of the more important steps to getting married – finding that all important wedding dress! Her first stop was at the not even one year old Vera Wang Bridal boutique at Selfridges on Oxford Street. With her “main line” dresses ranging in price from £2,500 – £4,000 I guess you better hope that you fall in love with whatever dress you end up with!

At those prices I expected the shop assistants to be a little more friendly but surprisingly the woman that Caro had was, whilst not exactly unfriendly, not exactly the right fit? Maud and I agreed that there was something in her attitude that was just a little uncomfortable or maybe it felt like she was being patronising or something like that. I got the feeling the bride on the other side of the room had a similar not great experience with her assistant. Still, I guess that the dresses were Caro’s focus and there were a couple that caught her attention:

The cute piano man from Ruby Blue tonight. Just because. And with a nice cheeky smile at the end too.

A couple of people from work, Dave and Vishali, were having leaving do drinks tonight. Unfortunately I’d had another commitment so I wasn’t able to make it to the drinks until very late into the evening and by then the remaining number seemed to be ready to move on to the next event – Abacus at Bank. We decided to walk there (a good 15 minutes) but obviously this proved too much for some so in the end only Vishali, Sandra and I made it to the club.

Its nights like last night, or this morning, that sometimes makes me think that its time to hang up the dancing shoes. Don’t get me wrong I had a great time at Abacus, despite the fact it was a heaving meat market, but its waking up in the morning feeling like you haven’t gone to bed and knowing you have a full day of work ahead of you that is just a little wearying. Here are some photos from our evening out:

Another year another Christmas Party. Hard to believe that a year has gone by already. So much has changed and so much has stayed the same!

This year our patch had Christmas lunch at Sugar Reef – a strange restaurant/bar in Soho. The food was actually very impressive – its just a shame that they squeezed us into a very crowded space and rushed us out after we had finished our meals. We also had a slight hiccup in the seating arrangements which probably didn’t help with the Christmas mood. Still, I think in general most people were happy with the arrangements.

Its a tradition to meet up with the other patches from the London Region after we’ve all had our Christmas meal and this year’s venue was Tiger Tiger. Many people, including me at first, weren’t happy with this venue of choice as Tiger Tiger can get super crowded and end up being a bit of a meat market. In the end I think for me it ended up being better than our usual venue, Porterhouse, as the music and dancing kept me well entertained wheras at Portherhouse I would have been well bored with only being able to watch everyone drinking.

Here are some other pics of the night:

Work has very generous study leave provisions for its trainee staff and as a result we have been virtually staff-less for the last two – three weeks. Tonight three of the trainees, James, Sandra and Catherine, finished the last of their exams. Even at uni I never had that much time off to study for my exams so I can imagine just how antsy these three were feeling being stuck at home “studying” for all that time. As a result having a drink seemed to be the first thing on their minds!

I hadn’t planned on any sort of big night – just a meal and catch up with Rehana and then home for an early night. Instead of going home after dinner I somehow ended up at O’Neill’s with these three. After Pauline’s goodbye I swore off drinking for reasons I won’t go into right now. However it seems the barman had other ideas and instead of an innocent orange juice and lemonade I somehow ended up with Archers and lemonade. There goes the drinking embargo.

Tonight we were up in the Music Room which is an oddly placed club on the top floor of the O’Neill’s at Leicester Square. At any rate it seemed to be the place to be and they actually played some great music until about 11 when a live band then came on to do their business. A surprisingly large number of people were out on the dance floor but that probably has something more to do with a lack of general space than a true desire to get groovin’. I did try and get James out on to the dance floor but unforutnately he called my bluff and wouldn’t go out there unless I went and there was no way I’d drunk enough to even consider it. Instead James provided other entertainment by trying to perform some wierd trick with his pint glass. From the photo to the left you can see who won that game!

A couple of weeks ago I said that the problem with staying on in London is that eventually you have to say goodbye to a lot of your friends from back home. Today it was time to say goodbye to Pauline. I haven’t known Pauline very long but I found that we all got along with her really well. I think her plan is to go back home for a few months and come back next year in time for spring. Even if she is from one of the bigger cities in Australia, Melbourne, I’m sure it won’t be long before she finds herself getting bored and itching to get back to London. Here are some photos from tonight’s drinks. I’m pretty sure Pauline wasn’t planning on drinking her way long into the night considering she had a very early flight the next morning but obviously the good time and cheap drinks did away with that resolution!

In the beginning

Halfway through the night

At the end