Andrew and I are off to Romania for a few days to hang out with Clare, Brendan and Dracula. Here are a few photos from the Bells' trip to London for you to look at while we're gone. I especially love the one of the boys with the bobby. They both look really guilty! I wonder what sorts of mischief they were up to before this photo was taken.






More photos on Flickr.

Caitlin and Jack are having a very busy 2009. It's all stations go. Married last month ... congratulations Caitlin and Jack! Now, they are moving to the US. They are leaving London and moving to San Francisco. Farewell Caitlin and Jack!

I baked some cupcakes for their farewell picnic in Kensington Gardens. To celebrate the destination of the move I decided to give my decorating an American theme. I turned my 12 cupcakes into the American flag. It didn't have quite enough stars and the stripes aren't quite right, but I'm pretty chuffed with the end result.
Good luck with the move Caitlin and Jack! We hope to see you someday soon in San Francisco.

A new trivia venue this week. We tried out The Hat and Tun in Farringdon and I believe we have a winner. The host is social and questions are not too challenging. We'll definitely be back. We didn't win but were only 3 points from the lead. Next time, victory shall be ours!

Questions we couldn't manage this week:

1. Which male actor has had the most Oscar nominations?
2. Rounding off to the nearest metre, how long is the Long Jump record?
3. This artist, who died in 1970, still sells 3 million albums a year.
4. What is the fastest animal that is raced?
5. Who has appeared in all three of the following movies: The Usual Suspects, The Fan and Snatch?
6. Which alien visited Boulder City?

We did have a rather momentous "Duh!" moment this week when we were presented with this picture.


We sat there trying to puzzle out its meaning. Pin wheel Key wheel? Pin Hole Key Hole? Pin O Key O? As a team, we must have said Pin O Key O at least 5 times. And then we wrote down the answer pinky rings. (If you can't figure it out yourself, say Pin O Key O aloud and then realise how thick we are.)

Our team name this week was inspired by the pub decor and the weather. Next week's team name is going to be Pin-O-Key-O.

As I've already mentioned, the Sunday before last we had a blizzard in England. It wasn't of the nice "oooer look at the pretty snow falling gently out of the sky" variety. It was of the "driving wind, snow violently shoved in your face" kind. It was definitely an admire it from indoors kind of snow fall. We were out, as part of the festival of John, having dinner with John, Nik and Dave. After dinner we planned to go to a Superbowl Party. I made Superbowl themed cupcakes.

During dinner, while watching the weather from the restaurant window, I made the decision to bail on the party. After dinner and a cheeky half, I waved goodbye to the boys from a warm bus. They were still waiting at the bus stop. Nik rode his bicycle (in a blizzard! crazy man) to the party. I went home, got into bed, cranked my leccy blankie up to 9 and went to sleep.





The boys made it to the party.





Superbowl kickoff was 11pm. John left at midnight. Andrew and Nik stayed for the whole thing. Finish time - 3am.

At some stage during the evening, London Transport decided to withdraw all buses from service. The horrendous weather meant that most of the cabbies had given up and gone home.

Nik got on his bike and rode home (crazy, but smart, man!). Poor Andrew was left with only one option. Walk home. Andrew walked from the party in West Kensington to our home in Notting Hill.

















You might think that I was at home, snug in my warm bed, soundly asleep. Andrew texted me when he left and worried for his safety, I stayed up until he got home. So, I was at home, snug in my warm bed, reading a book.

Lucky we both had a Snow Day the next day, and a bit of a sleep in, to recover.

Our fortnightly trivia outing continues as does our search to find a regular trivia venue. Our initial Monday night plans were cancelled (snow day!) so we rescheduled for Tuesday evening at the Earl of Lonsdale in Notting Hill. It's not exactly a central pub so we weren't able to tempt any trivia regulars to come. Instead we were joined by John (a pub quiz virgin) and Steve (who is only visiting London) and his friend Lucy.

Unfortunately, the Earl of Lonsdale is another pub that imposes a limit on team sizes. Only 4 members are allowed on a quiz team which meant that our team was forced to split into two. Our two teams were Cockfosters and Shepherds Bush. Can you guess along what lines the teams were split? (And before you accuse me of being rude, they are both genuine places in London. The English started it!) We figured we'd hedge our bets with the two teams. If we weren't 100% on an answer we'd put down different guesses on the two forms. It didn't seem to help us that much.

We enjoyed our night out but once again we struggled. We found this quiz to be quite English-centric. We had no clue on the football questions or on the identities of C-grade celebrities. If you take that into account, and take the combined score for the two teams, we didn't do too badly. We didn't win though.

There were 6 rounds and they were based along different themes. Here are the questions from the Connections round. The answers to these question have a connection.

1. Jack Ford and Jessie Seaton are characters in what Television show?
2. Robbie Keane is the leading goal scorer for what country?
3. In the 1990s, Frank Sinatra and Bono collobarated on what Col Porter song?
4. In Poker, what is the result when two or more players tie for a hand?
   
   and
   
   
5. What is the connection?