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.

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?

John is in town. Yay! He's in London for business but that doesn't mean we can't hang out. We've tried to squeeze as much Johnny goodness out of him as possible. Friday night, we caught up for drinks and dinner. Saturday, we invited John over for dinner. Sunday night, we had dinner and the boys went to a Superbowl party.

Our Saturday dinner followed the usual Dubs schedule. The boys played some Pentago, we ate dinner and then we played a game of Diminishing Whist.

While John is gallivanting around the world for business, poor Leah is stuck at home. So on Saturday evening while we played cards, we video conferenced Leah in so that she could be part of the fun. Every round John would show Leah his hand. On the webcam, Leah could watch each trick being played out. Leah could also listen to the usual trash tralking and join in the conversation. It was like hanging out with Leah, except for the fact that she was physically on the other side of the world.

As I've described before, there is a round in Diminishing Whist, where you are dealt one card which you are not allowed to see. Instead, you have to stick it on your forehead and let everyone else look at your card. On Saturday evening, we figured that we could include Leah in the round of one. We dealt everyone a card. We used the webcam to show Leah the cards on our foreheads. When we bid, Leah called out her bid. There was lots of giggling.

The photos below describe the second round of one. (Andrew was leading. Diamonds were trumps. Andrew, Jess and Leah bid 1 and John bid 0. Andrew won and bid correctly - 11 points, John bid correctly - 10 points, Jess and Leah did not bid correctly 0 points.)










We spent the rest of the game trying to figure out how we could play a full game of transcontinental Diminishing Whist. We'll keep brainstorming.

We've been spending quite a few Sundays in the pub lately. We spent a Sunday afternoon in the William IV for Andrew's birthday. A couple of weeks later we headed to The Flask for a Sunday Roast catchup with Juzzy. Last weekend, we celebrated Natalie's birthday in the Mall Tavern.

Sitting in a pub (by an open fire preferably), with good company and a belly full of roast. I think it really is the perfect way to spend a Winter's afternoon.

Before

After

Happy Birthday Natalie!

January is a month of resolutions. This month, I've decided that I need to beat the winter blues. Instead of going home each night and getting into my PJs, I've resolved to go out socially at least once a week. Last week, Andrew and I went to Ceroc. Last night, we returned to trivia (well, I did. Andrew got stuck at work, poor boy.)

We love going to trivia in Australia so it's the perfect social outing for us in England. I found a central pub, the Duke of York, and invited a couple of mates. Unfortunately, it was literally a couple of mates as the pub limits team sizes to 4 people. All became clear when we arrived and discovered that the Duke of York is the smallest pub in the world. All the tables had been reserved so Grant, Dave and I were stuck at the bar with a timeshare option on a stool (which I pretty much sat on the whole evening. Grant and Dave are such gentlemen.)

We started the evening as Two and a half wombats and a badger. Then when Andrew confirmed he couldn't make it we became Two wombats and a badger. Then when we realised that we were performing dismally and would probably come last we turned into One and a half wombats and a badger. We didn't come last but we didn't do that well - 9th out of 13 teams. The questions were hard! (that's our excuse!).

See if you can do better. Some samples questions are below (no using Google to cheat!).

• General Knowledge - Which country in the southern hemisphere was the first to give women the vote? (tick!)
  
  
• General Knowledge - The Cullinan Diamond was found in which country? (wrong)
  
  
• Pot Luck - The Collegiate Church of St Peter in London is also known as? (tick!)
  
  
• Pot Luck - The inventor of the rocking chair was also the second man to appear on a US postage stamp. Who was it? (wrong)
  
  
• Geography - The Hoover Dam was called what before it became the Hoover Dam? (tick!)
  
  
• Geography - Sugarloaf mountain overlooks which city? (wrong)
  
  
• Entertainment - In what movie does Brad Pitt play the grim reaper? (tick!)
  
  
• Entertainment - In what TV series does Orson Welles voice the wealthy estate-owner Robin Masters, who is heard but never seen? (wrong)
  
  

I actually rang Andrew because I couldn't quite remember the name of the Brad Pitt movie. This was my clue to him... "what is the name of that movie with Brad Pitt in it that I hate?". He then provided the answer. It is one of the most boring movies in the world (and my husband knows me really well).