Good things putting Bad Things To The Back Of My Mind

So I failed. Old news now as just one hour after my result was the Huddersfield Student Society (CASSH) quiz (spookily the Bradford one was the evening of the exam). I had written the quiz and it went really well with Tom being a good quizmaster, the questions of a decent standard (so i'm told) and plenty people (25)turning up even though exams were quite close. I still wasn't really in the mood for a night out so I went home to bed.

10 Smirnoff Ices on Saturday night helped cushion the blow though it was an otherwise eventful night. We did spot that Nv (formerly Coiner's) where I was last not let in anywhere for being underage (being 21 with no ID at the time as Ed may remember) is now a trendy eatery/bar but we didn't go in as it was empty and looked more eatery than bar when we passed.

We got 7th out of 8 on Monday night for our usual 2nd last with 84 out of 138 in the quiz. In other news from last Monday, I still have a job which is nice that they value my work rather than one silly exam question. Keep the good stuff coming.

So I did some shopping buying CD's and Pro Evolution Soccer 6. I also got my phone working and can do some funky stuff with it now but am still learning how to do other funky stuff. I struggled a bit with this making me feel a little old then I sat in my seat at work which always makes me feel young (being the youngest in the room by 12 or more years)!

On Wednesday I got an e-mail saying Pro Evolution Soccer 6 would take 3-5 days to be delivered which wasn't good as I wanted it on Thursday to practice while Phil was on holiday so i'd beat him when he got back. However, great news on Thursday when it came so I didn't have to watch a chick flick with a box of chocolates as expected and just played my game all night. Same with Friday. Phil got back on Saturday and after two practice games declared himself ready for my challenge. He promptly thrashed me many times. Goddammit! Some things just never change I guess.

It'll be quiz tomorrow and back to the usual routine again now the bad news is well to the back of my mind. Thanks for all the support everyone. I'm now looking to the future as the past cannot be changed.

Good Intentions

I keep meaning to post. In fact now I have been thwarted three times due to various connection issues. There's lots to say but i'm really tired now so it'll have to wait for another day.

Close But No Cigar

55 is the pass mark. I got 53. I feel better now I know for certain. On the upside, that's the first time my prediction has been spot on and I still have a job. The end of one road and the start of another i guess.

The Day Of Reckoning Approaches

The quiz is sorted. It's been tested on a couple of people. The questions range from very easy to very hard with a lot in between but it's a quiz so that's what you'd expect. There's not many people going who I know so hopefully they'll have a good time and come back to future events.

I just phoned O2 to get my number transferred but they advised me to sell my sim as I have a "golden number". I just see it as confusing having 5 consecutive digits the same. Anyway I looked it up on eBay and i could probably get £2 for it. Big fucking deal. I'll ring back again another time and get my number transferred.

I'm not in a very good mood again. Perhaps an early night is in order. I shouldn't let the apprehensive tension get the better of me. I'll be fine by Saturday and if not Smirnoff Ice will help chill me out (in moderation of course :-)).

Feeling Blue

Not sure why. The mornings are getting dark and the evenings are getting longer. Friday approaches slower and slower but I'll try and put a happy face on as usual and just hide how I really feel. Life could be worse I suppose - at least i'm healthy.

Kate, JJ and I did quite well in the quiz last night with 6th out of 9 and 78 out of 136. Kate won a book of interesting points in the raffle (such as why don't penguins feet freeze?). Friday's quiz is now almost written. I'd like to thank Google and Wikipedia for their help. Hopefully the checks on Wikipedia i've made will ensure all the answers are correct!

In other news, I bought a new phone. I don't know how it works but i'm sure i'll learn. Sily golf game records are +25 and +43. That's not good.

It's national blogging day or something daft today so that's the only reason for this post really. Not my most inspired offering I have to admit.

Quizzes

Monday night was the usual but more teams turned up this week and Kate's mum didn't. We got 8th out of 9 and 60 out of 140 and found it very hard. This gave me very few ideas for the Student Society quiz which i'm writing. Not to worry though, three rounds complete and a few more up my sleeve. No clues on here guys and girls - sorry!

BBC Adverts, Schumacher Broke Down, The Match 3

Upon getting home at around 1:30 on Sunday morning I switched my TV to find an advert with a motorcyclist being warned of all the dangers he is about to encounter such as "watch out for that tractor" and then he slows down as he knows a tractor is about to pull out in front of him. This was from Think!, the road safety campaigners and is the third such "advert" i've seen on the BBC. There's that lifeboat one with Punch and Judy and "oh I Do Like To Be Beside The Seaside" in the background from the RNLI I guess and the one which shows you get locked up abroad if you smuggle drugs and advising you not to do it from the Government. I suppose these can be classed as public information films rather than adverts so I can't really complain about them but maybe this is the start of things to come. How long before Persil is being advertised between Watchdog and Eastenders?

After turning my TV at 2:00 it was back on at 5:00 for the last silly o'clock Grand Prix of the season. Schumacher broke down for the first tim e in over five years making him very unlikely to win the world championship. I believe this was all his past sins catching up on him and served him right. It loks like it won't be a fairytale end to his career for F1's most disliked champion. Ha!

The evening saw the third year of The Match on Sky One which sees a team of celebrities take on a team of ex-professionals. The celebs lost 2-0 this year and it was quite a poor game after Ian Rush scored the first goal after 16 minutes. Maybe they'll win next year!

Ant, Toph, and Kate's Saturday Night Takeaway

Well the clever title explains it all really. Ant ,(that's JJ's new Saturday night name after last Saturday when three separate people came up to him and said "Woah you look like Ant from Ant and Dec". What do you think? JJ Ant) Kate and I watched Donnie Darko and had a take-away. There's little more to it really other than I thought that Donnie Darko was pretty good and followable and believable in places. 8 out of 10 is about right in my opinion.

Kevin's Leaving Do, New BBC Idents

Friday night was Kevin's leaving do which saw a disappointing turnout but the return of a few friendly old faces. We will have to get used to life without them all now and in a way it's the start of a new era. I didn't drink too much though I did join in and have a celebratory beer which didn't do me any favours. I think it was at this point I agreed to write the student society quiz but I was more than half expecting it anyway. The night finished quite early for me before one o'clock but was a good night out.

There's something I disagree with at the moment that isn't any of my business and is in the unbloggable category of things. However, something else that is none of my business and way beyond my control is the new BBC Idents. These are the snippets they show while introducing shows. Previously there were wheelchair basketballers, urban free runners, and ballroom dancers. Now, after spending £1.2m of mine and your money they have come up with a circle idea including kite surfers and synchronised swimming himmopotomi. The hew logo has changed from BBC ONE to "BBC" (in half size font level with the top of the) "one" (in small letters). Now, when I was learning to write (some would say I still need to) I was told that all the bottom of my letters should be on the line (except y, p, g, j, and z,) and I believe all headings should be in capitals or bold to make them stand out more (when they are short at least). Maybe this is the end for neat writing and use of capital letters. Maybe i'm just being picky but I wouldn't want to spend £12 on something I don't like let alone £1.2m.

Still I guess there'll always be things in life I'm not happy with and usually, whether good, correct, moral or not people will just carry on and go ahead regardless.

Quiz Winners (Sort Of)

Last night was the first time i've ever won a cash prize in the Big Six 6 quiz. I must've been over 100 times in the last six years and while recent performances have improved, we never really came near to the top three. This changed last night with 3rd place.

Kate, her mum, JJ and I got 93 out of 139. That's the good bit. It gets sligtly more believable from here on in. There were only five teams, two of which had their full team and came first and second, the other two were made up of a two (including Lucy's dad) and a three but two people deserted this team halfway throught the final round. The guy by himself came last and Lucy's dad's team came equal third with us which meant a tie breaker.

I got the tie breaker answer hopelessly wrong but luckily the rest of the team aren't idiots and guessed a totally different answer which was nearer than the other team's answer giving us £5 and them a bottle of Algerian wine on a special everyone wins a prize night. Kate's mum then won some dominoes which eeminded me I haven't played for a long time. I probably won't do in the near future either but never mind! Maybe we'll get 2nd next week and continue our great run.

Until then though I'll be auditing again and hopefully Kevin's leaving do will be fun on Friday which I will be attending even though it's my mumm's birthday as she is not here - seems a valid excuse to me!

Noise

Not much happened on Friday apart from I caught up on my sleep by having a relatively early night.

Yesterday Rob and I went to see Huddersfield play Bournemouth. It finished 2-2 which I suppose I should be happy with as Town were behind twice but we were territorially superior and really should have scored more. Defensive errors let us down at the back again but otherwise it was a good game and a pretty solid performance. I think Pawel Abbott got booed off as he seemed to stop trying again but that was ok as we scored immediately after he left the field!

In the evening I went into Halifax with Kate and JJ which was good. We spent about £5 on quiz machines and set thenew record number of words on Word Up (33), reached Bully's Prize Board on Bullseye, and I set the highest local score on No-Limit Texas Hold 'Em in Jumpin Jaks but sadly none of these feats were good enough to secure a cash prize. When we left there were four police cars and two police vans outside the Coliseum to arrest people and we saw at least one being thrown into the back of the van. My taxi driver knew almost exactly where my road was (after i'd told him obviously as he wasn't psychic) which is not the norm from Halifax taxi drivers.

After going to bed at 2:37 I woke up at 5:59 for the Chinese Grand Prix and watched that from my bed for three hours but I did keep drifting to sleep now and again. No-one else in the house was up by 9:00 so I decided to get some more sleep. I eventually got up at about 12:30 after putting up with a low flying helicopter, a loud aeroplane, two people mowing their lawns (my bedroom is downstairs making these louder), and my mum hoovering the lounge carpet, followed by steam cleaning it all ( we have a huge lounge so this was a lengthy process) and the final straw was when they started drilling to put the new curtain rail up. As you can imagine i've been quite tired and grumpy all day as a result so perhaps another early night is in store tonight. I do wish people would respect Sunday mornings. If you're not going to go to church, just be peaceful! Grrrrr.