Chitchat

I need to stop the slide. This varied blog could easily morph into one that only offers quizzes - day after day... "Quiztime" ad nauseam. Time to make a stand.

Outside the wind is howling as Storm Darragh passes through our neck of the woods. Flying Debris would be a great name for a band with me on lead vocals, backing singers Meike, Jennifer and Thelma. Dave Northsider on lead guitar, JayCee on bass, Cro Magnon on drums and Coppa's Girl on keyboards. We'd do a world tour, snort drugs, smash up hotel rooms and record a best-selling album in Nashville. Life would be so fine.

Back to reality. The start of December means I need to get a Christmas parcel together for Robin - my brother in France.  His box is now filled and I have just got to post it on Monday morning. That will cost a fair penny in spite of my watchfulness.

I bought him some work gloves from B&Q where, in the very same visit, I purchased a  five foot Christmas tree. It is currently sitting in my car (Clint) ready to be put up next week. That's right - I won't be sending it to France.

We hadn't had a takeaway curry in a few weeks so this evening I addressed that by ordering one from "Bilash" on Sharrowvale Road. Onion bhajis, chicken bhuna, vegetable rice and two chapatis. Plenty for the two of us and as delicious as always. I still can't get used to the idea of food deliveries so I braved the storm to collect it.

I am trying to write a chatty blogpost that resists transforming into another "Quiztime" post. How am I doing? Oh, there goes another question.

My friend and pub quizmate Mike went away on a little adventure this weekend. He took the train up to Glasgow where he had reserved a hotel room in the city centre. Today he will have gone to watch St Mirren play Motherwell in The Scottish Premier League having found it impossible to secure a ticket for Celtic's match with Hibernian.  It will be touch and go if he makes it back for tomorrow night's pub quiz.

We have lived strangely parallel lives. Like me he was Head of English in a Sheffield secondary school. Like me he has a son, a daughter and three grandchildren. Like me he has often enjoyed short trips away on his own - including several obscure European destinations. Like me he is a lifelong supporter of one of England's less glamorous football teams. Like me he is proudly woke. Many similarities but not the same.

Shirley is currently watching "Strictly Come Dancing" on the television. It has become a national obsession but I cannot bear it. Same with reality TV programmes - often involving so-called "celebrities". To me they are so superficial and mundane and yet they attract viewers like nobody's business. Instead, give me a documentary about garden slugs, a travel programme, an intelligent quiz show or a good comedy act - any would be preferable to reality TV show pap.

Anyway, my Saturday evening chitchat is just about done. The wind has calmed down quite significantly and this hundred year old house is no longer rattling as though it was out at sea. Time to bid you adieu. Flying Debris have officially disbanded.

Quiztime

Quizzes? It is hard to pitch them right. Yesterday's quiz may have caused irritation in some quarters because the general feeling was that it was too damned easy. Please accept my sincere apologies. So, okay, let's try another quiz with "More Proverbs". This time the proverbs come from either Albania or Nigeria. You will be pleased to learn that they have been translated from Albanian and from three of the principal Nigerian languages - Yoruba, Hausa and Igbo.

Albanian:-
1) A dog that barks a lot, does not _________ you
(a) love (b) need (c) bite (d) respect

2) As long as you live, you will _____________

(a) fight (b) love (c) suffer (d) learn

3) Do not leave today’s ________ for tomorrow
(a) work (b) dinner (c) bills (d) kisses

4) Everyone builds their own _________.
(a) house (c) family (c) career (d) destiny

5) The big fish eats the _________ one.
(a) succulent (b) small (c) lost (d) biggest

Nigerian:-
6) The child of an elephant will not be a ___________. 

(a) bull elephant (b) dwarf (c) monkey (d) giant

7) What an old man sees while _________, a young man can never see - even when he climbs up in a tree. 

(a) tilling the soil (b) lying down (c) sitting in the dunny (d) watching ants

8) Whoever is patient with a __________ shell will one day have thousands of them. 
(a) groundnut  (b) bullet (c) cowrie (d) conch

9) The day on which one starts out is not the time to begin one’s ______.

(a) preparations (b) journey (c) recollections (d) return

10) One who has been bitten by a ___________  lives in fear of worms. 

(a) warthog (b) crow (c) snake (d) worm

10/10 this time?

Quiztime

Like most other blogs, this one is international. Consequently, setting quizzes can be problematic. I mean, it would be unfair and off-putting to most international visitors if I posed questions about English counties, Horatio Nelson or the history of Hull City A.F.C. (1904-2024). Even today, I am a little concerned that the proverbs that are familiar to me and my fellow citizens may be puzzling to those who dwell in distant lands. 

Yes my dear bloggoids, that is today's quiz theme - proverbs. But don't worry overmuch as I will give you multiple choice solutions for each proverb from which a single word or two has been removed. As usual answers will be given in "Comments". Good luck!

⦿

1. "A_______ in time saves nine"
(a) sausage  (b) spanking (c) switch (d) stitch

2. "People who live in glasshouses should not throw ________"
(a) clods of earth (b) stones (c) bricks (d) tomatoes

3. "An apple a day keeps the _______ away"
(a) fruiterer (b) dentist (c) doctor (c) wolf

4. "Make _______ while the sun shines"
(a) love (b) money (c) haste (d) hay

5.  "A rolling stone gathers no _______ "
(a) moss (b) money (c) groupies (d) ice

6. "Don't judge a book by its ________"
(a) author (b) length (c) reviews (d) cover

7. "You can lead a horse to water but you cannot make it ________"
(a) swim (b) drink (c) gallop (d) talk

8.  "Birds of a feather ______ together"
(a) whistle (b) squabble (c) fly (d) flock

9. "One man's meat is another man's ________"
(a) poison (b) potato (c) principle (d) porridge

10. "The proof of the ________ is in the eating"
(a) dinner (b) pudding (c) chef's talent (d) restaurant

Well? How did you do?

Twofoldness

 

1. Looking from this blog's engine room - our study. Little Margot is at the foot of the stairs and about to climb up for the umpteenth time. She's not walking independently yet but she is getting there and it won't be long. For the time being, it is safer to motor around the house on her hands and knees in the manner of a quadruped. Hurry up Grandpa! You have got to shepherd me up the stairs so I don't tumble down! "Oh dear - not again!" he grumbles.

2. This evening, following yesterday's trip to Buxton, I had another social appointment. This time it was dinner at "The Norfolk Arms", Ringinglow with the eight men who make up our main pub quiz opposition. Let me see now - there was Peter, Geoff, Tony, Dave, Stewart, John, Mike and Den. 

It was kind of them to invite me and the Christmas meal was pretty good. I had lovely, homemade French onion soup followed by a tasty turkey dinner with all the trimmings. Afterwards, there was room for Christmas pudding and custard and a warm mince pie.

The other men are aged between 63 and 77 and all very pleasant. We had some good laughs. I guess I have known them for ten years. There's always  good banter with them and friendly rivalry. To be honest, they have been winners at the weekly quiz more often than my team have been. Hell - what do you expect? There are eight of them and usually only three of us.

"The Norfolk Arms" is more than a mile from the last suburbs of Sheffield. Shirley drove me up there and Peter, who had major heart surgery earlier this year, drove me home.

It had been a very agreeable night out with good company, good food and good service. Below, "The Norfolk Arms" in the summer of 2018:-

Excursion

Today was the day of my quiz team's previously postponed excursion to Buxton. We were going there to meet up with our old pal Danny and have a  handsome lunch with a few beers. Mike's wife Jill kindly offered to drive us out there. She said she would be perfectly happy just toddling round Buxton's shops.

I was picked up at 11.45. There are other ways to get to Buxton but Jill decided to drive along The Hope Valley and then up through Winnat's Pass - shown in the top picture thanks to Google Streetview. However, as Robbie Burns wrote,  “The best laid schemes of mice and men go aft astray"  and sure enough, Winnat's Pass was closed because of road works. This meant we had to turn around and follow a detour via Bradwell and Peak Forest.

Consequently, we arrived a few minutes late at the highly recommended pub restaurant "Lubens" shown above. We had reserved a table. Beers were quaffed, happy flowing conversation occurred and our meals were duly consumed. My lunch was good but not especially memorable. I would just about give it ★★★★ out of five. I had steak pie with chips (American: fries), broccoli, red cabbage and gravy - it was the day's "special". This was followed by sticky toffee pudding with vanilla ice cream.

Afterwards, we crossed the town's marketplace to visit "The New Inn" - shown above. Actually, the Streetview image is a bit dated as the pub enjoyed a major refurbishment just this year. Inside, it was lovely and welcoming. A log fire was burning merrily in the fireplace. Buxton is the highest market town in England and the air temperature is always two or three degrees colder there than it is in Sheffield so that fire was just the job on a chilly afternoon in December.

Jill arrived after her shopping expedition and had half a pint of "Cruzcampo" Spanish beer with us  before we headed back to the big city via Taddington and Ashford-in-the-Water. By the way, all the food we ate and the drinks we sank were paid for with past pub quiz winnings!

Precious

Sunday dinner is ahead and I am busy in the kitchen. The menu will consist of roasted chicken, homemade gravy, Yorkshire puddings, spring cabbage, roast potatoes, sage and onion stuffing, cranberry sauce, roasted parsnips and carrots.

For dessert there will be apple crumble and custard using apples from our garden. Shirley prepared it in the morning before heading out somewhere but neglected to pop said crumble in the oven and now the pressure is on to bake it along with everything else. Radio Five is playing live commentary of the Liverpool v Manchester City match in the background and the kitchen window is steaming up. Everything is under control. Yes it is.

Meantime a smiling dumpling of a baby - Little Margot is crawling proudly towards me. Where are the other three adults in the house? Phoebe is circling the downstairs doing "her work". In other words she is marching around with my desk calculator pressing all the buttons and as happy as Larry - whoever he might have been.

Then she overhears me muttering to myself, "You could have put the bloody crumble in!" 

After her next circuit, Phoebe stops and innocently looks up at me, "Grandpa! Grandpa! What's a bloody crumble?"

A precious moment.

Threesome

 
"Older Australian man with two younger men from 
India on the balcony of a high rise apartment"

Over in Melbourne, Australia kind Mr Andrew has been accommodating two young Indian men in his luxury penthouse apartment. He is the author of "From The High Rise" and you can read all about Andrew's adventures with Phyllis and Kosov over at his blog. As I didn't have a real life photo, the one above was made with Microsoft Bing Image Creator.

Here's a cartoon version of Andrew and his new chums...

And here are the three of them as Vincent Van Gogh might have seen them if he had not died  by suicide in 1890 in Auvers-sur-Oise, France...

Yes, AI imagery is fun to play around with if you have the kind of mind where visualisation and the appearance of things are important to you. Visual thinking is apparently predominant in approximately 60–65% of the general population.

An older Australian man with two much younger Indian men in a high rise apartment in Melbourne would make a great basis for a new sitcom. The running title would be "Three's a Crowd" and Andrew could be played by Hugh Jackman if the production company can afford his massive salary.

Fancy playing around with Microsoft Bing Image Creator? Go here.