Ken Dodd’s Dad’s Dog’s Dead

Day 2 of overcast & unpredictable weather, welcome to an English summer MilkyNZ ! Bloo texted to say ‘She’s here’ at 1915 hours last night. She went on to elaborate ‘I’m here, tired & smelly’ and informed me that ‘traffic on the M3 was light’. See, acting like a local already MilkyNZ, apart from the smelly bit, sort that out love.

You won’t know whether you’re coming or going for about a week, but I know the Bloo’s will look after you, hope to catch up with you Friday if I can get the night off work.

After a 3 week absence Tuesday saw the return of quiz night and our team of ‘Ken Dodd’s Dad’s Dog’s Dead’. These nights are becoming increasingly well attended and we fielded an embarrassingly large team of 14. There have been mutterings of separating into 3 teams & claiming 1st, 2nd & 3rd prizes but I fear we’d never make it out of the pub alive.

Our 4 newest team members included Maggie (Demolition Derby) & Colin (The Silver Fox). Also boosting our numbers were the very welcome and normal (ie non-job) MTM & the lovely Mrs MTM.

I had heard very good things about Mrs MTM from someone whose ‘people judgement’ is second to none, and I am delighted to say they were spot on. She is gorgeous, funny, charming, and well-travelled. And she rides a sports-bike. And she is introducing ‘throws & sh1t’ to a certain ‘bunker of doom’.

At one point whilst Mrs MTM & I we were in conversation, Colin asked how long we had known each other, ‘We met tonight’ I replied. That’s how easy she is. On reflection, a word other than ‘easy’ may be more suitable, I can’t think of one, but I know you’ll understand what I mean.

Introducing the MTM’s was amusing. I’m starting to realise that none of my Forum/Blog friends have normal names. It occurred to me during the night that Bloo was at the pub quiz, when one of the guys said to me ‘What’s Bloo’s real name ?’. Firstly, I thought ‘That is his real name’ then I found myself struggling to think of his real name.

Aware that it might sound a tad odd to say to the ensemble ; ’This is MTM & this is Piggy’ I asked them how they would like to be introduced. Even then I couldn’t bring myself to introduce Mrs MTM as ‘Piggy’, it seems so harsh. For the rest of the night whenever someone addressed MTM as ‘Ali’ I had to look around to see who they were talking to.

On a similar note, people who know me post-Blog refer to me as Briggsy, whilst my work friends know me as Carol out of work, or Mighty Mistress of Doom in work. On balance I prefer Briggsy, which is odd given that I used to hate my name as a kid as it was the source of much teasing. I’ve grown into it now though. Whenever I was referred to as ‘Briggsy’ I could see a look of confusion on my work colleagues faces.

I’ve said before, one of the things which gives me great pleasure is introducing different sets of friends & watching the interaction. Bloo was accepted very rapidly and the MTM’s continued the trend. I fully anticipate the joining of Forum & D team in the not too distant future and a team which will take over all seating areas in the pub.

The MTM’s had a game plan which assured them of a return invite. They would get all the difficult answers correct between the 2 of them, then deliberately stuff up on a simple one. After all, no-one likes a smart-arse do they ?

As for the quiz itself, we embarrassed ourselves with a 3rd win. It really was embarrassing, given that in the final round we scored something like a measly 3 from 10 points. We had to wonder how atrocious the other teams were. Clangers of the round included an ex travel agent who couldn’t recall which ‘Costa’ Benidorm was on and someone who attended a military school who didn’t know whether 11 o’clock was the 1st or final stroke of Big Ben on Remembrance Sunday.

Jonesy saved the day by telling us that JP2 visited England in 1982.
Colin disagreed & thought it had been 1980. I asked Steve how he could be sure of the date & he replied ‘I went to see him, I’m a Catholic aren’t I ?’

If you saw Steve this wouldn’t seem an odd thing to hear as he has stereotypically Italian looks. I think his surname confused me, you don’t get many Italian Jones’. I’m just pleased I didn’t forward the ‘uneaten Easter egg joke’ onto him by text ?

This is part of what I enjoy about quiz night, the chance to actually talk to one another out of work. Because we usually socialise with a mixture of loud music & alcohol, talking is some times over-looked in favour of hurling oneself around a dance-floor or avoiding a drunken Phil.

Right – enough blogging, time to go clear out Henry. After having Barley for 3 days he’s looking distinctly unloved. It was very embarrassing yesterday when after attending a meeting, one of the Inspectors asked for a lift to the local train station. As he sat gingerly amongst the sand, dog-hair & hay I found myself babbling about how Henry is normally a lot cleaner. I don’t think he believed me. I didn’t have the heart to point out he had a white hairy bottom as he exited the car.

Cx