Tag: quiz

Considered Trifle

A post-birthday pudding after our family lunch of curry, rice and naans which has left us bursting out of our trousers. We scored 10 on the GSQ, later upgraded to 11 when we checked that the four Chinese gentlemen flowers were also the four flowers in mah jong like we said.
A2 is reading Midnight and Blue by Ian Rankin. Third book in a row in which the hero hangs out in a library.

Snowy Sunday


We’ve had 13cm of snow today and next-door’s kids have made a very traditional snowperson on the traffic island.
The family slogged here through the wintry weather for a dinner of meat loaf with potatoes, sprouts and pico pizzas for the mini people, followed by a reprise of last year’s Christmas pudding ice cream bombe.
We missed the Quadrantids and yesterday evening’s occultation of Saturn by the Moon due to the miserable weather. And oh dear, we scored 7 on the first GSQ of the year. The snow is turning to rain and we’ve registered over 50mm so far this month. Things can only get wetter.

Critter of the Day: Turdus merula

Not a very pretty name for this handsome blackbird.
We had pasta, parkin and delicious Ethiopian coffee for our family lunch and scored 11.5 for the last quiz of the year, bringing our average to 10.2268518518519, a step down from last year’s 10.2756346153846.
A1 is reading Nobody’s Hero by MW Craven, another violent and thrilling outing for Ben Koenig; thanks, A2! — who is reading Orbital by Samantha Harvey (thx A1); 24 hours on the International Space Station watching the drama of the cosmorama, incorporating 16 days of the sun burnishing the oceans and 16 nights of lights fringing the coastlines while the astro/cosmonauts on board divulge a bit of backstory and have high-flown thoughts about the geography and meteorology of their home planet and a typhoon winds up over the Philippines. A short but engaging read.

Bob Unboxing on Boxing Day

The Bobster enjoys a present.

We had the family round for Boxing Day, with a repeat of our Christmas Day meal (but pico-pizzas for the veggies). There were even more prezzies, including the traditional coffee, some rather lovely pictures and about 500 tomato seeds of many varieties — thanks, G,D,F & B!

And unlike last year, we managed a flaming pudding by using calvados rather than brandy.

We scored a traditional 10 on the GSQ.

A1 is reading The Enigma Girl by Henry Porter (thanks, A2!).

Brioche, Banana, Blueberry and Booze Bread and Butter Bake Again

Another iteration of this cheap, simple and tasty pudding which followed our family dinner of pork in cider with carrots and peas with pizza, salad and chips for the youngsters. We were ill last week so we had 2 quizzes to do and scored 9.5 on one and 13 on the other.
November was below averagely rainy and sunny and our second coldest November of all time.
A1 is rereading The Readymade Thief* by Augustus Rose. A2 is rereading Have Mercy on Us All by Fred Vargas.

Red/Squirrel

A critter surrounded by autumn colour.
We had chicken ham broccoli and apple crumble, plus omelettes for the veggies, for our family dinner and scored an unexpected 10 for our guesses in the GSQ.
A2 is reading Ink Ribbon Red* by Alex Pavesi which was unmitigated rubbish. Like anybody’s idea of 30th birthday party fun would be to order their guests to write stories about killing each other, and like any of them would bother.

Heaven and Hell

Thank you for the beer Gez. We had shepherd’s pie and Parkin with custard for our family meal and scored a mighty 11.5 on the GSQ.
A1 is reading Judgement Prey* by John Sandford. A2 is rereading This Night’s Foul Work by Fred Vargas. Can’t believe that any cat, let alone a fat indolent creature that has to be carried everywhere, would run 35 kilometres on the scent of a missing person.

Autumn Colour

A pretty tree. A2 spotted a bloke photographing it and stopped for a quick chat but instead got a lengthy lecture. Mansplainers eh?
We had chicken stew and apple crumble for our family dinner, did 2 old quizzes and scored 10.5 on one and 11.5 on the other.
A1 is rereading Bryant and May and the Invisible Code by Christopher Fowler. A2 is rereading Fundamental Disch by Thomas M Disch.

Another Delicious Cake

Served up by A1 for our family dinner which also featured chicken bacon broccoli cooked in our new shiny cooking pot, homebrew minestrone soup for the veggies and a selection of soft drinks including some very fruity Percy Pig flavoured coffee (thx G&D). We were on a roll and scored a mighty 12 on the GSQ.
A1 is rereading The Kingdoms by Natasha Pulley. A2 is rereading Sea of Tranquility by Emily St John Mandel, which features some of the characters from The Glass Hotel interacting with visiting time travellers from the Moon.

Dish of the Day: Pink Fairy Trifle

We had a lot of milk to use up (thx Gez) so our family dinner today was Vinyl Detective Macaroni Cheese (qv) followed by this trifle with the jelly made of milk instead of water. Here’s how it looked without the toppings:
Thanks to all the dairy produce fortifying our brains, we managed to score 13 on the GSQ, bringing our average back above 10 at last.
A2 is reading Guilty by Definition by Susie Dent (thx A1, but never pay full price for a cash-in crime novel by a beloved TV personality again). Susie knows a shitload (coarse slang; earliest known use is from 1954, in a translation by B Frechtman and JT Nile) of obscure words and uses them all, to the detriment of plot, character and reading pleasure.

Dish of the Day: G&T Cheesecake

Last week we were musing on the existence of gin and tonic cheesecake and the next day there was a recipe in the newspaper. So here it is. It was not bad and nor were the excellent pork chops in cider with garden beans and broccoli that began the meal (with cheese omelettes for the veggies). We did the 30-question summer quiz and scored an average of 10.75/15 and then scored 9 on this week’s quiz. Average still under 10 — just.
A1 is reading Banquet of Beggars* by Chris Lloyd, the latest of his Paris Occupation crime novels. Really well written, with an absorbing plot based on the black market scams under the Nazi rule. And the detective protagonist is so well-drawn you imagine him upbraiding the author — in his usual sarcastic manner — for piling so many troubles on him.
A2 is reading Fourteen Days* by 36 different writers; a Decameron for the time of covid.
August was the third coolest, second driest and fifth cloudiest on our records.

Dessert du Jour: Strawberry Cheesecake

A delicious and extremely filling pudding which we enjoyed with both our morning coffee and our evening meal of macaroni cheese, cheesy biscuits and salad, accompanied by delicious Swedish gin (tak Lena) We had two quizzes to catch up on and scored 8 on one and 9 on the other, dragging our average back below 10.
A1 is reading The Hanging Wood by Martin Edwards, an unlikely and confusingly overpopulated crime novel. A2 is reading House of Silence* by Patricia Marques; a disappointingly dull story about a telepathic Portuguese detective.

Pineapple Upside-down Cake

This cake suffered a bit from the cook forgetting the eggs and the accompanying mushroom stroggers was started far too early and came out somewhat overcooked. Luckily they were both edible. We had 2 quizzes to catch up on and scored 8.5 on one and 9 on the other. Oh dear.
A1 is reading The Unwanted Dead* by Chris Lloyd, French noir (appropriately), set in the immediate aftermath of the Nazis entering Paris in 1940. CL has an astonishing new take on the detective protagonist: he has inner demons, a failed marriage, drink and drug problems and an estranged child. How do they come up with these ideas? (OK, I’m being a bit unfair here — it’s actually rather good, well-written and involving, even though our hero does get battered a lot. Certainly worth seeking out the next two books.)
A2 is reading Resolution* by Irvine Welsh. The ex-detective protagonist has a serious drink problem , shedloads of inner demons and wreaks apocalyptic vengance on three men who assaulted him in childhood even though in the course of his revenge he gets stabbed, thrown from a height and buried in quick-setting concrete.

Monopoly Money

City centre publicity for a school holidays event.
We had chicken bacon and broccoli (with our garden broccoli which has all ripened at once) for our family dinner, with Manchester pudding for afters and scored a sad 8 on the GSQ.
A1 is reading The Missing Family by Tim Weaver. A2 is reading The Cracked Mirror by Chris Brookmyre, which disappeared up its own arse.

Garden Raspberry Cake

Gez was cavorting at a festival in France this weekend so we were not sure if the family dinner was on the cards, but she arrived home in time and we slapped together a dinner of pasta followed by this slapdash cake and managed to score 11 on the GSQ.
A1 is reading Gallows Rock* by Yrsa Sigurdasdottir. A2 is reading The Silver Collar* by Antonia Hodgson.

Olive Blossom

A rain drop dangles from the tiny flowers, containing an image of a trellis and a piece of a tomato plant. We had roast pork and a reprise of the lovely strawberry cream rice pudding for our family dinner and scored a disappointing 8.5 on the GSQ.
A1 is reading City of Sinners by AA Dhand, who still has it in for Bradford. A2 is reading Hunted by Abir Mukherjee.

Dads’ Day

Happy Fathers’ Day, daddies! And a nice day at last with 11kWh of sunshine.
We had cottage pie and Aunt Celia’s lemon pudding for our family dinner, did this week’s and last week’s quizzes and scored 12 on each. Yay!
A1 is rereading Utopia Avenue by David Mitchell. A2 is rereading Gnomon by Nick Harkaway. “It’s not like anyone asks you for your passport at the polling booth,” it says. Yeah right!

Starling…

Cute baby starlings at feeding time. They fared better than the dead bird we found under the table wearing a ring that had been put on one day ago and 4km away. And the one that got away from the cat and spent hours flapping behind the sofa before A1 finally ushered it out. Same two things happened almost exactly two years ago.
We had three sorts of delicious burgers (meat, fish and pizza) with many accompaniments followed by fruit salad for our family dinner (thank you A1) and scored a below-par 8 on the GSQ.
A2 is reading Scatter Her Ashes* by Heine Bakkeid; another grindingly miserable book: divorced deposed detective on trail of missing children and serial killers.