Not as Bad as Charlton

The Quiz Team 3rd out 5 - lots of Spot Prizes

There was a festive air down the pub last Monday, as we have been celebrating its tenth anniversary over the past week, so there was some new sexy red lighting and a large spotlight which shone directly into my eyes until our much-respected opponent Luis arrived and kindly sat right in front of it.

It was announced that there would be one round about Ireland, in honour of the pub's Irish provenance (actually it is owned, as I have said before, by a Spanish guy and his good lady, who comes from Birmingham) and there were special guest sports questions from Dave the barman - he comes from Bristol. In fact the only really Irish event was some Celtic music on the Saturday night.

The other innovation, for this week only, was the increase in the number of 'spots', as we regulars get to call them, to 15, and they proved to be shirts and tops, branded with the brewer's name, that kind of thing, though I won a pint for knowing which well-known British monarch had the same birthday as our dear landlady. Well she mentions it quite a bit.

As a team, we slipped back into 3rd, and our fortunes are sort of mirroring Charlton's, though we probably did do a bit better on the night than Charlton had done at Highbury on the Saturday.

Oh yes, there was a live match on the upstairs TV. Crystal Palace v Fulham. No-one was watching it and I even forgot to find out the final score, only discovering the news of Palace's first win of the season the next evening.
And the planned "embarrass Spotty Parker" campaign for the Monday reserve game between Charlton and Chelsea (3-0 to Charlton) fell through as Chelsea didn't play him in the end. I wonder if he will come back. And would anyone really want him to?

Full term has recommenced, so this finds me in the middle of the most tiring week of the whole year: meeting new classes and getting used to different rooms and new routines. I have been exhausted every night. I could put it down to my age, but my younger colleagues are no different. It is a tiring and at times stressful job, teaching. The only good thing is that the year gets easier the longer it goes on, so that by March the whole thing is almost on automatic pilot, but just as good, I have to point out. More at the weekend.