Charity Meets Election Fever

Tonight will see the final quiz of 2005, and as is now traditional, it will be the Christmas Charity quiz, in which the entry fee is tripled and proceeds go to a good cause, which changes from time to time, and I cannot now recall what it is. For some years the money apparently went to a Peruvian child, until one day someone pointed out that this child would be in his mid-twenties by now, and an alternative recipient was located. And there have been others since.

Obviously we are doing the quiz because we do it every week, and are not motivated by charitable instincts, and to pretend otherwise, as marathon runners are apt to do, would be a shade hypocritical.

There are prizes for the winners, however, in the form of bottles of booze. Tradition also decrees that the Christmas quizmasters are our friends David and Luis, whose depleted team suffers by their absence. Antony and I were totting things up in the bar the night before last, and we reckon we have won the Christmas charity quiz for the past five years in a row, if not six. So if it's tempting fate you want, there you have it.

We didn't do terribly well last week; we were one member short, as Spain celebrated two different public holidays: one on Tuesday and the other on Thursday, and the Centre was closed on those days, plus non-teaching days were declared for Friday and Saturday, so some people, including Hugh, had gone away. However the remaining five of us felt we were in with a shout, but it was not to be.

Another reason for anticipatory excitement this morning is that during tonight's quiz there will be a vote on the Monday/Thursday question, and it is looking to be a close-run thing.

Results, of both events, tomorrow.