Let’s Get Quizzical

As a mum of three small boys I do not get out much without them tagging along, especially in the evenings. It is very rare that I miss any of their bedtimes. But last month one of the school mums asked if I would be up for joining her quiz team for the Parents Quiz Night to help raise some money for the PTA. I said ‘yeah why not?’ with absolutely no intention of going but funnily enough she took me seriously and before you know it I am walking round the school with 4 cans of Shake Baby Shake Raspberry Mojitos and some snacks. For clarity it was a BYO event I do not carry raspberry mojitos around in my hand bag regularly.

Let The Games Begin

The evening started at 7pm, there were 3 rounds of 10 questions and a 4th round of 5 questions and then a raffle at the interval. My team were frankly just enjoying ourselves chatting and making the most of some child free hours with the occasional answer to a question thrown in for fun. When the interval came and it was time for the raffle I settled back in my chair as without sounding too sorry for myself I don’t usually win things or so I thought. When the quizmaster called out number 639 I was pretty shocked, I jumped up and selected the bottle of Baileys for my Mum and I thought to myself ‘a successful evening’.

We finished the last two rounds still happily playing along while drinking our BYO alcohol and nibbling our BYO snacks, then we had to add up the table next doors answers. They had a grand total of 22/35 and when they handed ours back we learned that we had scored 26 so we were just happy that we hadn’t come last. So you can imagine our surprise as the Quizmaster read out the scores for all 11 teams and we had come joint first!

Now if you knew me very well this would be where the evening became quite shocking. The quizmaster asked the two winning teams to send up to the front of the hall a spokesperson for their team. Every single one of us looked pretty blank and as each of the girls I was sat with said they weren’t going up. I’m not sure where my courage came from but I just felt brave all of a sudden, it must have been those mojitos. Because I got up and said ‘don’t worry i’ll go’. I do not do things like that. For someone with my anxious disposition I would usually hide under the table in fear. This sort of thing makes me anxious just hearing that it had happened to someone else! But I couldn’t just sit there, someone had to go so I sacrificed myself 🙂 I then of course found out that I had to answer a question on the subject of Movies. The question was ‘What year was the first Jurassic Park film released?’ the other Mum and I had to say a year and whoever was closest was the winner of the quiz and took home the £40 prize money and and a basket of Mini Eggs and wine. The other Mum gave her answer 1997 and I just had this thought that I was sure it was released at the cinema roughly when I started high school so I said 1994. Do you know when it was released??

We Are The Champions

Jurassic Park was released in 1993 so therefore I was the closest and we won the quiz. To say I was astonished was an understatement. I left there feeling on cloud nine, so proud of myself for TOTALLY going out of my comfort zone and getting up there in front of everyone. Even if I had got it wrong I still would have been pleased with myself. When I told Dougie and Fletch the next morning what I had done they were so proud of me that it just made it all the more joyful. I don’t think they have ever looked at me with that much pride and it was such a lovely feeling.