Yep, got my phone call this week, asking if I was going to go to the quiz "Incase they ask a question about lavender or flower arranging." I kid you not, that was the reason given as to my presence being requested.
I turned up late as I had a previous engagement at a picnic/live concert of Irish music (will talk more about this on another post). All the lads were looking terribly serious and I was immediately inundated with unanswered questions - 'Who did Jude Law marry' 'What colour do Indian brides wear?' But did have a drink brought for me.
One of the funniest exchanges was around the question 'What word now used to describe a type of French restaurant comes from the Russian word for quick?' Our sports journalist team member said 'Bistro' which was generally accepted as correct, except by the Kiwi/English teacher team member who queried the entomology of the word. The reply was "No idea but he" (a nod towards the journalist) "is Russian."
We won the box of shite again.
Friday 25 June 2010
Parents really shouldn't cut hair
Yesterday at work one of the children was sporting a classic 'My father wouldn't pay money for a hairdresser, decided it couldn't be that difficult and so cut it himself' haircut.
The fringe was incredibly short and lopsided.
I guess everyone has had one of these haircuts in their lifetime. If not one of these, then the closely related 'My sister/brother got hold of a pair of scissors and decided it would be fun to cut my hair' haircut.
Whilst hiding laughter I did my best "Wow, you've had a haircut!! Looking good!" attempts and as the child concerned is just three and has no idea of hair fashion, he smiled and agreed and then pointed out his new t-shirt.
I guess as the other parent there is not much you can do in case like this (except go for a No1 all over) but to have a rant and then buy a hat for the child and hope his hair grows quickly!
Let's hope that for this child/parent concerned the lesson has been learnt and won't be repeated again....
The fringe was incredibly short and lopsided.
I guess everyone has had one of these haircuts in their lifetime. If not one of these, then the closely related 'My sister/brother got hold of a pair of scissors and decided it would be fun to cut my hair' haircut.
Whilst hiding laughter I did my best "Wow, you've had a haircut!! Looking good!" attempts and as the child concerned is just three and has no idea of hair fashion, he smiled and agreed and then pointed out his new t-shirt.
I guess as the other parent there is not much you can do in case like this (except go for a No1 all over) but to have a rant and then buy a hat for the child and hope his hair grows quickly!
Let's hope that for this child/parent concerned the lesson has been learnt and won't be repeated again....
Saturday 12 June 2010
Men and Quizzes
What is it with men and quizzes? They take it soooo seriously and often ignore a mere female in the process. Quizzes are very serious business here in Lyon and every anglophone pub has one - so from Monday through to Thursday you can go to a quiz. Some offer money prizes, others meals and drinks, others offer boxes of crap. Typically questions are asked in both French and English and I got into them as it was helping me learn French and a good way of meeting people.
The team I tend to play with is a flexible one, with different people playing each week, due to the odd nature of some of their working shifts, and generally speaking we do quite well at winning the box of crap and sometimes we win money and drinks. However it is a very male dominated team and each week there are only one or two females.
What gets me though is the way that the men talk over, ignore or completely put down suggestions from me, DESPITE sending me messages asking if I am playing the quiz that night?? Yep, I'm confused and not so vain to think that it is my stunning looks and company they want for the evening, these boys take the quiz very seriously and don't like carrying lame ducks.
Here are a couple of examples from last Thursday.
"Which hollywood actor has a pilot's license and flew his own Boeing 707 to South Africa for the World Cup this week?" I said "John Travolta" before the question had finished. My team mate who was writing the answers refused to put anything down until he heard the question in French (fair enough) but as no one had anything better and I was so quick with the answer, it was accepted.
Later there was a question on tall buildings - which they wanted to put down Empire State Building and this was where I went wrong - I suggested a possibility rather than going in with a statement. I said "Wasn't the Chyrsler building built before the Empire State?" Big mistake. it was completely ignored. (I was right). I then repeated this mistake with a question on which UN members vetoed sanctions by saying - "Oh, it could be Turkey as that would explain a headline I saw on the BBC website." The two journalists (who had not been working that day, nor it appears, been anywhere near a newspaper or the internet) went for Burma and North Korea (I was right).
I did get slight victory for the question "Which tournament started in August 2007, with a match between Tahiti and New Caledonia, which New Caledonia won 1-0." After much pursing of lips and deep frowning, especially from the sports journalist, I chipped in with "Is it the World Cup? Don't the qualifying rounds start years before?" This was initially greeted with negative comments and more frowning as they tried desperately to think of any other tournament - possibly some french DOM-TOM tournament, and probably because each week I cheerfully admit to my lack of sporting knowledge, before they admitted defeat and wrote down 'World cup 2010', as "We've got no other answer."
I guess the solution is to be the one who writes the answers on the quiz sheets, as then you have ultimate control and can put down whatever you want, which I did one week when they were debating whether it was the Jules Rimet or not. I just wrote down 'Oscar', as that was the right answer and left them bickering amongst themselves.
The team I tend to play with is a flexible one, with different people playing each week, due to the odd nature of some of their working shifts, and generally speaking we do quite well at winning the box of crap and sometimes we win money and drinks. However it is a very male dominated team and each week there are only one or two females.
What gets me though is the way that the men talk over, ignore or completely put down suggestions from me, DESPITE sending me messages asking if I am playing the quiz that night?? Yep, I'm confused and not so vain to think that it is my stunning looks and company they want for the evening, these boys take the quiz very seriously and don't like carrying lame ducks.
Here are a couple of examples from last Thursday.
"Which hollywood actor has a pilot's license and flew his own Boeing 707 to South Africa for the World Cup this week?" I said "John Travolta" before the question had finished. My team mate who was writing the answers refused to put anything down until he heard the question in French (fair enough) but as no one had anything better and I was so quick with the answer, it was accepted.
Later there was a question on tall buildings - which they wanted to put down Empire State Building and this was where I went wrong - I suggested a possibility rather than going in with a statement. I said "Wasn't the Chyrsler building built before the Empire State?" Big mistake. it was completely ignored. (I was right). I then repeated this mistake with a question on which UN members vetoed sanctions by saying - "Oh, it could be Turkey as that would explain a headline I saw on the BBC website." The two journalists (who had not been working that day, nor it appears, been anywhere near a newspaper or the internet) went for Burma and North Korea (I was right).
I did get slight victory for the question "Which tournament started in August 2007, with a match between Tahiti and New Caledonia, which New Caledonia won 1-0." After much pursing of lips and deep frowning, especially from the sports journalist, I chipped in with "Is it the World Cup? Don't the qualifying rounds start years before?" This was initially greeted with negative comments and more frowning as they tried desperately to think of any other tournament - possibly some french DOM-TOM tournament, and probably because each week I cheerfully admit to my lack of sporting knowledge, before they admitted defeat and wrote down 'World cup 2010', as "We've got no other answer."
I guess the solution is to be the one who writes the answers on the quiz sheets, as then you have ultimate control and can put down whatever you want, which I did one week when they were debating whether it was the Jules Rimet or not. I just wrote down 'Oscar', as that was the right answer and left them bickering amongst themselves.
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