JEDI July: Day 30 - The one with the pub quiz

So here we are on the penultimate day of JEDI July...a day which, much like the rest of this week, has been in the most part nothing to write home about. I got up fairly late and, as Mum and Dad were both at work, I had a pretty lazy morning, the height of activity being the highly draining task of - get this - marmiting some toast!

Dragons' Den on iPlayer got me through to midday before Mum phoned asking if I could pop round the shops to get some stuff for lunch (as our cupboard resembles that of Old Mother Hubbard at the moment). Today's weather was sunshine and showers and, typically, I found myself caught in the latter, but made up for it by purchasing some lovely big white baps, sensations crisps and a small treat in the form of maltesers.

After lunch Mum and L galavanted off to Lymington. I was originally going to join them before I heard of the tedious shopping which they had planned, so in the end elected to skip it. My laptop and I therefore spent some more quality time together before Dad arrived home. At this point my eyes were starting to strain after staring at the computer screen for so long, so I decided to take a quick breather and go for a drive.

This took me first to Calshot, where I had hoped to catch P&O cruise ship Artemis passing the spit, but unfortunately didn't quite make it on time. I therefore decided to head for Eling, a mysterious place between Totton and Marchwood which I had heard much about yet only visited on a couple of ocassions many years ago. It was a pleasant drive along the waterside in the now constant warm sunshine, however no sooner had I found and arrived in Eling then a quick phonecall home confirmed that it was time to turn round and come back again - an offer which I simply couldn't refuse with chips waiting in the oven!

Despite running out of time to go exploring, the trip had served its purpose in clearing my head. This was important as, following tea and test cricket TV with Dad, Ernest arrived to take me and Lydia on our first pub quiz outing at the Bold Forester. Apparently the event has been running every Thursday evening for six months, so it was definitely time for us to get our brains in gear and at least give it a go. Ernest bought the first round of drinks and copious crisps, we found a table amongst 8 or 9 other teams and, following much discussion, decided on a name - 'The Dullness' (catchy, eh?!).

The quiz itself comprised of three rounds of ten questions, as well as bonus interval rounds, a celebrity picture quiz and music teasers in between the main questions. The pictures were completed pre-quiz and, having identified 7 out of the possible 10, team Dullness entered into the first set of questions high in confidence. Unfortunately, things began to go downhill from this point, and half marks on the first round kind of set the tone for the remainder of the quiz...

In some cases correct answers were mulled over and then not written down, our knowledge of British Prime Ministers was scrutinised with embarassing results and, despite Lydia's inspired identification of Jeremy Clarkson as the 'who am I?' answer, 'The Dullness' finished on a measly 43 out of 85 - in other words...last place! In spite of this gallant failure, we found ourselves amongst the prizes by scooping the wooden spoon carton of mini creme eggs, which to me seemed more worth our while than the top prize bottle of chardonnay!

An unsuccesful punt on the challenging 'snowball' maths puzzle concluded a thoroughly enjoyable evening and plans are already afoot to repeat the exercise next week in order to - crazy as it sounds - come away empty-handed!

Plans are also afoot for the final fling tomorrow as JEDI July draws to a close. The day itself looks set to be another quiet affair, but its corresponding blog will, I hope, turn out to be something special. One thing I can guarantee...it certainly won't be short!