Category Archives: amusements

amusements, science

April Quiz Questions

This year we’re beginning each month with five pub quiz style questions, with a different subject each month. They’re not difficult, but it is unlikely everyone will know all the answers, so hopefully you’ll learn something new, as well as have a bit of fun.

April Quiz Questions: Physical Science

  1. How much water is there on Earth per human being?
  2. What was the name of the first, Russian, man-made satellite?
  3. How many internal reflections of light take place in the formation of a primary rainbow?
  4. Roughly how long does it take for the sun’s light to reach Earth?
  5. Which Russian chemist published the first widely recognised Periodic Table?

Answers will be posted in 3 weeks time.

amusements, personal

Unblogged March

Tue 1 It’s daffy-dilly day – and no surprise they are in this wet weather! Next up will be the sham-rocks followed by the bleeding-roses. Three in close succession like London buses.
Wed 2 We’ve had so much rain in the last few days that today there was standing water in the garden – despite the affected area having been raised about 3 inches a couple of years ago.
Thu 3 Dizzy, dizzy, dizzy. Definitely very unstable in the head, with headache and general flu-y feeling. Negative LFT. Retired back to bed and slept.
Fri 4 Definitely not well, but less dizzy than yesterday. LFT still negative.
Sat 5 Much as yesterday, but slowly improving. LFT still negative. Feeling better enough to try to do the crossword.
Sun 6 Rinse and repeat – but managed to stay upright most of the day.
Mon 7 It’s that time of year when you start sorting household finances and it goes on, and on and on … because you realise you need to set up next year’s tax files, get upsides of billing & payments which change in April …
Tue 8 What a lovely sunny day, although chilly in the breeze. Lots of small daffodils now out in the garden, and the deeper mauve crocuses are still going strong. The magenta hellebore is almost finished as are the snowdrops.
Wed 9 Tied to my desk all day becase of another of those “It’s that time of year” jobs: subscription reminders for the AP Soc. Even so I didn’t manage to finish it as everything always needs rewriting.
Thu 10 Awoken at 06:00 by 5kg of cat landing on the solar plexus. So up at 07:00 and a huge amount of work shifted before my meeting at 10:00. In fact large amounts shifted right through to 19:00.
Fri 11 Nice delivery of half a case of Champagne. Two are a retirement present for a friend.
Sat 12 Was intending to (re)frame some pictures this afternoon, but not a chance. Spent the time instead cooking fruit and then duck and pepper stir-fry with noodles for dinner.
Sun 13 Why is it that some days everything conspires to get in the way: not serious buggeration but just enough awkward to make everything more difficult. Still I did manage to cook steak & chips for dinner, washed down with bottle of Champagne. Remember Hester Browne’s words: Always keep a bottle of Champagne in the fridge for special occasions. Sometimes the special occasion is that you’ve got a bottle of Champagne in the fridge.
Mon 14 For once, a day of doing almost nothing apart from fiddling about. It wasn’t really “play” more like wasting time.
Tue 15 This morning there were some lovely mackerel cirrus clouds – photographed badly through the window.
Wed 16 A really strange yellowy/peachy light in late morning, dissipating by the end of lunch (possibly with the rain). Seems like it was Saharan dust dragged northwards by a storm over Spain.
Thu 17 It’s been very quiet round here for Sham-Rock Day!
Fri 18 Gorgeous silvery full moon, especially enchanting seen through the trees this evening.
Sat 19 Last night’s moon turned into an equally lovely moon set around dawn, followed by a warm(er) sunny Spring day.
Sun 20 Why is sex at 6am always such a failure? To compensate the afternoon was spent photographing vases of daffodils and tulips.
Mon 21 Afternoon spent trying to untangle another knot in my family history, back in mid-18th century … and failing. Either there are lots of records missing from some Kent parishes, people are telling porkies, or they really do parachute in from nowhere.
Tue 22 A rare treat: home cooked curry eaten in front of the TV. So decadent.
Wed 23 Another literary society talk hosted on Zoom. We’re getting good audiences; over 50 again tonight.
Thu 24 The first queen wasp of the season let itself in the study window this afternoon; and was eventually ushered out again.
Disappointed I didn’t catch it and ID it. I was beginning to think there were none this year as they had a poor year last summer.
Fri 25 Why is it that by the time we get to Friday lunchtime I’m convinced it’s Saturday? And continue to think it’s Saturday all day however much I remind myself it isn’t.
Sat 26 Up betimes so lots done before hosting a lunchtime Zoom call, only to undo the good work by falling asleep for a large chunk of the afternoon. Well it is Sunday, isn’t it?!
Sun 27 Horrible day! (1) Bloody changing the clocks again, for no useful reason. (2) The general nausea of Mother’s Day. (3) Banks getting in the way of business for no reason apart from their profit. (4) A borked literary society website. “Life. Don’t talk to me about life!”
Mon 28 Used the Royal Mail facility to come and collect your parcel to go – for a small fee (48p to me). Haven’t used this before, but on this one showing it seems a good scheme. And I managed to fix the borked website.
Tue 29 What happened at the coalface today? I have no clue!
Wed 30 How many times does one get woken at some uncivilised hour by 5kg of cat landing unannounced on the solar plexus? And then they snuggle down and look cute. But try shutting them out the bedroom and there’s a riot.
Thu 31 It snowed. This morning. Big healthy lumps of snow. For 2 minutes. Long interlude. Repeat Scene 1 at teatime. Fin.
amusements

March Quiz Answers

OK, so here are the answers to this month’s quiz questions. All should be able to be easily verified online.

March Quiz Questions: General Knowledge

  1. Fielding and Chavannes, the inventors of bubble wrap, were originally trying to create what? 3D plastic wallpaper
  2. Who or what are Rouge Croix, Rouge Dragon, Portcullis and Bluemantle? Four Pursuivants (junior heralds) of the College of Arms
  3. Three private (ie. non-state owned) companies in the world each employ over 1 million people. Name one of them. Walmart (2.2m), China National Petroleum (1.34m), Amazon (1.3m)
  4. How is the clock in the Elizabeth Tower (aka Big Ben) of the Houses of Parliament regulated? By adding or removing old pennies to the pendulum
  5. Who patented the first automobile? Karl Benz in 1886

Answers were correct when questions were compiled in late 2021

amusements

March Quiz Questions

This year we’re beginning each month with five pub quiz style questions, with a different subject each month. They’re not difficult, but it is unlikely everyone will know all the answers, so hopefully you’ll learn something new, as well as have a bit of fun.

March Quiz Questions: General Knowledge

  1. Fielding and Chavannes, the inventors of bubble wrap, were originally trying to create what?
  2. Who or what are Rouge Croix, Rouge Dragon, Portcullis and Bluemantle?
  3. Three private (ie. non-state owned) companies in the world each employ over 1 million people. Name one of them.
  4. How is the clock in the Elizabeth Tower (aka Big Ben) of the Houses of Parliament regulated?
  5. Who patented the first automobile?

Answers will be posted in 3 weeks time.

amusements, personal

Unblogged February

Tue 1 Like the first of every month, a day full of tedious admin: household, literary society, patient group … It just multiplies.
Wed 2 Good grief! My chilli plants are still producing a few fruit. Picked 5 today. But they’ll get pruned back later this month so they can put up new growth and hopefully a good crop for a third summer.
Thu 3 Successfully bid for another picture at our local auction house. It’s the brother of one I already have, so really wanted, and I was surprised to get it as cheaply as I did.
Fri 4 Why do jobs always take 10 times longer than they should. A 15 minute update to a website this afternoon took over 4 hours of endlessly fiddling around. And that was just one of 10 things I was supposed to do in that time. Hello weekend – NOT!
Sat 5 So intent on slogging away at website updates this afternoon, I didn’t realise how cold I was – absolutely frozen. Unusually for me I needed a thick sweater to warm up.
Sun 6 Rain lashing down and a gale blowing all night. Wet when I went to bed, and still wet when I got up at 07:15. Awoken, of course, by a drowned Boy cat arriving at 06:15. Still, up early meant lots done.
Mon 7 Went to collect the painting I bought last week at our local auction house. First time going somewhere non-medical in almost 2 years!
The crocuses and the alder catkins are coming out, in lovely Spring-like sunshine.
Tue 8 Discovered why one of our tubs of bulbs had fallen from its position to lie on its side on the lawn below. The trail camera shows Mr Fox jumping up on it from below, making it topple over the edge. Exit Mr Fox in haste.
Wed 9 BookReceived an interesting-looking new book in the mail: Understanding European Wines by Charlie Boston. I don’t know the author, but I do know the guy who’s written an introduction about Anthony Powell and Wine. It goes straight to the top of Mount TBR.
Thu 10 Lovely trip to the dentist this morning. An hour in the chair for crown prep, but no impressions as they now have a wizzy machine which does scans instead. Sad that as I opted for a gold crown, I won’t get to see the scans printed as a crown onsite: gold has to go to the lab.
Fri 11 Actually managed to do a bit of family history today for the first time in ages. And here’s an interesting problem: my half-aunt wants a printed chart of the family line back as far as I have it. This runs to 28 sheets of A4 (14×2) so will be about 3×0.5 metres! How best to do it?
Sat 12 Family history curiosity of the day. May 1563 in Cranbrook, Kent; marriage between Reynolde Madisson and Frysweed Webb. Then in the same church in June 1626; marriage between William Unicombe and Regenerat Weekes. (Sadly none are mine.)
Sun 13 Sunday lunch of cold leftover chicken & chickpea curry sandwiches. The curry maybe even better than it was hot last night. Plus an improved loaf thanks to the new bread machine (the old one has retired after almost 10 years!).
Mon 14 How is this our 44th Valentine’s Day together? Our first (1979) was really cold; like 5cm of ice even on major roads, but the buses were still running. We were at my parents and still managed to go out (by bus) to a fantastic local restaurant: Blunk’s in Waltham Abbey (now long gone). The meal cost £50 (almost a week’s take-home) for the 2 of us!
Tue 15 Dear God! How much more rain can the garden take? We’ll soon be swimming in mud; the continual parade of muddy paws suggests the cats already are.
Wed 16 Hosted the second evening talk for the literary society. An immensely interesting talk from Nick Birns which was well attended. An hour easily turned into an hour and a half.
Thu 17 Great fun after dinner: we decided to strip down the old bread machine for recycling. Two of us and one hour to produce a carrier bag of metal/electrical parts and one of plastic parts; plus hundreds of screws; and a bonus cut finger from the brittle, heat-stressed plastic.
Fri 18 We’ve not had wind like this since the Great Storm of October 1987. The Gods have obviously forgotten about the effect of beans and Jerusalem artichokes.
Sat 19 I’ve been far too lax during the pandemic about wearing my hearing aids around home. So I’m making a concerted effort to get used to wearing them during the day. Let’s see if I can keep it up.
Sun 20 The bloody Winter Olympics are over, thank the gods! They’re not intended to be, but all Olympics have become a nauseating festival of global corruption and willy-waving.
Mon 21 What’s this? The third storm in a week? And not even any snow? Now come on, this just isn’t playing the game, even for winter in London.
Tue 22 Early evening meeting. Why are they always across food time? And how much longer can they resist meeting in person, which still worries me witless.
Wed 23 Lamb Shank & Fennel Casserole with Garlic Bread for dinner. I also cooked Chicken & Mushroom Pie (with homemade shortcrust pastry!), so we have that (cold) for tomorrow.
Thu 24 To the dentist (the only reason I didn’t have toasted garlic bread for breakfast) to get my new piece of gold mouth jewellery. Then spent a chunk of the afternoon picking oakum: demolishing some cotton string to make bird nesting material.
Fri 25 Arrggghhhh!!!!! No supermarket delivery due to IT issues. Have had to rebook it for tomorrow. Now tell me why we have a full freezer.
Sat 26 Finally got the supermarket delivery this afternoon. The the logic (or incompetence) of the pickers continues to astonish me. This week we were short 2 bunches of daffodils; but gained 1 fennel (3 rather than 2) and 3 tubes of tomato paste (8 rather than 5). OK we win but that’s a hard way to make a profit.
Sun 27 Found an error in my family tree: Elizabeth Cotton, wife of Stephen Marshall (right name; wrong identity). Stephen (born c.1763) is currently the furthest I can get my paternal line; I know where he logically fits but I don’t have the evidence, and the records seem not to exist. I now know Elizabeth Cotton’s name, but no details.
Mon 28 Absolutely no go, either mental or physical, today despite a reasonable night. So, yet again, little got done – and none of the things I’d planned.
amusements

Christmas Amusement Answers

Back on Christmas Day I posted a link to the 2021-22 King William’s College General Knowledge Paper.

The Guardian have today published the official answers at https://www.theguardian.com/games/2022/feb/27/the-king-williams-college-quiz-2021-the-answers.

No I’ve no idea how well I did – except it’s guaranteed to be badly – as I consigned my answer sheet to the recycling a couple of weeks ago. Anyways round you probably did better!

amusements, music

February Quiz Answers

OK, so here are the answers to this month’s quiz questions. All should be able to be easily verified online.

February Quiz Questions: Music

  1. Which Renaissance composer wrote a madrigal entitled El Grillo? Josquin des Prez
  2. What was the name of the band formed by Jack Bruce, Eric Clapton & Ginger Baker? Cream
  3. Who composed a piano piece called the Golliwogg’s Cakewalk? Debussy
  4. Part of which Christopher Smart work was set to music by Benjamin Britten? Jubilate Agno
  5. Which astronomer is name-dropped in Bohemian Rhapsody? Galileo

Answers were correct when questions were compiled in late 2021.