Blog Day 164 - 04 September 2020

Welcome to virus free Friday.

Yesterday I received a very pleasant surprise.  There was a knock on the door and a nice man delivering a box of mixed doughnuts courtesy of one of my regular readers and contributors, Leanne.  Now this isn't a competition but if any other readers.............  Anyway the doughnuts are incredibly delicious and incredibly sweet, sweeter than most of my ex girlfriends anyway.  I has one for breakfast this morning, doughnut that is, not ex girlfriend, and it reminded me a bit of the "road trip" breakfasts when travelling around the USA.  

Being Friday, tonight is Zoom trivia night.   The Zoom trivia has its origins in the regular Monday night trivia nights at the Elsternwick Hotel, otherwise known as the Wick.  The Wick is one of those pubs with poker machines and a public bar where your feet would stick to the carpet.  Nobody ever went there for the quality of the food but the Wick generally did a reasonable chicken parma or fish and chips. When it was good it was ok, when it was bad it was atrocious.

Some years ago, friends of mine, Andrew and Katie, used to live around the corner from the Wick so Monday night trivia became a regular event, with a team depending on the night of between four and a dozen.  We were regular winners and as such many of the other teams were jealous of us and some also a little bitter.  Anyway, all good things must come to an end and Andrew and Katie moved out to the burbs, had a bub and trivia at the Wick went by the by.

After a hiatus of some years along comes the current uncomfortableness and Andrew and Katie resuscitated the trivia night, but this time around by the good graces of Zoom.  Most Friday nights there can be up to 14 to 15 players attending and either playing individually or in teams.  Many of these are originals from the old Wick days and new players who have decided to add some spice to their currently dreary lives by attending.

Geographically we have people attending from all over Melbourne, Victoria, Australia and the world.  Regular attendees Roger and Penny live in Cairns, Shane is in Sydney and Maddie is in Warrnambool.  Katie's parents, Kathy and Mac often drop in from DeLand in Florida although given it is early morning there they are usually drinking coffee which I can assure you nobody else is.

Even in trivia there is scandal and controversy, there has been rumours that some teams have been tanking (probably Melbourne supporters).  The way the trivia works is that the winner or winning team has to provide the questions and host the following week's competition.  So some players not wanting to to do this will deliberately perform poorly (or report that they have done poorly) in the third (and last round) so that they don't win and don't have to do the questions for the next week.  Obviously this is not fair as there is often big money wagered on the outcome of these games, particularly in India, and tanking artificially affects the outcome of the competition.  Hmmm I wonder if these teams have been paid to tank by dodgy Indian bookies?

Anyway, not withstanding the tanking scandal, the Zoom trivia is good fun and a welcome distraction in these troubled times.  After the trivia we usually continue with food and much drink and amusing banter.  

Be of good cheer and stout heart. Update on figures etc tomorrow.