Sunshine and birdsong...

What a GORGEOUS day out here. It makes me wish I were out hiking instead of sitting inside at this desk. I've certainly been able to come up with plenty of excuses to be outside and walking around site today. It's a nice change of pace from trying to stay dry. The sun is shining and the birds are singing and I'm sure it will only last until this evening, but I'll take what I can get.

Today I've been sending texts and e-mails to recruit people for our table-quiz fundraiser tomorrow night. It's for the Geraldines, so the whole team will be there anyhow. It's a good start. I realized as I was doing this that most of you wouldn't even know what a 'table quiz' is so I thought it would be a good topic to blog about.

Table quizzes are pretty popular in Ireland. They can be done as fundraisers or just for fun, where all of the money is put towards prizes. Most require teams of 4 and charge between €5 and €10 per person. The teams all sit together at a table and the quiz usually works in rounds. For each round, a sheet of questions is given out and the team works together to answer them before time runs up and they have to turn the papers back in. At the end of each round, the answers to the previous round are usually read out so you know what you missed.

The scores are usually tallied by rounds on a big board and at the end, the team with the highest points wins. I've only participated in one quiz (to raise money for a charity through work) and we did okay. I usually know the stuff nobody else does and they usually know everything else. There tend to be a lot of Irish celebrity/sports questions and although I'm catching up and do okay on current news, I haven't quite nailed the recent history or Irish pop questions yet.

Questions can also be photos that you need to identify (bad celebrity pics or baby photos of older celebs) or word puzzles. Overall, it's a pretty good time and if you've ever been to Hooters on quiz night then you might have a decent idea of what it's like. I'm counting on a 'fundraiser' being a good excuse for people to drink on a Thursday and I'm hoping they'll come out for just that reason! I've got Friday off, so I may indulge in a few and then walk back across the river to the new digs!!

Wish me luck recruiting a team!! I'll catch you tomorrow (I hope)! ;-)