Past weekend
Saturday
I spent the day with Josh in London, our first stop being Gordon Ramsay’s Street Pizza restaurant in Battersea – we both effin’ love our pizza and were both ravenous by the time we sat down, and we chose GR because of its ‘bottomless pizza’ option – so it was a perfect storm!
The format was not one I’d experienced before – instead of picking a pizza from the menu and chowing down, the servers meander between the tables with whichever pizza just came out of the oven and hand you a slice. We quickly decided we liked this method because 1) it allowed us to try all the toppings, and 2) the brief waits between slices made for some good pace-making!
There were about 5 different pizzas doing the rounds, although besides pepperoni being the clear standout, I was rather underwhelmed by the others. Nevertheless, I kept putting away everything that was brought my way, keeping up with the eating machine sat opposite me. In fact, Josh was the first to blink and turn down a slice, at which point I took the opportunity to sneak ahead and claim a minor victory! He did end up demolishing 20 slices to my 16, but I was very pleased with my effort.
The F1 exhibition followed in the afternoon, which was slick and impressive. We were advised upon entry that 1h30 would be required to get the best out of our visit, but we both expected to be done before then. However, it must have been good, because we ended up staying there for nearly 2 hours! I wasn’t all that interested in reading everything on the walls, but the installations alone kept me occupied. Every single car they had on display was mesmerising to look at, but if I had to pick my favourite it would be the McLaren sporting #12 and an orangey-red colour!
Sunday
I saw Hannah in the evening, with the main reason for my visit being the pub quiz that she frequents with her friends. I have now attended the last three (they’re monthly) and fully merited my place in the side – on my first outing in a small team of 3 we managed to come third, and last month (with a full lineup) we won the whole shebang! To be honest, I don’t know why I didn’t blog about our famous victory at the time – we each had some inspired moments and beat the resident champions (who include pro quizzers among their ranks) for the team’s first ever win!
This month’s quiz was markedly harder than the previous ones, and we felt our reign as champs slowly fading round by round. We even joked we might be taking home the booby prize for coming stone-dead last, but as the answers were being read out, we started to suspect we might have done a little better than we first thought. The quizmaster named the 7 teams in reverse order, starting with a three-way tie for last place; once our name wasn’t read out, we breathed a sigh of relief and found ourselves on the precipice of another podium. It turned out that we somehow snaffled second place, finishing a solitary point behind the winners (them pro quizzers again)!
So that’s three quizzes and a medal of each colour, plus at least one MVP performance to boot! I am told that regular podium finishes have previously been beyond the team, so I feel happy that I helped get them further up the leaderboard. We were even down a player this weekend due to illness, so it is not inconceivable to think that another head could have provided the extra couple of points to nab a second win – those pesky pro quizzers better watch out…
