Weekly Roundup, W/E 13/10/17

Finally, I've gotten round to saving a template for these posts so I don't have to keep constantly redoing the headers! I've still got 3 more roundups to do, so I'll spare you the introductory waffle and just get to it. 4 quizzes this week, all at the front end of the week as I once again decided against the trip to Kirkcudbright, and there wasn't one on Friday.

I will say that this was a very special week for me, as I was on a TV quiz show for the first time on Tuesday! It was a BBC1 show called "The Boss" and there's still a few days left to see it on iPlayer if you're in the UK and haven't already. I'll make an actual proper post about that in the future, but I'm mentioning it now as it is relevant to what happened over the course of this week. So much for skipping the intro!

Quiz #178 -  Sunday 8th October, Turf Tavern, Carlisle

Weekly Roundup, W/E 06/10/2017

So to week 3 of my 5 week backlog, and this one started unusually because I was away in Llandudno for my first "Quiz in the North" experience. That's a true competitive quiz, and I'd like to do a proper review of the experience from a newbie's perspective, but in another post. So for now I'll skip over that and return to the normal reviews. The Sunday quiz didn't happen because the host was away, but this was still a 4 quiz week, so I'd best get to it...

Quiz #172 - Monday 2nd October, Kings Arms, Dalbeattie (P)

Weekly Roundup, W/E 29/09/2017

After a much longer roundup in my last post, this one will be a lot shorter. 5 quizzes in an epic week down to 2, in part because I was hosting my own quiz on the Monday. That does funny things to my performance, and my desperate hastiness to get that written meant I was much more rushed than is healthy for the Sunday quiz. I had it finished and with me, though, which is better than has been the case in the past. With 3 more roundups to do after this one, let's try and clear this pretty quickly.

Quiz #172 - Sunday 24th September, Turf Tavern, Carlisle

Weekly Roundup, W/E 22/09/2017

Hello everyone! I'm back, at last! Part of the reason I really try to keep my reviews up to date is because when I'm trying to recall what happened on a given night, I use the blog. The notes I keep in my notebook aren't really enough, especially because I'm generally trying to be social and secretively writing stuff down in that way is pretty much the opposite. My memory can't easily stretch back far enough to cover more than a week or so of quizzes, but hey, that's what I've got to go on for the last few weeks.

With this one, I actually started writing it but didn't complete it. It was a 5-quiz week, and that's a big time commitment in itself, plus I managed to lose a couple of the quiz sheets so I found myself writing it out of order. The longer I delay completing this though, the worse my problem gets, so let's start from the top and see what I can get through! 

By way of an overview, it looks like I was targeting at least one win from the 5 quizzes I was doing, so let's start there.

Quiz #167 - Sunday 17th September, Turf Tavern, Carlisle

Situation Update

This is a very quick post to apologise to my loyal readers, for I know you are out there, for my total lack of posting. Looking at my last post, it mentioned imminent chaos, which is exactly what happened.  

The same night I posted that update, I was indeed asked to host the quiz a week later. I pulled it off, but it unfortunately proved too hard and I don't think it went down very well. That hit me quite hard, as I honestly believed it was a good quiz with a fair difficulty. The lowest scores were some way below my previous quiz, but the high scores were higher and it was a very very close contest. The poor reception took me a while to get over, I must admit.

I've also now completed the house move, though more remains to be done. I'm typing this from my new couch, but still my couch as my laptop will go on living here - I have space for an office allocated but have yet to buy the PC for it. It's on my list...

Speaking of "my list", my 5 - yes, 5 - weekly roundups are on there. I still intend completing every single one by the end of this week. Which will mean I have 6 to do by then, and as Friday is my birthday and I'm not quizzing then this year, the last of those will go up early next week as I am quizzing on Thursday.

Normal service will resume, I promise you that, but a flood of posts is potentially incoming and a regular schedule is not yet in place. Please bear with me, please continue to read the blog if you enjoy it. 

If you would like to speak to me in any way, please let me know and I can provide you with contact details. A comment here is just fine if you only know me through the blog!

All the best everyone, hope you're doing great!

Where Have I Been, Again?

There's always things I could be talking about, in this blog, but only this post is actually what I could call "time sensitive". I'm aware that I kinda disappeared for a couple of weeks at the start of September, though the weekly roundups are now up to date, so I just want to provide a general update as to what my current situation is.

Weekly Roundup, W/E 15/09/2017

Lest I fall even further still behind with this blog, I'm going to power on with my latest roundup. This one ought to be a bit shorter, as it's 4 quizzes rather than 6. Have to say, I'm glad to have finally finished the last one as it was kinda hanging over me, due to the inevitable length. Enough chitchat, let's find out what happened this week.

Quiz #163 - Sunday 10th September, Turf Tavern, Carlisle

Weekly Roundup, W/E 08/09/2017

So, with the fun and games of gigs and such like now a memory, it's time for me to knuckle down and get some serious work done. I started writing this earlier in the week but I've still a decent way to go as it stands. It was a busy week , this one, and one which really called for good results, after the way things had been going. Let's find out!

Quiz #157 - Sunday 3rd September, Turf Tavern, Carlisle

An Introspective on Last Night

Hi folks!

First things first, I'm well aware that I've got an increasingly large backlog of blog posts to try and work my way through. This includes two weekly roundups, a general life and times update, and a couple of promotional posts for things I really like, such as the podcast I guest-starred on, Trivial Warfare. But this is a bit different. I was at a gig last night, and it got me to thinking, about things I'd like to share here. Naturally, it's ultimately a post about me and quizzing, but it's not as quizzing-based as this blog usually is.

Weekly Roundup, W/E 01/09/2017

It's amazing what can happen in a week! I know I didn't post anything last weekend, but I'll explain all that in a "general life stuff" type blog at some point over the weekend. At least, that's what I wrote on Friday, before not writing much else. I'll try and catchup at some point over the course of this week, focussing for now on the week before last's weekly roundup. There's only two quizzes, though I'm going to take this chance to introduce a new section, the "strategic overview". This is basically something I do now anyway, only now I'm formalising it, "it" being the introductory paragraph I generally write about my own team situation, the opposition, host, expected subjects, etc. Similarly, I'll separate the outcome section too, as there's no reason not to. It makes sense to do this, though I won't be retroactively amending any previous posts. So let's get on with it.

Quiz # 155 - Sunday 27th August, Turf Tavern, Carlisle