February 25th 2010

It was a dark and stormy night as the 3 hounds gathered to do glorious quizzing. Also, I did a bad thing on the way home (more of that later).

'It's raining Cats and Hounds' comprised;

Barnett of Brum ("I had fish and chips - you can stick that in your report")
Robson Hound (2 different sandwiches, 1 is a starter the other is pudding)
and yours truly (2 chicken Kiev and sweetcorn - no chips)

Pre quiz talk was all about the raffle. +/- £600 and only 2 keys to pick from - surely someone would win the cash and maybe even the Hound- Could we dare to dream of such riches?

On with the quiz - we thought the opening round was tougher than usual and were not too surprised with our low score of 25/30. The only surprise was that left us wallowing in joint last place - not a customary position for a hound, having to come from behind, but we felt confident that the music round would restore our fortunes.

Unfortunately the music round proved just as troublesome - we were totally blind-sided by track after track and were dismayed to hear in the break that all the other teams (including the Bob-sleigh hamsters) had found it pretty easy. The Hound was limping home.

So going into the last round it looked as if our only hope lay with the raffle and we hastily procured more and more tickets.

Now, something strange happened in the last round, either; we played a blinder, the other teams had a shocker or Theo's scoring system finally worked in our favour. Whatever it was, we suddenly ended up in second place scooping the bottle of wine as our reward. Totally baffled we awaited the raffle with more tickets than it is wise to shake a stick at.

Unfortunately we didn't hold the winning ticket - but more bizarrely, the winner wasn't able to identify the right key so it rolls onto next week - but now with 10 keys.

Finally, the bad thing. On my way home and struggling with Robson's forgotten umbrella and trying to check my pockets for my mobile I dropped and shattered the bottle of wine outside Purley Kitchens and bathrooms. oh dear.

Special Caveat received from Robson -

At risk of coming across as slightly defensive £47,000pw on £56m =
around 4.35%.
You can't get that anywhere on a deposit basis, maybe in a fixed term
bond.
Best you can do is 3% = £32,000 and that's with tin pot companies
I doubt you could rock up with £56m and stick down.
And you can stick that in your status report.