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Tuesday, April 21, 2009

My World - A Quiz in the Country

The sun was setting as we arrived at the venue for the quiz
On Saturday evening I attended an annual quiz held which was held this year, in a town called Tweespruit, about 120km / 75 miles from my home. My teammates collected me in the afternoon and together we rode across beautiful countryside, through farmlands to this little town which is even smaller than my hometown.
The sun was just beginning to set when we arrived at the venue. Not wanting to miss the opportunity to capture it I quickly set up my camera and took a few photos.

People queuing at the delicious buffet of grilled steak, potatoes and Greek salad. The smartly dressed young man in the photo, was our new question setter. He's the local IT expert and posed many computer-related questions which had the older folk stumped

Participating teams, family and friends made up the audience

After a lovely dinner of grilled steak, potatoes and salad, all the quiz contestants, their family and friends repaired to the conference room to battle it out. The annual quiz is contested between four or five towns and last night we had nine teams with four contestants in each team competing. The reigning champions, two brothers from our town, both in their eighties decided to retire after this quiz.

Although the quiz is serious business, it is also a lot of fun. Many of the contestants are getting on in years and are quite deaf. Teammates argue amongst themselves to the amusement of the audience and other contestants. Of course, everybody knows everybody and comments fly around the room as people banter with each other, while constantly being shushed by the Quiz Master!

One of the other towns took first prize

Me (in grey pullover) with my teammates.
The two men are retired sea captains!
The trophy which I hope I remember to polish

In the end my teammates and I tied with another team for fifth place ;)
Once again a mild argument broke out between my friend, Mossie (which is “Sparrow” in English) and me. Neither of us wanted to take the trophy home because having it means polishing it. I eventually accepted it and have it displayed here in my office. I photographed it and sent my husband a copy. He now thinks he’s married to the smartest lady in South Africa. In his e-mail reply on Sunday morning, he said: “You’re a clever lass. Tell me, how did the rest of your team fare?”

I also covered the event for the regional newspaper. This was a first for the people of the other towns - my fellow townsfolk are used to seeing me at functions with my camera slung around my neck – and once again much joking and teasing as I lined the winning teams up for official photographs.

This is my world...

Take a tour around other parts of the world by visiting http://showyourworld.blogspot.com

16 comments:

  1. That's why I never bother to win trophies! I could win them all but I hate polishing!

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  2. LOL! I love that Rinkly Rimes! Welcome to my blog! I'm off to read you and hope to "see" you here again. Hugs

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  3. Congratulations on winning the trophy, Jo ! Your Quiz evening sounded like a lot of fun ......

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  4. Thanks Lynda, the quiz is always a huge fun evening and I've been part of it for about 15 years. Only missed out when I was in West Africa. My hubby, son John, dil Debbie and I used to make quite a formidable team . Hubby is quite the "general knowledge" man, especially when it comes to sport and motor racing - of which there were many questions this time, thankfully not when our team were in the hot seats! Hugs

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  5. Interesting & congrats on winning the trophy - food sounds great :)

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  6. what a fun event and a competition to boot!
    and, who can argue with any event that has food!
    nice captures and congrats on the win.
    enjoyed reading your post.

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  7. Baruch, thanks for that. The food was great and the evening was well worth the long ride to get there;)

    Louise, welcome to my blog. I'll pop over to see you shortly.

    itsnotjustapicture: thanks for popping in again and for your kind comment.

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  8. Sounds like a fun, friendly competition. Congratulations!

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  9. Nice shots of your eventful evenig. Love the sunset and proud winners.

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  10. Hi zeal4adventure;)welcome to my blog! It always is a fun evening which we all enjoy.

    Arija;) thanks for your kind comments.

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  11. Congratulations on the trophy, Jo! I'm so happy for you!!

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  12. Thanks Esther! I struggled a bit this week to comment on your blog (from my side) but today I managed to comment on Sheba's new pool! Hugs

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  13. Looks like a good time, with a big reward. That never hurts.

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  14. Hi Robert, you're so right. A reward after enjoying the evening... Thanks for popping in;

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  15. Hi Jo! Thanks for the link to this post of your quiz - seems slightly different to ours in format if there is an audience! That must be a tad intimidating but if everyone takes it in good fun spirit that's the main thing. I like the trophies - polishing aside - our team prizes were a bottle of wine and a box of Roses chocolates each!
    Nice to see how things are done in different countries. I will comment over at my blog on your comment too!
    Catherine

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Thank you for visiting my blog and taking the time to leave a comment. I appreciate your feedback. Jo