Tablet Search
A very good evening from the Lifestyle Support Guru! This well be my last post before heading off to the Dark Continent, so I thought I would leave you with a few words about entertaining the masses whilst educating them in Welsh culture at the same time. As ever, I think I may be leading the way where others merely follow.
Occasionally, when I get fed up of writing quiz questions at home, I go to the pub with my tablet (not my tablets) and work on questions there – I like a change of scenery now and again. If there are people around, I sometimes test the questions out on them and here was the latest conversation, which involved a certain little Yorkshireman – who has appeared in previous posts – and three or four other people, all of a similar age. The questions were on children’s TV:
Me: What were the names of the Tweenies?
Yorkshireman: I don’t know, but I can remember the name of the dog. It was Doodle or something like that.
M: Doodles. How did you know that?
Y: I used to watch it all the time.
I then do a little bit of searching on t’internet and find the Tweenies didn’t start until 1999.
M: How old were you in 1999?
Y: 39
Silence from all around as they imagine an unmarried, childless 39-year-old watching the Tweenies. He then lost any further credibility when he was unable to name the series which opened with the line: ‘Here is a box, a musical box, wound up and ready to play.’
Someone else then asked who links the Deputy Marshal in ‘High Noon’ with an underwater TV 
series (I still haven’t worked out the connection between that and the Tweenies). Much scratching of heads until we are told that it was Lloyd Bridges in ‘Sea Hunt’ – everyone looks suitably puzzled because we’ve never heard of it. I then ask who sang the theme song to ‘High Noon’ and suddenly everyone joins in with “Do not forsake me, o my darlin’” and we are having a jolly little singalong!
It was just like being back home after a rugby match!
Now picture a Sunday night at the same local (which I’ll call the Coach and Horses for reasons of anonymity) which runs a quiz followed by a few games of Sticky Fingers. For those who are unaware of this highly entertaining method of losing money, it’s basically like Bingo but with playing cards. When you are down to your last card (of 13), you shout ‘Sticky Fingers’, just to let everyone else know that you may be close to winning a life-changing amount of money (usually around £30) and, therefore, a prime target for mugging on the way home. Last night a young female had volunteered to take the landlord’s place as the ‘caller’ because he had hurt his arm (no, I wasn’t quite sure how that would affect his ability to call out the cards either, but that’s some men for you…). The young female had imbibed a few Jagerbombs during the evening and was having a jolly time calling out the cards – for example: ‘The nine of spades… oh, sorry, that should be the nine of hearts.’ An easy mistake to make!
Just to make things even jollier, I thought it would be a good idea to teach her how to say ‘sticky fingers’ in Welsh – ‘bysedd gludiog’ – a first for Derby and, possibly, the whole of England! She then refused to accept any calls if they weren’t in Welsh – such larks!
I may try Swahili in a few weeks’ time! Multiculturalism is alive and kicking in the Midlands! Good evening, one and all! Nos da, bonsoir, usiki mwema.