Why I suck at Pub Quizs

Another week has passed and another Tuesday evening was spent trying to win stuff at the Bulldog's Pub Quiz in Lan Kwai Fong. As per usual our team didn't win and was once again beaten by our friends from the rival team (curse you all!!). We cam 5th out of 14 teams, which on the face of it is not bad going and wasn't as frustrating as the 4 week stretch we had of coming in 2nd overall to the "Other Team".

Still winning was never the real point of going to the pub quiz, although it has now become an obsession so much that I am refreshing a random fact generator as we speak. Did you know that Green is the colour least used by plants in photosynthesis, therefore more light is reflected of the green pigments to our eyes making the plants appear green. The real point of going to the Quiz is to meet up with some really cool people have some fun, get drunk and then try and wake up for work the next morning. Note: I have now determined that 5 pints of Kronenberg is enough to get me reasonably drunk and still be able to get up easily the next day. The time I drank 12 Heineken was hell, Heineken gives me a headache in small doses but in those doses my head felt like there was a Frenchman living in it.

The beer is probably the reason why we don't do as well as we could in the Quiz. The "Other Team" are all slightly older and more sober than us which does help a lot. Also we all tend to think we know the answer to the questions which means we can need several minutes to thrash out the arguments for a particularly contentious question. Also we do quite well in the music rounds usually, which is bad because it doesn't count towards the overall score and you get a free shooter for every answer you get right.

However despite the humiliation each week it is really good fun. I think I enjoy it more than a full blown night out in many ways (mainly because I am a lazy arsehole and the opportunity to sit down and get drunk appeals).

The Music section:

Last week I had two songs highlighting my earlier musical days and also what that developed into. This week I thought I would continue that with my love of instrumental guitar music. The song below is Always With Me, Always With You by Joe Satriani. This the first instrumental guitar song that I learnt to play, back when I was in school. Playing this song I became the first person ever at my rather old fashioned school to get to the final of our annual music competition. I entered myself in the strings section, against some very decent classical musicians and won, this didn't go down to well as it meant that there wouldn't be a senior violinist etc. at the end of year concert. So they made a new category for the guitar for the first time, something which they have kept going ever since. I didn't win the overall prize but I enjoyed the experience of being able to show some rather old fashioned people a snippet of what is possible on the electric guitar.

Christmas in HK

Ok apologies first. I haven't blogged in 2 weeks, been very busy what with Christmas and all, so an extra long post today to update you on what I have been doing in that time. 

I am currently suffering from culture shock at Christmas in Hong Kong. The first thing was the rather strange decor that goes along with Christmas over here. Christmas decoration ideas appear to have arrived here from cartoon America via those twisted warped minds who design stuff like this in Japan. Here is a photo from a friend of mine that kind of sums up what I am getting at (many thanks to Lisa for snapping this)

I mean what the hell. Has a 1950s demonic, Elvis impersonating Santa decided to build himself a little fort out of poinsettias and strike a Kung Fu pose. Also why is he wearing a sleeveless top, who the hell does he think he is Chuck Norris. 

However there are some plus sides to Christmas in HK. Everything is open pretty much as normal on Christmas Day so if you had forgotten to buy something at the supermarket you could nip down and get it, if this were England you would be buggered. Also the weather is brilliant, I was sat outside at 9pm on Christmas day in Civic square at Elements shopping mall wearing a t-shirt, drinking a pint of Guinness whilst listening to my fiance and her choir sing Christmas carols. Surreal but utterly enjoyable.

I also had my company's Christmas dinner out at Po Toi O, near Clear water Bay in a small fishing village with an absolutely cracking seafood restaurant in it. 

Here is the office team. Clockwise from bottom left they are Brick (I know please don't ask), Vanessa, Minnie, Chris, Me (also Chris), Bowie, Kanas, Carol, Carmen and Ricky (our factory manager)

And here is the factory crew. I know how to pronounce this lots names but writing it out is a different matter as most of them don't have an English name.

Menu was as follows:

Seafood Soup with Corbicula, Bean Curd and Fish

Vegetable fried Razor Clams

Cuttlefish Sashimi and Deep fried Cuttlefish

Egg White Steamed Crab with Shaoxing Wine

Salted Shrimp

Boiled Spiral Shells with Spicy Wine

Whole Steamed Grouper

Deep fried Shrimp Ball

Sea Urchin fried Rice

Fried Noodles

All the food was excellent and a good time was had by all. I was glad that is all went well as this was my first meal with them all since the old manager (another Chris) had left. I felt it was a real bonding experience and I hope that this helps promote a good working relationship between everybody for the future.

A note on our transport to Po Toi O, we had a bus that the restaurant uses for large parties come and pick us up. If you have ever been out to this part of the New Territories you will know that the terrain is not what you would call flat and the roads are not straight but rather twisty. Despite this and the fact that we were driving along a cliff edge at the coast for long periods the bus driver maintained a steady 70mph, speeding up occasionally to overtake cars and trucks in his way. This was fine and quite fun on the way there, but on the way back with 5 beers and a large amount of seafood in my belly it was not so pleasant. To give you an idea of the speed we got from Tsuen Wan to Po Toi O in around 25mins, it is direct about 30km on the map.

A double dose of my music selection for you today, because... well just because I can. First up I am going to show my misspent youth by posting a classic Sublime song up. This brings back some very good memories from my days in a Ska/Punk band. We had one song where we used to switch instruments and this was the song I got to play the guitar on. There is a recording of this event floating around out there somewhere from a gig back when I would have been 16, I have no idea who has it now all I remember was that it was on a mini disc (they didn't last long did they)

I will follow this up with a song that I remember fondly as inspiring me to want to be a Bass player (along with Won't Get Fooled Again by the Who) and also started me listening to some more challenging and interesting Music in general. I therefore give you Schism by Tool. For all you music buffs out there the main verse is in alternating bars of 5/8 and 7/8 instead of straight 12/8 to give this disjointed feeling (a Schism in the music), shifting into 13/8 for the bridge and a straight 12/8 for the chorus (joining up the Schism in the beat). 

The end sequence of the song shifts into 8/4 then 9/8 and 7/4 (once again Schism in the beats) before the end riff which is in 12/8 to join the whole thing up again before closing in 4/4. Horrendously difficult to count but not something you can play just by feel as the timing of each note is crucial to this idea of having deliberate splits in the beat.