Quizzing with the expats

One of things I was sorry to leave in the UK was our regular pub quiz at The Castle, every Tuesday. So I was pleased to discover early on in my new city that Caledonia, a pub run by two Brits here, has one every other Thursday. Phew. The usual rounds, and guessing at random photos... What fun!

After two weeks of unusually cold weather, including snow, Spring finally arrived, and I actually trotted to work without a scarf. Walking home, I decided to head off in a slightly different direction from my normal route, and found some fresh beautiful buildings. Central Budapest has an almost Parisien feel at times, and felt so much more inviting in the balmy Spring late afternoon glow. After days of feeling rather despondent, I was hitting a good mood. Then I wondered back towards my normal route, and ran into all the annoying rubbish pile owners again. They didn't seem to care about blocking up the pavement, and neither do normal Hungarian pedestrians. As a confirmed fast-walker, I despise people a) getting in the way without giving a fuck b) refusing to be polite and always making you move out of there way. Nearly back at mine, I actually stood stock still because a woman was walking straight at me, in spite of my leaving plenty of room for her to walk on my left. She decided to barge past me out of spite. I'd had enough. Perhaps one day I'll become like my father and actually full-on shout at people. One day...

In the evening I headed out to the pub. There seemed to be so many people on the streets, presumably lured out by the change in weather. Caledonia's not far from me, up near Oktogon, and it didn't take me long to get there. Sally was there with her friends, many of whom I'd not met before. It was one of those places where you can't really hear someone more than a metre away, so unfortunately I didn't get a chance to really meet anyone else, except for a splendid American girl, who was very amusing.

In the end we didn't did okay - in spite of coming second from last - because there were only 6 points between us and the winning team. The usual questions we should have got right were there (I knew the Harlem Globetrotters were from Chicago!), but it was still a very fair showing. Well done us. See you at Caledonia in two weeks for the rematch.