Recursive Words

We won an actual “wooden spoon” this evening, after taking part in the local rugby club quiz. We came last. Apparently, after complaints that the last iteration of the quiz had been “too difficult”, this year’s incarnation drew inspiration only from current events of the last twelve months.

Could you name the highest selling musical artists of the last twelve months? We thought we might at least get a few. We thought wrong. We thought wrong about a lot of things.

To be honest, going out to do a pub quiz is never really about the quiz – it’s about having an excuse to go out and spend the evening with friends. Sure, you’ll find the occasional “professional quizzers” that sit there with their glass of lemonade, hunched over the answer sheet – but we’re not those people. Not those people at all.

Today also coincided with a wonderful friend’s movie being released on Amazon Movies. She started writing during the pandemic, and following a tortuous journey over the last several years, has ended up with an actual movie out there in the wild – with her name in the titles and everything.

I’m really not sure how to relate how proud I am of her.

It’s been super interesting over the last couple of years, listening to the adventure that bringing a story from words on a page to something you can watch on your TV entails. Having been on the outside, looking in, I’m filled with wonder at the people that do this year in, year out. It seems to be very much a calling.

Walking home from the rugby club reminded me just how wonderful our circle of friends are – and how little time we have spent with them in recent months. Life happens, as they say. There’s been rather a lot of “life happening” in the last couple of years – far more than I remember in the past.

Everybody I speak to at the moment seems to express the same sentiments – that they don’t remember the last time they slowed down. Everybody seems to be surrounded by chaos at the moment. Everybody.

Let’s cross our fingers, and hope this weekend the chaos does as it’s told, and stays out of our way at least for a day or two. A day or two would be nice.