Tuesday 16 February 2010

The Waiting Game

The sun is shining and it finally feels like springs may be on the way here in Bishkek. The temperature has cracked above the zero mark and the two weeks of accumalated ice and snow are melting fast.

My case of near pnuomonia is likewise clearling with the weather ( and a good dose of antobiotics). The waiting game is now on.....

Waiting for another kyrgz extension. Done! Have another month to go.

Waiting on Chinese visa. This goes on till next week after the end of Chinese new year and the emabassy reopens

Waiting on the weather to clear. It seems this may be on the way. Though we have had at least one false spring in Janurary where i was walking aorund in a Tshirt in anticipation only to get blasted by a week of snow and ice.

Waiting on a few bike parts from Holland.

Waiting to get back on the road. It has been nearly three months and the feet are starting to get rather itchy!

Where do ants sleep and other useless facts....

It’s the big night. I have decided to hang my limp reputation on the line and try to get the Alpine Fund kitty looking a little less battered. My choice for such an event, well what else does a guy with a mind for useless information (and not much) else do……. A quiz night of course!

Frieder, the master of Bishkek’s social networks and pseudo boss of the Alpine fund has been busy emailing for the last week. Richard the owner of the Metro Bar who is hosting us has likewise been harassing his clientele. Now it’s just a waiting game to see if anyone turns up.

Tim, my slightly crazy (former) housemate and I do a final check of each other questions. He is convinced that my music questions are impossible and I am likewise skeptical of anyone’s ability to compute his maths and engineering head-wreckers. Master Judge, Magreet ( who is in fact a judge in real life), puts on her sternest face and prepares to do battle with anyone that challenges her authority. The judge’s decision will defiantly be final!

Richard and Frieder have clearly done a good job of harassing anyone and everyone as the turn out is great!

Round 1 begins……… then it stops………then it begins again…then it stops…….Finally we coax the rather temperamental microphone into life and its game on.

There if good sport between all the teams with Team Canada drawing to an early lead.

There is a challenge to one of my questions. The successor to Julius Cesar as head of the Roman Empire? I concede and accept any of Octavian’s plethora of pseudonyms. Everyone is fallible even my Wikipedia source material!

After 9 rounds the scores are incredibly close. It the end it is a lack of knowledge of anatomy- name the body parts- that loose Team Canada the crown.

I kick back for a rather expensive beer afterwards- the metro bar is the main expat hangout in Bishkek and it therefore usually out of my price range. I savour the one beer i can afford before heading home for a good sleep!