Bar trivia, drunk aliens and 21 boxes of doom
Last week was quite the rollercoaster! After our epic hike at Purisima Creek, my legs were pretty achy and I was hobbling around like an old bat. I still decided it would be a great idea to go out on a run – I never regret it here as the weather is so amazing, especially the pink sky when the sun is setting.
On Wednesday, we were excited to go to SF to see Harry Potter and the Cursed Child – I had managed to nab some cheap tickets. Alas, the pandemic had other plans and we were informed the day before the show that the cast was rampant with Covid so they had to cancel for the rest of the week. Bummer!
Not one to feel sad for too long, I decided we might as well still go to SF and do something different. The Eventbrite App is really useful as there are dozens of events listed daily and many of them are free. From the list, I signed up to a free pub quiz (or ‘bar trivia’ as they insist on calling it here) at a bar called Laszlo in the Mission District. We have been told by a few people that the Mission is a dodgy part of SF but it’s basically Hackney – a mix of hipster kombucha cafes and trendy bars along with tonnes of ‘Narnia’ shops (you know – the ones that sell every random item on this planet, from microwaves and dolls to lighters and paint stripper).
Before the pub quiz, we went for dinner in the Mission at a Peruvian restaurant called El Porteño II. I felt like I was back in Northern Peru aged 19, sipping on a Pico Sour. The food was amazing and so authentic – we had yuca chips, ceviche and the most incredible Peruvian paella, all washed down with a delicious mango margarita.
We then made our way to Laszlo, a swanky looking bar with a movie theme. We sat at the bar and ordered some drinks, and were then given some sheets of blank paper for the pub quiz. As the sheets were blank, I wrote ‘Pub Quiz’ at the top and underneath our team name. Hot Fuzz was playing on the TV behind the bar, so we decided to call ourselves The Cornetto Duo in the hope someone would get the reference (see here if you have no idea what I am talking about). In fact, we soon became The Cornetto Trilogy as a guy next to us at the bar decided to join our team. His name was Warren and he turned out to be a film critic from Seattle.
Warren was our saving grace as there were many sports questions (eurgh), an entire round on US Presidents (double eurgh) and another round on famous American men called David (?). Warren was an absolute legend and completely nailed the President and David rounds.
The final round was the music round – this is always my favourite because even though I am terrible at remembering the names of songs and artists, I always love to sing along. The bar had a very jolly atmosphere and everyone was letting rip with the singing, so it was very entertaining.
By some miracle, we actually won! The only fail was our team name – the quiz master had assumed my title of ‘Pub Quiz’ was our team name, so that’s what we got stuck with…at least we didn’t get called ‘Bar Trivia’!! The prize was drinks on the house which suited us very well. In fact, the barmen gave us shots of Clase Azul, a tequila so fancy it costs $40 a shot and comes in a bottle that you can ring like a bell! WIN.
The following day, when I was feeling slightly less fresh than usual, DHL decided this was the day they were going to deliver our boxes sent over from the UK. The man kindly and generously dumped all 21 of them in the car park under our building when I was on my own, so I had to call for back-up (thank you Andrew and Emily) to come and help me lug them up and to our flat. Thanks for nothing DHL man!
On Saturday we had our monthly post-run social. We were asked to bring some sort of baked goods or fruit before the run that everyone could share for breakfast. I decided to make gingerbread on Friday evening, but I may have had several (*ehem*) glasses of wine before commencing the baking. By the time the gingerbread dough had cooled in the fridge, it was past Midnight and Andrew was fast asleep.
It then dawned on me that I had no biscuit cutters or any types of tools to shape the dough. All I had were some squeezy tubes of sparkly icing and a pack of sugar eyeballs. Given my sobriety levels, I thought it was a great plan to make aliens by cutting random shapes into the dough, baking them then decorating them with multiple eyeballs.
The result can only be described as drunk aliens. Half of them were slightly charred on the bottom and all of them looked completely mental. I am sure my running club now thinks I am also bonkers, but at least they ate most of them, so I am considering this a win!