2004-08-09 at 3:04 p.m.

I went to a trivia night last Friday.

Trivia nights are sort of like doing a prolonged exam, in a group. An exam that covers a wide range of esoteric and frankly quite useless subjects, at that. However, one can get drunk while doing it, which is a plus. Sadly, my parents were on my team, which put a something of a dent in my raging alcoholism. Also, I was the youngest person on the team by at least twenty years. So, not exactly a wild and crazy night out.

I was the only person on our team able to answer the following questions -

What is the process by which bread and wine is turned into the flesh and blood of Christ in Catholic Mass? (A: Transubstantiation)

Which author wrote the following books? 'Cat's Eye' 'The Handmaid's Tale' and 'Alias Grace'? (A: Margaret Atwood)

Five cats can kill five mice in five minutes. How many cats does it take to kill 100 mice in 100 minutes? (A: Five).

Who is Aragorn's father? (A: Arathorn)

I was, however, completely unable to answer any questions on sport, current affairs, or any person or event occuring before 1987.

In the end, our team came second (narrowly beaten by those smug cheating bastards at Table 19). We won an awful lot of pet food (which the other team members took. I may not be earning much money, but I'm not at the stage where I'm forced to eat pet food just yet), random condiments (such as tomato sauce and lemon pepper seasoning, for some reason) and a great quantity of lollies, of which I took rather more than I should have. I spent most of Saturday happily buzzing around town on a fairly impressive sugar high. Put it this way... remember that Simpsons episode where Bart and Milhouse drink the Super-Squishee made entirely out of syrup? That's what it was like. There may even have been a catchy musical number.

Speaking of catchy musical numbers, Annie rehearsals continue unabated. I have started to look forward to orchestral rehearsals, though - simply because all the orchestral cues I've been forced to play at other rehearsals are now an opportunity to kick back, relax, and imagine inappropriate things.

It got so cold in the hall at yesterday's rehearsal that I was forced to go to the costume box and pilfer a 1930s felt hat to wear as we rehearsed, simply to keep my scalp at a vaguely human temperature. Most of the orchestra seemed to think it was quite stylish, but perhaps they were humouring me.

The Golden Retriever that will eventually be playing 'Sandy' in the show has been coming to rehearsals lately. The sheer, unadulterated cuteness of this animal has to be seen to be believed. It's like... well, you know that bit in Shrek 2 where Puss in Boots pulls his big-eyed, cute face? Kinda like that, but far, far cuter. In fact, this animal is so cute that the merest glance at it will erase all seeds of malice and evil from your heart and leave you as nothing but a puddle of sickly-sweet schmoopiness. None can resist. None! NONE, I SAY!

And I hate myself for it.