I walked into Trafalgar square at approx 13:45, pulled my pocket-watch and was shortly thereafter accosted. Things went downhill from there. 
I had a very enjoyable day and a good time was still being had by all when I had to leave. I’ll leave it to someone who can actually put names to faces to detail who was there and who did what, but I have a good few photos with which to remember the day.
Yes indeedy. A bit of cultcha, a bit of food, a bit of brainbending, and the usual amount of alcohol consumption and nattering. A good day out.
The weirdest thing is that on the train down, I met my best friend and his girlfriend, going to London for the day. On the tube on the way back I met someone else from Cambridge, aparently working in London for the summer.
Just got home. Had a great time as usual and the quiz was great. Our team (creatively called Team 2 since Team 1 was already taken) shot out to a huge lead, but wound up loosing by a few questions. I think our early gloating caused the quiz karma to bite us on the arse.
It was great to meet the new folks, and to see the regulars once again. So, when/where is the next one?
Still in London - found an easyInternet place currently charging £0.70 an hour. The cheapest hotel in London turned out to be perfectly adequate for my needs. A bit sweaty though - I forgot that air conditioning is a major plus in weather like this.
Great evening, great people, great quiz (thanks jr8) and lots of beer and chat.
Indeed it was a fantastic quiz which demonstrated to me that Dopers make very bad winners as evidenced by Team 1’s poor grace in the face of vctory. Of course as kferr said we were gloating after the first round so would probably have done the same.
Bah. What’s the point of winning if you can’t mock your vanquished foes? I did, initially, have doubts about Fearless Leader Fran’s strategy (picking pudgy Radio Three fan, me, for her team, then choosing question categories involving sports and pop music), but it paid off in the end … (Hats off to jr8, too, for running the quiz, without too much bloodshed, or excessively loud cries of “Cite!”)
Speaking of excessively loud cries, my patented Doper Attraction Method, as demonstrated in Trafalgar Square (bellowing “1920s Death Rays!” in a stentorian voice, in the hope that passing Dopers would recognize a kindred spirit), proved less than totally effective. Back to the drawing board there, I think.
Highly enjoyable (if a bit hot and muggy) day. I’ve downloaded the contents of my small but perfectly formed digital camera; as I expected, it contains nice shots of jr8, Tansu, and Anahita, taken by Francesca, plus blurry shots of the backs of people’s heads, taken by me. So it goes …
It was indeed fun. The flight and four hour bus ride back home from Dublin, however, was not.
Steve Wright, would you mind letting me see any photos of you (or anyone else) has taken of me before you post them? I know it sounds wickedly vain, but you’ll just have to accept that I am worried I may some day be a famous multi-gazillionaire who does her weekly grocery shopping at Harrods and I want to make sure there aren’t any foul photos of me flying around the place.
I enjoyed meeting all the people I met for the first time and seeing some familiar faces as well. You’ve a lovely city and I thoroughly enjoyed my stay. Thank you.
Huh? That second paragraph should make sense. Take out the first ‘of’ and it may or may not make sense.
Ummm… just what exactly happenned after I left, Ana?
May I add my note of thanks to jr8 who produced a sterling quiz. I suppose we should have known that our team name was prophetic; we did indeed come second, or if you like, last, but in the spirit of fostering lively debate, I’d like to say :
WE WUZ ROBBED.
Wait till Scifi Sam gets here, she’ll tell you.
It was lovely to meet so many new people in the big hot city and I am looking forward to seeing the pictures!
You should all come to Dublin next time - it ain’t quite so hot!
Firstly, let me just say that it’s not true that I was forced to change my name due to certain events Saturday night, rumours to the contrary. It’s just something that’s been in the works for a while. Behold me in all my new glory.
For the benefit of those who weren’t there due to close encounters with small scuttling things or being doped (as opposed to Doped) to the eyeballs at home, here’s a brief summary of the evening.
It was surprisingly easy to spot the Doper group from a distance, even in tourist-choked Trafalgar Square, in that:
Once it was decided that all who were coming had come, we promptly dispersed again to pick up a bit of cultcha - one group to the Natural History and Science Museums, the other to the National Gallery (BTW, I heartily recommend the Earth Galleries at the NHM – lots of buttons to push, an “earthquake” ride, and you get to watch the world blow up). Naturally there’s only so much education one can have, and by five we were back together and headed off the Silver Cross for some pre-emptive imbibing.
At six a small group of us popped next door for the pizza buffet (prompting the worrying question from Hibernicus as to whether, in an All You Can Eat buffet, you get charged extra from taking More Than You Can Eat; I think we dodged a bullet there), and by seven we were back and the downstairs portion of the pub was filling up with the last of the Doper crew, about 20 people in all.
As for the quiz, let me just say that I probably had more fun playing Jeremy Paxman to your hapless scholars than you did squabbling over the answers to my fiendishly difficult questions (and a few ridiculously easy ones). In retrospect, it was definitely a good idea to introduce the random choice element into the quiz to prevent accusations of blatant favoritism from either team (even so, I continue to marvel how Team 2 managed to select every single literature question in the batch – blame casdave for that one). Nevertheless, you were all remarkably accommodating about the few suspect questions, for which I am grateful (and I’m left with the task of skimming through the Complete Works of William Shakespeare looking for scenes set in London. Or maybe I’ll just post the question in GQ or Cafe Society).
Let bystanders note, however, that it is exceedingly difficult to stump a random group of Dopers; even where the team under fire didn’t know the answer to some obscure query, somebody on the other team usually did (Shade: “I thought everybody knew Olber’s Paradox.”).
In the end, there was really only one question’s difference pointwise between the two teams, so despite Team 2 being the recipient of the Charlie Brown Memorial Loser’s Trophy (they got a rock), it was a surprisingly evenly matched competition all around.
For those of you who missed it, SteveWright and garius went head-to-head on the unused Doctor Who round after the quiz, with Steve making a clean sweep of the round (and garius only missing the incidental question about Peter Davison’s appearance as Dish of the Day in Hitchhiker’s Guide). Admittedly, there was some cooperative effort; the two of them collaborated on some furious calculation as the number of balls a Dalek has (56, if you’re curious).
The quiz lasted around two hours, followed by more drinking, nattering and wearing of colourful stickers. I wandered off just before 11, caught the Tube down to Balham (“Gateway to the South”), and a train home from there.
Thanks to all for being such good sports and for an excellent day out. I shall now start the slow accumulation of factoids for the next quiz in the distant future (although probably not for a few Londopes – these things take time to sort out, and I don’t want to hijack someone else’s event). Cheers, all.
Funny you should say that but only 5 days ago I was sitting having a sandwich at the Australian Science Festival when a real Dalek appeared. God only knows how they got here but for entertainment I tried to count their nodules (balls, as you call them) and managed 48 before it became aware of my scrutiny and I averted my gaze. When I looked back it had vanished into the exhibition hall…
Gyrate, who did you used to be…?
That could be a question for the next quiz. Hint - Gyrate put on the last quiz - sound it out.
Just got back from Alex B’s house. I had a lovely weekend - it was great to see familiar faces again and meet some new ones. Bibiovore - it was pleasure. Crusoe - we missed you. And not just because we didn’t get the chance to tease you about fondling spiders. ObiWan - glad you could make it!
Doesn’t Annie look great?
Gyrate (I am only slightly disturbed by your new username) - thanks again for all the work you put into the quiz. You are truly a master.
Mo - it was lovely to meet you. I’ll be sure to drop in on you when I’m in Dublin soon.
Steve - a pleasure as always. I knew it was wise to be on your team. Balham indeed.
Tansu - great to see you again. Glad you got on with my friend Steve so well 
Having Londopes on a bank holiday weekend is a good idea. Two days to recover!
Two days to recover forsooth!
That’s why this thread isn’t as busy as I thought it should be - all you lot are not at work!!
Shnashen, fashen, rashen, as Muttley might say.
I trust that those who haven’t posted here yet will kindly do so, once they get into work tomorrow!
I am dying to see the pix!
And as for Gyrate’s new name - I was a tad puzzled over on NADS , but then when I saw him on here, the penny dropped.
Francesca, when you are over here doing your ancestry bit, we should arrange a DublinDope - I don’t think we have the firepower for a ClonmelDope!
Those to whom I promised e-mails on various topics should have them by now - you know who you are.
(And if you don’t - then you won’t notice that you haven’t got one, will you? Everyone’s a winner!)
Oh, if I only had a pound for every time a woman told me she found me “slightly disturbing”…
OK, I think I may have worked the Gyrate mystery out…
Piiiiiiictures. I want to see the piiiiiiiiiictures.