Inter-Club Quiz

After not having heard anything about the upcoming Inter-Club Quiz, I was surprised when on Monday I got an e-mail from the chair of the O&C Younger Member's Committee informing me that I was on the team. Hence, having not even anticipated that I was going until the last minute, I didn't have very high expectations of the whole thing.

Yet somehow my original plan to just throw on a black dress and wear my hair straight got side-tracked by an online video on teasing hair. Hence, for some reason I thought it would be fun to tease my hair up into something that I swear looked almost like Elvira. Hopefully as the evening went on it settled down into something that just looked rather Texan, but I have to admit it was kind of fun to try a new style. (I'd read in the NYTimes recently that "big hair" was in again, so why not jump on the bandwagon?)

Also, I had read somewhere that women were more likely to be asked out when wearing Chanel No. 9, so given that I was in a very big-hair-Texan mood, even though I normally never wear it (seems too middle-aged and dowdy to me) I put on a spritz of it.

Perhaps there was something to that, for I was surprised at the attention I got at the event. The Inter-Club chair bought me a drink as soon as I arrived, and I was surprised when the Scotsman who had given the "Toast to the Lassies" at the Burns Night supper greeted me with an instant look of delighted recognition and a kiss. (No idea why he was so happy to see me, but I have to admit he has the most melodic Scottish accent of any man I've ever heard. I could listen to him talk for hours).

I also ended up chatting to a lovely girl, Nicole, from the Royal Overseas League. I was surprised, as having met so many girls who I didn't instantaneously get along with, I was surprised at how quickly I liked her. Good thing that she turned out to be on my team, as the O&C and the ROSL had a coalition team going that night. (Just like the new government!)

The pre-dinner socializing couldn't last for long however, as soon it was time to head into dinner, and the quiz. I ended up sitting next to the O&C YM Committee Vice-Chair, and with the partner of the O&C YM Committee Chair on the other side. Somewhat boring dinner conversation, due to the fact that it was mostly the Vice-Chair complaining about people who were complaining about the set-up of the event. Whatever, you've really just got to learn to be more positive, girl...

The quiz itself turned out to be surprisingly fun. During dinner there were some nearly impossible challenges (identifying scenes from movies, identifying famous pieces of art when you could only see a portion of the canvas, decrypting James Bond quotes), but afterwards we moved onto more general quiz questions, where I was surprised at what I knew. (The author of the three principles of robot behaviour, the name of the robot that died saying "Daisy daisy", the last day that Gordon Brown could have called a general election, and the MP who upon losing his seat quoted Arnie saying, "I'll be back.") I think I was most surprised by the things I knew about British politics really, I guess showing that I'm really starting to become a full-on Brit.

Also, despite not having expected much out of the evening, I was surprised at how much I was laughing and how entertaining the whole thing was. I was constantly giggling at some of the one-liners and clever remarks people made, it was an evening of non-stop hilarious wit.

As the quiz went on, the scoring revealed that our little coalition team was only one point behind the Carlton Club, so we redoubled our efforts (although did horribly badly on a round relating to James Bond trivia!) Finally at the end of the evening, they announced the club scores in reverse order (the RAC did hideously badly, coming in last place with only 15 points!) until finally it was only our team and the Carlton left. So they made us both stand, there was a drumroll, and......the Carlton Club won it. Blast!

Still, in the end we only lost by a point, and reassured ourselves that it was best that way, as if we'd won we would have been forced to host the Inter-Club quiz next year! (Somewhat akin to winning the Eurovision song contest, you start to realise that "winning" is somewhat of a punishment!)

After dinner was over, everyone headed into the bar for dinner. I was determined to be good, and so thought about going home at that point (after all, I had to be up for polo in the morning!) but somehow I got dragged into the bar to share some champagne with my winning teammates from the ROSL.

And then I got into conversation with Gordon, who remains as wonderfully intellectual as always, although I noticed he has this funny tic where he bobs his head as he talks. Gosh, that guy must be nervous at times... Still, I enjoy his company, so it was lovely to talk to him.

Me with Gordon
Overall though, I started to wonder if there were something to that perfume. I had so many men coming over and introducing themselves, it was rather bizarre. James, a guy I vaguely remembered chatting to in the waning hours of the Casino Night, came up and greeted me like he'd been waiting to say hello all evening. In truth, I was rather surprised he even remembered my name, much less was so apparently thrilled to see me. The Scottish Socialite who took so many lovely pictures of me at the Casino Night came up to me and exclaimed, "You've lost weight!" I wasn't sure what to say to that except, "Thanks?" Gordon's brother David stopped me in conversation as well, something he never does. Before I knew it all of my pre-set leaving times were flitting away. 11 PM became 11:30, and soon it was past midnight and there was no hope of me getting the Tube home.

Met a Scottish chap who had been to UPenn and got talking to him for a bit, he ignored my requests for a glass of tap water by buying a bottle of champagne. Finally, the bar closed and the groups were splitting off, with some people going to the RAC, and the guy with the lovely Scottish accent (from earlier in the evening) organizing a group to head to Home House. Both great options, but I realised at this point if I didn't go home, I was truly done for.

UPenn guy however did not take my wanting to leave very well. In some ways because he was the guy most fascinated with my company that evening, and obviously did not want to give me up that easily. I wasn't sure of what I thought about him, as we'd argued about nationalized healthcare earlier, but he did have a point that I owed him a drink. Which I conceded was true, but there was still no way I was going out. So I pulled out one of my cards (thank goodness I had more printed!) and handed it over to him, saying that now he had my contact info so he could remind me that I owed him a drink.

This was, of course, a subtle way of giving the guy my number, as being British, there was no way he was going to ask. He then gave me his card as well, which I tucked away intending to forget about it immediately, as that's not how this game works...

Finally, I made it through a flurry of kisses good-bye, and bundled myself into a cab, arriving back at my flat around 1 AM. Set alarms to make sure I got up in time in the morning, and then was about to head into bed, when I heard my phone buzz from a text. Well, it seems the young man had figured something out, as he'd texted already:

"Adrian, Nice to meet you tonight, shame you didn't make it to Home House. Enjoy polo tomorrow."

Well, such good behaviour deserves a reward, so I texted him to say that I was home safely and heading to bed. He texted back almost immediately (a bit keen, are we?) asking where I lived to make it home so quickly. After texting back that I lived in West Kensington, he wrote: "So West Ken is my hood, where about? I used to be a big player in the Barons Court massive!"

Alas, the constant back-and-forth told me that he would keep this conversation going as long as I kept replying, so I just ignored that last message, given that I'd told him that I was already going to sleep. I would have turned my phone off even, except I needed to keep it on so that my alarm would wake me up in the morning. But even as I tried to drift off, my phone buzzed again with a text: "Either ignoring me or sleep, interesting!!!!"

Still, I ignored it and turned over in a desperate attempt to sleep. Thought about being mean and texting him when I had to get up at 6:30 AM, but left it until after I'd come home from polo later in the afternoon, apologizing for dropping my end of the text chat and hoping that he'd had a good time at Home House. I almost worried if I'd mis-read the situation when he took almost 20 minutes to reply, but good reliable boy that he is, he replied: "Ha ha no worries it was late! Was fun at the time, but not so much this morning! At FA Cup final so can't complain, hope your polo was fun"

Now of course, I'm in a bit of a quandary, as given that I was the recipient of the last text, it's up to me to respond, but it still seems like he should be the one to ask me out for a drink if he wants to. I think I'll resolve this one by seeing if I can generate a friend request on Facebook, which is always a nice, middle-of-the-road option. After all, don't think I could make it out this week for a drink even if I wanted to...

And do I want to date this guy? In truth, he seemed a bit bullying, refusing to accept that I wanted tap water and pressuring me so much to come out to Home House. Yet, I suppose we can all get a bit forceful in wanting our way when it's late and we've had a bit to drink. Was he cute? I can't remember swooning over him, but I can't recall thinking he was entirely ugly either. And I realise that I've got to get over my usual panic about shutting down guys I'm not completely sure about right out of the box. Why not go out and give this guy a chance, get to know him since he's so obviously keen? Given how much I was complaining to Keely the other night that I was in a dry spell, it would seem a bit petulant to not at least go with it now that I seem to have FINALLY broken the stretch.

Which is, at the end of the day, the key take-home message. I can't explain quite why so much male attention returned last night, but all I can say is that I'm thankful it did. It's funny how having boys fancy you can put such an extra spring in your step...