Loo Traffic Control

Madhan and Jennifer were early arrivals at the Hobbayne Centre ahead of their big quiz night. It was great to have Jennifer back after a long absence and we hope to see her again soon. They were being briefed about the event as Kash and Sevan arrived, which was the cue to start setting up.

Madhan and Jennifer started pairing up cutlery for all of the guests while Kash and Sevan unfolded tables and puzzled over the table layout. Everyone needed space to move, so tables were slid back and forward like a puzzle until everything was in order. Once Jenni had arrived our team was complete and we came together to lay out chairs for all of the attendees, with the comfiest going to the trustees' table.

When the front of house was ready, there was nothing for us to do until the crowds arrived. It was time to relax and prepare ourselves for the evening to come. We charged our batteries while we waited as the organisers had provided us lots and lots of biscuits to keep our energies up. Maybe it was the increased sugar levels that caused a lot of excitement when the raffle prize table was laid out. We didn't care about the free pizzas or chocolates... there was a blue sloth looking realing cute slouching against the wall. This was the best prize going, everyone agreed.

Jenni had volunteered to work the front desk as people arrived, taking the entrance fee and selling raffle tickets. After this, the next real push for all of us would start half way through the quiz when dinner would be served. In the meantime Kash and Sevan caught up on some report writing while chatting to Jennifer and Madhan.

Soon after the guests had arrived, disaster struck! The main bathrooms flooded. The only other pair of cubicles were hidden back stage and Jenni, fresh from selling tickets took on the role of traffic controller, directing guests around secret areas normally reserved for GoodGymers to lounge around in at events like this.

Jennifer, Madhan, Kash and Sevan took Jenni's earlier hard work and were turning the raffle tickets into raffle ticket origami. They folded the tickets tightly so that no one could see the numbers, cheat and give that lovely blue sloth to their best friend. We started off with a little bowl for the folded tickets which was soon overflowing. Searching for something bigger we were given a decorative cake cover which we flipped over and filled with hopeful scraps of paper.

As the midpoint of the quiz came, we were all primed for action. Bowls of roasted nuts went out first, then from each table we took orders for chicken curry or the intriguingly named Vegetable Jumble. The service went smoothly and so did the clear up, with Kash and Sevan in hunter mode on the floor for empty plates and Madhan taking them into the kitchen and prepping them to be washed.

Once the paying guests had eaten, it was our turn. We were given plates piled high with vegetables, lentils, rice and chicken curry. It was a challenge to eat our way through all of the food (which didn't stop us nibbling on more biscuits later). The quiet time gave us a chance to play along with the quiz though where we found out that:

• We'd all have Jenni on our quiz team as she has a huge range of general knowledge filed away 🤓
• Jennifer had a well spent youth and can identify almost any cartoon characters
• Sevan can guess some pretty random answers

Next year we might enter ourselves as we thought we could've done pretty well as a team.

Eventually, we pried ourselves off the seats and back into service. Wiping down tables behind the scenes then getting stuck in with the washing up. By this time we'd been at the Hobbayne for over 5 hours and one by one we made our excuses before the end of the evening, heading into the night towards our beds.