Author: Richard

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QUIZ

My Xmas quiz 2025 is almost done – here it is- with maybe additions later.

General knowledge

1. Carnaby Street is in which part of London

2. Alpha Ursae Majoris, Alcor, zet UMa, Merak, Alkaid, Alioth arę stars in which constellation?

3. “taste the Rainbow” – catch phrase for which product?

4. Which furniture design is famous for functionalism, leather and steel?

5. What were the first words said on a telephone?

6. What is the record for ‘running’ up the Empire State Building?

7. Which FA League football ground is highest a.s.l.

8. Which runner was the 4th member of the golden era of middle distance running with Steve Ovett, Seb Coe, Steve Cram and …

9. What type of star is the Sun?

10. What is the highest grossing movie of all time?

Geography

1. Someone from Zagreb is a ?

2. City where Blue Nile meets White Nile?

3. Desert largely in Namibia

4. Ankhor Wat is in which country?

5. It is midday in London, Xmas Day – what time is it in Tokyo?

6. The source of the Amazon is in which country?

7. What is meteorologically a “broken sceptre”?

8. Which capital city would get most points at scrabble?

9. In which country would you find the Okavango Delta?

10.   Rapa Nui is known in English as?

History

1. In which century was New Zealand first populated by humans?

2. Where did Columbus first land in the Americas?

3. Whose horse is preserved at the National Army Museum in London?

4. What is the newish name for Upper Volta – post colonial?

5. Who was the longest serving 1st Lady in the USA?

6. How old was Joan of Arc when she was burnt at the stake – there were some evil bastards around at the time!

7. A statue by Rodin stands outside the UK Parliament building – which city does it commemorate?

8. What was a stanary town?

9. Where did Lady Godiva supposedly ride naked?

10.   Which is the biggest stately home in Engl

Nature

1. The largest tree is a ?

2. Camberwell Beauty and Essex skipper are what?

3. A group of goldfinches is called a ?

4. Owls are zygodactyl – what does that mean?

5. Pica pica is the scientific name for which common British bird?

6. How many species of trees are native to Britain?

7.     Which bird was extremely common in North America but became extinct early last century?

8. Which bird is the symbol of the RSPB?

9. Which bird migrates at least 23000 miles each year?

10. Which animal is thought to be the most dangerous in Africa?

An anagram section – to be printed and completed during quiz, or a race?  Anagrams to be printed alphabetically?  Could be Somerset place names like EMNOORST?

1. AERSTT

2 ACDDEHR

3. ACEHTTW

4. ACCEHIMORSSTTT

5. EEEHNORSTTWY

Arts

1. Where was the painter of the `Mona Lisa born?

2. Who won a Turner Prize for an unmade bed?

3. Whose painting was stolen for a second time in 2024 – and the robbers left a note saying ‘thanks for the poor security’

4. Who wrote Wuthering Heights?

5. Name the winners of tickets in Charlie and the chocolate Factory.

6. Who wrote the ‘Famous Five’ books. Name the 5!

7. What nationality was the composer Chopin?

8. Who masterminded the London Olympics opening ceremony?

9. Who was the painter famous for painting scenes of winter festivities in the 16th century?

10. Who was the drummer with the Who in 1970’s, considered one of the best rock drummers ever?

11. What is the title of Richard Osman’s top selling book this Xmas?

Politics

1. Where does the Chancellor of the Exchequer live (Official residence)?

2. Who is President of the EU?

3. What does the speaker of the House of Lords sit on in Parliament?

4. The Parliament of …..called Alpine was founded in 930AD – where?

5. Name the UK Prime Minister who was assassinated?

6. Which PM was nicknamed ‘milk snatcher”?

7. Who was the first president of the USSR?

8. Which country had the first ever female leader?

9. The Tolpuddle Martyrs were deported to Australia for what crime?

10. The British Parliament abolished xmas in what year?

Air travel

1. Which airport in the world has most passenger traffic?

2. Which airport has the rain vortex?

3. The airport of which country has the three-letter code of ‘FUN’.

4. Only 50 pilots have been trained to land in which countries International Airport

5. Which airline with an ICAO of BAN and a call sign of PENGUIN?

Winners in 2025 – name the competitions

Celtic; Europe; Lisa Tertsch; JJ(Austria), Nnena Kalu; Maria Corina Machado; Bath; Middlesex; Mikey Madison.

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ORANGE MAN BABY CRISIS

So Trump is suing the BBC for $5billion – and the BBC say they will defend the claim. NO! They should just tell him and his lawyers to fuck off! If that means not reporting from the USA – so be it. His version of the news will be put out on social media anyway.

Basically all news is interpretive. GB News has been accused of false claims many times already. Who is the arbitor of what is fair reporting anyway? Did Trump say those words – yes! So if the BBC had cut to just the few seconds there should be no problem? This is all about press freedom – something supposedly dear to the him and MAGA; unless of course he disagrees. I am minded of the late Arthur Scargill – apparently he read 2 newspapers – obviously the Daily Worker but said he always read the Financial Times first so he could get the facts before comment! Some papers thrive on comment more than others. I am aware of the ownership issues but feel that the Times tries to report the news first and comment second; and I fervently hope the Guardian does the same. The Express, Mail and Sun are shameless in selective reporting and unsupported comment – I am ashamed that citizens of the UK are so crass as to read such bile. Unfortunately I should also include the ipaper (now owned by the Express, Telegraph (ownership is a fight between right-wing groups) and the Mirror (although on the left – still using biased discretion regarding news stories. The Star is just for laughs and some great headlines (Truss lettuce being the most memorable)!

Most of us veer towards echo chambers for our views – the rabid right towards the RWP and their own social media sites. I too have blocked those I totally dislike from twitter – yes I am still there!

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XMAS

What is it about? Time for a list in specific order! I am sure to have missed out something

XMAS

  1. Consumerism
  2. Cake
  3. Crackers
  4. Children
  5. Presents
  6. Wrapping paper (227000 miles in the UK – mostly at Xmas)
  7. Turkey or a roast something
  8. Drinking
  9. Films
  10. Music
  11. Trees and decorations
  12. Tinsel
  13. Mistletoe
  14. Holly and wreaths
  15. Parties and gatherings.

I noticed nothing about JC – and maybe I should have put in a Nativity Play or better a panto! So I asked Google (as one does) for info on church attendance – a strange answer is below. Around 
2 million people attended Church of England Christmas services in 2023, a jump from 2022, with surveys in late 2025 suggesting nearly 45% (almost half) of UK adults planned to go to church for an event or service over Christmas, showing a rise in seasonal attendance driven by tradition, atmosphere, and spiritual meaning, especially among younger generations. 
2 million people is about 3% – but then Googles AI goes on to state 45% planned to go to church over Xmas? So about 30 million plan to visit a church over Xmas? This has to be total bollocks. Is Artificial Intelligence on Google (and elsewhere) politicised – in this case by the Christian right? (and I am aware that that is an oxymoron!).

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DIFFERENCE

19 indiscriminate deaths on Bondi Beach – all Jewish. 46000 deaths in Gaza – all Palestinian and a large number were children. Which gets the biggest headlines in the UK. Every death is regretable whatever their nationality, race, religion,age or sex.

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RANDOM STUFF

Firstly the ‘flu epidemic? Stats show that it is mainly children. Most of us oldun’s have has the stab! My wonderful grandchildren came up yesterday and we went to the park where they spent an hour playing on a pirate boat. I was sad not to see any other children there. there are a variety of activities from traditional swings, a basketball hoop, to a mini zip wire and unquatifyable others! It made me think how everything available for children is monetised or non-existent. The football field in the village is surrounded by a high fence and locked (supposedly to keep out dogs! The local swimming pool has closed, tennis is only available via a club. The old “Strawberry Line Railway Line’ is paved and suitable for cycling and surrounded by scrubland and woods for most of its path between the local villages – but it is rare to see a child! No wonder they get obese and stuck in rooms with their phones and online games. My generation has overseen the deprivation of childhood from our young. Hey government – do not increase benefits for the young, just give them free access to meaningful activities and free bus passes to get there.

Nothing much else to report! I might make some lemon curd as I have just had a delivery from https://www.crowdfarming.com/en – a brilliant company that supports organic farmers and cuts out the supermarkets. I get lemons, avocados, clementines, garlic, olive oil and more from them – highly recommended.

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SORRY

I am English so therefore say sorry; for you bumping into me when you did not look where you were going; for being white skinned when so many like me are absolute arseholes; and so many things! However I will not apologise for our wonderful weather. I love it, rain, shine, snow, drizzle, fog, cloudy and whatever.

I am not sorry for being a nice person, for not slagging people off without knowing their circumstances, for looking for positives, for hating racisim and misogyny, homophobia and and any form of sexism. So if you disagree, debate with me of delete me!

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BONKERS

£3120 for the CHEAPEST ticket for the FIFA World Cup Final. If England get to the final it will cost £5137 in total for the cheapest tickets. No doubt the streaming companies will hike their subs as well. Football is a game for the people – not te elite. No average fan is going to have £5137 in spare cash, let alone the cost of air travel (and between grounds in different countries), hotel costs and if lucky the occassional meal and drink! Infantino is being infantine. I recall a friends brother returning from the World Cup in France with tails of multinational games between fans in squares in France. Peaceful and friendly with exchange of addresses. And the profits will go to FIFA headquarters, Trump will glow ever brighter orange and the sponsor companies will grant selected board members admission to privideged seats. I will be interested to see how many tickets are granted to “fans’ who can afford the exorbitant fees. I hope the BBC has the guts to ignore the coming auction of broadcasters. TBH group matches have as much interest as group matches in the European Cup. Maybe the quarter finals onwards might be interesting, but less so than Barcelona of Real Madrid against Liverpool or Manchester City. Think more like Port Vale vs Exeter as an alternative in the early rounds – and even the excitement of the FA Cup is diminished by the ‘group’ stages. I should stop now! But why stop when on a rant!

Infantino gives Trump a peace prize so the C*** goes out and attacks Venezuela – I am sure they were threatening world peace! And has a rant against European Countries – which British Politicians with a few exceptions were too scared to respond too.

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MAN OF PEACE

celebrates his FIFA award with an act of terrorism. Whilst tankers ply their trade with Russian oil and contraband against international law, with impunity, Venezuela seems to me on Trump’s hit list. Their offence – having a left wing leadership. I am not saying that Venezuela is a paragon of virtue – far from it, but in terms of evil I doubt that it is in the top 10 – but it does have the advantage of being militarily weak – ideal for a bully like the orange peril. The idiot was boasting that the tanker was one of the biggest in the world – with a crew of unarmed sailors. It appears that the boat may have visited Iran recently, thus breaching an embargo. However the raid appears to be targeted rather than a part of a co-ordinated attack on embargo breaching trade. This also follows armed attacks on Venezuelan boats – allegedly plying the drugs trade. This too seems to be an attack of a bully rather than a country enforcing world peace and stopping drugs. Whatever the facts – this has not made the world a safer place. This all begs the question “Has Trump lost it? If he ever had’it'”! Will Starmer call him out? Not a chance – having just stitched up the taxpayer ‘again’ with a deal that benefits ‘Big Pharma’, and failing to condemn DT’s rant about Europe, and then failing to develop strong ties with the EU.

We need another referendum on the EU – the last was obviously orchestrated to some degree by Russia and the right wing. We need Europe and Europe needs us! The rise of populism is not inevitable with a government that shows balls! 5 countries are now boycotting the Eurovision Song Contest – objecting to the genocide carried out by a non-European country! Oh to be Spanish, Dutch, Irish or even Polish! As for the world gurning champion – he has still not apologised for his racist comments as a teenager (does not apologising for being a racist twat as a young man – earn respect? Does not lying and saying sorry earn respect – No – he is a c**t.

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WOMEN

The stats are horrific. All statistics are suspect but between 25% and 30% seems average for what a woman receives as annual income compared to men. And also the top 50 richest individuals received 8.51%. Fucking madness! Who does most of child rearing – our future – women.

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USA

The USA, or at least Trump and MAGA seem very hostile to the EU. I guess this is to be expected as at least western Europe tends to be centre-right wing most of the time with liberal social tendencies. The EU is twice the size of the USA population wise and has a far greater diversity of people and environments. The USA has forever used migrant labour to increase its power. However Europe has the brains, manpower and market to compete. Europe will eventually compete with US companies and will stop the drain of profits. Maybe we should encourage more links with China and India and the Arab World, and also South America and the hispanic world. America was great at exporting democracy – until it wasn’t. I think that many have realised that the USA was a dormant malicious tumour for some time. Trumps bromance with Putin comes and goes – but Russias impact on Europe is what Trump encourages. Paying our own way on NATO is fine – especially if we can tax the techno firms. Why does Trump lust after Putin? – to undermine the EU. China is too large for Trump to cosy upto to get any benefits; the EU too diverse; India is a possibility with Modri: Africa is too late and Trump’s brmance with Musk has soared the continents pallette.