Q is for … Quiz … and other delightful things
SKALA Eressos is not only about bodies, booze and bonhomie.
Oh, no. It’s also about brains!
Take the Monday night quiz at the Flamingo Beach Bar, for instance.
Miss Whiplash is in charge. Very strict, you’re told, and domineering.
Achtung!
She has tats on her scalp, and a raised eyebrow that sends shivers down your spine.
Nobody messes with her. They don’t dare.
By day though, she’s the Crazy Cat Lady.
She feeds rescue kittens and loves it when their little ears flap as they suck on a tiny bottle teat.
They sleep in her neck, and she holds them there.
Quizzes are close to her too. She’s been compiling questions for a long time.
Last week there were about 50 people in teams at Flamingo, she says.
They gather at half past nine and start promptly at ten to vie for the grand prize, a bottle of tequila.
No brain, no gain?
That’s island style for you.
Libation, a lubricant.
It was yours too, not any more.
You’ve been sorting your life’s work and only yesterday 1. made Facebook contact with one of the friends you shared a flat with in the 1980s, and 2. on the same day found a note you had sent to her, with words on it beginning with … yes, you guessed it, Q.
Quenelle … seasoned ball of pounded fish or meat
Quern … hand mill for pounding corn (quern stones too)
Quetzal … (not to be confused with pretzel) birds of a striking colour, and tralala, the currency of Guatemala
You wrote in the note that you were sucking a paper clip in between editing stories at a newspaper in Port Elizabeth.
You also mentioned that you’d smoked three cigarettes and eaten an apple, banana, rice and two peaches. Oh, and a tomato too.
You added quidnunc to the list; someone who wants to know the latest gossip, a skinderbek we call them in Afrikaans.
And won’t you be my Quiche (open tart)?
Your request was Quashed.
Oh, the Quixotic nature of unreQuited love.
Sigh.
This Quest for Quim, it is a Quandary indeed.
You wonder … Miss Whiplash, do you know the answer?
(ends)