The other night, Ori and I attended our first UK “pub quiz,” at the Cape of Good Hope on The Plain. Our attendance was instigated by Sam Hampton, one of my coworkers at ecoVeritas, and we had a great time. The questions were really obscure, though, especially if you weren’t particularly familiar with who DJs on this or that major UK radio station and so on, but we nevertheless managed to come third. I think my only contribution was to identify the theme songs to “Jeopardy” and “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air,” and that’s not saying much.

Before the quiz, it was announced that prizes would go to the teams with the top score and the best name. Racking our brains, we came up with “Unite Against Christmas,” a play on the 12-day (for the twelve days of Christmas) strike announced by British Airways’ cabin crew union, Unite, to start on December 22.

The news had been very upsetting for us, as we were to travel with BA to Germany and back over the holidays. Fortunately, the airline selflessly realized that “a million Christmasses” would be ruined by the union’s actions, and immediately took them to court in an effort to have the strike declared illegal. Well, as of this afternoon, the strike was blocked by a High Court ruling in London, and it looks like our holiday will go ahead as planned!

We’re very relieved. With our Christmas shopping done and presents and cards in the mail to all of our friends and family, we’re just about ready to take some time off and spend a relaxing few days contemplating the true meaning of Christmas, as well as what it means to be spending our first Christmas away from home. It’s quite sad, but also a significant step in our new life together.

All I can say is, I hope British Airways’ cabin crew isn’t really grumpy during our travels; I’m sure they wouldn’t have minded not having to work during the holidays. And even though that strike has been put off, it looks like there might be other trouble on the horizon. Oh dear…