Quiz of the year

We’re still in the festive period, so what better way to celebrate than with a quiz? And what’s even better than a quiz? A quiz with a prize, of course!

I’ll put some full rules below, but the prize for the winner is to choose the destination for one of my posts next year—which, as long as you pick it within certain constraints of reasonability, I have to visit, no matter where you say. I may well regret this.

There are twelve questions. Submit your answers via my contact form by the end of Saturday (GMT). The submission with the most correct answers wins; if there’s a draw, I’ll decide by random draw. The answers can all be found by reading the blog (you may find the search box on the left helpful), though they may require a bit of general knowledge. Roughly, the questions are in increasing order of difficulty.

What film format can only be viewed in three public cinemas in the world, one of which is in Bradford?
Why was I unable to say that the London Mithraeum was not worth the money?
I told you about a bird in London that had survived being set on fire. What species was the bird?
Which Tube line was I unable to escape?
What would I like as a Christmas/birthday present?
Which blog in my blogroll has a playing card logo?
How many places that I’ve blogged about do I not recommend as day trips from Oxford?
Which school opened a health centre in half a church?
How do you know Iain Ventid, my angry correspondent, is secretly a filthy Tab?
Which entrepreneur helped lift me into a mill?
What did I get in Moreton-in-Marsh, and fail to get in Windsor (getting something more expensive instead)?
Where did I write about in strict iambic tetrameter?

(Competition rules follow at the end of the post. Also, for full disclosure: after a comment from a reader, before any entries were received, I edited an article to make sure the correct answer to Q11 was unambiguous.)

As an extra festive treat, yesterday I went for a walk through Saltaire, which I’ve blogged about before. Every December, Saltaire has a “living advent calendar”; once a day, from the 1st to the 24th, a new house decorates its window with something festive, the resulting display staying fully lit until the New Year. They’re really impressive; some highlights are below.

A mannequin, white and faceless, dressed up like a figure from the Nutcracker, next to a wreath. — A wedding shop’s display.

A window, square at the bottom and arched at the top, divided into twelve panes. The surrounding is dark, so only the light through the window can be seen. The window has a translucent design on it, of a dark sky (with moon) and silhouetted tree, and two people and a deer around a campfire. Beneath the whole is a darkened part, with writing in different colours with light shining through: “Love keeps the cold out better than a cloak”. — The commitment some people have to these is impressive.

A house window, square at the bottom and arched at the top, divided into panes. The house is dark; only the light from the window, and its reflection in a car below, can be seen. The window has white fairy lights in front of white curtains; on the window are black silhouettes of a black rectangle (with “God with us”) cut out, the word “Emmanuel”, and Mary, Joseph and a manger in a stable. Above all the silhouettes is a gold star. — The windows range from completely secular and/or abstract to fully religious.

Six silhouettes of pipers against six window panes, covered in different colours of translucent paper (red, orange, yellow and green). — Eleven pipers piping (five are out of shot).

Competition rules:

All entries must be submitted via the Contact Form on this site by midnight GMT at the end of Saturday 5th 2019.
Entries must include a name and a valid email address.
The winner will be the entry received prior to the deadline with the most correct answers; if there is a tie, the winner shall be selected at random from all maximally-correct entries received.
The prize shall be to select a destination for the author of the blog to visit in a post to be made by the end of June 2019.
The destination must be within two hours’ travel time of Carfax, Oxford, as measured by Google Maps, and must have travel costs of no more than £30.
The destination must be selected by the end of January 2019, or the prize will be forfeited.
The name of the winning entrant shall be available by application to the author.

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