No.280, January 2019

No. 280 - January 2019
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The Editor's Bit

It completely slipped my mind to ask any of the Stun’s sponsors if they would like to donate a prize for last month’s Cover Competition and I didn’t promote it on Facebook either, so it shouldn’t come as a surprise that nobody entered. I wanted you to tell me where the latest Christmas tree on Dam Square came from. The answer is Sourbrodt, close to the German border in the Belgian Ardennes. I would have accepted Ardennes, or even just Belgium, but that’s all history now; let’s look to the future!

Win a Bottle of Wine!

This month’s Cover Competition is inspired by the Amsterdam Light Festival; I’m sure a lot of you have either already done the boat tour or seen some of the light artworks when you cross the Herengracht, but... Can you name the exhibit and say where I took the photo from? Our good friends Steven and Brian at H. Murray’s have generously donated a bottle of (red or white) house wine as a prize, so if you know the answer, send it to cover@stun.nl by Friday 25th January and the winner will be selected from all of the correct entries.

Talking of Steven and Brian, their business and family expansions (congratulations Anita and Brian on the birth of your daughter Róisín) means they can’t devote the time and energy needed to think up questions for the monthly Pub Quiz in Molly Malone’s, so rather than let the quality deteriorate, they’ve decided to stop while they’re still on top. They haven’t ruled out the possibility of a quiz for special occasions, but for now, the last one will be later this month. There’s no point in telling you the actual date because it was fully booked weeks ago, there’s a waiting list and they won’t be taking “walk ins”. We wasted no time in booking a table for our team, so I’ll be there.

The Stun’s proof reader Josie is also in our quiz team and last month, we met up in the Magpie, where she introduced me to barmaid Tracy, who comes from the English county between Josie’s Suffolk and my Kent.

It’s not often I go around town taking photos on New Year’s Eve, but I had a couple of pages to fill, so I made an exception this time; they’re on pages 16-18. We’ve also got all of our usual stuff, so enjoy your first Stun of 2019.