黑洞社区

Is this to be an evening of faux-East-End community singing? Thankfully, no. My fears are allayed when it turns out nobody from the firm can play anything more than Chopsticks 鈥� well not when sober, and it鈥檚 still only 6.30pm.

It turns out getting everyone out at short notice wasn鈥檛 too hard as Hugh has just got news that he鈥檚 passed his part III. He鈥檚 now a fully fledged architect. Does that mean a pay rise is on the cards? Peter looks a bit shifty at this suggestion. 鈥淚t means I can charge a higher rate for him at least,鈥� he says, without actually answering the question.

'Did you ever use that as a chat-up line?' asks Kornelia in disbelief

Hugh consoles himself, however, that it鈥檒l make a much better chat up line than calling himself an architectural assistant. 鈥淒id you ever use that as a chat-up line?鈥� asks Kornelia in disbelief. After briefly comparing the pulling power of occupations we get onto the subject of what films have had architects as the main characters. I imagine the topic won鈥檛 last long.

Peter comes up with Charles Bronson in Death Wish and Paul Newman in The Towering Inferno. Rebecca chips in with Woody Harrelson鈥檚 Indecent Proposal and Intersection with Sharon Stone and Richard Gere, which everyone agrees is terrible and should not be discussed further. Guin, it turns out, is something of a film buff and comes up with River Wild, The Fountainhead, My Architect and Breaking and Entering, although Jude Law plays a landscape architect in that one.

I recognised the inside of the flat but then they crawled out of the bathroom window

We get onto the real cultural delights, though, when Anni suggests Tom Selleck in Three Men and a Baby. 鈥淎nd Three Men and a Little Lady,鈥� adds Mark. Hugh suggests There鈥檚 Something About Mary although strictly speaking Ben Stiller was only pretending to be an architect to get a date with Cameron Diaz. Are there any films about QSs, wonders Mark? We鈥檙e all stumped.

Apparently, Peter has seen some of his designs appear on television. There was one where someone was being chased into the flat, he recalls. 鈥淚 recognised the inside of the flat but then they crawled out of the bathroom window onto a flat roof. There definitely wasn鈥檛 a flat roof on the building we designed,鈥� he says. Another featured in the background of a Cup-a-Soup advert.

At this point the pub quiz begins and we get thoroughly distracted. Which country is flanked by 16 others? None of us knows, despite flicking through the tiny maps in Anni鈥檚 diary, nor do we have any idea which species only gives birth to twins. But our combined knowledge of obscure seventies鈥� music, artists and other fascinating trivia helps us to victory. Oh, and in case you鈥檙e wondering it鈥檚 China. And the animal? Answers on a postcard...