B-I-N-G-OH!!!

I persuaded drug My Loving Spouse to attend the Family Bingo night in the village. He claimed he’d never been to Bingo. (Gasp) I began singing “BINGO and Bingo was his name OH!” often and cheerfully around the house to get him in the mood. He almost hurt himself rolling his eyes.

Hosted in the Station Hotel we booked a table for dinner explaining that we were going to go to BINGO. (“Booked a table” is what they call making a reservation. They ask you if ‘you’ve booked a table, even when no one else is in the restaurant’).

It could be this was why we were greeted with, “Oh, you’re the American. We heard you were coming.” (That’s me ‘THE American’).

BINGO night was a fundraiser for the Portsoy Toddler Group. We wandered from one table to the next paying for books, cards, raffle tickets and daubers. After being completely confused just getting the supplies, the BINGO Lady advised us to sit at the table across the room which already sat ‘seasoned BINGO players’.

Let me tell you about this BINGO ‘book’, there wasn’t a single BINGO on it. I asked my BINGO tutor, which part were doing. She said, ‘all of it’.

What!

‘Which way? Sideways? Diagonal?’

No. Two games a sheet.

My face showed confusion.

She said the games were:

1. A line (across)
2. A House (one whole square bit separated by green)

Do you see the letters B-I-N-G-O anywhere on this book?

There are only two things that go fast in Scotland.

1. The driver behind you on the road
2. The BINGO caller

In ‘regular’ BINGO there is a pause between saying ‘B17′ pause B17’, then somebody at the table says, “What?” and everyone else hollers, “B17”. Not in Scotland, first of all, there was no ‘B’ AND there was NO repeating anything at all. Plus, there was the caller’s Scottish accent. It went like this…Five, One, Fifty One, (nano second) Seven, Three, Seventy three…. My Loving Spouse and I were completely lost. We couldn’t keep up. My BINGO tutor pointed out a few of my numbers to daub. We were so lost.

It wasn’t until the second page, that my tutor explained that the numbers ran in columns. Ones, tens, twenty’s etc. Sheesh, did that make things easier. My Loving Spouse and I began daubing away and having more fun.

There is a Half Time in Scottish BINGO. It’s when the caller stops, they serve tea and biscuits (cookies) and have the raffle. Let me tell you, we suck did poorly at BINGO, but the raffle was great.

A bag of sweeties (candy), a bottle of wine and a bottle of gin and we felt like winners. We did better than one lady at our table who won 2 beers and deodorant.

I believe we added a bit of levity to our table. Our tutors warmed to us and gave us the lowdown about all the other BINGO games in town for the month. Where they were, how to get to them and how much it might cost to join the bowling social club. You can learn a lot at BINGO, I hadn’t even known there was a bowling green, let alone a social club.

We walked home with our daubers, our winnings, laughing and complaining about daubing injuries.

…and we are blessed.

(and BINGO was his name O!)