My Life is a Toilet! Trivia Quiz

Answer: A Toyota HiAce

Fleur makes numerous references to the HiAce (written as 'Hi Ace') throughout the book. It is large enough to fit her, both her parents and their partners, her two sisters and - at one point - a random passing cyclist. The trouble starts when Fleur's mum gets distracted by the passing cyclist and crashes the van into the ute (for non-Australians, a ute is a type of car, short for 'coupé utility' and resembling what Americans call a pickup) in front.

Answer: Fleur's sisters

Miss Priss and Bum Face are Fleur's nicknames for her sisters, Elizabeth and Kate respectively. Elizabeth is sixteen and sucks up to Mrs Trotter all the time, while Kate is eleven and Fleur compares her to a gorilla.

Answer: She walked in on them having sex in his office.

Mr Trotter is an accountant, and Babette is his secretary. Fleur says that her mum found out they were having an affair when she went into Mr Trotter's office to give him his sandwiches, and found him and Babette having sex 'between the filing cabinet and the tea tray, on which was the teapot, on which sat the beanie that Mum had knitted for Dad that Father's Day'.

Fleur also did work experience there, and heard her father seducing Babette by talking about accounting. She got away with it because she was sleeping under a desk at the time.

Answer: Edwin and Edwina Pipe

Edwin and Edwina have a teenage son called Dwayne, which is a bit unfortunate when you consider what their surname is. They live in a caravan park, and offer to fix the Trotters' van there. They also run an on-site Chinese restaurant. The Trotters pile into their car (except Fleur, who has to be towed along while wearing Dwayne's home-made rollerblades).

Answer: Fruit cakes

Mary leaves her fruit cakes on her lawn to bake and gives them away as presents, but they are so bad that no-one eats them. The Pipes use them as stools, Wilbur (the manager of the caravan park) has one that acts as a shoe scraper, and Bertha (the owner of the general store) uses them as doorstops, steps and a rockery.

While Mary bakes her cakes, the Pipes, Wilbur and Bertha have band practice. Wilbur plays the didgeridoo, Edwina plays the violin, Edwin plays the piano and Bertha uses potatoes as percussion. Dwayne writes the lyrics.

Answer: Green

Fleur is desperate to wash her hair, but the caravan park is suffering a water shortage and when she asks Wilbur for permission, he says no, as Thursday is hair washing day. Fleur steals what she thinks is the Pipes' emergency water supply and uses it to wash her hair while everyone else is busy, but it has chlorine in it and she accidentally dyes her hair green, Anne of Green Gables style. Dwayne makes her an ugly cap to cover her hair, so no-one knows.

She asks Wilbur if she can wash the green out of her hair, but he tells her that it suits her complexion.

Answer: Made with love by Mum Trotter

Mrs Trotter is an avid knitter, and when heavy rain breaks out in the caravan park, she and Elizabeth start knitting. When they run out of wool, Mrs Trotter knits sets of clothes out of bits of old plastic bags, which Bertha sells as 'jumper-cum-raincoats'. Elizabeth writes brand tags with 'Made with love by Mum Trotter' on them, and also prints the same slogan on t-shirts for the family, which embarrasses Fleur.

Answer: She tried to run away with a pen in her mouth.

Mary is trying to fix the HiAce motor, which Mr Trotter steals. The Trotters try to figure out how Mary died, and believe that she tried to start the HiAce, but its antenna got caught in the revolving clothesline as it began to sink, and Mary got thrown out of the HiAce and into the overhead power lines, fell into the water course, was sucked into the deeper part of the water course by Bertha breathing in, and sank because her tracksuit bottoms were filling with water.

However, Fleur reckons that Mary tried to run away when she got stuck, and she had a pen in her mouth at the time, and 'everybody knows you should never run with something sharp in your mouth'. Mary's body is never found.

Answer: She is a qualified surgeon.

She also has a PhD in synchronic elaboration of semiotic nucleii, whatever that is.

Fleur's parents used to be a circus double act, and Mrs Trotter was once known as the 'youngest and most brilliant high trapeze artist in the world'. She gave up her career after she accidentally fell on Mr Trotter's head and he became an accountant instead. Mr and Mrs Trotter are scheduled to perform their old routine at a benefit concert for victims of the flood (i.e. the population of the park), but the concert is cancelled when the plane flies overhead, warning that the river is about to break its banks, and the audience run away. Everyone decides to go ahead with the concert anyway, and Mr and Mrs Trotter perform their routine, but Elizabeth interrupts at the climax to warn everyone that the river has broken its banks. Luckily, Dwayne rescues them from the flood in his homemade boat.

Answer: Dwayne

Dwayne's handwriting is so atrocious that Fleur thinks his name is 'Duvavne'. She thinks her penpal lives on a tropical island, as their address is 'Paradise Island', but Paradise Island turns out to be the name of the caravan park where Dwayne and his family live. Fleur notices Dwayne spends a lot of time writing, but doesn't put two and two together until she sees the sign at the entrance of the caravan park, as everyone sails away on the flood.