Eurovision 2023

 I only started watching Eurovision back in 2009 because of watching the Talent show from Andrew Lloyd Webber to find the UK's Eurovision artist for that year.  I LOVED it and it was a really good year to watch as Norway won with Alexander Rybak and Fairytale which was the highest scoring song in Eurovision history at that time.    I actually wrote a blog post as I watched my first Eurovision, typing my response to each song as I listened. From that year onwards, I watched it, which was good as CBC had a friend who hosted a Eurovision party each year which we went to a few times! They took it properly seriously with scoring though we haven't been invited to one since the friend had children. Not sure if they still have them but as is the way, we lost touch. I wrote 3 other posts involving Eurovision

Anyway, on Saturday, CBC was away and I decided to watch and type as I listened, sharing my thoughts and favourites.

It's a bit 'stream of consciousness and random!' but I thought it would be fun to share something different.  Feel free to ignore.

Austria: Edgar Allan Poe-

 Poe, Poe, Poe, Poe!!! So catchy!!! I liked the wall of red people.  Very easy to pick up! I like

Portugal: Al Coracao

Nice costume!More red! Lots of sideway head bopping.  Catchy oompa band feel.  Don’t really like her voice!  I like the lute instrumental interlude! Actually her voice is ok! Actually, I really like it!  Are her gloves pink???? They clash!  Sudden slow bit- yaaaaay, back into the fast bit! I want to dance!

CHA CHA CHA!!!

Her name is Mimicat!  Awww, that’s the name of the cat that CBC and I fell in love with on our honeymoon!! I wonder if Mimi is still alive? Ooh,weird coincidence…. Switzerland is up next and Mimi was from Switzerland!

Switzerland- Watergun.

Oooh, I hope we get a water fight! Ooh, piano!  We are all wearing black and holding Karate belts I a square.  His voice is a bit quiet but I quite like the fact he isn’t belting it out too much! I don’t wanna be a soldier! Ah, so use a watergun instead!  “Bodybags we become?” Wow, that’s maudlin!

No, I do not like those flashing lights!  He’s quite cute.  It’s not a winner though.  Timpani roll there!

He’s belting a bit more now. Back to the GCSE piano composition to finish.

Poland- Solo

I don’t like it.

Silly attitude dancers!What’s with the wagging hands in the background? I like her Ombre dress.  Ooh, how has her dress changed?  Weird effect!

Reminds me of Lily Allen a bit! “Now I’m better solo, solo!”.

Actually, it’s not so bad! Oooh, drummy dance break! She changed her dress!!!

Good hip action! It’s not a winner though!

Serbia – Samo Mi Se Spava

Graham Norton, you are hilarious! He apparently likes horror films- that will explain the staging. I think I’ll dislike it then!

Dramatic piano introduction.   Reminds me of a very low pitched James Bond Goldfinger! Nasty strobe electic sound- I feel like Buzzsaws are going mad! Too whispery rappy. It’s very intriguing though. Musically interesting in terms of melody. Actually, maybe it’s Labyrinth it reminds me of!

Er- why are the dancers going all strange.  Whaat a stranger Spider movement.  Too creepy for me! “Was it something they ate?!”- Graham Norton- you are funny!

France: Evidermment:

Oooh, very Liza Minnelli! What a nice glitter tower! She is standing on!

It is part of her dress?? Does she have stilts on? Ooh, the chorus is very funky! Rhythmically interesting! I like her hat! The costume is fab black glitter! Where did the glitter mountain go!?!?

This is a GOOD song!

Cyprus:  Break a Broken heart:

Cyprus have never won Eurovision.

OOOOOOOh, we start with a very high Oooooooh!”

Ooh, what a lovely voice after that initial noise! I like the Irish-sounding (well, on a different instrument) accompaniment- it’s gone away again! He’s got a good range!

Rain!!! I’ve just noticed next door’s dog is not howling! Where is it? Has it learnt not to? I like this but it’s not as compelling as the first two!

 

Spain- Eaea

Sounds very Arabic- a bit Azan-esque!

Her top is very plastic!

Creepy arms poking out.

I like the vocal harmonies but the blip blop blip bloppy accompaniment is odd.  Imaginative but odd! I find the song musically compelling.

Some headbangy moves in the background- in slow motion.

Ooh, “Little tears from the Nile”- maybe that’s why it sounds Arabic!

The fringed booth is an odd choice of scenery.

Ooh, there’s some “Give that Wolf a Banana” costumes in the background!

Sweden: Tattoo

Bookies’ favourite.

WHAT IS SHE WEARING!???? No, I hate it, she has massive talons! It’s like beige bondage gear!

She has a powerful voice- too shouty for me. I do not like the talons

Ah, so she’s using tattoo as a simile. I still don’t like it. Despite it being “epic”.

Really?? The contender?  Not for me!

 

Albania: 

She’s cosplaying The Rani from Doctor Who? Actually, that music in the opening is like Doctor Who incidental music.

Intriguing harmonies.  I like the tonality of it. 6 members of one family- rather like the Von Trapps!

Awww, they are really sweet performers.  I like the red scarf waving!

This has some fun instrumental interjections One of my favourites so far!

Italy: Due Vite

Oooh, speak Italian to me!! Yay! He’s wearing a very nice sparkly tank top! “Coffee with lemon to fight a hangover”-Urgh!

He’s got a lovely voice and it’s strong but he’s not belting (so far) The music has lovely ebb and flow to it. Ha, the two dangers in the background are repeatedly falling off a black staircase into a pit…must be a trampoline in there…  They are having so much fun! I can see why this is a favourite!

It’s very emotional!

Estonia: Bridges

She has a self-playing piano with her!! OOoh!

It reminds me of “The piano” Yann Tiersen.  The performer is very pretty! I like that the piano is getting lots of closeups! Who is singing that echo!!?!?!

The costume is very pretty! A lovely drapy Cornflower blue suit.

I like the melody- it’s very a simple 5 note scales repeated but effective! She’s got an attractive voice.

Great ending!

Finland: Cha Cha Cha

He’s in a box!!!! And he’s wearing GREEN with spikes!

Eurgh, that is a HORRIBLE green spkiy top!

It’s a bit too rappy for me! The Cha-Cha-Cha-ChaCha – Cha-Cha is very catchy though!

He’s been joined by some neon pink dancers strapped to a Maypole. Haha, what silly dancing!

The caterpillar dance they just did on the floor was fun! Now it’s that silly troll move again!

It’s ridiculously catchy!

The crowd love it!

Czechia: My sister’s Crown

A great start with some harmonies. 

Pink suits= pretty Strawberry ice-cream colour. Are their plaits real? THEY ARE SO LONG!

The whingy background ostinato is annoying.

Australia: Promise

Oops, I got distracted.  It’s got cars on the stage.  It sounds very 80’s.   That drummer is loving life! Ah-oh bit is very catchy! Is there a synonym for catchy?

Belgium: Because of you

Interesting pink culottes. It’s very 90’s. Makes me want to dance but not my total vibe.

Armenia

I’m not sure about that costume. I like the lyrics- a song which includes going to a bookshop is going to be good. Not particularly memorable.  Nice voice and a sweet performer.

Moldova:

Well, hello traditional flute! Kaval you say? Great but I can’t hear it- turn all the other stuff down and make the flute louder so I can listen its sound better. Is that man actually playing it? I like his horns.  The singer is a bit dramatic and I can hear Bach vibes in it but not my favourite.

Ukraine:

Nice singers and some interesting harmonies but not particularly memorable- I prefer last year’s one!

Norway: Queen of Kings

The costume looks like something from Starlight Express.  I like the opening.  I like the change of time signature. I think they are also playing on the musical Six.  The rhythm of the melody is different and interesting.  I like the melisma in the middle.  That’s a very high note!!! Fascinating lyrics! I like it!  Norway’s win with Alexander Rybak was my first Eurovision!

Germany: Blood and Glitter

We appear to have a costume from Lord of the Rings meets Stranger Things from the Upside down.  It’s very ‘rock’- not my vibe! “We’re so happy we could die?”- well that’s cheerful. I don’t like it. Loud and dramatic. It’s got a lot to look at but I don’t like that screamy shouty style of singing- you are going to damage your throat!

Lithuania: Stay

Ooh, I like the choral harmony antiphony! That’s a nice tasteful red dress- pretty artist. This is a pretty song.  Ooh,now a beat has kicked in.  I like the vocal harmonies. It reminds me of worship song we sing at church,  ‘O to see the day’ I’ve just realised, the chorus “it’s’ too loud” is in Lithuanian!

 Aww, she’s a sweet artist!

Israel:

Interesting boxy staging!  The costume is very Nineties meets Stormtrooper. She has an attractive voice. Ooh, where did that man come from? Now there’s two girls.The dancing is very strutty!

“I’ve got the power of a unicorn,”- have you????? Maybe not.

 

Slovenia: Carpe Diem

Nice outfits. I’d wear that shirt,maybe not the pink trousers but he’s rocking them!  He’s cute! 810,000 years?  That’s specific!  I’m enjoying the band accompanying. It’s catchy and makes me want to dance. The band are enjoying themselves!  I’m enjoying the chromatic bass line and the drop into the chorus!  They all have very nice swishy, shiny hair! Aww, look, they are all coming together to bow at the end! Yes, you are sweet!

Croatia: Mama SC

HA! I love the poses and the uniforms! Mommy bought eh tractor!  I could learn that dance! That song feels like a primary school Call and response! I think that’s what they ar aiming at. We have Mommy then the alphabet. Ah, it’s an Anti-war song! Evil little psychopath. Alligator Psychopath! It’s very memorable and witty!  Ah, they’ve just stripped down to vests and pants!

United Kingdom: I wrote a song

That’s a powerful opening- very James Bond! Urgh, stupid club beat and blip blopping.  The tune sounds a bit like a club version of the saxophone solo from Careless Whisper and now the blip blopping is salsa-y broken chords. The costume is a bit boring. Black corset, shirt and trousers.  The lyrics are a bit rubbish. The Da-da-da-da bit is ok if a bit simple. Urgh, rappy bit. Not a winner. Nope.

 

My favourites at this point:

Slovenia

Croatia

France

Italy

Albania

Austria

Portugal

Which one would I choose to win?

I think I like Austria or Croatia best!

Will they win????

 

 

 

 

 

 

Eurovision revisited!

Howdy! 
I am sorry for a little bit of a boring with my stream of outfitty posts- I've got 2 mammoth book catch-up posts  and the odd few holiday and excursion posts to share but I can't seem to finish them off today! So instead, I thought I'd share my Eurovision day a couple of weeks ago.  A friend always has a Eurovision party which we've enjoyed on several occasions.   He really makes an effort with flags everywhere, score cards and a feast.





I knew that since it was Eurovision, a slightly over the top outfit was the order of the day.  I'd been waiting to wear the amazing teal-sequinned skirt I found in a charity shop a while back and knew that it had to be that! Plus my Crown and Glory purple glitter hair bow.   I'd been wondering what to wear on top and I decided to take Donna at Polka Dot Pink's suggestion to team it with a breton-striped top- you know very Euro!    Of course, the visual theme this year was a building bridges sphere, so my planet Earth necklace seemed appropriate as well as some tacky Irregular Choice shoes!



Finally, I added in a navy blazer that I found with Hazel and Sophie on our charity shop outing. 



We headed off to North London.  The deal is that we all bring a dish or dishes representing a country.  We went for a sort of Euro mezze platter combining items you might find in Greece and the Balkans etc.  These plates made ALL sorts of mess in our house but were very much appreciated.

The baked fennel was really delicious and this comes from someone who HATES fennel!



Here you can see the highlights of the main courses, even before some people arrived with their dishes. Since everyone had made enough for everyone there really was far too much!  I even had a Pimms!



SO much laughter! So much banter and great fun.  Some people were really extreme in their scoring.  One of the guys had a new boyfriend who was from South America and he scored one performance 50 out of 50 and 2 for something else!  My personal favourite was Italy but I really liked our UK Electro Velvet I'm still in love with you.

CBC and I were really excited for the interval act as it was the wonderful Martin Grubinger who we'd seen live at the Lucerne Festival in 2013. It was a shame that more wasn't shown- he is an amazing performer to watch!


I am a relative newcomer to Eurovision- I only watched it for the first time in the year that Norway won with that cute violinist Alexander Rybak who sang I'm in love with a fairytale.  I think it is such fun!  Especially when you have a party with friends!  If you've not experienced Eurovision, I'd say, definitely try it out with friends and a sense of humour!

Do you like Eurovision?
xx

"A double portion of Scallops please!"

Blogging really has a lot to answer for!  I went out for lunch and a little mooch round the shops with my Canadian friend and work colleague and went out dressed as above (and below).  I noticed I was wearing two items with scallops on: the top is Henry Holland and is fairly new and the skirt is from Peacocks and is several years old. Where did my penchant for scallops come from?  Definitely, some sort of subliminal suggestion from a blogger or two (Scathingly Brilliant most notably)  who seem to like them!  And Peter-pan collars- definitely a love that grew through seeing them on blogs in the past (Laura Daisychain I am looking at you and Lauren at Someonelikeyou), Melissa Shoes- Roisin Dolly Clackett amongst others. Cute bow belts- yep, that's another subliminal blog thing.  Oh, and it's not really obvious in the shot above, but I'm wearing a Burt's Bees tinted lip-salve which I saw on Laura Daisychain's blog. I've been using the plain one for years but fancied giving it a try when I was in Debenhams yesterday.  So definitely, blogging has a lot to answer for! But of course, it's my own will-power and persuasiveness that is at fault, so I just have to learn to admire something and not buy it!


 Speaking of being in Debenhams.  My friend was off smelling the Cartier fragrance and asking about redeeming her Barclaycard rewards and so I was hovering round the Marc Jacobs perfumes having a little sniff and spraying a little bit of Dot onto a cute ladybird perfume card when I was pounced upon by a sales assistant. She started telling me about the prices, how the gift set was so much better value and told me to try it on my skin, which I did. I said I liked it and she said to wander around and see if I liked the smell on my skin.  She then plunged into a drawer and gave me a little mini 5ml bottle as a sample and then handed me another fragrance sample of the same size without my uttering more than about 2 words.  She then left me and I wandered to find my work colleague who had just got the answer to her question.  The sales assistant cooed over my shoes in delight and then we walked along to the Burts Bee section (where I picked up my tinted lip balm).  The cooing sales assistant then appeared and said, "Oh, you seem to be collecting perfume samples, wait there, I'll get you a little bag of them!" and came back with a mini Giorgio Armani bag filled with different perfume samples.  Not bad for no encouragement whatsoever and just hovering to wait for my friend!

The willpower thing went so well until I found a pair of silver/bronze/gold amalgamation small-heeled lace-ups.  They were £15 reduced from £50- size 9 and fitted perfectly.  When will I learn that all I need is a simple pair of good quality, versatile shoes, not a rainbow of novelties?? (I love my rainbow of novelties but I really mustn't buy anymore!!)

We had a nice lunch in a little Italian restaurant that I must have walked past a zillion times in the town but never noticed! It was very reasonable- only £4.95 for a huge Napolitana pizza which was beautifully cooked from scratch!

With shock at 5.30pm, realising how late it was, I jumped on the train home, CBC met me at the station and drove us back. He'd been out doing a Duke of Edinburgh expedition 9 mile walk with students from school.  Alas, he was too tired for Swing Dance so we had to give the Saturday Night Swing Club a miss and instead, headed over to his old housemate's to watch Eurovision!  We gathered a big pile of snacks (including leftover pizza from lunch) and headed over there.  It was hugely entertaining and we laughed lots and enjoyed sitting there scoring the acts.

Just for your entertainment, I noted down a few quotes from the evening which were uttered in the house:

"Playing the drums standing up?   That's so pretentious!"

"He can raise one eyebrow!"

"Mwa ah ah ha, she vanished!"

"Uhrgh, there's a material spider's web in the back ground! What's it for? Surely it's not the back of her dress??"

"Banjo? I hate it already!"

"Whistling! I hate it- it gets 2!"

"Look, it's Frank Butcher on the piano!"

"She's faking the flute!!!!"

"She looks a bit like Nicole Marie Story!!!" (she really reminded me of you Nicole!!!)

"How do you make your hair look wet like that?"

"Er, shower before you go on stage?"

"Hamster wheel!!!"

"What's that buxom wench doing?"

"That's a perve vote! This is SONG contest!"

"He looks like he needs a good sleep!"

"I give it 1.  Ooh, wait, it has a trampoline, I give it 2."

"Is that beard fake or real?"

"What does Comme-ci, comme-ca, mean?"

"Why are they holding that ruler?"

"She looks like Britney Spears!"

"Check out the bean pole on the left!"

"She's going for it with that accordion!"

"Why are you giving it 11 Kezzie?!?! He's saying, 'Scoo bi do bi do, I love you!'"

"Beethoven is turning in his grave!"

"It's David Bowie!"

"Hello, I'm a vampire! And I have blood in my earrings and I buy my clothes in a charity shop like Kezzie."


Good old Eurovision!! So much fun and randomness!!!


Linking up to Claire Justine's Creative Mondays with my ensemble!



and linking with Monday Mingle:

Weekend of plenty!

...in more senses than one! I had few preconceived ideas about the weekend except for going to a Eurovision party! It started off so beautifully in weather-terms although once I had left the house wearing my favourite dress from Whitestuff (Jane Austen influenced choice!)embracing what I thought was the summer, with a small white cardigan, leggings and scarf, it seemed to come over absolutely arctic, so I shivered my way through the afternoon!

Brrrrr!!!!!


We drove up to Spitalfields and Brick Lane in Tower hamlets with the intent of buying my new bike. I was slightly reluctant before, since a) I have 2 bikes (albeit both those dear old vintage ladies belonging to other people originally), b) Rosie (my Raleigh) is in very good condition, and I didn't really want to spend money on something I already have and Betty (Bickerton) is a fold up bike with 3 gears who is rather unstable and temperamental. BUT, having spent most hills in Northumberland sweating and ranting at my very heavy, cumbersome and stubborn stead, I realised that 5 gears is not enough for the type of hills I will encounter; London to Brighton has one massive hill near the end which there is NO way I will get up; Rosie is trapped in Northumberland as there was no space for her when we came back at Easter and CBC's sister, who was to bring her back this weekend, was not able to, due to a Radio 1 event in Carlisle clogging up the trains and I haven't ridden for 3 weeks and it is getting rather close to the race and I need to get some serious training in, so unless I want to spend £100 going up to Nortumb on the train (which I don't have time for), I was stuck!

So finally, I gave into CBC's constant persuasion to go and have a look! My heart was set on a pale blue girly bike that could be dressed in daisy garlands for the race but I realised that this was not going to be a simple matter.

We parked near Brick lane, which has an amazing array of vintage shops which I had to be torn away from and some great graffiti- not graffiti, but beautiful art work!

I love this one! So cool!

I wondered HOW on Earth someone managed to climb up and do this! How long did it take? Amazing skill!

We saw these hilarious car parking spaces. Someone is anti-cars me thinks!



Bird poo!

On my way home today, I went out of Platform 5 at Liverpool Street- such beautiful architecture!

CBC purchased lots of lovely cheese from this lovely Spitalfields shop (for the Eurovision party) as we had to take European dishes!

I grumpily had to wait outside as he was invited to sample lots of lovely cheeses, because...

I had to look after Celeste!!!!! She's my new bike! She is a Specialized- very comfy! We bought her from Cycle surgery! She feels so light and easy to ride, she has lots of gears and being white can easily be adorned with flower garlands (such as these lovely ones I bought from Poppydaisy at Spitalfields.)

As you can see from the picture, we also made a detour into Cotswolds camping shop because we desperately need a new tent as my porch pole has snapped and ripped the canvas! We were very excited to buy a lovely Vango Beta 450- a spacious 4man tent that we can stand up in!!! I haven't had such a big tent of my own before! I've always had light ones!

Somehow we managed to shove Celeste and the tent into the car and proceeded post-haste to North London to attend our Eurovision engagement!

We had a fantastic time- a glass of Pims to begin with (that was the limit of my alcohol, the one glass, I don't drink as a rule, but Pims is tasty!)

The food was amazing! People had crafted pavlovas, moussaka, pasta salads, there were cold meats, pizza, salads, cheeses, trifle, mini pies and more1 If only I had had room for more!

I enjoyed many of the acts- We had to give scores out of 50 in the categories of dance, costume, lyrics, song and overall performance! I was a lot more generous than the guy next to me who gave minus marks! I really liked Slovenia, Austria, Italy, Switzerland the best! Germany was my least favourite, despite Lena being very sweet! I just thought it was a rubbish song!

Mmmm, check out just ONE table of the food!

Unfortunately, I felt inexplicably queasy and exhausted at the end and literally fell asleep on CBC's shoulder, but enough of that. Still feeling somewhat under the weather and lethargic this morning.

CBC dropped me off at the station and I just had to share these two funny shops with you!

This one is for CBC's sister!

On my way home, I grabbed some items from M&S as stocks were low in the house and made a really lovely plate full. I love M&S Edamame bean salad and the Orzo and sun-dried tomato mixture. I had turkey, cucumber, tomatoes etc at home to go with it and have some for lunch tomorrow also!

Really yum!

Did I say mmmmm?
I finished with plenty of Optional SATs papers to mark. Wanted to cry but enough said also about that! This is a positive post!