Watching

PY was up first and I didn’t get downstairs until about 10am. He was in full swing preparing food for tonights Eurovision party. We have about 11 people coming and he’s making cup cakes - and another cake, as well as Ukranian snack, pizza, sausages, pulled pork and some nibbles. In the end, I think he tried to do too much but it was all delicious.

Eurovision is perfect of a party. It’s music based with a hint of competition. When people meet, who haven’t met before, there’s a ready-made conversation topic and it has a clear finish so that people can plan how to get home.  We did a bit party in 2019 but COVD stopped anything the following year.  Last year we did something small and this one was somewhere in the middle.

I managed to hook it up so that the sound from the TV was playing out of the Sonos speakers and I brought the speaker from the bedroom down to the hall so that, wherever people are, they will be able to hear Eurovision in sync (well, almost everywhere: we put the radio on in the bathroom and it was not synced with the television). It meant that we didn’t have to have the TV too loud for everybody to be able to hear sometime.  While we were preparing, we put on a Eurovision playlist and - about 8 hours later - I am not sure many songs had been repeated. It’s surprising how many there have been.  

We did a lot of cleaning and, because I offered a bed to Cornelia, we also cleaned out the room I normally work from. It has a small sofa bed which is comfortable enough for one or two nights. It meant that the office was also decluttered and it made a big difference to how the room feels. It’s surprising how you get used to things lying around but I think it looks great. In the end, she decided not to stay but I am glad we went to the effort of tidying up.

Just before the planned start time I went out for ice - and then out again for mayonnaise.  It was planned to get ice as close to the start time as possible.  £2.30 a bag seemed quite expensive. The mayo was a last minute forgotten item as was tin foil (but PY went for that).  Then home to change. This year we both invested in a new Eurovision t-shirts to mark the fact that it’s being hosted in the UK, leaving ‘Love Shine A Light’ for tomorrow.

People starting arriving from about 6:30pm, the train strikes seemingly not causing too much inconvenience, and everybody was here to see Austria open the show with the song, Who The Hell Is Edgar?  The Edgar is Edgar Allan Poe but we have no idea what the song is about. It was an excuse to open the Austrian wine that Cornelia brought.  Favourite Loreen, with Sweden’s entry, ‘Tattoo’ was song 9 the traditional slot to toast Terry Wogan. Maybe it’s lucky as she went on to win. That made Loreen the first woman in the competition’s history to win more than once.  It turned out to be a bit closer that expected with Finland’s Kaarija, performing Cha Cha Cha, taking it down to the very last vote to see who won.  The UK’s  Mae Muller (I Wrote A Song) same in second last which seemed entirely wrong: it was as good as song as any of the others.

I can’t get excited about the winning song. It seems lack the anthemic sound of her original winner, Euphoria, but I think I am an exception.  I really don’t understand the appeal of Finland’s song.  Norway’s Alessandra (Queen of Kings, 5th) was an unexpected treat that I had not heard and deserved it’s top 5 finish.  Belgium’s Gustaph (Because of You, 7th) seems like a proper Eurovision Euro-pop song and was the one I voted for in the 2nd semi final. Slovenia’s  Joker Out (Carpe Diem, 21st) really grew on me the more that I heard it.

Amongst the celebrities reporting back on their respective juries was Ben Adams giving Norway’s jury results. The second time he’s popped up in this diary in two days. 

Everybody seemed to enjoy themselves and people mixed well. I hadn’t realised Cornelia hadn’t seen Eurovision for years so I think she had a bit of a surprise-treat-shock depending. Plenty of wine was consumed and a coupe of cocktails. The TV sound set-up worked although, when everybody is also chatting, those who want to watch a bit found it still quite hard to hear some of the commentary. And more-or-less everybody stayed for the vote with taxis arriving about 12:15am to whisk people home.

After everybody has left we chatted with Phil and Wei-ki until just before 2am. PY and I did some clearing up and then, PY went to bed. I decided one more round of washing up was a good idea and, while it meant I wasn’t heading to bed until 3am, it was just enough time to get a second load into the dishwasher.