I blame the FA Cup final

Our Tesco home delivery, which was scheduled for the 4-6 PM slot, will be approx. 1.5 hours late. A kind lady rang to tell us around 5 PM. We regularly get Tesco to deliver our groceries and they're usually very good about sticking to their slot. It's the first time *ever* that they've missed a slot completely, totally buggering our plans to go into town and meet up with friends this evening. We need our groceries more than we need an evening in the pub, and if they don't deliver today we have to wait until Tuesday to get our hands on such staples as toilet paper, milk, bread and ice-cream (and by that time I bet everything will be nearing its "best by" date and will need consuming asap).

I wonder if this delay is in any way linked to the FA Cup final? Is it a coincidence that the match started at 3:00 PM and was still going strong at 5 PM? I suspect not. After all, the delay can't be anything to do with the traffic, as there haven't been many cars out there all afternoon, what with half the population being glued to their TV sets.

By the way, I'm not much of a football fanatic, but I'm glad Chelsea won, esp. after such a dramatic game. And it's nice to see the new Wembley's finished at last. About time.

And the winner is...

The 52nd Eurovision Song Contest, held in Helsinki, Finland, is now over. This year's winner is Marija Serifovic from Serbia, who sang Molitva (Prayer), a truly beautiful love song. It was a powerful performance on the night, low on gimmicks and sang entirely in Serbian - a rarity these days when most countries opt for the safety net of English lyrics. Marija proved that Eurovision isn't just about high impact dance routines and glamorous outfits, and that a well-sung ballad can reach the top. I'm delighted with the result, as Molitva was one of my favourite songs this year.

Serbia were given the sought-after douze points by:

Austria

Bosnia-Herzegovina

Croatia

Finland

FYROM

Hungary

Montenegro

Slovenia

Switzerland

It was also voted by every other country, except Andorra, Estonia, Lithuania and Turkey, totalling 268 points.

Congratulations, Marija! Well done, Serbia!

Belgrade here we come :-)

This is the actual performance from the night:

Ukraine came second with 235 points and a performace which couldn't be further removed from Serbia's if they tried. Comes to show that there's room for everyone on Eurovision ;-)

Eurovision funnies

Over the last week or so, the Great British public have discovered two things:

1. The Eurovision song contest is round the corner
and
2. The British entry sucks

However, not everyone has grasped both points - there are some who think that if we end up with nul points on Saturday, it will be because of the war in Iraq, or because no one likes us, or in fact any other number of reasons, none of which have anything to do with the quality (and I use the word loosely) of our song.

I kid you not. Here's what I read in the London Paper this afternoon:

“Some countries vote for each other out of loyalty rather than the merits of a song, with Cyprus and Greece being the obvious example. The smaller countries like to gang up on bigger countries like Britain. They don’t seem to want to hand a musical accolade to a country which has a nuclear arsenal and the world’s best city – London.”

So the reason hardly anyone votes for us these days is because we've got nukes, and also because they're jealous of London (Parisians, eat your hearts out). If it wasn't for that, millions of people across the Continent would be admitting that Flying The Flag is God's gift to music - worth a musical accolade, no less.

I wonder whether the person who made this statement has actually seen the song performed. I think not.

At least the paper was free. I'd be horrified if I'd paid 40p to read *that* kind of twaddle.

Happy birthday, Kathy!

I didn't forget. I just remembered late ;-)

Xronia polla & kala!

With all my love,

Tins xx

Paris in the spring

Sunning ourselves at the Louvre on Saturday afternoon.


Trying (and failing) to keep dry at the Ile St Louis on Sunday evening.

It's amazing what difference 24 hours can make...

Yassou Maria

Last year's winners - Lordi from Finland

May is Eurovision month - yay yay yay! There are only nine days to go before the semi final, and eleven before the final on May 12th in Helsinki, Finland, and I can't wait!

Last year 7 of us went to Athens and watched the final live. It was an amazing experience, not least because we were there for five days and spent practically every one of them on the beach. This year I'm having a Eurovision party at home. Not as much fun, but it'll have to do, as no one fancied Helsinki - with temperatures topping 7 C at the moment, and flights costing an arm and a leg, I can't say I blame them. On the plus side, Loops promised to make a Baileys cheesecake for the party, so that's one yummy thing to look forward to.

I just ordered the Eurovision CD from Amazon, so I've not listened to the songs yet, but since Sarbel, who's singing this year's Greek entry, is one of my favourite singers, I hope you'll forgive me the shameless plug. The song's not half bad, I hope those of you who click play will enjoy listening (and maybe even dancing) to it.