(no subject)
May. 25th, 2008 09:30 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
eiffel_71To the home of Aussie and Carol's friends - Dave and Jane, as they turned out to be called - last night for the Eurovision party. I'd never met our hosts before but they were a very friendly couple, and they'd laid on a very good buffet, including German sausage, olives and loads of cheese (all elements guaranteed to get a thumbs up from me).
When we got ready to draw countries, Jane announced that if anyone got Azerbaijan their young daughter Freyja would probably want to swap with them, as that was her favourite entry. Those muppets in the angel and demon costumes?? Well, she's only a kid, bless her. I got Croatia, and Ann got Bosnia-Herzegovina - as we were sitting together, that enabled us to join in when Eve made a joke about voting pacts.
As it turned out, the draw for countries was solely to determine who hosted next year's party (the person whose country wins the Contest gets that honour). You marked the country you'd drawn in just the same way as all the others. The system was that you awarded marks out of 10 for song, performance, dance routine and outfit to give a total mark out of 40.
Carol drew Latvia, which she was delighted with as it was her favourite. Early in the evening, as we discussed the madness of the Bosnian entry, she said "Wait till you see the pirates!" One thing that took a little getting used to was that everyone chatted the whole time, all over the songs and the commentary - this presumably happens every year, as Dave had put subtitles on the telly. Dave dubbed the German girls "Girls Aloud, Queens of the Desert". Ann - who was the one person there who really liked Andy Abraham's entry - said the Bosnian girl was a Helena Bonham Carter lookalike. When Latvia came on, Carol was in her element, hey-hey-heying along with the best of them, while Dave quipped "I always wondered what happened to the Village People". Ann noted that the Greek song was the same song they'd won with in 2005, though I pointed out Elena was much better than this year's girl.
My favourites were Bosnia and Sweden, though many of the company reckoned Charlotte looked scary, or like she'd had Botox or facelifts. When everyone had handed in their mark sheets, Dave went upstairs to add them up on his computer. While he was gone, I went to the buffet where I met Aussie, who said he was disappointed with my apparel (I was wearing my 2001 - A Space Otway T-shirt). He pointed out that he was wearing his Salisbury City FC polo shirt and Dave was wearing a Portsmouth FC T-shirt so I should have worn one of my Havant & Waterlooville tops. Earlier Carol had told me that she and Aussie had been to Liverpool, and then gone to the home game with Cambridge City where we let in anyone with a Liverpool ticket stub free, and that she'd loved it. I said I'd let her have a list of our home matches when the fixtures are announced in July, so she could let me know if she wanted to come along again.
I voted for Bosnia; Ann, like most of the company, didn't bother to vote.
Dave came back with "the votes of the Gosport jury" - the top ten songs from our collective marks. We'd given Bosnia four, but nothing to Sweden - or Andy - and, to Carol's delight, Latvia got our 12.
The voting rapidly became a two horse race between Russia and Greece. The main significance of this as far as most of the company were concerned was the prospect of Eve, who'd drawn Russia, hosting next year's party at her home in Lee-on-the-Solent. More than once Dave and Carol led a chant of "We're going to Lee-on-Solent, we're going to Lee-on-Solent, la-la-la-la". Huge cheers greeted San Marino's 6 to Andy and, especially, Ireland's 8. When Greece were in the lead Ann said "Well, that song won Eurovision three years ago, why shouldn't it again?"
Once the last jury had voted and Dima Bilan began to make his way to the stage for the reprise, Ann couldn't wait to get out of there. We said our goodbyes and thanks to Dave and Jane, and I said bye to Aussie and Carol. Outside - in the rain - Ann said she wouldn't be coming again next year. She'd found the constant talking an irritant - not just because it marred the songs but because she missed Terry's commentary - and she'd felt 'rude' because Aussie and Carol, who'd invited us, weren't the actual hosts. I explained about them being part of a network, but the truth appeared to be that Ann felt out of place among a bunch of strangers. I promised that next year we'd just watch on our own at hers like we did for the previous six contests, but she seemed reluctant to stop me going back to this group's party without her. I told her that nothing was going to get in the way of her and me watching together as we always do. She also seemed to be feeling flat because of all the neighbourly voting, not that that's anything new.
And so we went our separate ways homeward.
When we got ready to draw countries, Jane announced that if anyone got Azerbaijan their young daughter Freyja would probably want to swap with them, as that was her favourite entry. Those muppets in the angel and demon costumes?? Well, she's only a kid, bless her. I got Croatia, and Ann got Bosnia-Herzegovina - as we were sitting together, that enabled us to join in when Eve made a joke about voting pacts.
As it turned out, the draw for countries was solely to determine who hosted next year's party (the person whose country wins the Contest gets that honour). You marked the country you'd drawn in just the same way as all the others. The system was that you awarded marks out of 10 for song, performance, dance routine and outfit to give a total mark out of 40.
Carol drew Latvia, which she was delighted with as it was her favourite. Early in the evening, as we discussed the madness of the Bosnian entry, she said "Wait till you see the pirates!" One thing that took a little getting used to was that everyone chatted the whole time, all over the songs and the commentary - this presumably happens every year, as Dave had put subtitles on the telly. Dave dubbed the German girls "Girls Aloud, Queens of the Desert". Ann - who was the one person there who really liked Andy Abraham's entry - said the Bosnian girl was a Helena Bonham Carter lookalike. When Latvia came on, Carol was in her element, hey-hey-heying along with the best of them, while Dave quipped "I always wondered what happened to the Village People". Ann noted that the Greek song was the same song they'd won with in 2005, though I pointed out Elena was much better than this year's girl.
My favourites were Bosnia and Sweden, though many of the company reckoned Charlotte looked scary, or like she'd had Botox or facelifts. When everyone had handed in their mark sheets, Dave went upstairs to add them up on his computer. While he was gone, I went to the buffet where I met Aussie, who said he was disappointed with my apparel (I was wearing my 2001 - A Space Otway T-shirt). He pointed out that he was wearing his Salisbury City FC polo shirt and Dave was wearing a Portsmouth FC T-shirt so I should have worn one of my Havant & Waterlooville tops. Earlier Carol had told me that she and Aussie had been to Liverpool, and then gone to the home game with Cambridge City where we let in anyone with a Liverpool ticket stub free, and that she'd loved it. I said I'd let her have a list of our home matches when the fixtures are announced in July, so she could let me know if she wanted to come along again.
I voted for Bosnia; Ann, like most of the company, didn't bother to vote.
Dave came back with "the votes of the Gosport jury" - the top ten songs from our collective marks. We'd given Bosnia four, but nothing to Sweden - or Andy - and, to Carol's delight, Latvia got our 12.
The voting rapidly became a two horse race between Russia and Greece. The main significance of this as far as most of the company were concerned was the prospect of Eve, who'd drawn Russia, hosting next year's party at her home in Lee-on-the-Solent. More than once Dave and Carol led a chant of "We're going to Lee-on-Solent, we're going to Lee-on-Solent, la-la-la-la". Huge cheers greeted San Marino's 6 to Andy and, especially, Ireland's 8. When Greece were in the lead Ann said "Well, that song won Eurovision three years ago, why shouldn't it again?"
Once the last jury had voted and Dima Bilan began to make his way to the stage for the reprise, Ann couldn't wait to get out of there. We said our goodbyes and thanks to Dave and Jane, and I said bye to Aussie and Carol. Outside - in the rain - Ann said she wouldn't be coming again next year. She'd found the constant talking an irritant - not just because it marred the songs but because she missed Terry's commentary - and she'd felt 'rude' because Aussie and Carol, who'd invited us, weren't the actual hosts. I explained about them being part of a network, but the truth appeared to be that Ann felt out of place among a bunch of strangers. I promised that next year we'd just watch on our own at hers like we did for the previous six contests, but she seemed reluctant to stop me going back to this group's party without her. I told her that nothing was going to get in the way of her and me watching together as we always do. She also seemed to be feeling flat because of all the neighbourly voting, not that that's anything new.
And so we went our separate ways homeward.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2008-05-25 09:26 am (UTC)The Swedish girl was frightening though, I said that.
no subject
Date: 2008-05-25 02:24 pm (UTC)Be sure to mention the chicken! If you didn't know, when those two performed at the Bosnian Song For Europe they brought a live chicken on stage. My friend Sue was most disappointed they didn't take the chick to Belgrade.