Eurovision Party

Sunday:

Eurovision is a European song contest that gets bigger and more glamorous every year. It is very popular in Australia as we have many people of European descent here, and the past two years Australia has had an official entrant even though we're round the other side of the world. I believe it was telecast in China and USA this year too (and Justin Timberlake was the guest performer). Maybe eventually it will become WorldVision. No, that name is taken.

The charm of Eurovision is its diversity and weirdness. Plenty of normal power ballads and a few rock or country style; but also Russian grandmothers with a folk song, heavy rock from Finland with the band in full "orc" makeup and costumes, a Romanian opera singer dressed more or less as a vampire and singing the whole thing in falsetto. Actually this year lacked a bit of the weirdness. ABBA and Celine Dion have won it in the past, other names probably more famous in Europe than here.

We've been really into it for only about four years, but we love it now. Semi finals Friday and Saturday nights and the final Sunday night. Actually it was performed in the early hours of the morning, our time, so had to stay away from media giving away the result! We invited extra family to our usual Sunday dinner then more people to come over in the evening to all watch together. It was a fun party. We let the kids stay up late too. I was worried there would be so much talking I wouldn't be able to hear the TV, but we all quieted down for the songs and gave scores after each one. I think our top five was pretty close to the official top five. Australia's entrant came second! Ukraine won instead of the favourite, Russia, in what many consider to be a political result.

There were also a couple of family announcements. Our close family group is made up of two sets of brothers - cousins to each other and they all grew up in the same street so it's almost like four brothers - and their wives (and parents). A few weeks ago one wife announced her pregnancy, I knew another was not ready to make it public. Last night she announced, and then the third did as well! I'm the only one of the four of us not pregnant. So we'll have three new babies in the family in October, November and December.

I say "she" announced it, but actually I just realised in all three cases it was the husband who got up to give the news. I wonder if that is because it was his side of the family they were telling, or if that is a thing?