365 Pink Feather Boas All in a Row - Day 149 (Sunday 30 May 2010) : Eurovision 2010 - Day 4 : It was the Best of Times, It was the Wurst of Times

Wow the big day has arrived!

Time to polish my Viking helmet ($10 at the local Bargain Store, which apparently sells anything), give the place one last Vacuum, Kerry adds the finishing touches to the mulled wine (a very considered drop if ever there was one), finish making Norway-coloured streamers with my gorgeous guy and Kerry, start making Swedish and Morroccan meatballs and their attendant sauces (we got Lyngonberry sauce from the IKEA food shop....yes what don't they sell right? They and the Bargain Store should get together!), arrange the seats in a funky theatre style pattern, make the vodka shots in blueberry (blue) and strawberry (red) flavours in clear shot glasses, scrub the toilet (which is staying white with not a Norwegian colour in sight thank you!!).... have a short nap in the arvo while my guy is at the orchestra and Kerry is having a shower..... then back into a frenzy of decorating fridges and bookcases and the room itslef (oh my!), cheese and cracker arranging and drink pouring as people start arriving.....PHEW!

We had a ton of things to do but thanks to the decision to go with finger foods like pastizzis, dim sims, meatballs etc, the cooking time is minimal and so once the Eurovision music list starting playing off my iPod and people mingled and ate in the elad up to the 7.30pm start, we could relax and enjoy the proceedings without feeling like we were the hired help.

Watching the final was SO MUCH FUN!! Gathering together my close friends - Stephen, Waz, Ian, Justin, house mate Aiden, Essie and Stephen's friend, Lucy - proved once again to be a master stroke and the clever quips, bitchy observations, and hilarious critiques flowed thick and fast. We were all instant costume, music and choreography critics, and it was interesting after listening to the songs so many times, to see how other less Eurovision saturated souls responded. Interestingly the catchiest song, Satellites by Lena (Germany) didn't go down well with Lucy who's Germany. (To be honest Lena came across as very drunk and ditzy when she won, and was interviewed and had to ask if she was required to sing again..... um yes, that's what the winner does!! So maybe Lucy has a point).

Points of concern were the fact that so many of the acts were so professionally put together, and while the English left a lot to be desired at various times, we bemoaned the lost of kitsch. All the kitsch-laden acts, like the Lithuanians, and Dutch, were voted out way during the semis, and we had to rely on the Danish to overplay the wind machine effects and pyrotechnics while singing an emotionally overwrought, albeit catchy, song to come close to the uber kitsch of past years. Still there were a lot of cute, hunky guys scattered through, or comprising all, the acts so we got a lovely lot of guy candy.

The best part was enjoying all the OTT fun of Eurovision with great friends, especially my wonderful fabulous friend Kerry and my darling man who held my hand throughout and regularly cracked me up with his clever commentary.

And as for going to Berlin to witness Eurovision in the flesh? We shall see, but oh, it's tempting!

......oh and somewhere in the middle of all this multi-coloured madness, Kerry and I snuck off to Marrickville Markets, the hippie leftie organic markets I adore (because they remind of the ones back home on the far North Coast) for Bratwurst sausages and a look through the stalls. A lovely break before the Eurovision cranked back into high gear.....