Eurovision in Alva!

After our day spent in Narnia, we went back to the wee flat for fish 'n chips and ice cream and wine... and EUROVISION!!

If you are not familiar with Eurovision, then I'd say you haven't yet lived.  It's an international European song contest.  Each nation has their own contests to find the song they are going to enter, and then there are qualifiers, quarter-finals, semi-finals, and finally, the Finals.  The country that won the previous year hosts the next year's contest-- this year, it was in Norway.  My flatmate was there.  We looked for him in the crowd, but didn't see him.  Anyway.  Each country performs their song, and everyone at home phones in to vote for their favourite.  Then the popular votes from each country are paired with 'professional' rankings from each country, to decide how many votes each act receives.  After all the performances, they actually go through calling every country to get their votes, and keep the tally live on tv.  It's all very exciting.  And someone wins.  And then they sing again.  And then that's it until next year.

It really is quite an experience.  If you ever live in Europe, or any of the other countries that aren't in Europe exactly but are included in the mayhem, then you must watch it.  Or just check out some of the previous entries on YouTube.  You won't regret it.

This was our second annual Eurovision party--both times held in Paige's flat, although last year it was in Aberdeen.  She was thrilled that last year's winner got to perform again... as you can tell by the excited expression on her face.  We all could hardly contain ourselves.  It was good times, for sure.  As always, the photos can be found here, at the very end. 

This is the 2009 winner, who Paige loves:


This is the 2010 winner, who actually deserved to win:


Seriously.  Check out some of the videos out there.  You won't regret it, unless you are looking for actual good music.  But for a laugh, you can't beat them!  =D

Narnia, aka Stirling University

Who knew?  ;)

The three of us girlies in Aberdeen went down in late May to visit Paige in Alva-- largely so we could all watch Eurovision together (more on that tomorrow).  Since none of us had really seen much of her new uni, we forced her to take us on a tour-- which was great, because she hadn't seen most of it, either.  =)

Stirling University is a fairly new Scottish university, all things considered, and the architecture leaves much to be desired.  The setting, however, is breathtaking.  We'd all noticed it on the bus between Stirling and Alva, but none of us had wandered around it.  We had gorgeous weather, and needed to be home in time for Eurovision, so it was a perfect day to wander in the great outdoors on campus.  The postbox says it's Narnia, and we believed it!  We found lots of gorgeousness, hidden glens and cottages, tumble-down cemetaries, and more.

After spending time out on campus, Paige showed us around her office and her building.  They have a great collection of Scottish art... which wasn't there.  Ha.  They had several things up in other places, and we got to enjoy it.  Plus Paige showed us the window she gets to design in the entryway with all the other art, when it's at home.  And her office... dang.  Bunnnies galore cavorting just outside, and a view of the Wallace Monument.  Lovely.  Makes being in the office not so bad when you have beauty and distration so readily available.  ;)

And we had a good time with each other.  Although I'm sure you can't tell that from the photos.

Party Like It's 2010... Oh, Wait...

So I had lots of my friends from different circles (uni, church, etc) and different eras (as long as I've been here, in the past year, etcd) to my flat for eating and laughing and goofing off on Sunday.  It was a good day.  I made Laurie's bean dip, Kayla's cream cheese salsa dip, ranch dip with veggies, raspberry choco streussel bars, Legend's fruit tea, and birthday cake balls (I had to neuter about a dozen and a half, poor cakes.  But their sacrifice was duly appreciated by the guests at my party).  I'll let the pictures tell the story, with a wee bit of commentary from me.  =)

(they might not have eaten the cake balls if they'd seen these photos first...)

the fridge stocked:

Becker boys, Scot and RitaBekah

what the boys did the whole time, and didn't share:

Liz and Jay, caught in the act.  Of what, I'm not sure.

Aleithia.  Classy. 

Which came first?  Looks like neither one is doing very well... considering they were supposed to be going straight off the edge to the right of the photo. 

Natalie and Noelle, vying for the win!

And the mystery parcel-- revealed this!  Not busted yet.  Needs a neater garden and less rainy day.

That's it.  I'm officially olde now.  Yay! 

Aaargh, Mateys!

Liz is on a mission.  Before she turns 30, she's tackling a list of things to do-- from the Pirates Who Don't Do Anything.  She's done a few of them already... but to inspire her on, she had a pirate-themed party. It was great fun-- there was cake and chocolate and pizza and rum and coke and wine and games and babies and friends.  And we all put our costumes together out of just our everyday wardrobes... which is either very cool or very sad.  =D 

Happy Birrrrrrthday, Liz! 

Celebrities Have All the Fun...

Sport relief.  Water skiing the English Channel.  Biking the length of Britain non stop.  Biking from Rome to Edinburgh for six nations.  Let's dance.  Kayaking the Amazon, the first woman ever. Fantastic sketches for fundraisers.  And Becks.  Oh, Lord, Becks.  Dumb as a rock, perhaps.  Looks of a god, oh yes.  Heart of gold?  Completely.  Who knew?

It's a little long, but it's totally worth it.  At least watch long enough to see David Beckham.  I'm pretty sure you won't regret it. 

I have loads more videos from the Sport Relief show... but I'll refrain.  You can find them on YouTube through the BBC channel, if you want.  They are quite funny, even if you don't live here.  =D

Laughter: The Best Medicine

I know, you may be sick of my video posts.  But I will not apologise for them.  They make me laugh, and that is a very, very good thing.  So I share them.  And if they don't make you laugh, then I don't know what's wrong with you.  Kidding.  Sort of.  ;) 

These I came across at my first quiz night, thanks to Jay.  There were ten in total;  I've only found two of the right ones so far.  But they were two of the best.  Here they are. 

This one made me laugh so hard I couldn't breathe.  Jay was both amused and concerned, and was glad we had trained emergency aid people around.  I still laugh when it comes to mind.  Better than the real film, in my opinion! 

This one is classic.  Seriously.  We only got the cut version in the quiz, for reasons that will become obvious once you see the end.  However, after the quiz we got to see the whole thing, and it was brilliant.  Truly genius.  It honestly doesn't get more classic than this. 


For all you Facebookers who only read these when they import... you'll be truly missing out.  I would apologise, but if you really loved me, you'd read my actual blog.  Kidding.  Sort of.  =D

Let's Dance, Cheryl!

She is on one of the most popular soaps, EastEnders.  I was totally blown away by this.  I laughed so dang hard.  Cool as ice, right to the finale.  Brilliant.  Truly.

If you want to see more of the acts, the BBC channel on YouTube has them.  Or you can just search there for 'Let's Dance Sport Relief'.  That's how I got them to share with you.  I hope you've enjoyed these... =D

Let's Dance, Debra!

Actress and comedic impersonator... which shows.  She was so in character, she never even spoke as herself in any of the interviews.  Classic.  And straight to the finale. 

Let's Dance, Sam and Mark!

These two are children's presenters on CBBC.  They were born in the 80s, and neither of them can remember when this song was out!  And yet, they are pretty convincing as Wham!  I was really shocked they didn't make the final.  Silly voters. 

Let's Dance, Katy!

Katy Brand, comedienne.  And Beyonce double.  Obviously.  She, along with Rufus, were shoe-ins for the finale.  I only wish the short video intros that they do were on here as well... they are often as funny as the performance themselves! 

Let's Dance, Rufus!

So you may or may not remember about this time last year when I posted about Comic Relief, and a couple of clips from the show where celebs performed their versions of famous dance routines.  If you want a refresher, that post is here.  This year, they brought back this awesome show, in aid of Sport Relief (which raises money for the same type of charities at home and abroad as Comic Relief).  Each week for three weeks, six acts perform-- and two go to the grand finale, which is this weekend.  So far, five of those in the finals I completely agree with... and one I think got a bum deal.  Because I think they are fun, I'm going to share the ones I really like.  Hopefully you'll get a laugh, even if you don't know the celebs in them.

This was the lead act of the first show, and it was a show-stopper.  Seriously, it's been hard to top it in the following three weeks.  Rufus Hound is a comedian, and apparently a great Cheryl Cole imitator.  Enjoy!

 

Funny Men

I'm not usually a huge fan of Johnathan Ross, but I happened to find his guests last night quite entertaining. 






I just had to share.  They cracked me up. 

iPhoney

You heard it here first, folks...

There's a new text-speak language in town, developed by Apple, apparently.  See, my sister has an iPhone.  She uses it to chat with me on Yahoo!  Messenger.  Except that I end up having to translate (and laugh my head off) most of the time.  However, we are sure it's going to catch on.  Here's your starter course: 

hoebullu = hopefully
hash = haha
jerker = tee hee
javon = n'est pas?  it originally changed from 'i have', but we've been using it as a 'you know?' kind of phrase
dait = cursing, like dangit.  except for not dang. 

We actually have been using these now, in our texting.  I particularly like hash, hoebullu, and javon.  i use them a lot.  For instance...

So, hoebullu this new language we've termed iPhoney will catch on, javon? 

hash!  =)

Dait.  I'm such a dork. 

Badgertastic!

Seriously one of the funniest things I've read in ages, and my new favourite blog (that doesn't belong to someone I know personally, of course).  If you haven't found this couple yet, check 'em out.  I read through all the back posts (they're short, and there aren't too many yet) and laughed myself silly.  The language is a bit rough, but oh, the life this guy is living in his sleep!  And bless his wife for seeing the funny side of it, and sharing it!  Seriously.  Check it out.  It's good for a laugh.  =D

Sleep Talkin' Man