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The really serious “final countdown” has started (Is it only me, or does everybody have to hum the tune to Europe’s song when the words “the final countdown” appear anywhere…?)
I can not believe it is two weeks to the great day. It hadn’t really downed on me yet, but this afternoon, as Jon was getting ready to go on his Stag-do weekend finally the penny dropped. Yes, in two week’s time we will be married. In two week’s time we will be husband and wife. In a fortnight I will no longer be a 31-year-old-single-girl, but a 31-year-old-married-woman. How scary!
Tomorrow I’m going into London for a “pre-wedding get together”. I don’t want to call it a Hen Night because of several reasons (the most important one: it won’t take place at night) Seriously, it is just a get together with my only few friends here in the UK. We will go for lunch to a Greek restaurant (www.therealgreek.com) in Marylebone and then the plan is to either go to Hyde Park and get a boat on the Serpentine, or go to the Photographer’s Gallery (www.photonet.org.uk) in Oxford Street if the weather is not too good. Depending on how we all are feeling, we may even do both things! I would very much like to do both, but we’ll see…
And not much more to tell, really. Well, probably lots of things, but at the moment I’m so stressed about the whole thing, that the more I think about it, the more nervous I become! So better leave it like that. In 4 weeks time, when we’re back from the honeymoon, there’ll be no more talk about the wedding… It all will be over…
I don’t know how it happened. We were about to have dinner and I had to find something on telly to watch while we ate and I just saw that the Eurovision song contest would be starting in 5 minutes, so I decided it would be fun to watch a bit of it.
But, I don’t know how it happened. Somehow I got stuck to the telly and watched the whole thing, despite promising Jon that it would “finish soon” and then we could watch the Eddie Izzard comedy show that he wanted to see so much.
So, firstly I must say that this is the first time I have seen the programme since 2002 when Rosa was representing Spain with her powerful voice singing “Europe’s living a celebration”. And, first impressions? I must say, I thought Russia put on a great show, I loved the visual design and the presentations of each country with that model (was she Miss World or something like that?). AND, most of the songs were quite good! As someone said (I think it was Lloyd Webber), finally Eurovision is about the SONGS again.
My favourite songs as I watched the programme were Iceland, Russia, Portugal, Malta and Norway. I wasn’t surprised that Norway won, the song is just so pretty and catchy! But I was somehow surprised that Malta didn’t get more votes (it came 22nd with 31 points) as I thought the song was very good and the singer had an amazing voice. UK’s Jade also did very well (compared to the lack of points in the last few years) but I must say I wasn’t crazy about the song. She is a very good singer, it’s just that the song didn’t capture me.
And then…. Soraya sang. I hated the song, I hated her dress, I especially hated her backing singers… Hasn’t Spain learnt anything in the past years of what kind of song is likely to do well in Eurovision? A few months back I heard that Melody was going to represent Spain and I thought it was a very good idea, as Melody’s voice and style could fit the contest. Watch the song here, but please ignore the first minute!
I’ve always said that Eurovision song contest shouldn’t be purely a pop contest, but a contest where the songs REPRESENT the countries. For example, Portugal’s song this year had a very traditional portuguese style but without losing the pop factor, the same with Turkey and Moldova. I also think that each country should sing in their mother tongue not always in English. But it seems like more and more countries are opting for the safe option of going for pop in English…
(Bad) Surprises of the night? Sweden (WTF happened with her voice!!) and Albania (dodgy looking guy in a all-body wetsuit? and two clowns?). I can’t believe Sweden got more points than Malta for example… Scary.
So yeah, all in all I enjoyed the night, just because for the excitement of seeing the UK finish 5th and the laughter inside me seeing that Spain didn’t get any points until so late. Too little too late 
I’ve been using the “livingsocial” application on Facebook quite often recently. You have to choose your Top 5 of anything: Top 5 bands you love, Top 5 best films of all time, Top 5 sports to watch, Top 5 books you dislike, etc.
This morning I filled in a few, and among others the one I want to talk about: “If time and money were no objection, choose your top 5 subjects you would go back to school for“. My answers were: Photography, English Language History, Electrical Engineering, Cooking & Food, and Business Organisations, Management and Leadership.
These 5 subject matters came to my head pretty much straight away, I bearly had to think about it for long.
Photography: I’ve been very busy in the last couple of months and have had no time to go out and take pics. But it still remains my favourite hobby. I’ve always said that if I won the lottery and could afford to work as anything, it would definetly be as a photographer. My poor flickr site has been a bit abandoned lately, even though I pledged to go out and take more and more pictures at the beginning of the year… Oh well.. We’ll see what will happen after the wedding.
One of my favourite pictures
English Language History: This subject has always fascinated me. Even back at Uni it was one of my favourite subjects. The problem I found were the teachers (oh yes, blame it on the teachers). They didn’t make the subject attractive, although I loved reading the books. Baugh and Cable’s book, compulsory reading at uni, is now proudly standing on my bookshelf and I re-read it sometimes just for fun.
The book I’m reading at the moment (“Mother Tongue” by Bill Bryson) has fully inspired me to somehow keep studying this amazing subject. It is an amazing book dealing with a very relevant subject: Language through history and how it is changing nowadays. I recommend it to anyone into English and its origin, plus Bryson has a great sense of humour and it makes for great reading.
Electrical Engineering: Obviously, working for Andromeda this is a very important subject to me. I have already said on this blog before how challenging I find my day to day job. Not difficult but challenging. And the key to the problem lies in my lack of electrical engineering knowledge. I bought a couple of books (this one was the best) but they really didn’t work. I think I just lack the right grey materia in my brain, the one that make guys so good at maths and so on. I am not calling myself stupid, I’m just not a “science|” girl…
Cooking and Food: I love food. Anyone who knows me knows that I eat a lot. I am not a fussy eater, I like mostly everything, and I like food in industrial quantities. I know how to cook, the only problem is that I always end up cooking the same recipes, maybe for lack of time, or simply because I am scared of trying new things and failing miserably. One day, when time and money are no object, I am going to attend one of those fancy cooking courses (they are sooo expensive!) and then go to “Come dine with me” LOL
At this rate I’m going to be fat by the age of 35!
And finally, Business Organisations, Management and Leadership: Office politics fascinate me and trouble me at the same time. I am only in the engineering support team in my office, but I am always going on about all the things that are wrong and that I would change if I was a manager or a leader. However I am well aware of the implications of being in such position, all the stress, all the fingers pointing at you. I suppose that if my career was heading towards that direction, I wouldn’t mind doing a course in management. But for the time being office politics are just a pastime.
Aer Lingus (aka “Aer Fungus”, or as my brother likes to call it “CunniLingus”) have recently started flying to several European cities, Malaga among others. This was great news for me when I heard because I know the company and I know they are good and cheap, so having good and cheap flights to Malaga was heaven sent (especially after the other two big competitors from Gatwick – EasyJet and Monarch – have been putting prices up little by little in the last couple of years, making it almost impossible to get a return flight for less than £120 if you’re not booking months in advance)
For work reasons, I’ve flown to Dublin with Aer Lingus quite a lot in the last few months (although not as often as poor Jon!) and I have always found myself in a very comfortable and quiet atmosphere: exactly what you need when you fly regularly. Most of the time they play classical music as you’re boarding and also when you’re leaving the plane. Nothing to complain about really.
But here’s the difference. I flew with Aer Lingus to Malaga just the other day and the difference was huge. Not on Aer Lingus’s part. No. They did everything exactly the same. With the same professionality that I would expect in an London – Dublin flight. The difference was in the people travelling.
In a normal, weekday flight to Dublin you find mostly business people, and some other normal travellers, but business people mainly. The atmosphere is quite, people appreciate the classical music, nobody is drunk and don’t shout down the plane to get their mates attention. That is what you get when you fly to Malaga. I wasn’t expecting anything like a flight to Dublin, but I wasn’t prepared to the kind of unwashed masses and riffraff that I found there.
It saddens me that the only people who ever visit my Spanish neck of the woods are the kind of people that make the Spaniards dislike the British at first sight. The kind of people who go there just because it’s sunny and they can abuse drugs and alcohol, wreck a few pubs, have a few one night stands with beautiful Spanish girls (leaving a few STDs on the way too) and bugger off back to Blighty as if nothing bad ever happened. The kind of people who laughs at the fact that Aer Lingus plays classical music when you’re boarding the plane. The kind of people you tend to avoid in the UK anyways.
And then some people still wonder why British tourists are still called “hooligans” (among other things) by Spaniards…
