The word is a very exciting place

The warmer weather and a reduction in the covid deaths were a welcome sight, and left started to slowly return back to normal. Gardens were opening up across the country, and we headed out for the first time to visit the gardens at Kingston Lacy. Normally we go in the spring when all the bulbs are coming up, but this time we got to see the garden in full bloom. The house, tea room & shop were all still closed, but nonetheless, it was lovely to be out again. A part icular highlight was the different coloured acers and the wonderful rose garden. Yellow & orange roses are my favourites.

2020 in general was a chaotic year with the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, it affected our lives in many ways, one of those being the cancellation of Eurovision. In this post, I will discuss who I thought would do well, and who I thought would not do well, and also show you our individual scores for the semi finals. Full reactions to the songs can be found in the respective posts previously posted. 

 Hello, and welcome to the grand final of th 2020 Eurovision song contst. I know it was cancelled but we are going to pretend it still went ahead, albeit with me and James as the jury and televote. Thats right, only our votes will count, and will decide who wins the 2020 contest. You can see our reviews of the semi finalists in the previous posts, so tonight will be about our automatic finalists, and then the revealing of our votes. And if you're only just joining us now (shame on you) I'll be making our own little postcards, from the pictures I've taken while visiting the countries. And just to recap, our qualifiers from the first semi final were Cyprus, Lithuania, Norway, Ukraine, Ireland, Sweden, Russia, Malta, Macedonia & Belgium. The qualifiers from the second semi final were Georgia, Austria, Switzerland, Czechia, Serbia, Estonia, Bulgaria, Latvia, Poland & San Marino! I'm sure some of you agree with the qualifiers, others are surprised! But lets see the r...

Hi everyone, and welcome to the second semi final, of the 2020 Eurovision Song Contest. As you'll remember from the First Semi Final, it will be James & I reviewing each entry, and at the end we will be casting our votes to see who qualifies to the Grand Final. Who will be our favourite? Will we agree? Lets dive in, and see what happens!  Again, as we are missing the postcards for this contest, I have made my own with a picture from each of the competing countries when I travelled there. If I've not been there, then the national flag will be shown. It's my tribute to an often under appreciated aspect of the contest, and one that I intend to honour and continue, even though the contest was cancelled. The Samaria Gorge in Crete, with it's crystal blue waters and stunning rock formations  First up we have Greece, represented by Stefania with the song "Supergirl". First of all its a fun but cheesy music video, reminiscent of an early 2000's teen film about...

 Hi everyone and welcome to the 2020 Eurovision Song contest! This year is going to be slightly different, owing to the fact that the contest was sadly cancelled due to the Covid-19. For this year, James will be joining me in reacting to all the songs, Semi Finals included. We will then both cast our votes, and in true Eurovision fashion, ten will qualify to our own final, along with ten from the second final and the automatic finalists, the Big 5 & of course hosts The Netherlands. So without further ado, lets crack on!  There's no grand introduction, no opening act (I could sing for you, but you'd only give me nul points!). For me, one of the biggest disappointments was not seeing the postcards. I love the postcards, not only do they vary so much year to year, but they give you a brilliant insight into the host nation/city, as well as giving you a chance to get to the know the entrant a little bit too. I do not have the technical skills to create this, so what I thought I...

 May saw things started to improve, there was going to be a test & trace system to better track infections. There was talk of schools opening again for some students, and there was relief for many when it was announced some sporting events were going to be starting again, albeit behind "closed doors", whatever that meant. We had reached a milestone of 40,000 deaths from Covid. Thats was a number I cant even comprehend. Fourty Thousand. And although the death toll was slowing down, we had no idea if it was going to keep going that way, or if something else was going to happen. Work was getting busier, we were busier than ever picking stock from the shop floor and sending it to customers who had ordered online. We were starting to sell more in store as well, with customers being able to stand near the entrance to the clothing section and asking for items which we would get for them if it was available. Our store manager, who had worked with us throughout, took good care of ...