Lovely surprise

Despite all the best intentions, I ended up being in a bit of a panicky flap with party preparations. I'd been up until 2.00 am, regretting with each passing hour that I'd decided to put together info sheets for all twenty five finalists for the Eurovision Song Contest, and then I was up again at 7.00 to do the house tidying and cleaning and arranging which I should not have left until the last moment. I left the printer doing its thing with the ESC info sheets and went out with my shopping list to my local drive-in vegetable shop and supermarket. I got back to be greeted with a very pleasant surprise, courtesy of my friends in Bray. They'd been due here for the party but Dave had texted me earlier to say he wasn't feeling the best and they wouldn't be able to make it after all. The flowers were from them by way of saying 'sorry for not being there' and 'have a nice birthday'. What a lovely thought. Thanks a heap guys.

All the recipes I'd sourced for chili con carne mentioned preparation times of 20 to 30 minutes. Nonsense! Well, it's nonsense when you're doing the quantity I was doing, as part of the food for the twenty expected party-goers. By the time it was bubbling away (and tasting might good, even I say so what shouldn't), a good hour an a half had gone by, and I still had bread to get for sandwich making and booze to get to stock the bar. Carl came over around 6.00 to give a hand, so the first stop was for four large sliced pans so he could get stuck into sandwich making while I went out for the alcohol. The first guest had arrived when I got back, and I still hadn't changed into my party gear.

I didn't get to see very much of the Song Contest, just catching the odd song here and there as I passed through keeping glasses primed, but from what I did see the show seemed to be well presented by Serbia, even if the 'songs' were generally more about how crazily they could be produced than whether or not they were actually any good as songs. Still, Russia came through as a clear winner, and it was all over by 11.15. That's when the 60s and 70s music kicked in, and then suddenly it was midnight and time for The Beatles to burst into 'When I'm 64'. The last of the guests left about 2.45 am. I was glad to get to bed.