Thread 17 - TalkLair: "Okay, first of all, what's with the outfit? Live in the now, okay? You look like DeBarge."

[RasaSayangEh]

(Previous thread 16).

Spring is springing, daffodils blooming all over our LairGarden, which have not all been picked by a neighbour's kid...

In the TalkLair, the hearth is glowing, books by non-approved authors line the shelves, cosy rugs are down on the floors looking a bit stained by cat hairball regurgitation. The denizens of the lair are a welcoming bunch though, always eager for general chit-chat on all manner of topics. We just won’t mention the gnawed bones of our prey over there in the corner of the cave…

One of the many things I love about him!

Awww!

Oh that’s an excellent outcome @Britinme - my mattress is also soft at the edge and it’s the one thing I don’t like about it. Thankfully I haven’t fallen out yet.

Well done @Britinme's DH!

So far, so good…

Bit of an exhausted day today but also a big old HUGE relieft. I have one bed sore which we've been treating but has got more sore because it opened. It's made me moody and I understand that. Anyway, nurse today gave me a dressing thing which has brought me almost total relief. I've gone from all movement of that area is painful, to I'm aware of it but no pain. Also, this dressing will be helping the wound to close again.

Immediately in a better mood, now I'd just like to be a bit less tired so I can do some reading and writing but I'll settle for less pain and be grateful for it!

And today a compassion cushion turned up to add to the bottom issues. It's magical.

I also had a lovely visit from my E where for half an hour we did something so normal from the past that it was just what we both needed. She did a sudoku while I got on with a bit of light reading. People feel the need to talk to me all the time and I feel similar whereas when you're with close friends for any length of time - admitedly longer than we spend now - a bit of not talking is the norm for us too. It was lovely.

And Palace, what a wonderful underdog story, grown men crying, their first ever trophy. E is a fan. Loved it.

We fired up the VPN today and watched Eurovision on the BBC website. They do stream it on Peacock over here, but I like Graham Norton’s commentary. DH has enjoyed Eurovision ever since the year Lordi won. I particularly liked the Latvian and Ukrainian entries, and I was glad the UK bunch didn’t get nul points again this year.

Glad to hear you've had a better day @FagsMagsandBags

We watched Thunderbolts yesterday, of course we had to because it featured Kuala Lumpur in the opening scene, and actually we all thought it was very good.

Then last night we watched Eurovision. As with most years, there are songs that we find pretty good, songs that are really not to our taste, and the majority somewhere in the meh middle. Then we go to bed because the voting and scoring takes bloody forever, check the winner in the morning and (inevitably) gasp "Who the fuck voted for that one??!" Happens every year. It's a beloved family tradition

My Eurovision method is to wait until about half way through before turning on the iPlayer and fast-forwarding, just watching the actual songs. Last night I got as far as Austria, thought "Well, he won't win but he ought to" and went to bed. I was astonished that the Great European Public agreed with me.

My usual Eurovision routine is to go, "Oh? Was it Eurovision again?' A couple of days afterwards. I used to flounce to my room, as a kid, although I did stay for the one with Bucks Fizz.

Over brunch, DH put the Eurovision playlist on and we decided that several of the entries sound much better on second listening. Initially when DH proposed listening to them and just skipping past the boring ones, DDs were scathing and said "It'll be a short listen then!" but turned out we listened to almost all of them. I think there is an element of overwhelm when you're watching the whole lot of them, plus crazy flashing lights and wild graphics, on live TV.

Oh, also: As we watched the umpteenth skimpily dressed woman gyrating around the stage whilst shedding even more clothing, DD1 commented "Maybe one year to stand out, they should try doing an act where they put on more clothes as they go!"

I wasn’t a huge fan of the Austrian entry, though I thought it was one of the better ones. I’m finding this morning that I’m still remembering some songs with pleasure - the Swiss one, the Latvian and Ukrainian ones, the UK one and that weird Estonian “Espresso Macchiato” one. The Israeli one was pretty too.

Austria had very impressive vocal technique, but a decidedly meh song, IMO. Whereas Iceland had no standout talent but a nice boy cy number and they seemed to be having fun.

Estonia should have got a bonus choreography prize - both for the legs, and for the 2 main bouncers.

Estonia is also the only one I could now sing. Could probably manage Sweden with a little prompting.

The mad water nymphs were excellent. And I always love Greece's dogged refusal to give up on the pentatonic scale.

Boy cy = bouncy.

The UK entry was competently performed, but seemed to be an intro and 3 entirely separate choruses in search of a song.

I think Austria was very much more about the performance than the song. And I'm afraid it amused me that the UK got nul points in the public vote, but that may be because I currently live in a Brexity/Reform area where a great many people hate foreigners on principle. So it's sort of reassuring to know that many of these damned foreigners are just so utterly indifferent to us.

I haven't watched for years but funnily enough did see Lordi win and quite like it. I loved it as a child and my first one was 1974 and Abba, a good introduction!

I was fully aware of the UK entry and it's a total earworm. I heard this morning that they sort of did the opposite of Israel who got most of the audience vote while the UK got most of the judges vote which suggests the judges votes are still nul to douze points, hence how low down they were with a complete lack of public vote.

Anyway, I was going to watch something else entirely but happened upon a film called The Boys in the Boat. Very formulaic. Directed by George Clooney although you wouldn't know it but one of those feel good underdog films that are easy to watch and you get to see Hitler in a huff so what's not to love. Plucky underdog rowing team from Washington state, not even the varsity team but the seconds. Absolutely fabulous cox which made me realise how imporant they are. They want to get to the Olympics, star rower has been homeless since he was 14, all manner of obstacles in their way and off they go to Berlin, we meet Jesse Owens, there's a rowing race and Hitler huffs. I mean if it wasn't all true you'd vomit but I was just in the right mood for something so light and easy. Would recommend for a day when you demand nothing of a film except a nice story and lots of lovely to look at characters and to put your feet up and say "that'll do." anything more, not for you on that day. It wouldn't be for me most of the time but last night it was.

I then discovered four episodes of SATC and decided it was a bloody great evening!

Ghost is on. Trying to decide whether this is wise or not.

I've had a lovely day out with MaBint. Met up at the place her mother lived as a young child, which is now a museum. The museum is closed for renovations so we just planned to potter around the grounds and look at the remaining the outbuildings, but it turned out there was a weekend canal boat festival going on. So we saw all the bits we planned, plus lots of little boats (it's a tiny section of canal these days, so only has caravan-sized boats that can be taken there by road trailer and dropped in).

We'd taken one of NannaBint's old letters describing the place, so we could match up landmarks, and that had a section talking about the canal (she loved the boats, and at the age of 5 or 6 used to go off for hours with the boatmen who'dtake her a few miles down and then put her on another boat going the other way to drop her home) . So we were able to tell the restoration society a few things they didn't know.

And she also talked about sliding down the chimneys of the disused lime kilns. And when we got there a group of kids were exploring inside the one remaining kiln, having wriggled in through the same hatch she used to slide through.

I hadn't been there before, so hadn't realised how tiny the houses were. About 5 big paces across the front of the house and 7 or 8 deep. Not sure if it was 1 or 2 storeys, but there was a cellar. Not much room for 5 people though. And 2 families shared a communal privy (2-seater) next to the pig pens.

Wow, that sounds fun and a wonderful piece of intergenerational history. I mean the kids still playing in the lime kiln.

That does sound like a good day, Bint.

Another vote here for The Boys in the Boat - we enjoyed that one a lot when we watched it.

We watched an old (2011) movie on Netflix last night - Crazy Stupid Love, with Steve Carell and Julianne Moore and Ryan Gosline - which was funny and not too mind-taxing and we enjoyed it very much.

Heh! I wouldn't call a 2011 flick 'old'! Old is Casablanca or It Happened One Night, for me. I like SC and JM, though, so I'll look it up.