Eurovision

Posted on 16 December 2019 by pws

I love the Eurovison Song Contest. For a few hours every year, the countries of the EBU gather and entertain us with songs good and bad.

I would love to go to a final. The chances of th UK winning are virtually zero these days, and travel to foreign countries is expensive and not fun on your own. But who knows…

The interval can be a highlight. No-one who saw it will ever forget Riverdance. However, this is one of my favourites.

It is something that makes me well up every time I watch it. I know the UK contribution is rubbish, but the one from Hamburg is great, as is the man on the rock.

Best is Dublin. It’s great when the camera lifts up and there are all those people, even in the windows.

And it’s a real party spirit at the end, with all the audience joining it. Brilliant.

Posted in Music, Television | Leave a comment

Can’t count

Posted on 11 December 2019 by pws

I wish people would stop telling us that it’s the last X of the decade. It isn’t.

Let’s get this right. A decade is 10 years. This year is 2019, which ends in a 9. It is the ninth year of a ten year decade. There is one more whole year to go after this year before the decade comes to an end.

The first year was year 1, the second year 2 and so on. The tenth year was year 10. At the end of a year ending with a multiple of 10 we end a decade. The year 100 was the hundredth year, the end of a century. The end of 1999 was not the end of a century as we still had one year to go.

Not that ending a decade or century has any special meaning anyway…

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Election

Posted on 11 December 2019 by pws

Tomorrow in the UK is election day, your chance to participate in the running of the country. It’s not for me to say who you should vote for, but think about a couple of things:

If you don’t vote, then don’t complain about the result afterwards. And remember that there are plenty of people who would love to vote but are not able to.

And if you do vote, and your choice gets into power and they immediately withdraw their promises and let everyone down, then it will be on your conscience for evermore.

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Posted in Politics | 1 Comment