Trouble at Mill but Eurovision Saves the Day: Emerging from Lockdown

Social lives have been on hold for many months but things are unlocking at last. I’m pleased to announce that I actually went to a party at the weekend and it was great!. The invite called it a festival – there would be a screening of the Glastonbury Live Stream. Festival wear was encouraged. (Shorts and wellies? Glittery make up? Flowers in hair? It was cold so I settled on lots of layers….and glittery make up! Daughter went with shorts and wellies.

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Our lovely hosts live in a spectacular mill conversion in an idyllic riverside location. The original mill workings have been preserved and make a fascinating feature and a reminder of the history of the building.

The guests were congregating at the back of the house, sheltered by walls on three sides with a view across to the river on the fourth. It was lovely to see friends for the first time in such a while. As we arrived a batch of food was brought from the barbecue to a table already groaning under the weight of food and drink. The resident dogs, Doug and Dave, were very well behaved but never strayed far from that table in case anyone dropped a treat in their direction. Dave posed beautifully for a picture. This is so unlike our lab, Buddy who always turns away if he sees a camera.

A large screen was set up under a gazebo ready with a projector for the Glastonbury Live Stream. You can just see it behind daughter on the right.

The music festival was cancelled this year because of the Pandemic, but were to stage a one night event (without a live audience) for streaming. Due to a wide reaching technical problem many people across the country couldn’t get the live feed and we were no exception. But all was not lost as there was another huge music event being broadcast at the same time: The Eurovision Song Contest.

If you live outside the European Broadcasting Union and haven’t come across it before, Eurovision is a phenomenon that started in the 1960s. Membership has now increased to include former soviet countries, the states that make up what was Yugoslavia, also Israel and even Australia!. Each country submits a song and the show is broadcast simultaneously across all the competing nations. The performances are often over-the-top to the point of being bizarre with staging far more memorable than the music, but it’s fun with all those glitzy costumes, weird visual effects and enthusiastic dancers! The scoring takes forever as each nation’s jury assigns their points. There’s a lot of geopolitics going on with that part of it. Eurovision is as camp as Glastonbury is cool, but it certainly added to the party spirit on Saturday,

As the sun went down and the moon rose it got a lot cooler.

More logs were piled on the fire pit and we gathered round to stay warm

This must be the first party I’ve been to in over a year and it felt great. Thanks so much to our lovely generous hosts A and T. Your inaugural Festival at the Mill was brilliant.