Lockdown day #61

Today was a tad overcast .... and I didn't want to get up. 

I should have been going to a Model Railway Exhibition at the Museum of Transport - but, inevitably, it was cancelled.

I read a blog - (another blog should that be?) - The Road to Deregulation: A Brief History of the British Bus Industry, which was very interesting - so I got to do something "transport" related today.

I watched on Facebook the Kilted Coaches take on Kilted Ballet - which was very funny.

... and this evening was the Eurovision Song Contest - or rather it wasn't ... the Song Contest itself was cancelled.  However a group of LibDems got together and we did our own version - we listed to all 41 acts, and we had juries - casting our votes, and then recording the "televote" - Lithuania won.  My top song was from Switzerland - oh yes .. c'est la vie.  This was incredible fun, and I really enjoyed myself.

Lockdown day #59

I woke this morning just after 6am - had some breakfast and got on with the day.

In the post was a parcel from Shelly (my friend in Wales) - designed to put a smile on my face - and it certainly did.  There were a couple of books (one on Sudoko, which I am not very good at), an orange dragon, a pair of rainbow socks and loads of sweets.  Thank you very much - it was delightful to receive.

I watched on YouTube a concert of music by Schubert and Lizst played by Christopher Hinterhuber, which was lovely, and relaxing.

The weekly acknowledgement of the front-line carers trying to get us through this COVID-19 crisis followed at 8pm.  My phone told me that the Prime Minister and his nation were "leading the nation" in clapping for the carers - that one is a rank hypocrite - I am sure that when the nurses have saved us all they pay gets frozen, while his pay increases.  I have no time for this man.

I watched the second showing of the Eurovision songs - and have found my top 5 favourites - Switzerland, United Kingdom, France, Estonia and Spain.

I rounded off my evening with a diverting and funny film called "Very Important Person"

Lockdown day #57

For one of my Facebook challenges I have to pick a Top 100 UK hit for each year of my birth.  Today was for 1965, and I cheated.  The album I picked did not feature any song in the UK hit parade, let along the top 100.  1965 was, however, the Centenary of the Salvation Army and I stumbled upon a recording of the Service of Thanksgiving in Guildford Cathedral, held on 20 November 1965 ... so I chose that!

I watched another episode of Fortunes of War on YouTube.

My friend Mark Croasdale is putting together a series of short films for the Manchester International Festival and I watched his film Landbreaks: The Grove.  It had a very powerful message and I enjoyed watching it.

The Eurovision Song Contest is, of course, not taking place per se, due to this COVID-19 pandemic.  However on the day that the first semi-final was due to take place, a run through of all the acts took place - utilising their music videos.

At the moment, my top 5 acts are from Cyprus, Germany, Netherlands, Croatia and Ireland: