Eurovision Weekend: It's All About The Beards
Created | Updated May 18, 2014
A weekend of song and football, it's all Red, White, but mostly Blue in the Magwitch household
The Eurovision bit
My son and I are ardent followers of Eurovision and every year we spend the week prior to final listening to all the entrants and deciding on who we want to win on the Big Night. There were a few obvious contenders this year and even the UK's own entry didn't sound too bad, but sadly one of our favourites, Latvia, didn't make it through Tuesday's Semi Final.
At 8pm on Saturday 10th May, there was beer and wine in the fridge, the Bailey's was on ice and a variety of snacks adorned the table. We had our scorecards and pencils at the ready. My eldest and youngest sons beat a retreat to the bedroom and the safety of Terraria on the Xbox and sofa Eurovision party can commence
Ukraine was a man in a ham(p)ster wheel, but no sign of Elton, it was one of bookies favourites but did nothing for us. Belarus next and a song about cheesecake. That is all. Azerbaijan was well received in the Magwitch household with us both giving it firm 10, there was also a trapeze. Sadly there were no beards and it failed to ignite the voting public. Iceland was favourite through the week for us, colourful suits, catchy tune and some great beards. Norway, Romania and Armenia failed to impress although at least Norway had a beard. We were divided on Armenia, but Montenegro brought the balance back with some rather lovely effects underneath the skater. Poland was a bit of a shocker the highlight was when it ended 1. Greece had a bit of a bouncy song, with trampolines. Why? Austria next, what can I say? Conchita Wurst had the best beard, an excellent voice and brilliant show tune. A worthy winner. Germany next and as my son said, 'It might be not be right, but certainly isn't wrong'. Sweden was another bookies favourite. I rather liked it in a Euorvisiony sort of way, and it did go on to eventually come third.
France sang a song about a moustache, the singer had Jedward hair, but none of the aforementioned facial hair, except on the 'guitarist'. Shame. Russia had two siste,rs a rather nice song, and a see-saw, with rather nice 'sun' effect at the end. Italy did the best of a bad song and there was a rather impressive beard as well. Slovenia had a flute, but no beards. Finland’s version of One Direction should really have sung something better than the mediocre tripe they were doing. Spin had entered their X factor winner, there were some lovely rain effects but the song didn't half go on and on and on. Switzerland got extra points because they had two beards, a banjo and some whistling. Dancing round and under piano could not save Hungary from, although it had a catchy chorus and placed quite well at the end. Malta had an Appalachian Mountain dulcimer, and a brother and sister. We quite liked it, even though the singer had trimmed his beard. The sub-Bruno Mars-alike from Denmark failed to get the house moving. Nearly there now and another rather good song, this time The Netherlands with a song about the weather, maybe I should steer them in the direction of Create? No beard worth speaking of, but you can't go wrong with a bit of country. The only thing to say about San Marino is that is no beard. At last we come to the final song, UK's Molly, she didn't do that badly performance-wise and the song was certainly better than any we've had in recent years but maybe everyone had already made their minds up, and it was a bit of a damp squib when the results finally ended coming 17th.
The voting and early results gave us time to tidy up the mess of Twiglets and peanuts that now adorned the lounge floor and then we sat down for the rest, always keeping an eye out for Iceland and Austria . After 34 of the 37 countries had voted, Conchita was declared the winner and much cheering could be heard. The Phoenix rose for the final time that night, the empty beer and wine bottles were consigned to the Recycling bins, and the fridge restocked for the following day.
The City Bit
Sunday afternoon was a much more sedate affair. The final day of English Premier League. With Manchester City and Liverpool the only two teams in contention for the Title. City only needed to draw and as the opposition didn't seem to want to trouble Joe Hart, the 'keeper, it was only a matter of time before we scored. A second goal in the second half and it didn't matter that Liverpool were also winning their game. The final whistle and City we champions gain. We were over the Blue Moon.2
.So, what about the facial hair on the new crowned Trophy Winners? Well, Pablo Zabaleta sported some stubble, David Silva, a little tiny nanny, and with Vincent Kompany sporting a rather fetching, but barely there, under the chin number, it was left to our 86th minute substitute, Alvaro Negredo, to show us what a proper beard looks like.
Here's a picture of a kitty. 
That about sums up the feeling in the Magwitch household on a Sunday night after truly excellent weekend. It's okay, George, we've only 97 days 'til we can start all over again
