Mark Carroll's Journal

The Eurovision Song Contest has come around again and this year we paid attention to the two semi-finals. The first was striking in how many performers don't sing well. The second had a few decent singers but I wasn't wholly convinced by the selection that was put through to the final. Ireland's entry was pleasantly fun but it was also light. I was surprised that entries like Georgia's didn't make it through, given those that did. I suppose we'll see how the final goes on Saturday. Regardless, it was all quite an introduction to Hazel Brugger.

R. fancied seeing Wicked (2024) and we get £5-each tickets at Odeon for having sold our souls to Jeff Bezos so off we went into last night's wind and rain. I didn't know what to expect: I don't have much memory of the original story, perhaps some memory of Tin Man (2007) which hardly hewed closely, and I am not much up on modern musicals. It turned out to be better than I expected: I found myself engaged and I thought that the green lady sang very well. Given what I know or guess of what constrains the plot of the followup, I am curious to see where it goes.

Listening to Radio Scotland tonight, they did well for me in choosing songs from big albums from 1984, then followed up with a show which seemed to threaten folk songs in Gaelic. Giving it a chance, I've been surprised to find that I mostly like the music, at least as background. (Typically, British and Irish folk I'd avoid even more than I would country music.)

There has been a fast-food advertisement recently that features O mio babbino caro which seems an odd kind of sentiment for it. I was reminded of this by another advertisement just now for a broadband service, which incongruously plays us music from Jeff Wayne's The War of the Worlds. Perhaps they assume that viewers probably don't recognize these; I wonder if even the people constructing the advertisements know what they're using.

( After moving to the new flat, still plenty to do but much now done. )

( I think it was a good move. )

( Since the move, money will be tight for some time yet. )

My eldest happened to be nearby around their birthday so I got to walk over a couple of times and say hello, which was great. I've not been able to see my kids as much in recent months, with all the property viewings, the move and setup, etc. Maybe next weekend, here's hoping.

This time last year, with all the activity surrounding my move from Tennessee to Scotland, I missed the Eurovision Song Contest. This year, although we have just moved to Glasgow, we were in a better position to see it, with the help of a free 26" television that we picked up in a communal hallway back when we were viewing a different flat, a short walk away from here. Watching the contest meant staying up later than I prefer but I can make a rare exception for annual events.

Quoting my previous report on the contest: as usual, my preferences correlated rather more with the voting public's than the judges' verdicts. That pattern definitely continues. For example, I found Poland's entry pleasantly catchy, and thought both Finland's and Moldova's rather entertaining. I suppose that Croatia's entry comes in for a special mention, whatever it was.

The UK's entry performed as terribly as has become usual though, like Germany's, I thought it better than it scored. Whereas, the winner, Sweden, I thought was okay, and R. noted that the singer's voice is good, but it didn't blow me away as it did the judges.

Readers unfamiliar with the contest can note that the entries are all on YouTube, searching for Eurovision <year> <country> works well for me. R. found a playlist in descending order of votes so, the more one listens, the worse it gets.

I hope this new year's generally happy for all, nightly television news reports notwithstanding. On our side, domestically, there's a lot of settling to do yet, after our relocation: over the course of the year, I hope that we make our way into some stable longer-term situation (home, school, work, budget, etc.) that makes us happy. We'll certainly try. December was rather more a month of one-offs and feet-finding.

R. instigated a visit to the city centre for the Hogmanay concert and fireworks, I'm glad they did, it went well. It wasn't too cold, windy, or wet, just moderately so, it was nice to see the concert, from a distance given that we are not fans of crowds and noise, and the firework display. Walking back reminded me of my college days, when I'd also walk in a group in a British city to some event or other, even to the dark and the mist for getting back near home.

A guess occurred to me for why some of these events have multiple exits but only once entrance: perhaps to ease the ingress security for keeping the event clear of undesirable people and things.

It occurred to me that mentioning some of the more favored books that I own might be a useful way for me to share about myself and, best of all, inspire recommendations of ones I'd like.

I'll skip some categories for various reasons, including that they may not serve such purposes well, or there were too many CueCat^*-resistant exceptions. Those exceptions include, ( some reference books and other staples. )

( I own books about computer music, etc., )

( about how to approach life, )

( about Christianity, )

( history, )

( food, )

( the paranormal, UFOs, etc., )

( various fiction. )

It's worth noting that many of these are older books that have survived multiple culls, in some cases been replaced. This makes me suspect that I missed out on some worthwhile books in more recent years.

^*A barcode scanner, perfect for ISBNs. The business model may have been justly derided but the device itself is an ongoing boon.

I needed to get some jurats done and the US is interesting in how abundant notaries are, many people provide the service as a side job. I met one at Starbucks, which seems a reasonably pleasant place, I think it's the first time I ever bought from there, usually for me Starbucks is simply the answer to what is at the end of the very long queue of people in the airport terminal. I was the only customer to take a table outdoors, which worked well for reassuring me about the pandemic, the notary may have gotten a little hot away from air conditioning though.

I was pleasantly surprised to hear Brimful of Asha on the sound system, I love that song and hardly hear it here. I enjoyed sitting in the sunshine, listening to the music, watching the world go by as the notary made many notes. Also, on the way home, on the car radio I heard what I guessed to be World Cafe, apparently it was the Global Sounds Show, either way it's one of my favorites to happen to catch, usually local NPR plays classical and bluegrass and such instead.

I may be far from Scotland but I lived there for long enough that I like to mark Burns Night, principally with food. Cabbage isn't exactly uncommon in Scots cuisine, I had already cooked a whole one at lunchtime though. I get at least four portions out of a cabbage. A couple of portions, I mixed with black pepper, egg, and fried baked potato. The other portions, I mixed with garlic and onion and will figure other seasoning when I use them. At lunchtime, I also discovered that Progresso make a properly spicy jambalaya. Sure, the label on the can said that it was spicy but, for something aimed at mainstream Westerners, it's nice to find that they did actually deliver.

Anyhow, after work, for the main event, I placed an online food order for haggis, neeps and tatties, among other things, and drove into downtown Knoxville to pick them up. On the way, I remembered how much I loved when I first moved to Columbus, Ohio, and lived in the city itself, very near an interstate exit, which put plenty close at hand. I miss being right amid all that now. Others on the street were upset at all the traffic but I wondered what they expected living so near an exit. Here, I-40 takes me right downtown and has all manner of other useful exits, also there is (scarce) free parking after 18h. The radio played me Billy Joel, Fleetwood Mac, etc., most agreeable. Once I arrived back home, on getting out of the car I was greeted by an eyeful of Orion and the Pleiades.

The food did not look grand and was not cheap but was rather good, it hit the spot. I don't know how authentic the haggis might be but it looked correct and tasted fine. I much like certain haggis and black pudding, and am not much of a fan of some others, so hitting on a haggis I liked was agreeable indeed. Naturally, I supplemented the meal with a drop of Glenfiddich.

Burns Night unfortunately coincided with salad-making night for work lunches so, with the earlier cabbage-and-friends portions too, I had a lot of washing up waiting when all was said and done. Having also lost time with the trip to Knoxville, unusually I left a fair bit of washing up over for today, at least I am now caught up again. Next year I may plan better.

I enjoyed a modest and quiet Thanksgiving. I saw family online, I breakfasted on a poblano pepper omelette, and later ate some convenience-food traditional Thanksgiving fare, also some crab rangoon with smoked salmon. Toward the end of the day I had beer and chicken wings with a neighbor. Today, for lunch, I think I may treat myself to tilapia and scallops then a little blueberry pie.

This morning, while I was washing the dishes I'd lazily left from Thanksgiving, I found myself remembering what I had made with each dish. The radio played Beethoven's Sixth which reminded me that, thanks to Soylent Green (1973), this season I can also be thankful that my Thanksgiving meal wasn't made of old people.

I gained several pounds during my visit to Scotland. This week will not much help that but my diet can wait a little longer.