Beyond Selidor

Yesterday was pretty much close to perfect. Matthias and I had been talking for ages about going on longer walks around Ely — I never feel at home in a place until I've gone wandering, and given there's little else that can be done outside the house as a social activity, it seemed a good idea. But we've always been either too busy, or the weather has been appalling, and we kept putting it off.

In any case, we finally did the 12km round trip to Little Thetford. To make it a round trip (rather than simply walking there and walking back), you do the first half through the fields (boggy, with dark, rich earth scored deeply by tractors, waiting for the seeds for this year's harvest), then carry on beyond the village until you reach a marina filled with houseboats. At this point, you turn around and walk back along raised paths beside the River Ouse. It's so flat here that the cathedral looms out of the landscape, wherever you are, reflecting the sunlight. The walk was windy, and filled with birds, and very, very satisfying. I've put up a photoset over at ronnidolorosa.

Then it was back home for Thai take-away for dinner. We followed that with our annual watch-through of all the Eurovision songs for this year's competition. As always, it was a mix of the ridiculous and the sublime, interspersed with the utterly inexplicable. (Prime candidate for the latter is Finland's entry this year — inexplicably, they sent a nu metal band, which Matthias inevitably dubbed 'Helsinkin Park'.)

My favourites (or at least the ones that made me the happiest) were:

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I really need some Eurovision icons.