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:


Ukraine (Mad Max meets industrial folk witches)



Moldova (always the prime candidate for bringing the batshit; this year's contender for campest music video)



Lithuania (every year, exactly one Baltic country sends a song that is entirely to my taste, and every year that particular Baltic country gets eliminated in the semifinals; I suspect the pattern will repeat this year)



Poland (strong 'me and the lads once we get the vaccine' vibes here; I'm delighted that they've brought actual, proper Eurodance to Eurovision)



Matthias's favourite is Cyprus (you always know you're in for a good song when the Cypriot Orthodox Church attempted to get it banned for blasphemy)



We both think, however, that Sweden is going to win this year. It's as if the song were assembled by committee in order to tick as many Eurovision-winning boxes in one go. We'll see if our predictions are right in May.


I really need some Eurovision icons.