It was my birthday on Friday so, with work closed on Monday and Tuesday, I spent a pleasant weekend with friends in London.

Friday

Before heading to London, I went out for a drink in Glasgow (for the first time). There was much discussion of Star Wars and Doctor Who, and while I was there the news came through the Billie Piper will not be in the whole second series. It will be very interesting to see how the production team deal with that: a Rose clone, or a completely different type of companion?

Saturday

Train Eavesdropping I
On the train down on Saturday morning, I overheard two Scottish pensioners who were reading a news story about the resignation of James Gray, briefly the Tories’ Shadow Scottish Secretary. Pointing out his Scottish roots, one of them said she knew his mother. They then commented, with a little disdain, that he was now based in Wiltshire.

Did the Indie‘s sudokus on the train, including the Super Sudoku which I’ve sense posted off.

Saturday evening consisted of watching a particularly fine episode of Doctor Who (review tomorrow, probably) and a trip to the pub. We didn’t stay in for Eurovision, although it occurs to me now that it’s probably for the best that we didn’t win as we’d surely end up with Patrick Kielty presenting it.

Which reminds me that we also caught some of the ITV2 coverage of Celebrity Sex Resort, which disappointing (and I’m not explaining why it was disappointing) wasn’t called Celebrity Love Island 2. I also found a small advert for the programme in my jacket pocket, which had sneaked in there when I was handed a small packet of Love Hearts by a young woman at London Bridge a couple of weeks ago. I hadn’t looked at it and thought they were just promoting the sweets…

The thinking behind Celebrity 18-30 Holiday is pretty obviously flawed. Their first mistake was the assumption that Big Brother‘s success derives from people hoping to see contestants “getting it on”. Following this up with the idea that anything with celebrities (or, in this case, with the word in the title even if there aren’t any actual celebrities, e.g. Celebrity CatfightWrestling) will get a big audience and you’ve got a bit of a mess.

We also briefly considered whether Celebrity Wrestling would have been successful if it had better (B-list, say) contestants. Surely people would tune in in their millions for David Jason vs. Ross Kemp? Or Victoria Wood vs. Anna Friel?

Sunday

Bummed around London most of the day – completing the Observer crossword and then mistakenly throwing it away – before heading back to watch more TV.

Train Eavesdropping II
The train was full of Chelsea fans (they’d been visiting Chelsea, where they weren’t from, obviously). They were merry but good natured, but I was rather unimpressed when the man sitting in front of me started singing sweary football songs in front of his young son, and even more so when his son joined in. They had started on what seemed to be a rather anti-semitic song about Tottenham Hotspur when I, fortunately, had to get off the train.

Was introduced to an actor friend of friends who was a very nice bloke and has done some Doctor Who audio work, and watched Channel 4’s Dispatches programme about Labour’s election tactics. Some of these were pretty minor – anyone who believed that the people sitting behind Blair when he made speeches were “real people” is a bit naïve. Their tactics to stop journalists questioning senior MPs, though, seemed little more than paranoia. I spotted a university friend who now works for a Labour MP playing an “endorser” at two different poster launches.

Here ends Part I. In Part II: guns and The Sun.

Finally saw it last night. A few quick comments:

Swizerland were the best. Go Vanilla Ninjas.

Wasn’t particularly enamoured with Greece.

Thanks to Terry Wogan’s description of one of the acts (Turkey?), I was reacquainted with the word “Archimandrite”. And yes, Cyril Shaps fans, he did have a hat.

I missed last night’s semi-final because I went to see a film and forgot to set the video.

I note, though, that of those tracks I identified as good, several have plunged out of the contest. Iceland, Slovenia and Lithuania were all knocked out, leaving only Switzerland and the UK from my Top 5. F.Y.R. Macedonia (who, I seem to remember, don’t like being called that) also go through while Spain had pre-qualified.

From my list of The Bad, it tended to be the dull, rather than hilariously bad, that lost: Belgium and Finland, although Croatia got through, amazingly. Portugal also went out. Sadly, Saturday’s viewers won’t be treated to the shockingly dire Irish performance as that too was ousted in the semi-final. Moldova and Norway made it through so we can laugh at them – unless they win, of course, in which case it’s tears of shame all round.

Greece and Norway have been tipped by the bookies, followed by Hungary. The latter came top of the semi-final and will be opening the show, followed by the UK. (Running order.) Opening will likely boost Hungary further, although Switzerland may still benefit from being near the end. (Sweden – for Stuart – are near the middle of the show, performing 14th.)

I’d just like to say: “Ha ha ha.”
It’s my birthday and I’ll laugh if I want to. Thank you.