Eurovision 2009

Perhaps you remember my blog about Eurovision last year, which three or four Russian guys clad in white suits and singing a terribly cheesy song, ultimately won the contest when they threw in the really cool move of ice skating on stage on a piece of circular plastic. It was outrageous!

Anyway, this year, inspired by last year's drama and ridiculousness, we planned again to watch Eurovision. Unfortunately I have to say that it wasn't AS cheesy as last year, but it was still pretty bad.

The following is a brief description of some of the Eurovision highlights, complete with comments that Jim made that I found to be pretty funny. Apologies for the misspelling of some of the country names. Time is limited on this blog and I can't waste the precious few minutes I have to write it looking up country spellings (as ignorant as that sounds!)

Greece put on a pretty Ricky Martin-esque performance, with very tan and fit dancers in white outfits dancing on a moving sidewalk and, at one point Jim exclaimed, "Whoah...do they have MAGNETS on their shoes?!"

Azerbaijan's performance threw him into a moment of great conflict as he uttered, "Ahh...horrible song, but really sexy lady...beautiful singer, really bad song...but I might have to vote for her."

During Moldovia's performance Jim rated the male dancers as "prance-like." (which was actually a pretty good description of the moves they were doing).

Albania's performance was just weird. The lead singer had on a dress that made her look like Barbie meets Cinderella and dancing in the background were two little people and a man in a shiny green body suit (which covered his face...think Blue Man Group, but no eyes or mouth showing).

The Ukraine's singer, mortgaged her flat to buy the set for her performance, which turned out to be a stripper scene, with her writhing and poling and guys dressed as Trojans dancing along with her. She also sang things like "Baby You're so fine; be my valentine", "I'm your anti-crisis girl" and "you have sexy bum."

This year Norway won with a cute guy playing violin and singing about how he fell in love with a fairytale, which perfect Norwegian women in Heidi dresses danced around the stage and sang backup.

Until next year....

Tour of London

I apologize for the lack of blogging lately. I'm having a hard time keeping up with it now that Evie is awake more often and displaying her passionate dislike for the computer. But I will perservere...just not as quickly as before!

Last weekend we headed down to Canary Wharf to have brunch with some of Jim's co-workers. We ended up making a day of it and basically making a circle around London. Evie was an excellent companion!

In Canary Wharf:


We forgot to take pictures during the brunch, so once again it's mostly pictures of us. We also forgot to take pictures of the Olympics site, through which we traveled (the long way) just so that we could take some pictures of it. At least Evie and I could see the progress that has been made and where Jim works every day! Sorry to everyone else, though!

Posing in front of the tallest building in the UK (located in Canary Wharf). It was SO exciting!


We decided that it would be fun for Evie if we took the boat back, rather than the train, but, in true Evie style, she fell asleep for the entire boat ride. We enjoyed it, though. We caught the boat in Canary Wharf and got off at Embankment. Seeing London from the Thames is a really nice way to get a good view of all the landmarks without the crowds.

Jim can always be counted on to hold up bridges along the way. Especially London Bridge.


We ended up, randomly, at a Palestinian Peace Rally in Trafalgar Square. Not surprisingly, there were a few extreme antisemites there, but mostly people were peacefully protesting against the occuption of Palestine. Evie seemed to be enjoying herself. Ignorance(and innocence)is bliss.


Next stop: Covent Garden, where Evie was instumental in helping me pick my meal at Neal's Yard:


Jim accidentally did a great impression of Sil from the Sopranos. As an aside, we just figured out that Sil is also Bruce Springsteen's bassist. We quickly got online to see what Sil looks like normally...and nowwe can't decide if he looks stranger as Sil or stranger as himself.


After a long day, and incredibly good behavior by Evie, we headed home on the Tube. It's good to remember that we won't always have such unlimited access to this great city. We need to get out more!

Picnics and parties

Ever since she was born, Jim has been really looking forward to putting Evie on his shoulders. Now that she's not such a bobblehead, he can! As you can see, he was thrilled. She's not so sure about the whole 'on Dad's shoulders' thing, but she'll get used to it.


It was not particularly warm last weekend, but if you wait for warm weather in England, you'll be waiting for a long time. So we got together with some friends and had a picnic on Parliament (Kite) Hill. We were the first ones there, so we killed time practicing the moves we learned in baby yoga. Evie LOVES going upside down.



Everyone arrived with babes in arms!



Kate, Oliver and Toby:


Watching the kites:


Our picnic from afar:


Keren and Eden have a rest:


Babies on the Hill:


Evie was 'knackered' (not to be confused with 'naked' which is what Jim thought his co-worker said he looked like the first time he heard the word 'knackered.' He was all flustered and wondering what she was trying to say...We have learned so much!)

The tree effect

From screaming to squealing with delight. I heart trees.

A few short videos of Evie at home

Sorry folks, but not much has happened lately...except for Evie! Tomorrow night I'm going out with the Moms, so hopefully we'll have some blog worthy experiences out on the town, but for now I give you some cute videos of Evie (drum role please)!

She's still looking a little South Parkish, but getting the hang of her Bumbo chair and holding onto things. Here she is with her Winkle, which is an atom-like teething toy. The background noise is Jim putting up a shelf...and we don't always have laundry on our dining room table:


Our dog Buster has this awesome thing called a neverending treat ball, into which you can put treats. It takes most dogs a long time to get to the treats, but Buster is pretty food motivated and generally can get the treats out pretty quickly. Anyway, our friend Anissa gave us the baby version of the neverending treat ball, which is like a pacifier with mesh thing on the end. This morning, Evie was being fussy and I needed to make some bottles, so I put a piece of banana in and handed it to her. At first she was baffled (I think the look on her face in this video is hilarious):

But then she figured it out!

She's well on her way to being a big and hearty eater like her parents!

Hot Date

Last night we had a hot date in London. We even left the neighborhood!

We started at the Tate Modern, which is always free and which is open late on Fridays and Saturdays. It was fun to be in a Museum for a date and we really enjoyed wandering around without the usual crowds.


We had a glass of wine after the museum (at the museum) and watched the sun start to set over the Thames. Jim was really excited for me to take this picture of him.

Escalators:

Sunset:


Being told to be serious about the picture and looking like a sap as a result. I was trying to concentrate on looking at the BT tower, so that I wouldn't make a face.



This is how I really felt (much better, I'm sure you'll agree):


A delicious dinner at a Turkish restaurant, where we ate way too much (a frequent problem)and had deep conversations:


Unfortunately, at the end of the night there was a long tube ride home. Jim is always the most enthusiastic of all about long tube rides. He should be a tube cheerleader! Goooo TUBE!

Kosheri Recipe

I got this recipe from Ottolenghi, which is an awesome restaurant in London, which we enjoy as frequently as we can. They are all about really fresh ingredients and it's YUMMY!

So, as requested, I'm sharing the recipe (which I hope is legal. If not, I'll take it down!).

Make the sauce first:
-Fry 2 crushed garlic cloves and 2 hot red chillies in 4 Tbs of olive oil (and use gloves or you will end up with welts on your face, lips and pain in your eyeballs when you try to remove your contacts) for 2 minutes
-Add 8 chopped tomatoes, 370 ml of water, 4 TBSP of cider vinegar, 3 tsp salt, 2 tsp ground cumin and bring to a boil. Then simmer for 20 minutes until the sauce thickens a little.
-add salt, pepper and coriander to taste

Cook 10 oz of green lentils

-Wash 7 oz of basmati rice and then drain
-heat a couple of tablespoons of butter in a heavy saucepan and fry a handful of broken vermicelli noodles (uncooked) until they are golden brown.
-Add the rice and stir until it's coated in butter
-add 400ml of water, 1/2 teaspoon of nutmeg, 1.5 teaspoons of salt, 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
-Boil and then reduce heat and simmer for 12 minutes

Heat 4 tablespoons of olive oil and fry, until dark brown, 2 thinly sliced white onions.

Combine lentils with the rice mixture and add most of the onions, leaving some for garnish. Serve hot with the spicy tomato sauce. YUMMY DELICIOUSNESS!