Sweet and Sour

I got a pack of kiwis on the weekend as some healthy snacks for the week. Well, they turned out to be a bit sour so I got inspired and made a sultana pound cake with a layer of strawberry jam and sliced kiwis in the centre and on top. Not such a healthy snack anymore.

Fairytale

So there's the 2009 Eurovision winner. I think they said he got the most points in Eurovision history. Before I even saw him, I was told everyone was betting on him to win so my expectations were very high. When I saw him, they were all met. I loved the song. And he had the charisma (and backup dancers/acrobats) to make it a winner. Congratulations, Norway!

That Time of the Year

Eurovision is on once again and every night of this weekend I will be glued to the TV.

Every year there seems to be more and more countries participating. I don't remember if we even had two semi-finals last year (Amanda, the other Eurovision fan, might remember).

This year, Dan and I watched it together and Eurovision is never fun without throwing jeering comments at all the contestants. Here are some highlights.

Czech Republic

Dan was very disappointed this SuperGypsy (or Hitler in a cape as I see him) didn't get through.

Belarus

I was very disappointed this guy didn't get through. Isn't he the epitome of Eurovision - the hair, the white suit, the shoes and a very seducing song - what more could you ask for?

Armenia

Dan really liked this act but their look totally freaked me out.

Turkey

Catchy tune and a Turkish Shakira. No one was surprised this act got through to the final.

Romania

The best looking girl group always has a place in the finals. Is it me or does the lead singer look like Holly Valance?

Macedonia

An amazing thing happened. When they replayed all the acts of the show, I could not remember seeing this act.

Bosnia and Herzogovina

Dan named this pose "The Revolution". Very disappointed they got through to the finals.

Portugal

Our favourite. I wouldn't mind listening to this song over and over.

Looking forward to tonight's semi-finals.

Note: All photos sourced from http://www.monstersandcritics.com.

My Mother's Day

This year was the first year that I was a mother on Mother's Day. Although Amanda found that quite funny last Saturday, it really wasn't that different for me. As long as you have a mother you still have to do stuff; and now that I'm married there are two mothers to please.

Also, since my child was too young to do anything for me (can't wait to get a picture or some other work of craft), Dan gave me some flowers and a card on her behalf.

Even though we all know that we should appreciate our mothers every day, since most of us don't, it's nice to have a day to remind us.

Speaking of mothers, I recently got into watching Jon & Kate plus Eight about a young couple who have twins and sextuplets. Every time I think looking after one baby is hard enough, I remind myself of her. I bet she thought having twins was tough.

I guess it makes it all worth it when these babies start talking and expressing their own personalities. That's when the real fun begins.

Stand By Me

I thought this was a cool video:

Playing For Change | Song Around The World "Stand By Me" from Concord Music Group on Vimeo.

Better Off Without Soul

Never ever ever sign up with Soul. Dan and I made that mistake last year when we signed up for their internet plan which was the most valuable to us at the time.

It has been going quite well, with occasional disconnection problems. For $29.95 unlimited downloads, it suited us.

Then we were notified that our plan was no longer available and we had to transfer. I will not go into detail (because it just angers me) how many times we called to their customer support to only be met with "We are currently experiencing a large amount of calls and are unable to assist you. Please call another time". Then being hung up on. A few times that we did manage to get through, the most annoying woman (I suspect she was the only customer service operator) kept transferring us to other departments who never picked up.

After a while we decided to order the new plan online. We ended up ordering the TPG plan. A few days later, TPG contacted us saying that we still had Soul internet codes on our line (preventing them from connecting us). I had to call Soul to ask them to remove the codes. Amazingly I got through to some guy who told me it would be done within three days. Three days passed and nothing.

I tried calling again. After waiting for an hour on the phone, I was furious. I ended up calling TPG and asking whether they could do this from their side. They said the could and we should have our new internet on Friday. Fingers crossed.

Congratulations if you managed to read through my rant. Moral of the story: DO NOT GET SOUL INTERNET!