We may be living in Australia, but this weekend had a distinctly european, if slightly untrendy, flavour to it.
On saturday night went to see Bjorn Again, an Abba Tribute band. They say they're the closest thing to being able to see Abba live. That's probably overstating it a bit, but they were pretty good. We went with some couples we know from church (Sharon and I were the youngest, woo hoo!) who could remember Abba first time around. they played all the old favourites with the right mix of parody and affectionate tribute. I've still got the songs jangling in my head. And, rest assured, I memorised their dance moves as much as possible ready for the next wedding disco I go to.
One thing we thought we would miss when we came to Australia was the annual cheese-fest that is the Eurovision Song Contest. We always had a bit of a gathering for it each year, to listen to Terry Wogan's laconic wit and rants about block voting. We needn't have worried as, bizarrely, it's nearly as popular here as it is in the UK, and we had no trouble at all finding 5 people to come over and watch it with us. One of them brought a Ukrainian flag, despite having no connection with that country whatsoever. The show it on SBS (Special Broadcasting Service - it shows foreign language news during the day and the rest of the programming is from the rest of the world, or is about the rest of the world, earning it the nickname 'Sex Before Soccer') one night later than it was on live.
This year of course, Terry has retired. The 2 Aussie comedians SBS sent instead were actually really good. And the show itself didn't dissappoint. In true Eurovision style, the winner (Norway) was truly awful, and there were some genuine 'what were they thinking?' moments. My favourite was Albania's green gimp and midget breakdancers.
On saturday night went to see Bjorn Again, an Abba Tribute band. They say they're the closest thing to being able to see Abba live. That's probably overstating it a bit, but they were pretty good. We went with some couples we know from church (Sharon and I were the youngest, woo hoo!) who could remember Abba first time around. they played all the old favourites with the right mix of parody and affectionate tribute. I've still got the songs jangling in my head. And, rest assured, I memorised their dance moves as much as possible ready for the next wedding disco I go to.
One thing we thought we would miss when we came to Australia was the annual cheese-fest that is the Eurovision Song Contest. We always had a bit of a gathering for it each year, to listen to Terry Wogan's laconic wit and rants about block voting. We needn't have worried as, bizarrely, it's nearly as popular here as it is in the UK, and we had no trouble at all finding 5 people to come over and watch it with us. One of them brought a Ukrainian flag, despite having no connection with that country whatsoever. The show it on SBS (Special Broadcasting Service - it shows foreign language news during the day and the rest of the programming is from the rest of the world, or is about the rest of the world, earning it the nickname 'Sex Before Soccer') one night later than it was on live.
This year of course, Terry has retired. The 2 Aussie comedians SBS sent instead were actually really good. And the show itself didn't dissappoint. In true Eurovision style, the winner (Norway) was truly awful, and there were some genuine 'what were they thinking?' moments. My favourite was Albania's green gimp and midget breakdancers.
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