Two big events are happening in May this year. One of them is the 56th Eurovision song contest in Dusseldorf (excuse the missing umlaut) and the other is the 40th Birthday of yours truly in Swindon. (I was secretly hoping to celebrate it somewhere abroad, but given the other half finally gave way on a new kitchen and she was talking about an Ipad the other day, I'm not gonna' push my luck!)

Being half Irish I am always torn between the UK and Ireland in the Eurovision Song Contest. But given that I like to back a winner, the UK songs are usually pants and we get voted against because of Iraq ... I normally plum for Eire. 
Ireland have won it seven times, more than any other country, with an unprecedented three consecutive victories in the 1990s (1992, 1993 and 1994 - the most consecutive wins accumulated by a country to date). Just for info Great Britain has won it five times ... not bad ... but not good enough!I Given their amazing record, it is important that Ireland makes the right choice of artist to represent them this year ... they should be looking for talent and great singing voices ... so WTF are Jedward hot favourites!! Tonight Ireland will choose their Eurovision entry and these two jokers might be representing their country. Let's wait and see what happens ... in the meantime here's a real Irish song to enjoy ... (12/02/11 - The Irish people voted & Jedward won ... OMG!)

And so to Great Britain a nation so proud of its homegrown talent that it gets an Irishman to present the show ... again. First Terry and now Graham ... have we got no one from the UK who could do it? Hmm ... I'm bored of James Corden and Chris Evans, plus the 'lad' thing is wearing a bit thin ... and Dara O'Briain is another Irishman! I tell you who would do a fab job, (aside from fresh*, little old half-blood like me), ... Sue Perkins ... British and a woman ... (and diversity box tick ... a lezza') now that would be a turnip for the books!
*(that's 'fresh' as in new, rather than 'fresh' as in young ... before anyone makes a smart comment!)
We have already chosen our Eurovision song and artist ... 'Can' and Blue. I haven't heard the song so it wouldn't be fair to comment on it ... (but if any of you have heard it ... feel free to share your thoughts!) Blue have some form, but are they quirky enough? Will they stand out ... well just hold on a cotton pickin' minute ... one of the band certainly does ...

To my left, M'laud ... one Antony Costa, member of Blue, weeing against a cash point machine. Urggh, not nice, but it's completely stuffed women's theory that men can't multi-task!!
Look closely people, young Antony is weeing, hands free, whilst talking on his phone and getting cash out! How impressive is that? Perhaps we'd have more chance of winning Eurovision if he did that instead of singing!?
And ... that's the way Sarah sees it. My thanks to Eurovision, Jedward, Ireland, Blu, Jane Lynch and particularly Antony for supplying me with some great content and a few new gags!

Welcome to my first musings. They are brief but more will follow! Enjoy...

The Chief Constable of Wiltshire, Brian Moore recently wrote an open letter to the media raising concerns about parental control. This was after 40 kids in Melksham, Wiltshire had arranged to meet to see a fight between two girls. They were having a spat on Facebook and one had threatened to stab the other...with a hot poker from the AGA (I made that last bit up, but it is Wiltshire!). These kids wanted to see what would happen! Most of them had managed to con their parents into believing they were sleeping at a friends. (I made a mental note not to fall for that one when my daughter, Isabel, is a teenager.) 

I have a tendency to be judgemental, (I've been working on this), so before I ranted about 'kids these days', I cast my mind back to my school days. I did recall several occasions where we ran to the playground after an argument got out of hand chanting "fight, fight, fight". The worst that ever happened though was some hair pulling, face scratching and the odd skirt removal (thank God thongs weren't popular when I was at school). I suppose being in a catholic school might have made a difference. We thought those girls were probably going to spend a good few years in purgatory for the hair pulling alone.     

It shouldn't be surprising that these kids were interested in the outcome, since humans have always had a morbid curiosity...think back to the Roman Amphitheatres. I taped the film 'Stand by Me' over Christmas to watch with my 10 year old. It has some great messages about friendship and life and there are beautiful moments, but the overarching storyline is that these kids want to see a dead body. After a few moans at the start Isabel loved the film. I asked her at the end what she had taken away from it. After a few seconds contemplation, she said... "avoid people with knives". Disappointing... 

Times have changed. Movies and games are more violent and the news, in every medium is saturated with death. Have we been de-sensitised to human suffering and loss of life? Possibly...if you think about the public reaction to the cat in a wheelie bin story and compare it with the level of public interest in some of the human tragedies we hear about! 

So to bring this post to a close without it being completely pointless...in the words of my daughter "avoid people with knives".