'I once went two weeks without seeing Alistair'

It’s been over two years since I’ve been to a Griffin gig. Time has just slipped by, and while there were gigs I could have gone to, I didn’t. In fact the closest I came was during the snow of January 2010, when I got halfway across town and turned back.

I became accustomed years ago to bizarre gig venues, so when I saw on Twitter that he was going to be playing acoustic sets in the Café Neros of York, it didn’t even seem odd. As I was going to be in town to meet a friend for lunch on the Friday, it seemed right to go along.

The gig was scheduled to start at 12, I got there at 5 to, and looked around, seeing no sign that there was going to be any music. I found a table, drank my coffee, and about 5 past looked up to see that he’d walked in. In fact he was standing right behind me. There was a nod, a greeting, and an acknowledgement. There must have been only about 8 of us actively listening to him, singing softly, un-miked, in the rear of a coffee bar. It had a simple charm to it that was endearing.

As I sat and listened, there were lots of emotions, some of the songs trigger memories that just belong to 'us'. I hear him sing ‘Fields of Gold’, and I'm at Clapham Grand Missing Miles, ‘Hallelujah’, and I'm seeing him reading the words off a piece of paper in the Melbourne pub.

Halfway through, I was joined by the friend who I'd arranged to have lunch with. She sat and listened to the rest of the set, and enjoyed it. I hadn’t realised till then that she’d never heard him sing live before.

He came over and shook my hand at the end. It was sweet. I asked when the album was due out – around August ‘and you all have to buy it'. He admired C’s coat.

What really made me smile was her rather giddy ‘he said he liked my coat’ as we were leaving. I guess she must have looked in the eyes.

All Kinds of Everything

It’s been three years since we last had a proper Eurovision Party. But this year, we were making up for lost time. We dug out the flags, from Eurovision, and Eurobeat (I found my Ireland badge, and wore it proudly), with my Royal Wedding bunting used as additional decoration.

The big challenge is how many different countries we can represent in the food. Germany, this year’s host, was relatively easy, with meats, cheeses, and a black forest gateau, and we were pleased to welcome back Italy this year (as it had never left our menu), along with Spain, Greece, Turkey (always the baklava), Norway, France, Ireland, Poland, The Netherlands, Portugal, and Malta (the Malteasers).

This time, we even had a YouTube Playlist of Eurovision classics, set up by Cat to watch whilst getting ready for the main event. Particular highlights were songs from Eurovision 2004; Ruslana and the winning, Wild Dances, the lovely Sakis Rouvas (‘still think he should have won’), and of course, Hold On To Our Love (awww, James).

Having decided that any ‘reveal’, i.e. the removal of an article of clothing, ideally ripped off in a dramatic fashion in the style of Bucks Fizz, would be awarded an additional bonus point, we were disappointed that none of the finalists took advantage of this vote winning tactic this year.

The first few songs were rather dull, gaining very low scores from us, but we are, admittedly, harsh markers. Our winners of the night were undoubtedly Jedward. Utterly bonkers, and well deserved of douze points from us, and from the UK. They came in 8th, three places higher than Blue, who still managed a creditable 100 points.

As for the winners, well, in our marking we had Ireland, followed by Russia and Spain, but the contest winners were Azerbaijan, with Italy in a rather surprising second place.

None of us has really rated the Azerbaijan song, and it did have us reaching for the Atlas a) to check out it was actually in Europe*, and b) to see where we’ll be going next year. Apparently their culinary specialty is soup, and fish, and caviar. Hmm, I can see next year being a bit of a challenge!

*Given it borders the Caspian Sea, and Iran, the answer to that one is ‘only just’.

New York State of Mind

I can't let it pass without mentioning on here that last month (already, 'last month') I was in New York. Finally made it. There's really too much to say, so I won't say much, and give you a few photos, of memorable places. The view down Manhattan from the 'Top of the Rock' was simply stunning, but the Empire State Building was the most impressive, all beautiful Art Deco. Took much longer to get to the top than I'd expected, you don't just get in a lift, you have to go up escalators, have your photo taken, go through security (understandable). I don't remember Meg Ryan doing that in Sleepless in Seattle!

So much of NYC is like being on a film set - because you've seen so much of it in movies. Central Park, The Lincoln Center, Times Square, the bridges, the brownstone buildings. Fire escapes that are just waiting for Tony and Maria from West Side Story... You're constantly craning your neck to look upwards. Yellow cabs, Avenues and streets, getting the hang of the grid system until you get into the Village and it all falls apart. Chinatown, Little Italy, distinct neighbourhoods, yet changing over the years. Fascinating stories of how different nationalities of immigrants settled in particular areas.

Times Square: so bright at night that you almost need sunglasses. Lights, theatres, bars. Yet it felt familiar, not strange at all. There's so much to see and do that we barely scratched the surface. We saw all the main sights that we wanted to, we saw a show, we drank cocktails in a revolving restaurant high above Times Square.

Next time, I can take it all at a more leisurely pace.