Sun, Sea and Eurovision

James suggested that since the weather is predicted to stay hot and sunny for the next few days, today would be a good day to spend at the beach. So we packed up a disposable barbecue, food and drinks, and by 11 a.m. we were our favourite "local" beach at Troon - not the main beach, the south beach which is much quieter. By local beach I mean that it is our favourite for a day trip; we have been lucky enough to visit many much more beautiful beaches around Scotland and further afield, but Troon South is an old favourite that is suitable for a day trip. James and I have been going there together for more than thirty years, and the boys have been going there with us all of their lives. Seldom have we been there on a day quite as hot as today! We are all very happy on a beach and Ally and Davie were soon kicking a football about while James and I went for a walk out on the rocks before the tide came in. Then it was barbecue time, Ally made a grand job of the burgers while I buttered the rolls; we had potato salad and coleslaw on the side. We walked along to the river, paddled, James brewed up some coffee, we read, napped, built a fire, toasted marshmallows and paddled some more. We ended up spending about six and a half hours on the beach and it was great fun. By the time we set off home we all felt as if we had had quite enough fresh air for one day!
When we got home we opened up the windows onto the garden - it was like being abroad! However worrying news came from Dundee. Jamie had been rowing on the River Tay and then went for a swim. When he got to the other bank he stepped onto some mud - and under it was a piece of broken glass that sliced deeply into his big toe. He couldn't get it to stop bleeding so he had to go to hospital where they x-rayed it because there was glass still in it and then they "irrigated" it using local anaesthetic and poked around in it, which Jamie said was very painful. He has five stitches in his toe and needs to take antibiotics. He had to miss the ceilidh that he was supposed to be going to tonight and sounded very fed up.
In the evening we followed our family tradition (James says it's not his tradition!) of watching the Eurovision song contest. It is a very pleasant way to spend a summer's evening. Engelbert did us proud and sang his heart out but unfortunately he came second last! The Russian Grannies' song although gimmicky was actually quite catchy and they did very well. My favourite was Lithuania because I quite liked the song and the singer was a cheery fellow and a good dancer. Italy was also good, I thought the singer was reminiscent of Amy Winehouse. I thought that Greece, Germany and Sweden were also good, and Turkey was weird but I liked it. We all chose a favourite, the winner to be whoever had the country that came highest in the rankings. David chose Lithuania so I took Italy, both got on respectably in the scoring. James (reluctantly, because he is a bit of a Eurovision cynic) eventually chose Albania, which he didn't even like; he chose this on purpose to make a mockery of my contest, but they actually did very well, coming fifth. Ally chose Sweden (Ally is a truly Eurovision boy who had actually gone to the trouble of researching which tunes were top tipped and found out that the Swedish song is already in the charts in fourteen countries). As usual there was a bit of political voting; some countries voted for their friends and neighbours, for example Cyprus gave Greece twelve points, and Portugal gave twelve points to Spain. However the runaway winner was Sweden so Ally was delighted! David was bitter that Albania was in the first five and still maintains that Lithuania was the best! How we do enjoy Eurovision!