yonmei

12:02 pm: Did you vote yesterday?
Apparently England did better than Scotland because England had the local elections happening the same day, but it looks like Scotland did appallingly - down to 25%.

( A very European poll )



Tags: eurovision, evil european politics, imagine better, polls, scottish politics

08:31 pm: Moldova should win. By the way.
Or come second. Sheesh, I'm not picky. I stand to win £14 if Moldova wins, and £9 if Moldova comes second.

I am in a cafe near work where there's a Eurovision night and free wifi, so what the hell: liveblog Eurovision! With wine.

I had for some reason expected this to be a quiet evening, well, quiet as far as Eurovision ever is, but the cafeist is beaming: the room is crowded (I got the last stool), and business is buzzing.

( Eurovision Moskva 2009 )



Moldova is top in the Trending Topics in Twitter right now. Does this mean anything? Will Twitter tweet Eurovision winner? Mostly it seems to be about their short-skirtedness.

According to UK Gay News, now at midnight 17th May in Moscow: "Openly gay Graham Norton, who hosts BBC Television's coverage of Eurovision Song Contest has commented on the arrests of gay activists in Moscow on the live telecast." Huh. I didn't hear him. Good. (This is why I wore my Aberdeen Pride t-shirt: it's the nicest rainbow t-shirt I have.)

Update, 22:15 - Andrew Lord Webber is on TV making fish-mouths. I am on my second rather large glass of wine, and wondering if I should have something to eat.

Update - 22:43 - Slovakia is voting, 21st country out of 42, and so far, the top three countries are Norway by an enormous margin, Iceland and Turkey fairly neck and neck. Moldova is last with 11 points. (Spain was last with none, but got 12 pity points from someone.)

Update - 22:55 - Good grief: Cyprus awarded Greece 12 points. As the woman standing next to me said: Shock of the night. 30 countries voted: top three now Norway, Azerbaijan, and Iceland. Turkey's in 4th place - and Norway just went over 300 points and has officially won.

Update - 23:00 - Ireland just voted. It's now just a question of which country will be second - Norway's way ahead. Iceland and Azerbaijan keep changing places: Turkey and the UK are fighting for 4th and 5th.

Update - 23:03 - Moldova voted, and gave their 12 points to Romania. Jolly good. (Moldova have a respectable-if-dull 57 points. Bah. My neighbours at the next table drew Norway in the prize draw: cool for them.)

Update - 23:07 - Almost at the end of voting. Azerbaijan just voted. And Norway won by something incredible, with Azerbaijan in second place, and Moldova sort of middle with 69 points. I'm glad Andrew Dull Webber didn't win. The Norwegian boy did look awesomely cute.

...and we're done. (The same person who won the prize draw also won the tie-breaker for guessing "Norway" and got a bottle of bubbly. Yay?)

Tags: dragon eggs need clicky, eurovision

01:36 am: Eurovision and cupcakes
Russia won. I can't remember what on earth their song was like (I liked Portugal, but I admit that was because of the eye-candy) but this puts them in the interesting position of being the country whose police assault Pride marchers getting to host the gayest contest on earth next year, right before Moscow Pride 2009.

I make yummy vegan cupcakes.

FWIW: there are two methods of substituting egg in a vegan cake. (Or three, if you know how to use a light yeast-leavened dough, but that's a wholly different method of cake-making.)

One I was familiar with, which is delicious, but doesn't make plain cakes: peel and core a cooking apple, or a couple of plain green eating apples; put apple pieces into a covered ceramic bowl/pyrex lidded dish, add about half a cup of wine and about a tablespoon of granulated sugar; cover and nuke on high for four minutes; drain off surplus liquid; squish the apple pieces a bit. You can use this applesauce in any cake instead of eggs. The obvious drawback is that it takes a little time to make; the non-obvious drawback is that this has enough flavour by itself that you can't use it to make a plain cake.

Two, which I discovered just yesterday: for every cup and a quarter of flour, use one cup soy milk and curdle with 2 teaspoons of cider vinegar. This does make really excellent plain cupcakes. The drawback is that you have to remember to buy the soy milk.

Also, two vegan recipes for icing, worth remembering: standard "buttercream" frosting with vanilla, icing sugar,marge, soy milk: whip together and use. Needs vanilla flavouring, at least. Two, and this is really worth knowing, whether or not you're vegan youself: one bar Green and Black's 70% chocolate (100g), and a scant quarter-cup of soy milk, and two tablespoons of maple syrup. Heat the soy milk (I used a ceramic pot with a handle), remove from heat, add the maple syrup and the chocolate broken in pieces, mix with a spatula until smooth. Excellent.

Fireworks and Eurovision. And cupcakes.

Tags: cupcakes, eurovision, vegan recipes