Pat read out the news today. One piece was about the most successful country in the history of the Eurovision song contest not making it to the final, for the first time since 2009 (when Sinéad Mulvey and Black Daisy sang “Et Cetera”). This time, the country was represented by a singer wearing a dress of which a young reader of the journal said that “it did not fit her”. Others asked whether the promoters had not noticed that it would not be enough anymore to present a song accompanied by a few bodhráns, two ladies putting their hands on their heart to indicate where the “Heartbeat” was happening, and a few dervish-style dancers.

“The Wiener takes it all” was without a doubt the funniest (non-competing) song title last night. The imaginary recording of this song was presented by one of the presenters of the night (having renamed herself Lisa Chorizo) to Conchita Wurst, singing “Rise like a Phoenix” for Austria.

Conchita was 33/1 before she performed. When she started, betting was immediately suspended by many bookmakers who brought her from 25th place right up as the hot favourite at 5/2 to win the Eurovision for the first time since 1966. Who ever said the Austrians are a conservative boing bunch? Conchita is anything but boring… And there is not question about her dress not fitting…

Pádraig was missing his friends today. We tried to compensate, but there is really no competition. He sat out in the wheelchair for a short while, tried out the speech valve again, and we did some MOTOMed-viva-2 exercises with him in the evening. I had a long chat with one of the doctors today. Much of what is happening with Pádraig is not run-of-the-mill. There are not that many young people with brain injuries around for such a long time. And we all really want just one thing: to make sure that Pádraig gets the best possible care and therapies to support him on his way to recovery. It is so good and heartening to see how everybody tries so hard to help Pádraig and how they are dealing so well with this unusual and, at times, difficult situation.

Pádraig, Douze Pointe.

PS: Tonight, instead of hots and colds, or German music tips, a joke tweeted today by Claire Mary Mc Cabe @ClaireMMcCabe:
“How did the hairdresser win the marathon? He took the shortcut.”