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Dustin down Eurovision Liverpool

10th May 202310th May 2023 funtime65

Of course the party will be missing its biggest reveller with the elimination of Ireland but we’re still Dustin down Eurovision Liverpool.

Now there have been many turkeys over the 67 years of Eurovision.

But only one Turkey, the cult puppet and personal pal, Dustin the Turkey.

And you probably saw him taking pride of place amid the VIPs at the semi-finals.

Eurovision is, of course, the hottest ticket in town this week.

Tourist magnet

Easy Ryder: Last year’s UK entrant Sam Ryder

And it is, obviously, a tourist magnet with 100,000 visitors expected to be in Merseyside this week.

With the attendant spike in hotel rates.

One semi-final under our belts and we can see that the contestants have all got the memo about name checking The Beatles.

With the singers and dancers making the pilgrimage to The Cavern.

Hard Day’s Night Hotel

And many staying at The Hard Day’s Night Hotel, new on my radar but one I imagine could have a hard day’s night and the next morning.

And despite Liverpool beating my own home town of Glasgow to the punch it seems the perfect fit for Merseyside to get Eurovision.

Now we’ve followed The Fab Four from Liverpool, our old stomping ground, to Hamburg… and back.

And it is refreshing to see that in the past 25 years the city has rebuilt itself in their image.

So that you can enjoy The Beatles Story at the Royal Albert Dock and they are getting on board for Eurovision.

As well as the iconic Cavern Club from which tours go out into the Beatles’ Liverpool.

Ours being the Magical Mystery Tour with Jay Johnson, who’ll be Holly’s.

Musical legacy

Of course British hopes will be with Mae Muller and I Wrote A Song.

And the Liverpudlians have forgiven her for being a ‘Landiner’ and adopted her as their own.

As they did myself, a Scottish-type person, in my time there.

There has been a history of Scousers singing in Eurovision, of course, even if they couldn’t get the Beatles to enter.

Cilla Black, a huge singing star in the Sixties, came close but decided to pass on succeeding Sandie Shaw.

She thought it unlikely that the UK would back up Sandie’s win so the UK went for Cliff Richard instead.

Alas his Congratulations was misplaced and he came second, although he blamed, of all people General Franco (some truth in it mind).

We’ll pass over Jemini’s efforts, the duo getting nul points, but there were sterling performances from Prima Donna and Sonia, who both lost out to Ireland.

While it was far from Wonderful Copenhagen for Molly who was 17th in 2014.

Puppet on a string

Still this year Liverpool has two entries really through dint of them hosting on behalf of Ukraine… and they’re bound to get a big political sympathy vote.

Back to my pal Dustin the Turkey and of course he is pure Eurovision following in the legacy of barefooted Sandie Shaw who sang about a puppet on a string.

So I’m right behind him and I’m Dustin down Eurovision Liverpool. Calm down, calm down.

Countries, UK

Keep Scotland’s green flag flying high

27th July 202227th July 2022 funtime65

No, the Jocks haven’t merged with the Irish though we have before under Edward Bruce, but we do keep Scotland’s green flag flying high.

The old joke goes, and it’s interchangeable for Scotland, Ireland and Wales, that God was handing out the countries.

He showed the Scots a land rich in nature with inventive and artistic people.

To which the Scot naturally thanks the Almighty but asks why he has been so giving to them.

At which point he reminds them of who their neighbours are.

Now this might just get you through the mania of England’s Lionesses football team’s European Championships run.

Thistle do nicely

Scotland is indeed a verdant country and on seeing one riverside valley in Dalriada, St Mungo, he named it Dear Green Place, or Glasgow, in native Gaelic.

My wee country has been rewarding those communities (and my green-fingered friend among them) with cherished green flags.

And there are a few among them I’ve passed a pleasant hour or dozen.

And even worked, to the absolute amazement of our tiller and plougher, The Scary One.

The Northern Delights

Aberdeen: Aberdeen I know, I know its soil, it’s under my nails from working its links.

And it’s from here, in Hazlehead Park, that Keep Scotland Beautiful announced 85 of our green spaces achieved the international Green Flag Award.

Now green spaces for university students meant naturally drinking on the lawns.

And while Alex Ferguson’s gloried Giants of Gothenburg went through their paces in Seaton Park under the Hillhead Halls.

We went through the tinnies… and binned them afterwards and went on to glory in the Granite City.

The Garden of Edin

Edinburgh: It’s not always the showpiece gardens then that need honouring.

And while locals and visitors alike wonder at the Floral Clock and backdrop of the Castle from Princes Street Gardens Greater Edinburgh’s a green place too.

And when it came to naming houses for the Son and Heir’s first primary school in St David’s in beachside Portobello…

They opted for the district’s parks, Figgate chief among them.

The Law’s a grass

Dundee: For reasons best known to only us we call our big hills laws from our Gaelic tongue.

There’s one here in my new temporary home of North Berwick, east of Edinburgh.

But it’s the Dundee version which I’m flagging up here, and the organisers are too.

And it’s here that I would ascend daily on a busman’s holiday to the Tay city.

And stare in wonder from the Law at the architectural majesty of the Tay Bridges joining Dundee to the Kingdom of Fife.

My Dear Green Place

Let Glasgow Flourish: The Botanic Gardens

Glasgow: The West End of Glasgow has oft been known as aspirational where the city’s merchants decamped.

With its seat of learning, its university, art gallery, and grand houses the West End is in direct contrast to the impoverished East End.

Its arterial road is the boulevard, the Great Western Road, off which the Victorian Botanic Gardens is the meeting place for West Enders.

Nae taps aff here.

Yon greeny banks

Loch who’s here: A wise old owl and a birdie

Helensburgh, Loch Lomond: And It’s water, water everywhere in the famous freshwater lake.

But, of course, Loch Lomond is framed by lush lakelands.

And after a childhood of days out to the coast and Helensburgh I saw first hand the pride its citizens had in their parks.

Lying down on the job: The green-fingered one

Take a bow the gardeners of the 100-year-old urban park, Hermitage Park.

And all our gardeners and 85 honoured gardens, particularly Mrs M and hers which should be on the list.

America, Countries, Ireland

Mother’s Day Mother’s Way and New York

25th March 202225th March 2022 funtime65

It was inevitable. Mother’s Day Mother’s Way and New York and The Happy Wanderer knew just how to play me.

The bould Teasy had taken me as her Plus One to my cousin Eddie’s wedding in the Big Apple.

Where she would preen her feathers and not just those on her hat.

The Irish Diaspora, of which I am of the Scottish variety, know well the awe in which the American wave is held.

And growing up in the Grey Glasgow of the Seventies New York City and my relatives were always held up as the idyll.

Alongside, of course, my Mum’s homeland of Ireland.

Broadway Mammy

This year’s blond: With ‘The Donald’ in New York

I’m in a New York State of Mind today after my old friends from Click&Go flagged up their NY offer to give your Mum for Mother’s Day.

To stay for three nights £619pp in the 4* Row NYC Hotel in the heart of Broadway in May with return flights Dublin to NY.

My wee Mammy will be right at home too as she is the biggest diva of them all.

The rule of Mum

Double trouble: And two of my Irish Mammy

But some ground rules this time…

As a seasoned travel professional I know my way around an airport (OK, she doesn’t know the truth so indulge me).

And when your relatives offer to put you up don’t think for them or look a gift horse in the mouth.

It’s an Irish thing! As is demanding to pay the dinner bill.

And I’m reminded of the Irish advert where two oul’ ones batter the hell out of each other for the right to pay.

Shop till you drop

Shopped out: And the only time she’s quiet

Shopping too with any woman is a Herculean ordeal.

And in NY where that means Macy’s then my modus operandi is get in, get out.

Particularly as you can get lost in there.

And there’s no use denying that you had any part in choosing The Scary One’s souvenir.

BTW she still uses the candy pink Guess handbag.

While there’s no talking to a woman who insists on wearing her stilettos on the hop-on, hop-off Manhattan bus.

An Irish homecoming

Donegal calling: At Ballybofey’s Jackson’s Hotel

And as I alluded to The Diva is even more empowered in her homestead of Ireland and her village of Brockagh, Co. Donegal.

Where she was wont to stride down the road with her sisters in her fur coat back on their return to the Bogs of Donegal back in the day.

And all of us, the next generation, revert to (or are reverted to) childhood when our parents have been around.

A Ballyhoo

Green, green, grass of Ireland: And two peas in a pod

Such as in our old stomping ground of Jackson’s Hotel in Ballybofey.

When in the hotel where here, not Shannon, was where Irish Coffee originated she shared this gem with my Dublin cousin Monica…

‘I’ve four brothers, a husband and three sons and James (my Sunday name) is the most selfish man of them all.’

And this after I’d taken time off and driven her all the way up from Greystones in Co. Wicklow!

Silly old woman had forgotten.

That with her hearing aid in she was speaking louder and I could hear her.

Happy Mother’s Day for Sunday, ye mad thing.

And for context think Catherine Tate’s alter ego Nan from Nan The Movie.

Meanwhile I’ll daydream about Mother’s Day Mother’s Way and New York.

And much, much more.

Africa, America, Caribbean, Countries, Europe, Ireland

Give Bono his own airport

7th February 20226th February 2022 funtime65

With all the talk of honouring James Joyce in his native city I’d suggest he defer to another Dub wordsmith… give Bono his own airport.

Now Paul Hewson (his Sunday name) may not have the classical allusions JJ has but he is inarguably the greatest Irishman.

And rather than name the city airport after the author of Ulysses, published 100 years ago, that tribute should go to the U2 man.

Now full disclosure here I’m not a fan boy.

It’s only that airports, just like statues, shouldn’t be the preserve of dead people.

Not that I’ve got anything against the legends.

Leonardo Da Vinci (Rome), Charles De Gaulle (Paris) or JFK (New York) the latter where I piloted a plane into, albeit a simulator.

It’s just that the recipients don’t ever get to see their names in lights or a podium.

And Billy Connolly too

And I would say the same about Billy Connolly and Glasgow and Sean Connery and Edinburgh.

So in just about the same time as it takes to Ryanair to pitch their on-flight offers.

I come around to a celebration of those living people who have had airports named after them.

Cristiano airport

Cristiano Ronaldo Airport, Madeira: No danger of Ronnie being coy about seeing his name attached to his own island.

There is already a statue of the Great Man outside although you might not recognise him if you didn’t know already.

Clintons runway

Bill and Hillary Clinton National Airport, Little Rock, Arkansas: And ever since he burst onto the political scene Clinton has been flying by the seat of his pants.

And Bill has been sure to give Hill equal billing ever since.

Dutch of class

Orange is the only colour: For Queen Beatrix

Queen Beatrix Airport, Aruba: Now the Dutch connections with their little corner of the Caribbean.

And you see it too in Sint Maarten and the airport that has taken Prncess Juliana’s name through her life and continues to do so.

Lech’s go round again

Lech Walesa, Gdansk, Poland: We first made acquaintance with the moustachioed shop steward in the docks in the Eighties.

Now the union man who took on the Commies and went onto become Pres has his own airport. General Waruzelski anyone?

Bob’s the job

Robert Mugabe, Harare, Zimbabwe: And you’d think that after The Great Dictator died then they’d have changed the name.

But as I found out from a Zim tracker on a game drive in the Eastern Cape in South Africa elders are respected… mmmm!

So yes, it would be the sweetest thing but deserved.

Think again

If the politicians pushing for Dublin Airport to be renamed James Joyce Dublin Airport thought again.

And renamed it to give Bono his own airport