So the excitement is building and the Russian correspondent has strutted his stuff.
What on earth are you talking about, I hear you ask?
Yes it's that annual jamboree known as the Eurovision Song Contest which is now just known as Eurovision in the same way as Coronation Street is known as Corrie.
Not that Eurovision and Corrie have much in common. So how about the Russian correspondent? Well that's Steve Rosenberg, the BBC's man in Moscow.
Steve is a big Eurovision fan. Not only that he can play 360 Eurovision songs extremely well on the piano and each year he tickles the ivories with a Eurovision piano party.
A couple of years ago he played in Moscow but this year he was in Liverpool. Steve gets people to send in requests.
Every year I send in my request for Nocturne which won the competition for Norway in 1995. Steve never plays it. It remains my favourite Eurovision song of all times and one of the few I can play myself.
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Sometimes publicity is never enough
As vice chair of the Friends of Hethersett Library one of my current tasks is to arrange speakers for presentation evenings. Incidentally the next one will be a talk by Norfolk author Phyllida Scrivens on June 15th - more about this later.
I became aware yesterday that we had a complaint from a local resident that they weren't aware of the talks. The phrase you can lead a horse to water but you can't make it drink came to mind.
Before a talk we put posters on various noticeboards. We have details on display in the library, I flood social media with details, we put it in Hethersett Herald e magazine and in the printed Good News magazine and then there's word of mouth.
I'm not quite sure what else could be done. Apparently when this person was told full details are always in the library, they replied that they never go in the library. Sometimes I get very frustrated with people.
And so to the next leg of our travelogue.
One more important thing to remember before we leave Spain and that is to always carry an English novel with you. You never know when it's going to come in handy.
The other threequarters brought three or four paperbacks with her on our trip with the intention of reading them and then leaving them somewhere for others to pick up. But she didn't realise that most Spanish people don't have much use for British novels - that is until now.
On our last night in Seville we decided to seek out a restaurant recommended by Raoul in whose apartment we are staying. We knew it was a maximum of 10 minutes away and we also wanted to do a dry run of the way to the bus station the next day as we have to catch the bus over the border into Portugal and wasn't sure whether it was walkable with a heavy case or whether we needed to take a bus or taxi.
We found the restaurant just after 8 pm which would be the time British restaurants are starting to close. In Spain many weren't open as we were told in broken English.
So we went for a 20 minute wander and then returned and got a table for two which was good as there just happened to be two of us.
I stared at the bill. The waitress (much more about her shortly) asked if everything was ok. I stared at the bill. A pint of beer or a large beer as it was advertised was about £2. It was the same price as a bottle of water. Of course in England in the Middle Ages they drank weak beer as it was safer than water.
The other threequarters had a small beer which was almost the same price. When I questioned why she didn't order a large she said she wouldn't have been able to drink it all. I pointed out that I would have consumed what she couldn't manage. Sometimes her logic mistifys me. Actually make that most of the time. Anyway she had a massive seared chicken salad and I had a lambburger and chips and the whole bill came to about £18 and from the outside this looked quite a posh place.
So back to the book. The other threequarters took it with her (don't ask me it's title as I haven't got a clue) with the idea of just leaving it somewhere.
The waitress had twinkly eyes and was so friendly. She told us she loved British tourists as she was trying to learn some English and it gave her the chance to try some words out. Her English was much better than our Spanish but she tried to put us right on some pronounciation.
We had quite a chat with her and I gave her one of my business cards. I'm not sure why they call them business cards as I have no business. We told her to email us and we would write back and help her with her English and she could help us with some basic Spanish.
I have been using Google translator on this trip to read menus and it's been pretty good. Anyway our new friend seemed quite overcome by this offer. We took photos and then came the piece de resistance and you are probably ahead of me at this point. Yes we gave her the English novel. I think she was close to tears at what she considered a great kindness and she insisted on giving us a free desert which was refreshingly delightful. It was fresh pineapple on a bed of ice and flavoured with cinnamon
We do hope she contacts us as it will be nice to know how far she's progressed with the novel.
I feel a special Spanish translation of these blogs on the cards. Steward goes Global.
I'm determined to learn some Spanish that will help me with signs such as the one on the door close to our table. People kept disappearing through a door with this message on and we assumed it referred to another room. A check with Google translator however showed that it simply meant Mind the step.
And so onto Portugal.