It's almost that time of year again - the Eurovision final is on Sunday night! I hope you are all planning wildly enthusiastic Eurovision parties. I will be eating pizza and gluing myself to the screen at Margie's house. Can't wait. Although I have to say, nothing has quite matched the year that Turkey won (with that girl who was like a Turkish Shakira) but was nearly pipped at the post by that weird pseudo-Gothic hippie ambient new age Belgian group with the bizarre hand actions (Ngy you will remember this...we got a lot of mileage out of that hand-dance!).
The UK's entry this year is called SCOOCH. I don't know about you, but I don't have much faith that they will break the UK's annual tradition of being TRAGIC at Eurovision.
In other news, I got an email from the "mobilisation team" at AVI about the pre-departure brief. Apparently I have to bring a "teaching skill" with me, something that I can teach the other 23 volunteers in 5 minutes. I hate these exercises, I think they're lame. Plus we had to do them at this teaching workshop at work (back when I had a paying JOB and all of that). Any ideas? (Keep it above board, please!).
Anyway, so the other volunteers are going to PNG, Vanuatu, Thailand (I think there are 3 of us), Vietnam (lucky buggers), Malawi and Cambodia. I'm kind of looking forward to this briefing business (apart from the teaching thing). Should meet some interesting people. That said, I am still waiting for the IRC to officially confirm my appointment. That hasn't stopped them from already asking if I can extend my assignment to 12 months. (I said no; I'm sure by the end I'll wish I could stay but there is the small matter of coming back here to start working, studying and generally getting off my paediatric backside and getting somewhere with my career. Sigh.).
AAAAAAAAAAAARRRRGGGGHHHH MY TRAVEL ITINERARY JUST GOT SENT TO ME 1 MINUTE AGO.
I am terrified!
Adventures of a peripatetic medico in Thailand
About Me
- Q.
- Mae Hong Son, Thailand
- I have arrived in the blogosphere (and now also in Thailand)! Please leave comments so I can convince myself I have friends.
Stuff I like
- Refugee health. Public health. Human rights. David Rief. Paul Farmer. Jeffrey Sachs. I don't know what I think of Bono.
- Rice
- Western art music. Classical. Whatever. Especially written in the last 100 years. Mahler, Shostakovich, Bartok, Berg, Stravinsky, Schoenberg, Prokofiev, Schulhoff, Pierre Boulez, Messiaen, John Adams, Phillip Glass, George Crumb, Vasks, Bruckner, Beethoven, Monteverdi, Bach (yes yes, I know the latter three are not from the last century).
- Fashion. I lean towards the slightly weird and yes - "directional" (fabulous, sweetie). How do I reconcile this with humanitarian work? I've thought about it a lot and I just end up with a headache, but I think it has something to do with having zero willpower.
- Books. Vikram Seth, Jay McInerney, Robert Dessaix, Elliott Perlman, Kiran Desai, Tolstoy (especially when I'm feeling psycho), PG Wodehouse, VS Naipaul, Joseph Conrad, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Lewis Thomas
- Bands and stuff. Mum, Radiohead, Wilco, Elliott Smith, Pulp, Ben Folds, Ben Lee, Gorillaz, Beck, Dandy Warhols, Blur, Cake, Sarah Blasko, Snow Patrol, Starsailor, Bic Runga, Mercury Rev, Joanna Newsom, Air, Goldfrapp, Sigur Ros, Sarah Blasko, Richard Swift, XTC, Leonard Cohen.
- Science
- Other music - world, jazz and miscellaneous, I suppose. Miles Davis, Keith Jarrett, Jan Garbarek, Ralph Towner, Ravi Shankar, V Subramaniam, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Amjad Ali Khan, Sunwrae, Ryuchi Sakamoto
- A challenge
- The rest of the arts - theatre, fine arts, dance, opera. My tastes mostly lean towards the contemporary. Kandinsky, Klimt, Matisse, some Warhol, Dali, Frank Gehry, Nacho Duarte, Jiri Kylian, Twyla Tharp, that sort of thing.
- Whimsy
Recent reads
- Miss Chopsticks (Xinran)
- Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows (JK Rowling)
- The Kite Runner (Khaled Hosseini)
- The Inheritance of Loss (Kiran Desai)
- The Post-Birthday World (Lionel Shriver)
What I'm listening to
Interesting Places
Blog Archive
-
▼
2007
(47)
-
▼
May
(16)
- And the rain kept pouring down
- My day in pictures
- Judgement Day
- Asia Hunger
- Blisters, toilet paper and the language barrier
- Lasts
- PANIC!!!
- Crisis averted!
- Chocolate, cows, wine and cards
- Fog
- Tying up loose ends
- 43 is the new 1
- Thaivision
- Asymptomatic
- Ben bought half a boat
- How do we get over the apathy?
-
▼
May
(16)
2 comments:
Ahahaha, sooo entertaining! When you combine the hand-dance with an accordion *and* bagpipes, you have to be on a winner.
I don't think they're going to show Eurovision in the US :( Last year I tried watching the preliminary final as well as the grand final and even I couldn't handle it!
Have you considered learning the hand-dance and using that as your teaching skill?
Hmmm maybe. I don't know if it's the best way to introduce myself to 23 people :P
I can never really sit through Eurovision either. That's why it is tres necessary to have heaps of food to distract myself.
Post a Comment