When the Cheshire emerges...

10.35pm: That's a wrap! Will do my best to make updates for semi-final 2 and Jessica Mauboy's performance tomorrow night.

10.32pm: YES! The Netherlands! Excellent. And Iceland! This is really excellent. Just Latvia and their cake that missed out from my guesses - oh and Portugal. Hm, I think Europe's picked well.

10.32pm: Ukraine's in. And Sweden. Two more.

10.31pm: Armenia was good... knew Azerbaijan, but that means one I like is gone. OH and San Marino gets through! That's pretty awesome.

10.29pm: Montenegro, Hungary and Russia. Three from three... ooh but they're booed...

10.26pm: Alright, previews for the Big Five and previous winner look good, already looking forward to the final. But a whole other semi to go!

And Jon Ola Sand, love to see he's still featured in the broadcast as he looks over the running of the night.

10.23pm: So it's just clear that Eurovision loves Jedward. Australia loves Jedward. They are fair amazing.

10.19pm: So Armenia, Latvia, Sweden, Iceland, Russia, Ukraine, Portugal, The Netherlands, Montenegro and Hungary are my picks for entry into the final. Although Azerbaijan will likely be in there, and likely one or two others instead.

10.10pm: And he pulled out the silver BIG TIME! Ha, and he's still ugly Julia? How mean.

10.08pm: The Ugly Duckling is this semi-final's interval act. How could Denmark not feature something of Hans Christian Andersen? But they've tried to make it modern to say a young guy can't breakdance.


10.05pm: Ooh, good voice to end the semi-final on. For almost all of it, he faltered at the end. But András Kállay-Saunders brought some DNB to Eurovision. Awesome. That was great. And it's over already.


10.02pm: DNB!!!

10pm: Sergej Ćetković is not singing in English. And Moj Svijet sounds like a nice song. I like that I don't understand this.

9.56pm: Calm After The Storm from The Netherlands... sung after a trip to Nashville for The Common Linnets. This is beautiful and not Eurovision-y at all. I am calling this as my favourite so far.



9.52pm: I. Called. It. Lace and sheer, lace and sheer. I like that we're finally hearing a song in the native language. Quero Ser Tua  is alright Suzy.

9.48pm: Ha. I've always focused on the white... but they're right. Silver is also a winner.

And I'd have both the judges too Julia, but if they're fighting over Portugal we have no chance.

9.40pm: There are only four more songs? This is going to be harder to pick than I thought...

9.38pm: Third time lucky? Valentina Monetta is ironically trying with a song called Maybe. She is clearly San Marino's only export if she's been selected three years running.

9.35pm: Wild Soul by Cristina Scarlat. Moldova! Finally, something that feels a bit more epic. Mad medieval costume... but struggling to love the vocals.

9.32pm: Nice Paul Potts reference from Julia. Oh, Axel Hirsoux from Belgium has a back-up dancer in the shadows. His mother I take it. OK, bad pun for a song called Mother. Too bad they've already had their Mother's Day and that Australia can't vote.

9.28pm: Ukraine's Mariya Yaremchuk - she is just beautiful! And love the man in the hamster wheel...




9.19pm: Again with the lace... Azerbaijan's ballad Start A Fire sounded beautiful. Wasn't sure if I was meant to understand all the lyrics. But Dilara Kazimova looked enthused.

9.13pm: Russia's Tolmachevy Sisters with Shine.

I thought they were going to go around with their hair intertwined the whole time. Fail. This is an ABBA-esque song and look, which I guess is acceptable given the 40th anniversary of their win this year.

9.10pm: Albania. This year's Shakira. Second lace and sheer dress, could be this year's key trend.

9.05pm: Jedward! I witnessed the act with Eurovision's highest hair in person. Feeling blessed.

9.03pm: "Just stand still and focus on the singing." Sanna Nielsen is beautiful AND clued in. Eurovision, you've changed.

8.56pm: Pollaponk's No Prejudice: Iceland are always entertaining. These guys are suited-up Wiggles with a bit of edge. And some mean beards. Great mix of kitsch and actual singing talent.

8.53pm: Sanna Nielsen from Sweden with Undo, finally on stage after seven attempts to represent her country. She's a stunner. With a really nice voice. Understandably one of the favourites. Do agree with Julia Zemiro that it's Celine Dion-esque. But it's a strong contender so far.





8.47pm: Amazing! The white has ARRIVED! Where's my wine... ah shit. Not tonight. But Tanja from Estonia has my favourite Euro sound with a heavy dance-pop element.

8.45pm: Ask your mother how to bake a cake? Nah, I can make a cake pretty well from scratch, but thanks Aarzemnieki from Latvia. Cake To Bake was sung with a folk sound/look to it.

Mix some dough and add some love. The best lyrics ever?!

8.41pm: You're Not Alone - Armenia's Aram mp3... there we go! The favourite rocking it in a half-military, half-Matrix ensemble. Confusing, but it's alright.

And the stage is epic this year.

8.38pm: Three hosts again. I really think we'll have 10 in another five years... And WOW. Pilou's hair (on left). SO hipster.



8.36pm: Emmelie De Forest is without shoes again. But still looks amazing - and I thought that before Sam Pang. The webcam shots are back.

8.35pm: #JoinUs is a great theme, but the webcam shots seemed a bit... well, I'm not sure really.

8.33pm: Julia's already a bit tiddly getting her facts wrong about Danes voting for Emmelie.

8.28pm: We're getting ready to go, Eurovision 2014 is finally here! I am yet to hear any of the songs so am very curious for what Copenhagen has to show.

I'll be attempting my first live blog tonight, taking you through any quips I have on each song as they come on. Feel free to comment on the blog and make your views known too.
**Please note this is in Central Standard Time**

There was no new release for me to post a review up last week so I have a DVD review to eventually post instead. For now though, I have a favour to ask!

I'm currently involved in trying to become the newest blogger for Expedia.com.au and have to get the highest number of votes in order to get to the final round and be judged by an actual panel. I believe I have what it takes and if I can get there in a (massive) final surge it would make my holiday if not my year!

I've only got three days to go so please take two minutes out of your day to help me out! They will ask you to share information but if you say 'allow none' it will still let you vote... so no excuses!

If the link to my page doesn't work, try the button on the side of my blog.

If nothing else, you can watch the video I made, which is rather embarrassing but done in one take just the one time. I tried.

Peace out, and I wish everyone a happy new year. Here's to 2013!

It may appear that I've been neglecting my blog the majority of the time lately, save for the film reviews.

But I haven't, I promise!

A couple of weeks ago I ran into a dilemma where my free Picasa photo storage had run out... it's still the same situation.

***

Now, I have done some research. Forums are a great place to discover whether or not it's just you or others with the same problem. Turns out there is someone who is in the same mess as me. Unfortunately there has so far been no solution to the issue.

This upsets me because there are so many entries I've been meaning to make - there is more to my On the road to nowhere series for one thing, and obviously life and tacky shoes haven't stopped for this.

The easiest thing for me to do would be to get on a plan, where I get oodles of storage for a small monthly fee. But I don't need the space they're offering so I feel it would be somewhat wasteful.

I will keep working on it.

Sorry folks.

There have been a few things that have recently inspired me to do what I've always said I'm going to do, and I'm going to do it now in my latest pledge - I will keep this blog REGULAR! One form of inspiration was a Tweet from a follower of mine who tried spruiking me to his followers. It read: "@Katiinkaa has an irregular but interesting blog..." before a link. So that means people DO read what I write sometimes. Which is awesome. And what good samaritanism too, total champ. @Noelinho, if you read this, thanks.

Now that I'm in Dubbo and settled with good Internet, I can finally uphold this idea.

Might as well start this regularity with a general update on my life as it is at this point in time... working as a journalist is a challenge every day. There are some days where everything falls into place and you bang things out and it's easy-peasy. Some where you find yourself starting well with contacts and then hitting a roadblock. Or vice-versa. And then there are days where it's 3pm and you don't have at least one submitted story. Those days are the pits.

Opposing all that, last week was the best yet. Week 10 didn't feel like a stellar week but there were major milestones. My first week of court reporting without assistance. Hitting 2.5 months and no longer being the new(est) kid on the block. And outside of work, finally uploading all my Europe photos onto Facebook. Which was a frickin' long time coming, but I follow through with these things.

But the biggest thing that affected me was realising (yet again) that you can't have it all. In this case I was very proud to discover five out of six of our front pages (Monday-Saturday) featured my stories. At the same time certain things or people in my life were lacking - for example, not being able to go properly with anyone who's followed my journey to celebrate. But you take what good you can get with gusto. And for me, the career is obviously a worthy focus right now.

For those non-writers out there, what do you think makes a good front-page story? If you had a choice what would YOU write about?

Last Cannes blog.

Interview with Sam Holst of short film Meathead.

Last two interviews up soon :D

So it continues... it's late so I'm not elaborating. Link here. Cheers yo ;D