My birthday was really fun. Celebrated in one of the town pubs on Friday night and saw everyone who was back home from uni. It was the first time in months since I saw some of them so it was nice to catch up. Then on Saturday night we all went to a house party at my friend Hannah's. There were so many people come and go throughout the night, it was just like old times. I ended up staying and when we all woke up at about 6am, we were surprised to find that it had snowed REALLY heavily and was still going strong. Its the most snow I have ever seen in a long time (and we usually get it every year). I just thought it was so nice to have a white Easter.

So with about 2 hours sleep, my wonderful Father suddenly sprung it upon me that we were having a family Easter meal at my Grandparents..... which was pretty nice.

Then I rounded off the day at church. I love it when I come back for the weekend and see everyone at church, they mean so much to me and I do miss them a lot. It was Ashley's 21st birthday so a few of us went back to his house afterwards to celebrate. So a pretty good Easter so far.



I decided to order a new camera because the one I have now is really getting on my nerves to the point at which I just don't take it out with me anymore - yet I love taking photos. The flash is out of sync so at night, it can sometimes take ages to take a decent photo. I've bought the Canon IXIS 70 because its small enough to fit in my pocket and it takes great photos cause I know people who have it. So can't wait for that to arrive.

I LOATHE this woman more than any other person on the planet. Of course, I'm not alone in this statement as the great British public have made it abdundently clear that she isn't welcome here. So why is it that she seems to be so welcome in America?

I mean, for goodness sake, that woman came 7th on Dancing with the stars!! If that was here, she wouldn't have been put on the show let alone finish 7th. The tabloids had a field day when it was announced she would be appearing on there. Just another excuse to run her name down as usual.

Anyway, the thing that has angered me so much is that not only did she get away with £24 million of Paul McCartney's money this week but she has also been offered the role as a judge on Miss USA!! What the hell is up with the world? Don't give the woman anymore attention. I don't really like Paul McCartney but I still don't think its right that she has taken all that money which she doesn't need and definitely didn't earn!!

Foreign celebrities have criticised our media for being too vicious towards her but I really do think she deserves it. She is always going to the media to hype up her ludicrous causes and is always galavanting around in front of the cameras - yet she has the cheek to go on a popular morning show and say that she is being hounded???? I also love how all the celebrities hate her too (and surely they should understand more than anyone). It just shows what a whackjob she is. I hope she goes off to America and never comes back.

Anyone else still in doubt and feels sorry for her? Well watch this youtube video. Its her HUGELY famous GMTV interview that she did here. Need anymore proof?

Part One: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=YVUDXZfdObw
Part Two: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=7Gl2iq3KTs8

Okay so there I was, sitting and writing up an article regarding a fox hunting interview I did for newsgathering when I stumbled upon this: click for article.

It is in a Welsh publication and concerns the leader of the opposing Conservative party (who are looking more and more likely to win the next election), David Cameron.

He is talking about how, if the Conservatives are elected, they will give all MPs a free vote as to whether the controversial Hunting Act should be reversed.

For all non-natives and ignorant Brits, the Hunting Act was passed three years ago by Labour - it was a huge deal at the time with millions of protests etc so you should remember it. Anyway, it was heralded as an outright ban on hunting yet to campaigners' disappointment it actually stopped bugger all. All it did was make it illegal for hounds to actually kill the foxes - hunters could still happily flush foxes out, chase them and shoot them. Plus the act wasn't exactly welcomed by rural police forces which consisted of a large number of officers who were sympathetic to fox hunters seeing as they actually live in the countryside themselves. Due to this, the law was never really enforced and animal rights campaigners took it upon themselves to enforce the law and protest at every available opportunity - something which in my opinion got very annoying.

Needless to say, the act did the opposite to what its aim was. It actually made hunting a lot more popular whilst failing to enforce what was in it. If anything, it helped the pro-hunting party. 300,000 people turned up to over 314 traditional hunts on Boxing Day last year in England ... that shows how little changed.

Now the Conservatives have a high concentration of upper-class Lords and Ladies amongst their ranks so in general, the party are going to be very much pro-fox hunting and have always tended to side with the rural, affluent communities of which the sport is a way of life. My town for example is in Fenland which is extremely rural and affluent and has always been ruled by the Conservative party even though Labour has maintained the national vote. This is basically down to farming communities always voting in favour of the Conservatives and more urban areas/cities voting for Labour ... its just a fact.

I just find it interesting that as the election draws closer, Cameron is dredging up every possible issue that he can use in his favour including the hunting ban. Its definitely a vote winner but the way that Labour are performing at the moment with that idiot Gordon Brown (who no-one likes may I add), it is more or less a dead cert for the Conservatives to win the next election. I do think Labour still have a chance of winning though, they just need to change their leader and quick so that people have chance to forget about him. People resent having a PM that they didn't even vote for.

As the article says, Cameron's 'free vote' would probably never work seeing as the Lib Dem party have a casting vote and half of them voted in favour of the ban last time around. To me though, it seems as though the 'free vote' is just a vague explanation and I suspect that they would in fact just go ahead and reverse the act without one (or at least try). He most likely said that to gain added support from pro-hunting voters whilst being safe enough not to lose voters that may be anti.

Don't you just love politics?

Oh, and I'm pro by the way, before you ask ;)

I can't really justify spending the amount of money that I have in the last fortnight but whatever, I don't really care - I'm fine, I still have lots of money left and I'm not in debt. My next payments come through on March 31st so it looks like I'm just a jammy git that can get away with spending a lot on crap.

Needless to say, the picture above isn't just for decoration; I finally caved in and bought it last week after wanting one for absolutely ages. I strictly wanted a black one though so that it would match my ipod (ha) .. even though my Macbook is white but who cares, I don't carry that around with me. For something that has been out a while, it was SO hard to get hold of. The white ones were everywhere but you had to buy them with brain training. Game and Virgin etc had deals but you didn't get to chose what games came with it. I finally managed to get a black one reserved and moved from an Argos in Scotland down to the Lincoln branch - what a hassle! I got Animal Crossing, Harvest Moon, Trauma Centre and Pokemon Diamond (aka best game ever).

It was kind of annoying cause I couldn't play with it when I got it cause this awful migraine suddenly came on and I just had to lay in the dark for a day with a cold flannel. It was probably the first migraine I've ever had actually ... evil.

I'm addicted now. I haven't really played Harvest Moon yet but there are plenty of long train journeys for that. Animal crossing needs a bit more attention but I'm loving Trauma Centre and Pokemon! Honestly, Trauma Centre looks weird cause its all about operating on patients and stuff but its awesome you should definitely try it. Its so addictive too but gets really hard later on. Obviously Pokemon has had the most attention, I've only beaten the first gym leader but I'm trying to train my Pokemon. Can't wait to get home and use the wireless over Easter to trade with peeps :D

Reading this entry back, I sound like such a silly little child ..... but then again, I am a silly little child ^-^

P.S - I found that Mario case in HMV yesterday! Isn't it great :-p

Okay so its time for my much anticipated 'Eurovision: Your decision' review blog. For those that have no interest in Eurovision and don't want to read, I apologise. For those that don't have a clue but want to atleast try and understand, learn about the Eurovision here. Details on how the actual UK's selection show works can also be found here.

So the BBC completely messed around with the format this year going for three heats consisting on two acts each. There was a heat for the groups, a heat for 'Joseph vs Maria' (hard to explain for non-brits but 'Joseph' and 'Maria' were two reality shows in which the lead roles in two west end shows were found) and a heat for solo artists. A panel of three judges decided which act went through from each heat (along with one wildcard from the losers) and then the public were allowed to vote on their favourite from the final four. The whole idea was to weed out the bad entries in a desperate bid to finally have a decent song represent us at Eurovision. You could immediately tell that one of the aims of the new structure was to try and railroad the public into voting for the act that the BBC had most faith in (given the public's terrible track record) .. so did it work?

First up in the group heat were girl groups 'Loveshy' who consisted of two 'Girls Aloud' rejects and 'The Revelations' a motown, 60s sounding trio from all over Europe. Loveshy were awful. They really were. They were out of tune and were trying way to hard to be Girls Aloud - 'Mr Gorgeous' certainly wasn't the 'sexy piece of pop' that they promised. The Revelations were good and they immediately got me jiggling in my seat, however, as the judges pointed out, they certainly needed a lot of work if they were picked to represent us. The Revelations went through of course but in all honesty, both were quite disappointing in Eurovision terms.

The second heat was the 'Joseph' vs 'Maria' heat in which Rob Mcveigh (a runner-up in the contest to become the new Joseph in the West End) went head to head with Simona Armstrong (a runner-up in the Maria version of the show). Rob was a great singer but the song was a dull and lifeless ballad, it would have bombed at Eurovision. Simona's song surprised me! Even my Dad liked it and thats something. Simona is Romanian and her accent really added to the song which was an insanely catchy piece of pop/rock. Despite being dressed as a dodgy transvestite, she gained both my support and the support of the judges who sent her through.

Finally we had the solo artist heat involving two of the most well known people in the contest:
Andy Abraham who was runner-up to Shayne ward on the X-Factor and Michelle Gayle who starred in Eastenders and had quite a big pop career in the 90s. Andy's song was a VERY good disco tune with a hint of motown, his voice was flawless but you couldn't help but think it was a little too classy (and maybe even too good) for the Eurovision. My initial reaction to Michelle's song was 'what on earth??'. It was EXTREMELY Eurovision with lots of cheesy dancing, wooing and mic grabbing. The studio audience loved it, as did the judges and it probably got the best reception of all of the acts. Naturally, the judges sent it through and Terry chose Andy as his wildcard so he ended up going through too.

Up to this point I had no idea who would win though I knew that I didn't want The Revelations. It was kind of disappointing as none of the songs really stood out this year like Cyndi did for me last year. Personally, I think they should have changed the rules so that she could come back for a second shot ;)

Anyways, the results came through and Andy and Michelle ended up going through to the final where they performed again. Andy was spot on vocally as he was before and Michelle was her usual hyper/wild/demented self. At this point I decided that Michelle would be the best bet, as did the judges who both said she deserved to win ...... however, in true British style, the public voted for the other - Andy.

So the UK will be represented by Andy Abraham in the Eurovision song contest in May. Oh the joy.

To be honest, I don't really mind. Ever since the Iraq war, the trend for the UK's success has gone down hill hitting the bottom with 0 points when Jemini represented us. The introduction of the tiny eastern block countries makes it very hard to be successful these days so I think we should just go and have fun with our song.... I just think Michelle's would have been a lot more fun. Then again, cheese didn't work last year so maybe a serious song by a talented singer might just work? We'll have to see.

My closing reflection is that if I doubted faith in the British public before tonight, I definitely doubt it now. No matter what clues and traps are set to push the public into voting a certain way, they will always chose the other. If there is an underdog, they'll vote for it and if there is lateral thinking, they'll ignore it. I say let judges pick the song next year and ignore the public!