The Eurovision song contest took place in Israel last night.

I have the  fondest  memories of the country and the people, be it Arabic, or Jewish,having spent some months on a kibbutz  there.
But the film "Spy" was also on TV.  It has the immensely likeable Jason Statham.I have never liked pretty pretty boys.My husband used to joke I only like the "monkey" faces,as my favourite actor had always been  Walter Matthau.      Now it is Mr Statham. Even though he is very handsome.
Mr Statham's  self aggrandising  soliloquies in "Spy" are hilarious,  delivered with such  aplomb.He is a fine comedy actor.  The three  men clad in silver foil and some strange concoction on the head, singing  in German and dancing on stage, is the funniest moment  in the whole film and the producers should have made more of it.

"Forget money,marriage and health are key to happiness"

Daily Mail, 16/05/2019.   "...living with another person who has promised to stick by us no matter what
is the foundation of reliable love and,therefore,bound to improve our chances  of a happy life."

"Voting arrangements for blind people are unlawful

because they cannot sign their ballot papers without help,the High Court has ruled."

There are 800 000 Muslims living in Great Britain who cannot read or write in English,many cannot read or write in their mother tongue. Yet they take part in all elections, their   X   is accepted on all ballot papers.

How can their vote be lawful and that of the blind people is  not?

E.P.Thompson,British Social Historian,

said in 1975: "This "Going Into Europe" will not turn out to be the thrilling mutual exchange supposed.It is more like nine middle-aged couples  with failing marriages meeting in a darkened  bedroom in a Brussels hotel  for a group grope."

"Europeans  have lost  their  "collective libido" for each other,Jean-Claude Juncker  has said before  attacking the weakness of British politics in the face of Brexit."        Daily Mail, 04/05/2019.

"We don't love each other.We have lost our collective libido," Mr Juncker said in an interview  with Germany's Handelsblatt  newspaper.

I am  laughing  my sides have almost split!

I have been waiting with abated breath how far the SUDANESE SPRING will go.

It reminds me of  Czechoslovakia in 1968,when the political change was so near and yet so far.
The problem is that once a man sits himself in the seat of power,it is very hard to let go. And it gets even harder to relinguish it  when he gets his snout in the trough.

In Las Palmas yesterday the UK immigration officers boarded the ship,

to carry out on board face to face passport  control.
This morning without any waiting whatsoever I sailed through it, and I even had the time to joke with the very handsome officer- please make sure it IS me, after 3 years on this cruise I am not so sure myself if I am who I say I am!
He burst out laughing and was still laughing as he was seeing people who followed me.And that is the way to do it,in a pleasant, civilised way.Thank you, UK.
We have three days to go before the Queen Victoria docks in Southampton.
We are sailing through the North Atlantic Ocean, humorously referred to as "The Pond".[My lovely god-son Adamko on his first holiday in Croatia called the Med a big swimming pool.]
The Atlantic Ocean occupies roughly 106,400,000 sq km.The deepest point is the Puerto Rico Trench at a depth of 8,605 metres.

The entertainment.

Philip Hitchcock is a very likeable magician.He has performed on the London Palladium,at he Tropicana in Las Vegas and does the cruise circuit,too.
Georgina Jackson is a BBC Big Band and Ronnie Scott's vocalist and trumpet player [I love jazz and have been to Ronnie Scott's}.She has a pleasing voice and a pleasing personality.
Jacqui Scott had starred  in many London's West End musicals-Evita,Cats,Miss Saigon,Chess.She belts out the songs for effect  rather than emotion.
Mike Doyle,the comedian, has done three Royal Variety shows and two Royal Garden parties  at Buckingham Palace,three his own TV series and five TV specials,so he has the credentials,and he is good,but not in a class of his own,unlike  the crossover singer  Roy Locke    [not cross-dresser,  crossover, being able to sing different genres of music, like Catherine Jenkins},truly a king amongst princes.
And we have  the broadcaster Jennie Bond on board   [yes,that Jennie Bond]  talking about the British  Royal family. Not being the lover of things royal, her lectures are of no interest to me.