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What a splendid day we had. From International Women’s Day to Melodifestivalen via a robust political discussion; it was quite the full one. Possibly fuller for KSP and Jonas who were organising everything. Well, except for the robust political discussion. That was organised by the Republican Party.

And what a day for it. It was almost like we were back in Portugal.

The deck at KSP and Jonas’ place was a-buzz with various conversations and dogs. There were five dogs while we were there, which was lovely. And they all got along, even with the pedigree one. And we know how standoffish pedigree dogs can be.

There was a moment of hi jinx when Peter arrived on his trail bike. He accidentally went the wrong side of a shed and was about to ride through the chicken coop. Fortunately, KSP was obviously a tarmac director in a previous life. She waved her arms about and successfully directed him towards the open area, saving the chooks from a frightful squishing.

A highlight was what I called a squ-emla, baked by Jonas. For the uninitiated, a squ-emla is a big, rectangular, or roughly square, semla bun. Interestingly, while I’m not a massive fan of semla buns, I do rather like the squ-emla. Nice one, Jonas. Very handy for a celebration of international women.

Speaking of women, Mirinda and I were chatting to a very entertaining woman who has lived in an ugly house for 47 years. At first, we thought she said that she’d had an ugly husband for 47 years, but, no, it was her house. She said it with great pride.

But, it was all too soon, time to go. Nicoline had generously picked us up, providing us with some excellent political chat in the car. In both directions. The car, not the politics. No, the political discussion was all in one direction. And not the boy band. No, that came later.

Back at the house, Nicoline dropped us off and went to join her grandkids while we prepared the house for our first Mello final. It took a while and some nifty furniture organisation by Mirinda but, eventually, all was ready for the off.

You see how exhausted Freya is from her exertions.

The first arrivals were Anna BoomBoom and her husband Peter. Peter actually has no interest in Mello or Eurovision in general, but was forced to come along tonight. I think he enjoyed himself. Anna BoomBoom certainly did.

Actually, we all did. KSP made sure of that.

She had organised everything (apart from the furniture rearrangement). She brought along sequined hats and individual sheets for us to give our own scores on each act. It was great fun. Though not as much fun as the actual Mello broadcast.

Of course, we were all rooting for Bara Bada Bastu by KAJ but were equally concerned that Måns Zelmerlöw would win with Revolution. Well, I say ‘we’. Obviously, Peter wasn’t that bothered. Though, he happily wore a sequined cap and filled in his points sheet.

It was a lot of fun having Rollo over as well. The girls got on with him very well. And he managed to clean up their bowls of dry food. He’s very good like that. It reminded me of Rodney.

And, because KSP was not in the photo above, I’ve included this one which I took unexpectedly, earlier. And Freya managed to get in it as well.

Of course, everything became very tense as the points were read out. As predicted, Måns Zelmerlöw won the jury votes but, KAJ came flying home with the people’s points. It was glorious mayhem in our house. And now Bara Bada Bastu will be sung at Eurovision in mid-May.

Hopefully, we’ll all be here, having another wonderful time. After all, we have the hats.