Welcome back to yet another edition of “Eurovision First Impresions.”

Eurovision this year consists of 37 songs sent by 37 countries. (We lost Moldova, which is tragic because they were top tier!) Chelsea and I sat down and listened to each song in a row, thoughts with each other, and you all.

This year, we have a lot more countries singing in their native language, a profundity of dance beats, and somehow, four songs containing French and three containing Italian. Eurovision is a rave this year.

Let’s get into it!

Long before I ever had a concrete plan to visit Singapore, I knew exactly which of Singapore’s tourist attractions I was most excited to visit; The National Orchid Garden.

It’s a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and home to the world’s largest collection of Orchids, with a variety of areas highlighting species’ varying environments, Singapore’s orchid breeding heritage, and the nation state’s penchant for naming flowers after celebrities and foreign dignitaries.

The National Orchid Garden is one of many gardens located within the country’s National Botanical Gardens, which span about 200 acres and include several other attractions.

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Fair warning: this post is VERY heavy on pictures and light on text, and I recommend viewing on something larger than a phone.

At some point in 2024, I took a much longer hiatus from updating this blog than I intended. So long that a friend asked me if I thought my last post, on visiting James Buchanan’s Wheatland, was my magnum opus.

Nevertheless, we are limping back to life, here. This blog is now five years old, and I’m glad that there’s someone out there still reading it.

So, let me give you a speed run of the last year, accompanied by some somewhat curated film photos, and followed by some thoughts and goals for the coming year. In other words, a modicum of self-reflection, a pile of grain, and a word vomit of facile hope.

In return, dear reader, tell me what you want to see more on.

You don’t need a tour guide to see Christmas lights.

Let me repeat myself, in case I wasn’t clear.

You don’t need a tour guide to see Christmas lights. What information is a tour guide possibly going to provide? “Christmas lights are a holiday tradition?” “This is an animatronic Mickey Mouse, star of Mickey Mouse’s Christmas Carol.” “Oh, there are some good lights on this street.”

There are good lights on every street in Dyker Heights, or at least that’s how it felt to me. And, I was not particularly picky about which ones I stopped and gandered at. The weather was fucking cold, and I accidentally left my gloves on my desk when I rushed to catch the train from my sister’s home.

And so, let me share my pictures, and my perspective, and a bit of background.

Last October, I visited Pennsylvania for a wedding. Afterwards, I spent a few extra days staying with my parents.

And, I was absolutely, positively, chomping at the bit to visit Wheatland, the former estate of U.S. President James Buchanan. My parents seemed markedly less enthusiastic. But, they were still happy to drive me there.

The historic home is located in Western Lancaster. It’s run and maintained by LancasterHistory, and tickets can be found here. Visitors typically embark upon a guided tour.

Spring has arrived, and with it, the 2024 edition of the Eurovision song competition. This year’s competition brings back Luxembourg after a thirty year absence, whilst losing Romania’s participation. Each participating country sends one song, with required live singing. Eventually, after much asinine number crunching, a winner is chosen, and hosts the next year’s competition. This year, Sweden is the host.

This post is our annual entry in a series of posts covering Eurovision First Impressions. The rules are that I write my impressions/feelings down about each song, listening to them all together for the first time.

I’d love to pretend that 2024’s Eurovision snuck up on me, that I wasn’t waiting with bated breath for the final stragglers to finally release their songs, but alas, I am exactly as desparate for new Europop bops in my life as regular readers know me to be.

Once again, Chelsea joins me in this endeavor.

I’d like to open this post with a quote that resonates with me tremendously:

No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it’s not the same river and he’s not the same man.
- Heraclitus

I’m sure, dear reader, that you’ve had experiences like I have, where you return to a place you loved, or see an old friend, and find that it’s changed, they’ve changed, and/or you’ve changed.

To try to recapture the past, to try to relive the glory days is an exercise in futility. There was a time for those golden memories, and it’s passed, and now the meydan is full of inşaat, and everything’s different…

My heart leapt at the opportunity to return to Turkey.

Every time I’ve been back there since ~2016, it’s been as part of a flight itinerary to somewhere else. By flying with Turkish Airlines, an extra stop in Turkey adds nearly no cost at all to the ticket.

My main journey was to Southeast Asia, but my heart leapt at the opportunity to return to Turkey. I was tempted to spend almost all of my time exploring old haunts instead of new places, but I restrained myself. My visit lasted 10 days.

I wish it lasted much, much longer.