heywoodu

Dinner break - Part 2 The second dinner option is more of a fast-food kind of dish, we're certain everyone knows the basic fries. They do come in a decent set of varieties of course, everyone present will have some of their liking. The main thing is in the snacks that come with the fries, starting off with the frikandel - sort of a minced-meat hot dog, the modern version of which has been around since roughly World War II. Second is the kaassoufflé, a simple snack: cheese inside a thin doughy wrap, was has been breaded to get a crust and then deep-fried. Take care, the cheese is burning hot! The kroket, known in English as croquette, has more of an international ring to it, although in the Netherlands the real ones are filled with serveral kinds of meat...very much like the inside of bitterballen, and so again, be careful when biting into one! Fries with a frikandel... ...although one can just as well go with a kaassouflé or two! There's a wide variety of desserts people eat in the Netherlands, most of which seems fairly international, think about icecream and the likes. In everyday life, a more common thing is called 'vla', a dairy product and something that's been made and developed for many centuries. There's a whole host of flavours for vla, vanilla and chocolate are by far the most common ones and you'll find cartons containing both in the supermarket: one side is yellow, the other brown and the combination is absolutely excellent...even better with a good serving of whipped cream on top! Fun fact: vla used to come in bottles, and since it's quite thick, it was hard to get everything out of it. The Dutch aren't known to be greedy for no reason, so a special tool was invented: the flessenschraper (bottle scraper) or flessenlikker (bottle licker), to get every last bit out of it. Vla is nowadays mostly sold in cartons, but this tool can still be used to get stuff out of bottles any time! A 'vlaflip', which often contains at the very least vla and yoghurt and generally a good amount of syrup and whipped cream...one can top it off with some fruit and/or hagelslag. Some people like to mix it all together, others take a straw and go up and down, making sure they've got a bit of everything all the time We close of the musical proceedings of the break with a fitting song, and one of the best Dutch songs ever: Avond ('Evening') by Boudewijn de Groot, born in present-day Jakarta in a Japanese camp, where his mother died within a year. He eventually made his way to the Netherlands and became a succesful singer. In 1973 the song Avond was written by De Groot's songwriter Lennaert Nijgh for his then-wife Anja. Two decades and a divorce later, it was De Groot who married Anja, he rewrote and recorded the song for her. Avond didn't become a hit at all, but he played it live so often it became more and more popular, and nowadays is often very high in the all-time Top 2000. The song is about someone singing to his loved one, how everything is fine - sure, outside it's stormy and dark, but inside it's warm and light and good. "I know your deepest fear, but I believe in you and me", and who cares what the world throws at us? "If the sun shines, we go for a walk after breakfast, if it rains, we go back to bed, waking up slowly for hours."

And I'm off for actual dinner, see you in 40 minutes or so

Dinner break - Part 1 Canada ends the afternoon session, could those two points they gave to Serbia have sealed the deal? There's only seven voting nations left, meaning there are just 84 points to be earned by a single nation. Only Canada, Malta, India and Ireland have a chance left to catch the Eastern European leaders, although Canada seems to have the only somewhat realistic road to do so. However, it is TISC, and things are never as they seem... We'll take a break from all the action and have ourselves some dinner. For those accustomed to a later dinner, their will be the option to eat after the final session. Again, we have two main options for dinner, one that is definitely Dutch and another that is not specifically Dutch, although some of the things on the side there may be considered to be so. Keep going on, the finish is in sight! We start off with erwtensoep, pea soup, which is also called 'snert' in Dutch. Soup being made from peas is of course not bound to one nation, but since this became a thing in the Netherlands - roughly 500 years ago - a different variety was developed. Snert is significantly thicker than your regular pea soup and includes things like carrots and, most importantly, pieces rookworst - smoked sausage. How does one know whether their snert is thick enough? Well, the saying goes that if the spoon can stand up straight in the soup, you've got it right. Snert is often sold at little kiosks along frozen canals, ponds and lakes for people having fun on the ice, just like hot chocolate. It's very rarely eaten in the summer and is very much associated with winter in the Netherlands. Even most Dutch people will agree it really doesn't look very tasty at all, but oh boy is it good...the thicker, the better! For dinner, we are joined by Normaal, a rock band from Twente in the very east of the country. Singing in their strong dialect, which is often associated with very rural life, they were founders of what became known as 'farmers rock'. Their by far biggest hit is called 'Oerend hard', loosely translated - from the Twente dialect - to 'Very fast'. The song is about two motorcycle riding friends, who've heard of the local motorcross and are racing to get there. Thy're known in the area as fast riders, but one day get hit by a drunk driver and people say they'll never be heard from again...however, at the end, they make a comeback and they're back to riding 'oerend hard'!

To be fair, I believe there have been contests with more than one break lasting more than an hour, this one only has one

I had lunch nearly two hours later than usual thanks to the POLPOR-mixup and still I'm getting fairly hungry at the moment

Absolute domination right there

Much as Serbia only gave Canada one tactical point, Canada answered with only two points for their rivals. It isn't over until it's over, and it isn't over yet. Until it's over, which it isn't. Yet. Meanwhile a big 12-pointer made Israel turn it's back on the fight for last place, all of a sudden they seem fairly secure! Juries voted so far: 28 / 35 Next jury: France TOISC - NETHERLANDS 2020 Indonesia 18 54 Serbia 1 181 Italy 19 49 Canada 2 129 Denmark 20 48 Malta 3 110 Poland 20 48 India 4 105 United States 22 45 France 5 103 China 23 42 Ireland 5 103 Portugal 23 42 New Zealand 7 83 Tunisia 25 39 Kazakhstan 8 78 Croatia 26 38 Brazil 8 78 Spain 26 38 Germany 8 78 Greece 28 35 Lithuania 8 78 Slovenia 29 32 Argentina 12 74 Egypt 29 32 Great Britain 13 73 Slovakia 29 32 Moldova 14 69 Israel 32 28 Netherlands 15 67 Mexico 33 24 Romania 16 61 Hungary 34 23 Czech Republic 17 59 Bulgaria 35 6 After all this action, we're taking a bit of a break, the longest one of the day, since it's about time for dinner! This will be served to you, and after that - at 18:30 CET - France will open up the very last session of TOISC 2020.

Still TISC

Don't count Zombie out yet, they might come back when you least expect it.

Indonesia makes it harder again for Canada to catch up to Serbia, although of course the champagne can't be popped open in Belgrade yet, one doesn't want to Julian Alaphilippe away the win with six countries still in it! Sort of. Juries voted so far: 27 / 35 Next jury: Canada TOISC - NETHERLANDS 2020 Indonesia 18 54 Serbia 1 179 Italy 19 49 Canada 2 129 Poland 20 48 Malta 3 106 Denmark 21 47 India 4 105 China 22 42 France 5 103 Portugal 22 42 Ireland 5 103 Croatia 24 38 New Zealand 7 83 Spain 24 38 Brazil 8 78 United States 26 34 Lithuania 8 78 Egypt 27 32 Germany 8 78 Slovakia 27 32 Argentina 11 74 Tunisia 29 30 Kazakhstan 12 72 Greece 30 27 Netherlands 13 67 Slovenia 31 25 Moldova 14 64 Mexico 32 24 Great Britain 15 63 Hungary 33 23 Czech Republic 16 59 Israel 34 16 Romania 17 58 Bulgaria 35 6 Number two Canada is up next, will they manage to keep themselves in the race? @intoronto, please tell us!

Give everyone 2,5 hours to post their votes, it's really quite simple.

I am definitely not spoiling anything, but I would say Serbia is the bookmaker's favourite at the moment.

No comment. hic.

Out of curiousity: what was the most epic TISC comeback ever?

I don't drink beer

Ah yeah, forgot that

You sure about that? Kazakhstan definitely seems to still be able to win.

Egypt extends Serbia's lead in such a way that now more than half of the field can not mathematically win the contest anymore, although Canada most certainly still can! Bronze is still very much up for grabs, it's still a four-way fight. Juries voted so far: 26 / 35 Next jury: Indonesia TOISC - NETHERLANDS 2020 Indonesia 18 54 Serbia 1 167 Italy 19 49 Canada 2 120 Poland 20 48 Ireland 3 103 Denmark 21 47 France 4 101 Portugal 22 42 Malta 4 101 China 23 38 India 6 94 Croatia 23 38 New Zealand 7 83 Spain 23 38 Germany 8 75 United States 26 34 Lithuania 9 72 Egypt 27 32 Kazakhstan 10 71 Slovakia 27 32 Brazil 11 68 Tunisia 29 30 Argentina 12 67 Greece 30 27 Moldova 13 64 Slovenia 31 25 Great Britain 14 63 Mexico 32 24 Netherlands 15 59 Hungary 33 23 Czech Republic 15 59 Israel 34 16 Romania 17 58 Bulgaria 35 6 Next up? Indonesia ! @Griff88, please tell us what the Indonesian people have decided!

Apparently Egypt leads the way

EGYPT Denmark 12 Netherlands 11 Serbia 10 Tunisia 9 Argentina 8 Mexico 7 Germany 6 Kazakhstan 5 Romania 4 Brazil 3 Great Britain 2 Poland 1 كانت تلك أصوات المصريين شكرا جزيلا لكم ونتمنى للجميع التوفيق لبقية اليوم! Those were the Egyptian votes, thank you very much and we wish everyone good luck for the rest of the day!

EGYPT Netherlands 11 Serbia 10 Tunisia 9 Argentina 8 Mexico 7 Germany 6 Kazakhstan 5 Romania 4 Brazil 3 Great Britain 2 Poland 1

EGYPT مساء الخير جميعاً ، نأمل أن تكون جميعكم بخير. إليكم أصوات لجنة التحكيم المصرية! Good afternoon everyone, we hope you're all doing well. Here are the votes of the Egyptian jury! Serbia 10 Tunisia 9 Argentina 8 Mexico 7 Germany 6 Kazakhstan 5 Romania 4 Brazil 3 Great Britain 2 Poland 1

That's why he didn't sing I got the show right at least

Meanwhile a bit of news: I just finished updating/fixing the last of the scoreboards

@thepharoah, you there?