The FINAL Days

On Friday night we escaped the Eurovision bubble and were treated to a fantastic night by a local couple. We dines on a rooftop restaurant and partook in all kinds of Azeri food and even I was persuaded to drink Vodka. When I asked for orange i was told "no juice"!!!!

It would appear in Azerbaijan that you order vodka by the bottle and it comes in an ice bucket and you are provided with shot glasses and lemon. You then raise a toast to something and down your vodka straight. Well it would have been rude to decline. It is amazing what you can find to toast to when you are thirsty. Friendship, Baku, Eurovision........ we were scraping the bottom of the barrel when raising a toast to "Vodka" by the end lol.
We had not taken part in any Karaoke, which we had heard was big in Baku. Our lovely host for the evening Hajji, happened to know a mate who owned the best karaoke bar in town - did not have to twist mine and Paul's are i can assure you. We ordered more vodka then requested our songs.


The microphones get brought to you and you sing from your table and everyone else in the whole club listens to you while you perform. Strange but must hilarious experience. Paul and I sang through a varied repertoire including Son of a Preacher, Fame, Islands in the Stream, I Got You Babe and of course the classics - I Drove all Night and Total Eclipse of the Heart. My friend Toto also came to join us and we had our first experience of The Shish Pipe!!!! - we were told it was all above board and legal and the one that was purchased for us had a pineapple flavour to it.

Took a while to master the technique but it sure was pretty awesome - this turned our to be one of our favourite nights of the whole experience and we were lucky enough to have been treated to the whole evening by our new Azeri friends - hope they appreciate a Greg's Steak bake and a Can of Tennant's if they ever come to Scotland for us to return the hospitality!!!!


We awoke late Saturday for final night - woohoo! I was so excited. After a light lunch in town in the sunshine and an evening report to Kingdom FM, we began to get ready for the big night. We usually join up with a large crown of people to head to the arena but this night Paul and I took ourselves off to The Hilton Sky Bar for a cocktail with a couple of friends where we took some stunning pictures of Baku waterfront.


We were fully decked out in our Union Jack wear and were stopped for many photo opportunities en route. After the Hilton we headed to The Marriot where we were treated like royalty as we sipped our cocktails and posed for photos with passing dignitaries. It made us laugh a fair bit when we posed for a picture only to realise it was Tooji, the Norwegian participant - it was almost 10pm and he was still in the hotel. We wished him all the best from the UK - if only we were to know then what fate awaited both our countries?!?!?!?! - i hope we never cursed you on your birthday Tooji.

The final came and went. The show was spectacular and there was a great atmosphere in the arena. I thought Engelbert put on a great performance and we were really pleased with it in the arena. The Russian Grannies rocked the stage as did Cyprus, Romania and Ireland although not all countries fared so well in the voting. Sweden was a deserved winner on the night and what a great song to win Eurovision - it has already gone No.1 in the UK I tunes chart.
For the UK, it is back to the drawing board again. I never heard the jury final but if rumour is to be believed then, Engelbert's performance was not as good on Friday night and this will have affected his jury vote greatly. We took a risk, a risk worth taking in my opinion, and it never worked out. I also would imagine it is the last we have seen of Jedward in the competition. It was just too much of the same thing from the Irish lads with a song that was not as good as Lipstick. Let's hope the UK and Ireland lick their woulds and come back stronger next year.

I hope you have all enjoyed the blog - I will be back with you all next year from SWEDEN - YAY!!!!!!!