The Ambassador's Reception

What a day yesterday was. After our tireless championing of the Georgian entry both last year and especially this year, David and I were invited to be guests at The Georgian Embassy in Malmo for a reception including Georgian Food, Drink and Music.

We got dressed up in our Sunday best and joined Dr Eurovision before heading to the embassy. The Oddfellow Palace was the address - certainly made me giggle. We ended up on the wrong floor and just about let ourselves into some poor boys apartment. He had lovely sofas and I am sure would have made us an afternoon cup of tea but off we toddled up the stairs and WOW what a reception it was.
We were welcomed by Tinatin, on of the Georgian press ladies who gave us a guided tour of the buffet table!!! - obviously us Scots look like we love our food. We were then told to help ourselves to wine and then the Ambassador welcomes everyone to the Embassy.
There was a 10minute presentation on Georgia including their history, their people and their culture. It was very interesting and what a beautiful country it is. Scenery to rival Scotland!!!!!

Nodi and Sophie entertained us with some of their favourite Georgian songs and it really made for a classy event. We tucked into various Georgian delicacies once the presentation had finished and of course topped up on the wine!!!!!!!!!

We chatted to Nodi about Georgia and put in a suggestion that if they win we could be the hosts from the green room. I am sure Tinatin noted it down :-) Nodi said we should visit Georgia regardless of if they win or not. David and I have taken that as a personal invite and will get his address before we leave.
Nodi also said he had never been to Scotland so of course we returned the invite. I told him how great he would look in a kilt and gave him instructions on the underwear situation. David explained he would be wearing his kilt on Saturday with no pants on and Nodi asked him to show him lol

By far the biggest surprise for us was the gifts that we received from Tinatin and the Georgian delegation. We have joked about having our coronation and being crown Queen and Queen of Georgia but you could have floored us when we were presented with Georgian Hats that come from the highest mountains in Georgia!!!!!
We wore then for the rest of the reception and will be sporting them on Thursday for their semi final.

The afternoon finished off with Nodi and Sophie, performing their song Waterfall. It gets me every time and is just beautiful. It was a fantastic afternoon and we were very honoured to be there.
Just to top off the day as we scooped the last of the wine and stumbled off down the cobbled streets towards home, we bumped into the Georgian delegation once again and they joined us in a rendition of Waterfall in the middle of the square - experiences you just can't buy!!!!!!!!

Georgian Bliss!!!!!

Yesterday was an amazing day in the press centre. Not only were we treated to the amazing show from the lovely Farid Mammadov from Azerbaijan but it was the first rehearsal day for our wonderful friends from Georgia. Nodi and Sophie gave a spine tingling performance of their song Waterfall. It was received exceedingly well in the press room and of course myself and David Elder, honorary Georgians as we have cha cha in our blood, were simply over the moon with it.

We met up with them to hand over their minipops icon t-shirt which they loved and we managed to get our picture taken quickly also. Nodi then thanked us for all our stalking (oops i mean support) and thank goodness the "Love Ya Babes" incident was not mentioned - phew!!!!!!!





Their lovely press lady Tinatin has been keeping track of our blogging and loving our work - they are just a really lovely delegation and we wish them all the luck on Thursday night - and Saturday of course :-)

It was soon time to head off and get our sexy on for the San Marino party at the Euroclub. Free wine and food was provided whilst Valentina entertained us with a repertoire of her jazz songs. Then it was onto Eurovision DJ Louis Klomp who played into the small hours and kept us dancing. Just in case you didn't know - I met the lovely Farid Mammadov :-)

Today was moving day - from the temporary press centre to the official one out by The Malmo arena. There were the usual teething problems of course but the working area if fab now that the internet connection has been sorted. It is camp as tits but spacious and relaxing. I was given pigeon hole number Lucky 13 - hope it's not an omen. An unexpected gift was a water bottle each that we could fill up as they are very proud of the cleanliness of their tap water - we have Tippy Tap Tap Water - the gift that keeps on giving :-)

It was a very long day of rehearsals - from 12pm til 9pm so we have been busy busy bees but there were a lot of good performances and standing out for me today were Croatia, Moldova, and Ireland. The Irish changed the background presentation a bit which has kept the performance more focused and once again Ryan Dolan gave a great rendition of Only Love Survives.

Now I am back home in the hotel room after a quick Subway so i can recharge my batteries for tomorrow - a good nights sleep whilst the hubby is out partying will do me the world of good - night night xxxx

Irish Hospitality

It became more evident that Paul Jordan is the bad influence in my life, as the first night he was out of the country I was in bed by 12.30am. A quiet night out with a fabulous all you can eat buffet for £10 was followed by a stroll to the Eurocafe where we enjoyed the "chat" session with the delegations from Estonia and Belgium. The free sangria was a very nice watered down touch.
We then strolled down to the Euroclub but it was almost empty - the 2 venues seem to be diluting the crowds at present although this will change in week 2. It was a diet coke then home to bed for me.I woke in the morning feeling awful. Couldn't eat breakfast and struggled to get up - that's the last time i go out and stay sober at Eurovision. It is really not good for you. En route to the press centre I was handed this lol

Today's rehearsals were from Latvia, San Marino, F.Y.R. Macedonia, Azerbaijan, Finland, Malta, Bulgaria and Iceland. Without a doubt Azerbaijan was the rehearsal of the day - and that is nothing to do with my bias of how HOT he is. The staging of it is brilliant and Farid Mammadov performs brilliantly. The "ever so slightly" changed version from F.Y.R. Macedonia is definitely a vast improvement and we would recommend and form of "punishment" should be taken on the chin and the changed kept. Krista from Finland was her usual flamboyant self and the girl on girl kiss has been left in.

Garrett and I then headed to Fagan's bar where we had been invited by
 The Irish delegation to join their Tourism Ireland party. There were members of delegations from Russia, Moldova, Montenegro, Slovenia and Ireland and we were treated to a feast of free beer, free food and lots of dancing singing and general frolicking. Ryan Dolan performed his song Only Love Survives and put in another great performance. The highlight for me was getting asked up to join the Irish dancers in a square dance - a highlight until I realised that the other people chosen were Aliona from Moldova, Dina from Russia and Nina from Montenegro. It was a total hoot and there may be video evidence circulating around on facebook some where. On asking one of the dancers how i ended up getting chosen when everyone else was from a delegation I was met with this response "Ah see the rest of the boys went for the stunning girls, I went for someone who looked like they were enjoying them self!" - now there is a backhanded compliment for ya!!!

The party moved on down to the Euroclub where we spent many hours dancing away to the fabulous Eurovision tunes of DJ Ohrmeister. Again we were in the company of the Irish. There were several dance offs between the professional dancers and myself and Garrett. Why Me, Euphoria and Every Way That I Can were the music choices for the dance offs and I reckon we one them all - a particular highlight being our synchronised cartwheels to Why Me!!!!

It was refreshing to sit and chat to some of the Irish lads about football. Over here the boys tend not to be that interested and when I woke to the news that Fergie had retired they thought I meant Fergie from The Black Eyes Peas - says it all really. The guys and girls of the Irish delegation were great craic  and I think were impressed with our dancing prowess. The "evening" came to a close at around 4am when we were unceremoniously ejected from the building. The dancing had taken it's toll and the boots were off for a bare footed walk home. I slumped into my freshly mad bed and reflected on one of my favourite Eurovision days to date -

Massive thanks to The Irish Delegation and Tourism Ireland.

Days 2 and 3

We spent the day in the press centre yesterday - well the Euroclub that is substituting as a press centre until the official one opens on Friday. By far the best rehearsal yesterday was Ukraine. The whole press centre corpsed as a real life giant carried Zlata onto the stage and plonked her on a rock which she almost fell off of several times - it was cue for a line from Anouk from The Netherlands - "Birds falling down the rooftops"

We were sat int he viewing room which was basically a cinema to watch the closed rehearsals and then the countries would do a meet a greet in the working area, and a round of short speed dating type interviews.

It is a 2 minute walk back to our hotel where we made another huge dent in our Gin shelf. Thank heavens the good Doctor is off to Ukraine to replenish the stocks. It was with great delight we discovered that there would be Eurovision karaoke on in the euro cafe so we gargled with gin to get our vocal chords warmed up and then set off to the party. It was set out like a working men's club with small tables and a stage for everyone to perform on. There were some fabulous performances and some less so - although just as entertaining. My esteemed editor in chief from Eurovision Ireland, Garret Mulhall treated us to a wonderfully enthusiastic rendition of Every Way That I Can by Sertab - with full on stage crawl for authenticity. Myself and Paul tried to recreate our Eurobash performance of Jedward are were foiled by the fact the karaoke backing track was the expended version but we battled through lol. One of the highlights of the night was David Elder and Danny Lynch performing sweet dreams and it can be seen here in all its glory. Having a few problems with the links so i apologise if they don't work.

 http://youtu.be/Q_My-_s1riA

 https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10152813582670331&set=vb.869915330&type=2&theater


I closed out the evening of karaoke with a performance of our very own Bonnie Tyler's - Believe In Me - this appeared to go down well in the room so if anyone at the BBC is reading this and you need an extra backing singer then "Call Me"

A 2.30am finish was forced upon us due to the venue closing and as we disappeared the wrong way through the park we were met with giant metal railings that were closed over so unfortunately "Up and Over" was the only way out. We survived the journey and made it home at a reasonable time.

This morning Paul left for Ukraine so I headed to the press centre alone. We witnessed Montenegro, Belgium, Belarus, Moldova, Ireland, Cyprus, Lithuania and Serbia. By far the best rehearsal was from the lovely Ryan Dolan from Ireland. His vocal was spot on and all i am going to say is - mmmmmmmmmmmmm about the backing dancers.

Serbia has gone from a quirky angel/devil conscience on your shoulder performance to a car crash that looks like they have been for a visit to the local sex shop for outfits.

I am off for dinner at Garret, John, Roy and Phil's apartment tonight as they along with Diarmuid are my adoptive family whilst the husband is out of the country. I thin it may be round 2 on the karaoke at the Eurocafe tonight after a drag queen show - Only at Eurovision!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Day 1

Well it was an early start to get up and out to the airport. My lovely Dad made me tea and toast and took me our to the airport and dropped me off (after my mum checked a zillion times that i had packed everything!!!!)
The airport was really really quiet and there was no queue at check in or going through security - hurrah!!
I decided to go to my usual haunt - Weatherspoons and tucked into The Breakfast of Champions - Bacon Roll and a double Gin and Tonic - it may have been 9.30am but hey in an airport time zones don't count.
When i headed to the gate i overheard the attendant saying that there were only 25 people on the plane. I was worried it might be ones of those small ones with propellers that look like they get wound up but it was worse that that - a tine 49 seater plane - it had its own built in steps it was that small. I've been in bigger cars!!! I got a single seat - yes a single seat on a plane. Boarding was really quick and then we were off. Complimentary food and drink was a lovely bonus and as you can imagine, more gin was quaffed during the flight.

I made my way into Malmo from the airport which was incredibly easy and only took 30 mins and by chance our hotel is spitting distance from the main train station so i walked to the hotel then headed out and met up with a few others who were partaking in a Starbucks just over the road. I headed back to the hotel to "unpack" and wait on Paul. I say unpack but in the tiniest hotel room ever there is actually no space to put anything. I arranged the gin shelf to my liking and and had a few drinkies whilst i pondered our spacial issues. There could be some amusing moments if either of us needs the bathroom in the middle of the night as the only way out from the window side is mounting and rolling over lol. Even worse was to be discovered after Paul arrived. He added to the gin shelf and then wanted a shower before heading out - this is where we discovered the see through shower door - lets just say it does not leave much to the imagination and we could probably enter Britain's Got Talent as another shadow dance routine ha ha


We went out to to meet some friends in Bee Bar and danced away to some Eurovision ditties. It would be fair to say we were pretty well oiled by this point and I managed to fall over on the way home and am now sporting some gorgeous grazed knees. This morning was horrendous - 2 massive hangovers so we went for breakfast in out jammies and received a round of applause from the other diners. It was then back to bed for some much needed extra sleep and we eventually surfaced at 2pm and headed out to The Malmo arena to collect out accreditations. We bumped into lots of familiar faces which was nice and then headed to McDonalds for the ultimate hangover cure.
Now we are back in the hotel chilling and are about to head off for a run - i think this one might hurt a bit buy hey - you don't get a goddess figure like mine without a bit of pain. There will be more arrivals tonight and we are back off to Bee Bar so watch this space and i will update you tomorrow with the latest shenanigans. I have to stop now as the sight of Dr Eurovision through the shower room door is really putting me off my stride!!!!

PS- if you look really closely you can see me reflected in the bottle of prosecco :-)

EUROVISION IS BACK - LET'S PACK!!!!!!!

It's that time again peeps - May is here and it is the month of Eurovision (I know most of my friends think every month is Eurovision month but this is the REAL month)
I was lying in bed at work last night beginning to panic as I think this is the most relaxed I have ever been about organisation for a contest. I only booked the flight last month, the Euro hubby booked the accommodation a few weeks ago and there I was in bed with 1 night to go with an empty case sitting in my living room whilst I was wiling away the hours at work.

I headed home this afternoon with great intentions of getting the job done straight away, yet I managed to get side tracked by a portion of chilli and potato wedges and an episode of Law and Order!!!! At 7 pm I pulled myself together and started the packing and thought I had done remarkably well as you can see here - got all the essentials. I must put in a vote of thanks to my friend Ben who has made it possible for me to be able to fit Farid Mammadov into my suitcase :-)

I then had a good old chinwag with my bestie who at 8 months pregnant, has been warned to hold on til I get home so I can meet the new arrival. I then realised that I still had the hair dye to do so at 9pm I jumped into the bath with a gin and tonic and some marshmallows for company - I restricted myself to 1 drink as the dye results could have been very messy otherwise. I packed up the house and with a glamorous "just stepped out of a salon" hair woosh - I headed down to the folks for a few more gins, a good night sleep and a run to the airport tomorrow - hooray for parents xxx

I head to Malmo tomorrow with big hopes (big money bets) on Georgia, Azerbaijan and Malta. Many have said it is a disappointing year but I am loving it as usual. I believe it is what you make of it and with a top 10 of 17 songs it is a sign of a goodie to me. I LOVE the UK entry this year and think or Bonnie will do a great job - I hope to be sinking a few pints with her down the Euroclub as she comes across as that kind of lass to me - I will force myself to partake in such shenanigans just to be polite of course.

The tottie vote this year goes to Georgia, Azerbaijan and Greece with a few backing singers thrown in for good measure. I doubt that the "action" will be as good for me as Baku but believe me if it is I will be shouting it from the "rafters" and you will read all about it here first - at which point Mum and Dad should stop reading.

I hope you will all enjoy following my blog and find it informative and enlightening - ok full of rubbish but a damn good entertaining read will suffice - next stop Malmo - woohoo!!!!!!!!!!!