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!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!