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.