That Monty types faster than I do so he’s already filled you in on our day off to Slovakia. Apparently it’s a question that pops up at pub quizzes quite often, name the two closest together capital cities and the answer, in Europe at least, is Wien and Bratislava, unless you count Rome and Vatican City. The sun indeed came out and we had to cool down with several huge beers before boarding our ‘Twin City’ liner back to our host city. At €35 euros is well over double the cost of the train but well worth it. We sped past forests, fishing lodges, ruined castles and then the outer ‘burbs’ of Wien before docking at Schwedenplatz (it’s a sign I’ll tell you..) Sweden for the win.
So then Monty and I spent an hour or two in the palatial British Embassy measuring up the curtains and checking all our bespoke furniture from our downtown penthouse will fit up the grand staircase! We’re upsizing dear reader. A gaggle of fans, press and other esteemed guests did their worst with the canapés and free bar. At one point the waiting staff had a bit of a rush on so I offered to help run some drinks for them but not before I’d helped myself to a bucket of the finest Spanish grand reserva from 2009. It was a good year that?! Had an ‘interesting’ chat with some woman from the Isle of Skye who works has worked at the UN in Vienna since 1993 and couldn’t comprehend what I was doing at the contest. The term Eurovision fan left her with a look of total bemusement and I asked her if she’d be watching on Saturday. Something tells me she’ll be at the opera and won’t give two hoots if we’re off to Stockholm, Sochi or Turin next year! Thank you OGAE UK and Susan the Ambassador for the invite.We spoke to gorgeous Jay the UK choreographer who told us that they’d been in rehearsal all day yesterday and tweaking some of the dancing. Say what you like about the UK song and staging but, boy, they are working hard. Whatever the result on Saturday, they’ve worked hard you know.Then Isreal and there were vats of humus and falafel although I didn’t get a look in at those. It was like a scrum, anything for a free nibble these folk with their laminates. The Israeli head of delegation basically takes over the party and shows off his hot backing boys, gives us various renditions of previous Israeli songs and even comes in the crowd teaching us the moves. It’s all very jolly and this is always the party of the year. Il Volvo (as I’m now calling) sped through the throng with their entourage acting as their bumpers, were mobbed upstairs and then left by a back door leaving the rest of the Italians to mingle and drink with us!We found a bench outside to collapse on and we’re just thinking about making our exit when Free Hugs boy from the press centre arrived with a gaggle of Brazilians in tow. I’d heard there was a group of Brazilian fans through one of the Portuguese fans and it was such a treat to meet them and speak my language, ahem, ok my second language. I do it so well after five beers and a bottle of grand reserva. Some of the Brazilians have travelled form Vitoria in the state of Esporito Santo. One is a drag artist and performs to Eurovision songs back in Brazil under the name Angela Jackson Drag go on have a gander on facebook for him, fabulous!!
Here’s my interview with Thyago free hugs that I did for Eurovision Ireland. This is work work work!!
You’ve already seen that we whipped off one of the Israelis shirts and fawned over Guiseppe the poor lad who has to avoid a Madonna moment with Edurne from Spain. I mentioned to him that I’ve never seen a more complex three minutes on a Eurovision stage and he seemed to pale. If there is a wardrobe malfunction on Friday or Saturday, it’ll be down to me dear reader! So all in all a wonderful day and night. Semi One tonight and need to think about a prediction, but first some sun!!
