I will also in the morning do a short review of the previous day. Richard and Andrew will capture the entire day and Jeff publishes that but here is more general news.
The day started off a horror when my accreditation card was not working at the entrance to the press center and I had to go back and have a new card done. What happened was that on Sunday just before my card was printed, the system broke down and we waited 20 minutes and then suddenly it printed 6 cards for me. They cancelled 5 and said this is my card. I went in just quickly Sunday to register my pigeonhole and then went out, but it refused to open the turn-stall for me and after 11 attempts, they said crawl underneath to go out. So it never showed I had left the press center and so they cancelled it for Monday. Hope it does not happen again.
The biggest highlight was getting my own flag at the pigeonhole – they did a lot of effort to do this for me and it is highly appreciated.
The press center was the fullest I had seen it in my 23 years on day one – what will happen during the second week when the real proper TV journalists are coming, I have no idea because there is already hardly room for a mouse.
As usual, the same faces. I think for newcomers like Richard and Andrew this is so overwhelming but they already after a few hours handled it like they had been there many years.
There are free stuff for the press and FANS – coffee, tea, sweets, fruit, chips – and the waterbottels – I am sure some will disappear as people take them for souvenirs.
I can honestly say the AUSTRIAN VOLUNTEERS are just fantastic and I have experience of many. They are so professional and our own waiter/cleaner – I told him we had barely finished something when he is there to take the cut of empty package away.
The fan stand looks huge and pretty and Richard did take a photo of me and Marcos, president of OGAE Austria at it,
It opens Friday and I know I will enjoy my time there. It is next door to the interview rooms, the photocopy machines, the printers and the free food.
One of the moderators, RIEM is one of the best also, she is such a sparkling person and spoke to me like she had known me her entire life. She just gets on with people so easily.
Of the 8 performances, we;l Greece was great, Macedonia – just love the leaves falling. Armenia, love it but their clothes are a little grey, I would have liked more colour. And Netherlands – I saw a post LOST AND FOUND at Schipol airport, the part of her dress that is missing. Moldova – well they clearly took a page from Poland last year. The Belgium singer has as striking eyes as Robert 2 years ago.
All 8 songs grew a little on me seeing them rehearsed, even FINLAND.
