First the security was so tight that journalist and artists couldn’t get their accreditation badges, then it was brought back to the level we know and Wednesday the Russians installed a new “Big Brother is watching you” toy which quite quickly became annoying and time consuming for most people.
When we arrived in the morning we were met with another security level: A badge scanner. Every time we go in and out of a room we need to scan our accreditation badges. Apparently the official reason is that they want to check that the picture of the badge matches who we are, but as there is a security guard standing there checking the scanned in picture before we can pass anyway then surely he might as well just look at the picture on the actual badge as it is the same one the scanner shows him? I might see the point in using it at the entrance, but why can’t we go to the toilet or to get some water without having to stand in queue scanning pictures in? It is time consuming and it makes no difference what so ever. It appears like the Russians got this “smart new toy” and then they damn well also insist on using it no matter if it is practical or not. Everything is under the same roof and once you are in you have access to it all so why use it? Several questions can already be raised. Are the EBU seeing the statistics this toy provides being able to analyze who from which countries goes to which press conferences? Who just wants to see rehearsals and who pops into a press conference 5 minutes before it ends to get hold of goodies? No matter what this will be used for then it has already proven to be quite annoying – and of course it also broke down several times this first day. Well you couldn’t expect them to have it ready already from the start so surely you can’t expect either that they will have tested it before putting it to use.
But now to something more positive: It appears like the things I am mentioning as things I miss are being fixed! Yesterday I mentioned that free water was not a possibility. Well today they installed a few water dispensers in the working area. The bottles are small meaning that it will have to be refilled frequently, but absolutely a nice thing which we have been missing. Hands up for that one! I also got my mobile phone back today. When I was going outside for a few minutes I was stopped by the one I talked to yesterday at the information desk about having lost my phone. It had been handed in and now she saw me again she just wanted to give it back to me. I hadn’t given them any information about myself so she was simply able to recognise me and was looking out for me. Hands up for that also!
While I am going on about all the positive changes it also seems like we might have found a solution to the stone hard beds here which I simply can’t sleep on. We took the two madras’s of the bed and placed them on the floor on top of each other. It is still not optimal, but it gives me an acceptable sleeping opportunity. I then thought that we would have to ask the hotel for another madras, but no, my boyfriend sleeps on some pillows and blankets on the floor as a madras and bizarrely enough then he says that he actually sleeps better like that! Hard to believe, but let’s see if it continues.
The last rehearsal and press conference was a country I had been looking forward to a lot; The Netherlands. I like the song and I like these three guys. It is an up-tempo song that brings me in a good mood and makes me want to sing and dance. Very much like the Scandinavian ‘80’s songs, which made me interested in the Eurovision Song Contest in the first place. Because I actually like the song it was quite disappointing for me to see it on stage – and on TV afterwards. It doesn’t work either way. I was expecting some extra on stage and the pyrotechnics in the end is not enough. When I was disappointed about the rehearsal they however didn’t let me down at their press conference which was without doubt the best this year. They opened it with a full length edition of Shine in a Big Band version and also promised a new interesting version at every press conference. They were all three quite relaxed, told jokes, insulted each other with a smile… it was perfect!
