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Borsch is a staple here and it is a soup made out of beetroot so being the huge fan of beetroot I am, what isn’t to like? My lovely American friend, Dan, whom I met while traveling around Central Asia and I went to the Booby Restaurant that had been recommended to us by Peter in our hostel. I must point out that this place was called the ‘Booby Restaurant’ because of the flyer we saw – it had a rather well-endowed lady on the front and for some reason the name stuck. Could it possibly also be because we couldn’t pronounce the Cyrillic script?

I ate well, having borsch and a meal of meatballs and bread along with a large beer for about €3.50. And so the theme of our visit continued – eating up a storm around Kiev.

During my time here I have been eating salo. Now, before I describe this try and keep and open mind. This delicious delicacy is pig fat – no more, no less but it is super tasty. I have since found that not only can you buy it in the supermarket in a block and cut it into slices, but also you can purchase it as a spread.

I’m unsure how to describe the taste sensation – it’s quite comforting in this cold environment even though the first time I had it, it had come straight out of the freezer. MThe texture ranges from firm (straight from the freezer) to soft (the salo I had covered with chocolate was almost buttery in texture and flavour).

I’ve sampled the vodka here (which ended up with me having similar facial expressions as the drinking of whisky in the Isle of Skye). I’ve had caviar (even had the very decadent caviar pancakes in Shevchenko Park), boar and rabbit and the tasty ‘Bile Beer’. Ok perhaps this beer isn’t pronounced this way, but when you translate from Cyrillic it spells BILE. Mmmmm tasty just like my 3-Eyed Fish from Chernobyl.

Walking around Kiev has also been a lot of fun and riding the Metro here is just like any other former Russian state – make sure you know the place name in Cyrillic as nothing is in English and the locals speak quite limited English. Still traveling around this way means you get to see more of the place than you ever dreamed possible and we have walked, Metroed and seen a lot and even managed to get in the middle of a protest.

The memorial at Babi Yar (also know as Babyn Yar) is found just outside Dorohozhychi Metro stop. We had read reports of how you had to leave the station, walk past the TV Antenna, through the woods to a ravine and past the large monument which was put up by the Russians (which is in the incorrect place of the massacre that occurred on 29-30 September 1941.)

The instructions seemed simple – keep walking through the forest until you see a path and then it should be there. We walked and walked and walked and in the end we couldn’t find Jewish Menorah that marks where the massacre occurred. However, we did find the local cemetery and a rather disturbing monument to the children killed.

Being in Kiev I can now say I’ve seen the Larva Caves (which is includes the mummified bodies of Orthodox Monks) and the impressive and huge statue of Mother Russia and the National Museum of the History of the Great Patriotic War.

This museum is impressive, but having no labels in English, meant I was walking around exhibits with photos and artifacts that I didn’t know when or what they related to. There was one room within the museum that left me speechless. It was on the top floor and the room had a table in the middle of the room with glasses on one side of the table, tins and other eating containers on the other side and lining the walls were hundreds, perhaps even thousands of photos of people. I can only assume these were Russian soldiers during the Great Patriotic War (known in the West as WWII), but with no labels, I can’t be sure. It was a breathtaking display nonetheless.

But after all this walking I am looking forward to having a nice relaxing night and watching the new Harry Potter movie. We’ve found a theater that is showing it in the ‘original language’, so this will be us …. but on the way I may need to find some salo for a snack.

Bud zdorov from Kiev

No two alike

Pretty soon we found ourselves outside the city limits, speeding into the Siberian countryside before finally coming to a stop in the forest…right at the height of tick-season! As a Russian friend told me, this was rather ‘criminal’ of them.

We were then summarily lined up, had a camera and a microphone shoved in our faces, and were interviewed about our experiences as international students in Tyumen’. Needless to say, it was not all that fun. But what’s done is done and on Thursday the tables were turned and we had a chance to judge Russian students’ English – not that we would judge anybody, of course.

We had been invited to make up the jury for an English poetry-reading competition, which was interesting in the end. Some of the students were surprisingly good though others, unfortunately, were incomprehensible at times even though they were supposedly reading English poems in English.

To finish, here is a photo taken from our balcony last weekend to take my mind off the fact that the weather this weekend has taken a decidedly English turn – we even had sleet at one point yesterday!

Lovely sunshine!

Word of the Week

Because I haven’t done one for a while:

 как-то так 

Another phrase which you will probably hear with alarming regularity during your year abroad in Russia, this phrase has a variety of meanings ranging from ‘so, anyway’ through ‘so so’ right up to ‘well, whatever’. Another of Russian’s delightful multi-purpose phrases.

До следующего раза!

Dave Hodges
Activist Post

Mark Twain once talked about history not necessarily repeating, but he noted that history sure does rhyme.

Richard Nixon was unable to survive one direct hit upon his administration, namely, the Watergate scandal. Conversely, Obama is facing five scandals which dwarf Watergate in terms of criminality, abuse of power, malfeasance of office and outright treason.

The damage inflicted upon the American people by the criminal syndicate occupying the White House is unparalleled in American history. Yet, Obama is going to survive and this article will describe how Obama is this century’s version of the famous escape artist, Houdini.

The Alternative Media Is Doing Its Job

In Part One of this series, I detailed how various researchers have determined that it only takes 10% of the population to passionately hold to an ideal for the ideal to reach critical mass and go viral. I also described how the knowledge that this country is being run by a criminal syndicate is taking hold and we have likely passed the 10% threshold as evidenced by the fact that America is outraged by (1) Benghazi-Gate; (2) IRS-Gate; (3) AP Spy-Gate; (4) Whistleblower-Gate; and even (5) Fast and Furious is beginning to make a second pass. The alternative media is being so effective that it is forcing the MSM to jump off Obama’s ship and claim they do not support him any longer (e.g. MSNBC Chris Mathews).

The Calm Before the Storm

Even the great fence-sitter, Glenn Beck, is beginning to throw words around like “impeachment” in reference to Obama. And this is coming from a man who cannot decide if he is in the MSM or the alternative media. Remember, according to Beck, 9/11 is exactly as the Bush administration claims it was, an al-Qaeda venture. This is the same al-Qaeda that we are allegedly fighting in Afghanistan while supporting in Syria in our effort to oust Assad.
Regardless of the pedigree of many reporters who are now hinting at the fact that we are witnessing the last days of the Obama administration, the President himself seems unbelievably calm.

Obama is calm because he knows that he is going to survive the largest onslaught of simultaneous scandal exposures in our country’s history. There has never been a time in our history in which a sitting president has been besieged with this much exposed fodder aimed at his removal. If Watergate forced Nixon to resign, Obama should have been crushed by the comparative weight of his scandals and he should have already exited the White House. Why hasn’t this happened?

Sacrificial Lambs Buy Time

It is not likely that the Mafioso inhabitant presently residing in the White House will ever leave office prematurely. In fact, I think it is likely that Obama may not leave the Oval Office in 2016 as well.

If this were 1974, I would be advising Obama to pack his bags and I would also be advising him that he should be begging Joe Biden to grant him a pardon for his criminal acts including the facilitation of the murder of Ambassador Stevens. Make no mistake about it, Obama will survive these crises. However, Holder and possibly even DHS director, Janet Napolitano, may not.

Undoubtedly, Obama will offer up the head of Eric Holder as a sacrificial lamb and he will be gone by Labor day, if not much sooner, and this will buy Obama time to enact his endgame strategies which will negate the five Watergate wolves trying to break through his door.

Holder’s departure will bring celebrations in the alternative media and their followers will be dancing in the streets. We will also smell blood and want more removals. But the head of the president will never be touched despite the fact that all of us will soon be screaming for Obama’s scalp. It will just never happen.

What Will Save This President?

There is one game-changing event which will suddenly and irreversibly negate the momentum that the alternative media has achieved in terms of exposing and removing this criminal administration from power.

In the last eight months, I have repeated the mantra that most of what drives this government today is the preservation of the Petrodollar on behalf of the Federal Reserve. I have also detailed how Iran is selling its oil to Russia, China and India for gold, thus threatening the preeminence of the Petrodollar in which the other countries of the world must first purchase dollars from the Federal Reserve for the “privilege” of purchasing oil. This process provides the only backing that our dollar possesses.

Iran, China, Russia and India are destabilizing the dominance of our currency. Before you cheer the fact that the Federal Reserve is about ready to take a much-deserved bloodbath, please realize that you have a job to go to every Monday morning because of this one-sided arrangement and it is all about to end unless Iran can be toppled.

Why Syria?

Have you yet figured out why Obama will survive these crushing scandals and assume power in this country in a manner only reserved for such despots as Stalin? The road to Obama’s immediate survival runs through Damascus.

On the surface, Syria seems so very insignificant on the global chessboard. However, the key to invading Iran and seizing their oil fields is to first control Syria, because the occupation of Syria is an insurmountable checkmate against Russian ground troops’ intervention.

If the US takes over the Syrian revolution that we started through our al-Qaeda proxy forces, the US will gain a huge tactical advantage in the Middle East. The installation of short- and medium-range missile batteries in Syria will serve as a deterrent and a blocking mechanism for Russian ground troops’ ability to intervene in Iran.

If Russia allows the US to control Syria, Russia will lose any chance of preventing a US/NATO takeover of Iran. Russia and China have heavily vested themselves in gold. If Iran is stopped from selling its oil for gold, China, Russia and India will have wasted an enormous amount of the respective GNP’s in acquiring gold. And the acquisition of gold will be for naught if the US is about to re-establish the dominance of the Petrodollar as the world’s reserve currency through a successful invasion of Iran.

For awhile, it appeared as if Russia did not have the stomach for WWIII and they were going to let us topple Assad without so much as a whimper. I have been shocked as I have watched Russia apparently acquiesce to an impending takeover of Syria by US-led forces. However, recent Russian events make it clear that WWIII is on the horizon.

Read Full Article Here

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Tehran is ready to explain every “suspicious” point of the country’s nuclear program as well as allow experts to Parchin nuclear facility if the IAEA agrees to sign a protocol detailing all its questions, the Iranian ambassador to Russia says.

The protocol should contain all IAEA’s conce

Tehran is ready to explain every “suspicious” point of the country’s nuclear program as well as allow experts to Parchin nuclear facility if the IAEA agrees to sign a protocol detailing all its questions, the Iranian ambassador to Russia says.

The protocol should contain all IAEA’s conce

Israel News – Joseph Wouk

The conflict of interests between the U.S. and Russia over Syria is closely linked to an issue that has recently slipped down the priority ranks but is expected to take center stage again soon – the Iranian nuclear program.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, left, and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Moscow. Photo by Reuters

The recent developments in Syria have been overshadowed by the direct clash of interests between the United States and Russia, in which Israel plays a minor, if inadvertent, role.

While Washington continues to hesitate over the degree of force needed to affect regime change in Damascus, Moscow, which does not believe that toppling Syrian President Bashar Assad will necessarily benefit the Syrian people, continues to warn against its possible replacement by a Sunni extremist government.

On the strategic level, even after the publication of images of the latest atrocities in Syria and the new accusations of use of chemical weapons, Russia has two goals: To keep the regime in place for as long as possible, since it maintains its hold on Tartus as Moscow’s private port in the Mediterranean Sea, and to subvert U.S. influence in the region.

At the same time that it prepares to host an international conference on Syria in June, Russia finds it comfortable to also flex its muscles over the three aerial strikes in Syrian territory that have been attributed in the foreign media to Israel. That is the reason for the current talk of deliveries, not yet completed as far as is known, of Russian S-300 anti-aircraft missiles to Syria. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s failure to persuade the Russians to halt the deal signaled the start of a new war of leaks between Washington and Moscow. Every day a different U.S. news outlet receives information about the worrying scope of Russian assistance to Assad’s regime. Of particular concern to Israel, in addition to the S-300 surface-to-air missiles, are an advanced version of the high-precision Yakhont shore-to-ship missiles and the punched-up presence of Russian warships in the waters surrounding Tartus.

There is probably little Israel can do to scotch the Russian-Syrian arms deal. Even assuming that Iran will keep prodding Assad to help it in getting armaments to Hezbollah, Israel may have already used up most of its ammunition. The temptation to intervene militarily to halt munitions smuggling is always great: Intelligence officials will say they have precise information and cannot promise the same quality of intelligence after the advanced weapons systems have crossed the border into Lebanon. The pressure on the leadership to approve additional operations targeting arms shipments will be significant.

On the other hand, there’s no guarantee that the paralysis that gripped Assad after the previous strikes will continue forever. A senior Israeli official responded in The New York Times on Wednesday to Syrian and Hezbollah threats to take action against Israel after the third strike, in late April, with a direct threat to take down the Assad regime. But that is not what Israel wants. Among the myriad dispiriting options in Syria it is the current situation, however unappealing, that is presumably the least terrible.

On Saturday, The Times of London reported a senior Israeli intelligence official as saying that Assad was preferable to the rebels. Former Mossad chief Efraim Halevy, writing in Foreign Affairs earlier this month, even went so far as to call Assad “Israel’s man in Damascus.”

Iran: The next chapter

The complex political battle surrounding Syria is closely linked to another issue, one that seems to have slipped down the priority ranks slightly in the past few months, namely Iran’s nuclear program. It’s been some months since Israel has explicitly threatened to attack Iran. The lull is partly due to the wintry weather, thought to further complicate aerial strikes on that country. It might also be linked to understandings reached between Netanyahu and U.S. President Barack Obama during the latter’s March visit to Israel.

But that doesn’t mean the Iran chapter is behind us. It’s only a delay, until next month’s presidential election in Iran. America told Israel: Let’s wait for the election. If the ayatollahs’ regime tries to skew the results, as in 2009, perhaps another “green revolution” will break out in Iran, and perhaps this time it will, with inspiration from the Arab Spring, be more effective.

And even if the Iranian regime does survive, as is likely, the political and economic pressure on the country might finally convince the country’s supreme religious leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, to at least consider temporarily suspending the nuclear program in exchange for an easing of the international sanctions. If nothing happens, Washington has hinted, perhaps we will need to take direct action against Iran on our own.

Israel does not entirely trust this veiled promise from the United States, mainly in light of the White House’s embarrassing hesitancy over Syria and limp response to North Korea’s nuclear muscle-flexing. The Obama administration has been caught up in a series of public-relation disasters since the start of the president’s second term. All of this must suggest to Netanyahu that once again he has been left to fix the Iranian nuclear problem alone.

The prime minister will certainly not take comfort in a new report released on Friday by the Rand Corporation, that dares to ask the question that must not be raised in polite society: What will the region look like after Iran achieves nuclear capabilities? The veteran U.S. think tank, which often works for the government, says that obtaining nuclear weapons will further Iran’s national security goals, deter Israel and the United States from an attack in Iran, lead to greater instability in the region and increase the likelihood of war, whether by accident or as the result of a series of misunderstandings between Tehran and Jerusalem.

All of the obstacles that stood in the way of an Israeli attack on Iran last year will be relevant this year as well: The Obama administration is opposed to unilateral action from Israel, technocrats in Israel are against it, and there is a new, political obstacle in the form of Netanyahu’s main coalition partner in the new government, Finance Minister Yair Lapid. Lapid’s civil and economic agenda has no room for war with Iran. Nevertheless, it’s a safe bet that within a month, after the dust of the Iranian election settles, the issue of the ayatollahs’ nukes will once again claim center stage.

If you like action, suspense, and mystery, check out newly released novel by Lyn Leahz, Soul Deceiver, BOOK ONE in the Eternal Soul Series. Recommended by Walid Shoebat & Joel Richardson .. It’s a page turner! CLICK HERE to find out more!

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By Vanya Volkov
Music by: Heinali – “Sway, sway”

The Washington Post, May 18, 2013

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/un-chief-in-russia-talks-up-syria-peace-conference/2013/05/17/cd27ee3e-bf03-11e2-97d4-a479289a31f9_story.html

“The [Russian] naval task force, which now consists of 11 ships, marks the Russian navy’s first significant foray into the Mediterranean since 1992.  Military analysts generally agree that it was not sent to defend the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, although one of its purposes may be to dissuade Western powers from a blockade of continuing Russian arms shipments to Syria.  [Russian Foreign Minister Sergei] Lavrov reiterated Friday that the air defense systems and other hardware, including anti-ship missiles, being delivered to Syria are not illegal and that Russia is obligated to provide them under existing contracts. … Sergei Mikheyev, an independent political analyst in Moscow, said: ‘There are no special deliveries — there are only deliveries in the context of the contracts concluded in the past.  But we don’t know what’s in the contracts.  That’s the problem.’”

Quickie analysis:  A good look at why Russia is continuing arms shipments to Syria:  business.

A tigress named Zolushka – Russian for Cinderella – has been successfully released to the wild by the International Fund for Animal Welfare along with the Phoenix Fund, Special Inspection Tiger, A.N. Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution, and the Russian Academy of Sciences.

Zolushka became an orphan in the winter of 2012, her mother a likely victim of poaching, and had to be removed from the wild to be placed in a rehabilitation facility; she spent a year being monitored by conservationists who were responsible for improving her physical condition and adapting her for reintroduction to the wild.

Zolushka learned to hunt and to stalk her prey: for over six months she was feeding exclusively on live deer, hogs, and raccoons that she hunted in her spacious enclosure.  All contact with humans was eliminated and monitoring was performed remotely through video cameras.

Zolushka was fitted with a satellite collar and released at the Bastak Nature Reserve in Primorsky Krai, where she will be monitored by rangers.

• US relationship with Russia cools slightly, as US critiques Russian arm supplies to Syria. Russia a long-term allay of Syria has provided arms for years. Russia recently publicly identified a US spy in Moscow, which is contrary to international convention.

• Syrian President Assad says peace talks with armed rebels are unlikely to succeed. He also says he does not believe the west wants them to, arguing the west stands to benefit from a weakened Syria and weakened allies which include Iran.

• Clashes between protestors and riot police in a Turkish border town. People feel government has not done enough to prevent bomb attacks targeted at Syrian refugees in Turkey or secure the border.

• Violence torn Pakistan city Karachi sees a senior women politician shot dead. She was a member of former cricketer Imran Khan’s political party. Speculation is rife that the dominant MQM party is responsible. Fingers have recently been pointed at MQM at rigging elections in Karachi.

• Chinese floods kill at least 50 and affect nearly 1 million people.

• The UN’s International Seabed Authority has opened the path for widespread licensing of deep sea mineral extraction, with some sort of profit share going to developing countries. Until now the ISA who control mining rights of the ocean floor have issued very few licenses.

• 100,000 protest in Rome against spending cuts. Italian national debt is 128% of economic output, and youth unemployment is 36

• Violence, targeted towards Sunni’s, continues in Iraq. Around 130 people have been killed in the last 4 days, stemming from an army raid on anti-government Sunni’s last month. The country looks to be on the brink of a civil war.

Full article:

Art and Decor of Moscow Metro Stations | Amusing Planet.

For a long time I wondered myself, what is really going on in Syria? The popular media coverage by western media sources painted Assad as a monster who bombs innocent women and children and painted the government Syrian soldiers as murderers. The free Syrian army quickly emerged as a savior for the people and as a new hope for the country, at least this is the portrayal by the western media. Does this story sound familiar to what happened in Libya? Gaddafi was painted as a monster, when in reality, this was not the case. Let me add that there are striking similarities with the lies told by the western media regarding Libya and the lies currently being told about Syria. It appears to me that some of the rebel fighters who are claiming there is a civil war in Syria may be lying since many of them are not Syrian and are foreign mercenaries paid for by other countries. Therefore, perhaps a better description of what is happening in Syria is an international mercenary war with one goal, to oust the legitimate government of Assad. I may be wrong, but the media lies, and it may be very possible that they are also lying about Syria. Let me make a rhetorical question, how difficult would it be for the Syrian rebels to go into a town, shoot and murder innocent people, then video tape the dead, and claim Assad did it?

#142 Funny One – Champion Of The World

One of the most pressing matters for Circassians involves the on-going and violent conflict in Syria. As a result of policies in the 19th century, 90% of Circassians were forced out of their homeland Circassia by means of Genocide and relocated to parts of the Ottoman Empire- including modern day Turkey, Jordan and Syria. Today, due to ignorance and negligence on behalf of the Russian Federation, approximately 200,000 Circassians live in fear and without any promise to return to the safety and shelter of their homeland.

The demands at today’s demonstration are for recognition of the Circassian Genocide, opposition to the next Winter Olympics in Sochi in 2014, and to allow unconditional repatriation of Circassians to their homeland, Circassia in the North Caucasus.

On Tuesday May 21, 2013, a similar protest will take place in New York City organized by a New Jersey based Circassian group. The demonstration will occur in front of the United Nations and again at the Russian Permanent Mission to the UN.

Click here for more photos from Istanbul

Click here for May 21 NYC event

Image Courtesy of Wikipedia

It’s that special time of year again!

F1 party planning has tonight extended to Eurovision entertainment and aren’t we glad we got involved! Present at tonight’s proceedings have been Resident Knitter, hosting again (for reasons that will soon be explained) at knitting towers, your F1 party person, Dr D and newbie ‘Greenfingers’.

Today’s activity began with Resident Knitter seeking my assistance in cleaning copious amounts of pigeon poop off her balcony. Greenfingers attended later on to supervise the planting of some very pretty flowers. Before long, the balcony was abandoned for the consumption of cheese nibbles, malteasers and minstrels. Dr D took a well deserved break from his revision and a chinese takeaway was ordered!

Pigeons have been a recurring problem for Resident Knitter over the last few months so we took the liberty of purchasing several small water pistols with which to attack the buggers. I digress…

Eurovision is amazing. Various themes; drums, smoke, expanding skirts (think Moldova and Romania), bizarre dance routines (think Belgium), and several entries who clearly entered songs they hoped to God would not get through the early rounds given their financial woes and potential difficulties in hosting the next event (think Greece and Ireland).

Here is F1 party people HQ’s guide to what went down…

France – She tried very hard indeed but perhaps a bit shouty and uneventful.
Lithuania – Forgettable, not a winner for us.
Moldova – Things started to get good here. We think the producers took inspiration from The Hunger Games with the flaming dress (although having only read the books so far myself I am informed by viewers of the film that the Moldova dress far exceeded the dress attempt in The Hunger Games film).
Finland – OMG we just got very interested! Potential winner with the not so subtle hint to the singers long term boyfriend to marry her. We thought Turkey had not entered this year because they objected to the big 5′s automatic entry. We were informed by the lovely Graham Norton that Turkey actually objected to the girly snog at the end of the performance! Either way, we loved it.

Image courtesy of The Sun

Spain – Fearing regular F1 blog readers would be disappointed, never fear: an F1 link is made! The Spanish singer was actually the ex wife of Fernando Alonso! Fantastic. The song turned out to be a bit boring though.
Belgium – Chris De Burgh look alike had some freaky choreography. We really weren’t sure what to make of the ‘knee bend and hand slap’ dance move. Fluid body rolling but odd outfits chosen for the girls that didn’t quite match the toon!
Malta – Reminded us very much of Jason Miraz.
Russia – Very 1972 all over again with the peace, love and harmony complete with hand holding.
Germany – Cascada entertained us although we think she has done better.
Armenia – Written by Black Sabbath, reminiscent of a 1992 power ballad. Not bad. Resident Knitter quite liked it.

There was then a short interlude and a very fun reference to Engleburt Dinglehump. I myself have developed various nicknames for pop starts who I can’t actually pronounce. Nicole Shirtslinger (borrowed from Chris Moyles I think when he was on Radio 1) and Christina Agagoogoo to name just two.

Comedy doesn’t normally work on Eurovision. But, Sweden being a rather fun and civilised nation, seems to have pulled it off!

Netherlands – This was an eerie return to proceedings a bit like musical theatre.
Romania – Ooo Dracula made an appearance! Took Dr D to remind us that Transylvania was in Romania. Graham Norton made a very valid observation that just because you can do something, it doesn’t mean you should. I do hope he was referring to the rather high pitched notes coming from Dracula. The practically nakey dancers were a novelty!
UK – Oh Bonnie, it wasn’t quite a total eclipse of the heart. I thought the song sounded a bit like a previous hit of hers, but I can’t think for the life of me which one. Nice to have a dignified entry. Fingers crossed we score…a bit….at all.
Sweden – Swedish Justin Beiber anyone?! Singing a One Direction song…
Hungary – Anyone who is anyone, and anyone who is youtube savvy will no doubt have noticed the willy bum bum-esque cartoon in the background! Apart from that it wasn’t much to shout home about. I was quite concerned the guitarist needed the loo throughout as he kept jigging about on his stool! Hope he made it in time.
Denmark – Hints of Shakira and 12 days of christmas with all drumming and pipers.
Iceland – Another slightly dull tune reminiscent of Lean on Me or Hallelujah.
Azerbaijan – Rather enjoyed the man in the glass box!
Greece – Oh goodness the excitement brewed once more! Greece, made a bit of a rooky mistake with their novelty entry! If they had hoped it wouldn’t get through they underestimated the Eurovision fan’s loyalty to Cheese! This entry was designed purely for British football fans we are sure. Alcohol is free indeed!
Ukraine – Egor was the highlight of this little number.

Image courtesy of The Guardian

Italy – Dullsville.
Norway – Pretty girl with an epic Euro-pop song but it had nothing on Greece or Finland!
Georgia – More white dresses and smokey surroundings.
Ireland – More drums, very shiny trousers and some fetching leather on leather outfits. Tribal. Winner? Probably not.

So, what did we learn today?! We rather like Sweden! The musical medley just prior to the scoring was particularly epic with some fantabulous comedy moments.  We rather like Swedes.

Graham did a sterling job as always giving us key observations and points of interest.

Moving onto the scoring, we were most chuffed here at Knitting Towers that Greece were high scorers in the early stages.  We were however most disappointed that Finland were not up there in the high ranks of Eurovision stardom. What a shame. Perhaps she will at least get hitched instead…

We raised a glass to Bonnie at the point she surpassed Engleburt Dumperhink in the scoring stakes. Rolf in Talinn perked us up during the scoring slump. This Eurovision lark can be quite draining. The German score announcer was worryingly emotional about her responsibilities.Dr D is something of a Euro-politics expert as it seems he can estimate scoring patterns quite effectively. Quick word of thanks to Ireland for giving us a stonking 7 points!

There was a weird early announcement of the winner before the end of the scoring. Nevertheless, many congratulations to Denmark. Shakira, you did it! Hard luck Greece, you were the winners in our eyes.

In other super dooper news…we came above Germany AND France!  Lithuania were very sweet in declaring their love for Bonnie. It did not quite convert into 12 (or even 1!) points though. We depart with the question…who do we send out next year?

Turqoise Ice at Lake Baikal Russia