Four years ago I didn't even know that the Eurovision existed and like all good things in life I came to love it by mistake. My music preferences don't match the festival's style and most of the time I pay more attention to the signers and their dancers.

Like past years the winning song was definitely the best of the bunch. Ruslana (dubbed Xena / Cave Girl / Warrior Queen) from Ukraine triumphed with her song Wild Dance (MP3). Wild Dance gained a total of 280 points over Serbia and Montenegro who deserved the second place with 263 points. The uplifting rhythm of the song made the difference in an otherwise slow and tedious set of songs. Ruslana's stage performance was the definitive show stopper with her wild dance accompanied by a group of leather clad dancers dancing around the flames. Like the past years, with Turkey and Latvia, the stage performance contributed to give the cutting edge for the winning song.

As usual the comments about the Eurovision were full of 'the neighbourhood voting controversy'. I'm fed up hearing the same comments over and over again. In most cases this accusation is the perfect excuse for a poor song. The retrospective analysis should concentrate on the song and performance rather than the unchangeable voting bias. In all previous festivals the winning song was always the best song no matter the voting structure. This actually contrasts with most other song and beauty contests, where for most part the runner up is better than the actual winner. I will not dare say that neighbours do not make a difference but the impact on the actual result is minimal. No matter how influential Norway's position is, they only got the deserved 3 points for their song. The same goes for other 'strategically positioned' countries like France and Belgium.

My beloved country (ehem!) just managed to secure a place in next year's final. Although I generally over criticise I think that this year we deserved a slightly better result. Our two ambassadors had a brilliant stage presence and were unusually confident during the whole show. Good job!

As usual for this time of the year a number of football leagues have crowned the season's champions. These are this year's winners:-

• Italy – Milan
• England – Arsenal
• Spain – Valencia
• Germany – Werder Bremen

After being positively impressed by the trailer, this evening we watched Van Helsing (Reviews) starring Hugh Jackman and Kate Beckinsale. Despite the great graphical effects I slept for the second half of the film. The story is virtually non existent turning a multi million film project into a flop. In the first part Stephen Sommers borrows a Q James Bond sequence and inserts it roughly in a vampire film giving the initial feeling of the pathetic story that will follow. What's more the inventor gives Van Helsing an automatic bow, which works more like a submachine gun than anything else.

Sommers tries another attempt to what the "The League of Extraordinary Gentleman" failed to conceive, by combing Dracula and Frankenstein classics into the same movie. Like his processor Sommers fails miserably. Overall the film makes a desperate attempt to be funny, but although the brimming cinema laughed in 3 out of 10 occasions, I found nothing so funny in any. As if this weren't enough, the film tries to get serious in the final part by offering an out of place sad ending to conclude the mess.