Congratulations, I have arrived.

OK, so I'm not Silvia Night. A little bit of me would quite like to be though.

Initial impressions of Kiev: Efficient airport, sunny blue skies, warm weather. I think I'll stay for a couple of days.

The first thing the taxi Uber driver said to me as we drove away from the airport was: "The traffic in the city will be chaos because of this, you know, Eurovision." "Ah yes, that," said I. "Nice weather you have here."

Next thing I noticed was a chain of petrol stations called Wog. If only they knew (or maybe they do?).

So far so good, and laissez briller le soleil.

On my way

Well that seems like a suitable enough, Eurovision 2017-related subject matter. I can't promise every post in the next couple of weeks will be equally on point.

But yes, I am Kiev-bound and ready to wriggle my way back into the rehearsal bubble for the first time since, erm, Vienna. And that really only feels like the other day. Was there a contest last year? Who won?

My mission is to bring you insightful and witty observations as the rehearsals start to unfold, and I'm already trying to think of a whole range of ways to say "the stage is blue": Hopefully I won't be out of ideas by Sunday tea time.

And should the history book on the shelf decide to repeat itself - as per the ancient Swedish proverb - there might be a haiku or two. But also there might not be. You'll just have to keep coming back to the blog to check.

But now, to misquote Mélanie René, it's time to fly.