After the hurried talk we were herded out of the room and through an area that felt more like a work site than anything.  And then, we finally stepped into the studio.

The audience was already waiting in the middle section of a small group of seats.  And the set was not quite as I remembered it (I assume it is changed a bit from year to year) and was much smaller than it appears on TV.  I’d just sat down when I was told that I was on the first show of the year and got up to take my place in the champions seat – if I was not quite so overwhelmed I would have noticed my name in front of one of the seats.  One of the other guys from the bus, Jay, was also up first.

We sat in our seats whilst they checked the camera shots of us and adjusted our hair and make up. I needed a dose of bronzer as my skin is so pale.  Jay reflected that this was the last time he was going to look this good as he was just going to get older and he was in make up.  I observed that it was probably the last time that it would be appropriate for him to wear make up as well.  To which he responded, “Not necessarily, I’m from Sydney.”  There was also a mad flurry to try and find the final contestant, Trish, and ensure that we had all signed our contracts.

I reflected that whilst one of the previous grand champions, Sunil, had commented in his SMH article that the set seemed cheap and make of ply wood, it seemed fine.  Comfortable and finished enough with screens to change graphics and some sort of Perspex contraption in the box behind where Ed stands to make up the background.  (Whilst there I finally realised that the set is made up of a series of boxes with the finalists prizes in them and one section that has a screen for most of the show and reveals the giftshop when a contestant answers the giftshop question correctly.  I think they’re meant to resemble old-fashioned shop-fronts, but I’m still not sure what the box behind Ed is meant to be).

We then went around the corner from where we were to be seated to be escorted in by “the models.”  We all got to have a bit of a chat to the male model (who as per Zoolander was ridiculously good looking and very petite!)  who was talking about how he is getting into presenting on a travel show – I want his job!  I had to go in twice, I’m not entirely sure why but I think it may have had something to do with a miss-read autocue.  Also the first time I realised that I could hardly hear Ed and Livinia, they were just talking at normal volume and I was the other side of a room with a cheering audience in the background.  I had no idea what they were saying about me except something about politics.  I deliberately didn’t put too much on my profile about politics, except that if I couldn’t be a trophy wife (plan B), I would like to be the first female PM (plan C).  The second time around I noticed they had also included some off the cuff half-serious comment I’d made about Monty Python and Oscar Wilde…  oh well.  Jay I noticed they mentioned was into lots of sports and wanted to write his own song and Trish, the final contestant was some sort of web developer and had eloped to Texas.

For the first round of questions, I felt like things were moving really really quickly and was a little overwhelmed.  I can’t remember if I tried to push the buzzer or not, but didn’t get any questions in and then Trish won the first gift shop – an Apple Air Book.  Awesome prize and she didn’t think twice about taking it.

In the second round I managed to get a few questions in and was even in the lead for a while, before winning the first “who am I?” which was pop-singer Rhianna.  A lucky guess, but as it was a recent singer and I think I finally buzzed in after they mentioned a song that I vaguely recognised as hers, it was an educated guess and correct one.  In keeping with the pop music theme (Amy Winehouse had got me 5 points earlier), I chose Madonna on the Famous Faces board and got the lock out.  A bit disappointing as both the people next to me seemed pretty decent an I’m not actually competitive enough to go out of my way to prevent some one else from winning.  I chose Trish as she seemed to be on a role, although I think Jay ended up getting all of the following questions.

Again our scores went up and down, with me getting in early on some questions, being the only one to know others (I came in late on the Queen Victoria question, because my first through was Queen Mary II) and bummed out on another one.  I think that R will never tire of telling me that SMS is short message system, not silent.

Never the less, I then managed to get the question for the next giftshop.  It was a holiday to Vanuatu, being offered for $10 (eg 10 points off my score).  I had said to R that I wasn’t going to play for the lot, if I had a chance at a holiday or golf-clubs I would take it, but in the end, I was only 10 points ahead and it was a close game.  So I decided not.  Ed did say that usually Scott does the trick with selling the holiday (he’s the male model, he was pretty much wearing short boardies, which if you’re into men that look very very nice, would be very very enticing), and I said, “It’s not like he’s coming!”  Possibly my only mildly amusing remark.

There were a few more questions and I was ahead when it came to the Vault.  For those not in the know, the Vault is where you get to sacrifice $15 and when you press the buzzer, the computer randomly generates an amount between $1 and $10,000 which the player gets to keep as prize money.  It was a real dilemma for me.  And then…  there was a huge break whilst they fixed up some technical difficulties.

I tried to get R’s attention to see what to do, every one kept telling me to take it.  I wasn’t sure – did I want to win or did I want money or could I get both?  I finally got R’s attention and he nodded at me.  I still wasn’t sure.  And in the end…  I took it.  It didn’t quite register for a while that I had won almost $8k in cash.  I missed the next few questions, I think that’s where I bombed out on a question about a book with “six stones” in the title, thinking it was the new Indiana Jones movie, and then just wasn’t fast enough in the final 60 second round.  The final 60 second round also threw me a bit as the other fast money rounds were only 20 seconds, so it felt like it was going on for an eternity.

So in the end…  I lost.  Trish won and poor Jay, who is actually a really lovely, intelligent guy got a pen.

We were hurried off the set and had to sign off on a sheet which listed our prizes, with Ed and Livinia very pointedly thanking us on the way out.  We were seated in time for the final shots showing off the grand prizes and also for Trish to answer her final 10 questions for the cash jackpot and deciding to return the next night.  She did really well!  And I forgot to mention that she had actually appeared on Sale of the Century (although I had thought that she looked too young to have been on!)

I immediately resolved to reapply for Temptation so I could have another shot now I had experienced it once (although I have to wait for two years after the airing of my show – which will be the 1 December 2010).