I was lucky enough to be given free tickets through my work to go to the BB4 first eviction, so off I trotted with my husband, 2 kids, my brother and his girlfriend and their son. We didn't bother to dress up, as we knew that we would be way up the back, but hey - whaddaya want for nothing?

It's about 40 minutes to Dreamworld from our place, so we left early and stopped at Yatala for pies for dinner (quick plug for Yatala Pies - they were sensational as always.) We arrived at Dreamworld at about 5.45pm, and I thought we might be sitting in the car waiting as the gates didn't open until 6.15pm, but there was already a long line up. Not too many people were dressed up - I guess at this point it's hard to know what aspects of the house are best for caricature.

You could buy BB merchandise on arrival. We got some flashing light things for the kids in the hope that someone might spot them in the crowd and give them prizes, but no such luck. It was a long, boring, cold wait in the queue, but by about 6.30pm we were in and choosing a spot on the grass.

There was a group of girls dressed up as the BB House carpet. They looked sort of cute, but I didn't really get it. I mean, if they had dressed up as the pool that might have made sense, but the carpet? Oh well, maybe they had carpet costumes left over from an el-cheapo performance of Cats or something. There were a few brides, and a couple of guys in Trevor wigs. There was a very cute pair of babies in bride and groom costumes. They were very endearing - I wish they had won the chance at the plasma screen TV.

Anyway, Mike the Up Late guy came out and told the crowd about when to be quiet, and when to cheer, and when to say "Awwwwww" if they say something sad. He pointed out Peter Timms (BB1) in the crowd, and pulled a hairy guy out of the crowd, as well as a woman to wax his back. (This was not particularly entertaining, and somewhat bizarre. And she was a very bad waxer.)

He then had a belly dance competition between a cute little girl in a belly dance costume, a tubby guy from the crowd, and Andre, the guy who makes the Dreamworld promos. Cute Kid won, of course. She said her favourite was Aphrodite, and when Mike asked her what she thought of the people who wanted Aphrodite out she said, very sweetly "They suck."

Then Gretel came out, and my god, someone needs to give her a cookie. Her hairpiece was thicker than her waist. And her shoes!!! They were about 6 inches high! I don't know how she walks in them. The second the camera was off her there were people swarming her fixing her hair, powdering her face, probably massaging her ankles too, I don't know. There seemed to be an army of them.

So we went through the big cheering, the review of the week, the chat with the nominated housemates, yada yada yada. Then the big moment... "It's time to go..." (this pause seemed to go on forever.... that was, in fact, because it did. I swear about a week passed before Gretel said "It's time to go Aphrodite."

We were very happy and cheered, genuinely this time. Aphro was wearing her undies on her head again which *really* bugs me for some reason. I think because it strikes me as a deliberate attempt to get people at eviction shows to dress up like her (remember Leah's arm-warmers?) I am happy to report that I did not see one person at the eviction show (other than Aphro of course) wearing their undies on their heads. (Although my sister-in-law was wearing my daughter's pyjama pants around her neck, but that was just because it was cold.)

Anyway, after a commercial break and a quick lesson from Mike in chanting "Aprho Aphro Aphro" Aphro arrives. My god, she must be freezing in that little bikini top thing. She did look sorta cute though. She is so excited. She looks like the Energizer Bunny - if the Energizer Bunny wore his jocks on his head. She's jumping around like a mad thing, and shouting "I love youse" to the crowd. (I was thinking "you don't even *know* me.)

So she sits down with Gretel and has the interview, says she loved Merlin and Bree but didn't like Teri or Paul. And then there's a commercial break again and Grete's posse swarm over to ensure she is perfect again, but Aphro keeps jumping around and dancing and waving to the crowd. It seems very odd, because we are in "commerical break mode" which means we are rearranging our legs, and having a drink of water and telling the kids to sit still, but that Energizer Bunny is still bopping around on the stage.

Anyway, back to TV and Gretel tells Aphro about the million dollar prize (she is not really surprised) and then gives her the keys to a new car, which is a pretty cool prize, and a bloody lot better than a PS2, in my opinion.

And that's the end of the show. We are all standing up to go home and Aphro is back down the front with the microphone saying "Thank you so much, this has changed my life forever" and we are saying "Do you want to do a wee before we go home, Honey?" and "Jeez, the traffic's gonna be bad getting out of here."

It was a bit non-eventful, to be honest. I think I enjoy it just as much on TV from my warm cosy loungeroom, but I'm glad I got to see how it all works.

Thank you and good night :)