{mosimage}Desperation…
That’s the word that all the Divine Miss P gang were feeling. Even though everyone who hadn’t been given tickets already had their names down on the waiting list, nobody had been given a call back. That, combined with the fact that I hadn't heard back from Paulini about tickets, had us all gloomy because it looked like we weren’t going to make it to the latest episode of ItTakes Two.

 In our desperation, on Saturday evening I called Shayne's number directly (the guy who runs the ticketing)  and asked if he had any cancellations. He said no but he took my number and said he’d get back to me if there were. On Sunday morning I hadn’t had a call back, so I called Shayne again with my sad story about being a representative of the Paulini fan club and us all wanting to be there to support her incase she was voted out, seeing as they scored badly the week before. So after his meeting finished, he rang me back and offered six tickets to that night’s show. The rest, as they say, is history!

[Watch the video of this performance as shown on Sunrise - complete with Sunrise crew comments - HERE and read on for Hayden's full report.]

For about an hour I tried to fill up those tickets. I took all six offered to me because I was SURE that everyone would jump at the chance to go to see another Paulini performance, and that even if I couldn’t fill up all the tickets, at least my sisters would be able to. How wrong I was…

At least I was able to contact Kelly at work (though she made me ring up what seemed like half of Melbourne so that she could get her lift to the studio organised) and Talia who jumped at the chance. Unfortunately Oscar was ill and Luke decided he’d better go to church, and wouldn’t believe that God would forgive him for missing a week. In desperation, I left a PM on the Idolforums for our last hope, Di. Thank GOD she saw it and rang me, and told me that she and her sister (who had to travel 2 hours from Taralgon to get to Melbourne btw) would be more than happy to come. [Ed: just a thought, maybe next time post a message in the Idol forum and Paulini forum] Unfortunately, after the John, Ashley, Camilla scandal, my sisters decided they’d rather watch Big Brother, but at least five out of six isn’t bad. Plus, Di, living relatively close to me, offered to give me a lift to the studio, which meant I didn’t have to take the train YAY!Deb, Di and I reached the studio over an hour early, so we decided to go the nearby restaurant for dinner and drinks. It was there that I received an embarrassing phone call. Shayne rang me and asked if I could get more people to fill up more tickets. I had to tell him I couldn’t and that I only had five people for the six tickets I already had. Ah well. [Ed: well you can't expect much at such extreme short notice!]

{mosimage}After dinner came the long wait for Talia and Kelly to show up. Talia arrived about 5:30 and Kelly only JUST made it in before we were led into the studio itself. Much to our delight we found we were in block A, where we were two weeks ago. Unfortunately Paulini waited behind block F again, but we could see her through the set itself and were trying frantically to get her attention. Finally she looked our way, and with the biggest look of surprise I’ve ever seen on her, she started waving frantically and miming that she received my text message, though none of us could figure out the rest of what she was trying to say. Luckily during the ad break before she and Simon went on to perform, Paulini waited right next to our block and talked to us. She told me that she received my text but couldn’t get any tickets for us this week, but she can for next week, and we’re all like .

We were absolutely blown away by their performance of the Rolling Stones’ “Jumping Jack Flash” and when they finished Di, Deb, Kelly and I held up the banner from two weeks ago, while Talia held up the Heartkids banner from last week. If you look at the video, I’m jumping up and down. Partially because I was ecstatic that they did so well, and partially because I couldn’t see over the top of the banner LMAO!The show went on, and before we knew it, it was time for the elimination. We started cacking ourselves (metaphorically of course), and Kelly looked like she was about to cry from the suspense. Luckily Grant (or was it Teresa?) put us out of our misery quickly, with Simon and Paulini being the second duo told they were going through to the next round. We all screamed our heads off, as did all the Guy fans.

The show ended, and I wanted to know if there was going to be an after-party, and if Paulini could get us into it. So I tried to duck down the stairs to the private area to find out – and was aaaaalmost home free, but a security guard sprung me and made me go back. No matter.We left and waited at the celebrity exit, only this week I asked the guy at the desk if we could wait on the couches so we didn’t have to wait in the cold, and he had no objections, so we were having a good old’ chin wag inside while the Guy fans, who had followed us, were stuck outside (ner ner!)

Within the half hour, Shayne appeared. He talked to us for a couple of minutes and asked if I wanted to become a permanent stand-by to get cancellation tickets. Of course I said I'd love to!.

{mosimage}Then Guy walked through the door into the foyer. When he saw us he said “Oh no, of all the days. The one day I can’t hang around…” which I thought was pretty presumptuous, especially since we were waiting for Paulini, NOT him. However, when asked he agreed to have a quick photo with Di, but Kelly couldn’t get the camera working. Guy had obviously been in this situation before, because he snatched the camera out of Kelly’s hands, and within two seconds had taken the photo of him and Di. Then he ran out the glass doors and was ambushed by the Guy fans that were waiting for him.

Shayne kicked us out of the foyer, but at the same time Paulini and Wes walked across the footbridge, saw us and started waving to us. When they reached the foyer, Wes came out to greet us while Paulini talked to Shayne about getting us tickets for the next show. Wes apologized to us, explaining that it was his fault that Paulini couldn’t get us tickets, because the week before he had Paulini get tickets for his entire family, but he was the only one able to come… which explains all the empty seats around him.

At that moment, Paulini came outside, wearing sporty clothes that made her look like she was about to go for a run, gave everyone a hug and said to me that she received my text message; and asked me to ring her on Thursday.

Di and Deb told Paulini they saw and loved the Young Divas video clip, but also said it could have been done a lot better. Paulini said “Yeah, we only did it in an afternoon.” Meanwhile, Kelly and I are laughing to ourselves, and one of us says “The dancing was funny,” and Paulini’s like “Oh I KNOW! Wasn’t it retarded?!” and does a parody version of the dancing that gets us all laughing hysterically. Then she told us that the new single would be a song called “Right About Now” (if memory serves) but she couldn’t remember who sang it originally. She joked that they were recording it in two days time but still didn’t know how it went LMAO Yeah sure!

It was about that time that Guy finally was able to get away from his swarm of middle-aged fan-women, so they then bombarded Paulini. We all stood back so she could talk to them and to pass the time I took photos of Kelly with Wes and Talia with Wes. I heard one of the Guy fans thank Paulini for having Heartkids as her charity because her child was a heartkid, and later I told Paulini that Heartkids would have made a lot of money out of us that week! (to which Paulini was all like “Oh Thank You!”)

{mosimage}When Paulini was able to get back to us, she signed our memorabilia. It’s getting more and more difficult to find CDs for her to sign… this week I had brought my Australian Idol cast album, and my Starstruck CD that I won in an auction on the Sony forum. When she saw it she exclaimed, “Oh my GOD, you’ve got Starstruck?” and I replied, “You think that’s bad, Kelly’s got the video!” to which she’s like, “Really?! No way! How do I look in it? Do I look really sh*t?” and we’re all like for a moment but then start laughing again. It’s amazing how we get along like a house on fire despite only having met four times for about 15 minute intervals. I think I’ve run out of CDs now, I’ll have to take my Australian Idol Greatest Moments DVD and Australian Idol Live concert programme next week if I want something signed.

I asked Paulini what she thought of my Fijian clothes and she said, "I was going to say… Does that say Fiji?" and I told her that my Grandma brought them back from Fiji that week, to which Paulini says, "They really suit you, plus you've got the whole islander attitude down pat." LMAO! Is that good?

We had photos with the Divine Miss P again. She is such a professional – she was making funny faces while speaking to us, but each time just before the photo was taken she had that gorgeous smile back on her face. I was half hoping she’d slip up so we could have a funny face on film, but no such luck unfortunately.

Before we left I remembered the list of questions we had planned to ask her (which we had forgotten about the two previous weeks.) Luckily we had already asked most of them so the list was relatively short, but thanks to Kelly I can give a Divine Miss P exclusive (I just hope I haven’t forgotten anything – if I have can you please add it Kelly?)…

Kelly: Did you know that people are buying Superwoman overseas?Paulini: You’re kidding!

Kelly: No, it’s actually available through an online outlet in the UK.

Paulini: Wow, that’s weird… and scary.

Kelly: Is there going to be a Young Divas album?

Paulini: Yes, I think there will be. But I think Superwoman will be released first and I think it will only be made up of songs from our respective albums.

Kelly: Are you going to be doing any solo gigs soon, like instores?

{mosimage}Paulini: Not that I know of, but I would love to do some instores for my album once it's released.

Kelly: This is going to sound really weird, but could you please beatbox for us?

Paulini: (laughs) You heard me on Video Hits? Haha. Actually, Wes is the better beatboxer. (Then she did funny version of beatboxing. I wish we had filmed it.)

Kelly was too nervous to ask the final question, so I obliged…
Hayden: We were wondering if it would be possible for you to please get us backstage at the Young Divas concerts?

Paulini: YES! I would LOVE to have you guys backstage, that’d be so cool!

That about covers the entire night. We said goodbye and floated away on our clouds. Now I’m waiting anxiously for Thursday so I can talk to the Divine Miss P again. Until then though:

THANK YOU PAULINI FOR ANOTHER AMAZING NIGHT. I’LL TALK TO YOU ON THURSDAY AND WE’LL ALL SEE YOU AGAIN ON SUNDAY (I hope)!  {moscomment}