Oprah..ed out!!

But as promised and requested, I will give you a run down of how it all went!

So on Tuesday 14th Dec 2010, I attended the evening session of Oprah's Ultimate Australia Show. Was I excited? Yeah sure. I'm not a huge fan of Oprah's but like so many of us I have watched her for majority of my life (and she did introduce Nate to the world!) but I felt very lucky to win tickets, how does that happen. Apparently there were 350,000 people who voted for the tickets and I got them!

There were many rumours going around who was going to be her guests, but I was happy with the guests for our show. Bono was the first guest which was good. Next, as most of you would know was Hugh Jackman who injured himself as he flew in on a flying fox from the top of the Opera House. But like the true showman he is, the show went on and he really was adorable. Then there was Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban, which I'm not so much a fan of and to be honest there's wasn't the best interview. It just didn't flow and it was boring! Then there was Olivia Newton-John.

We weren't allowed to take camera's in so I've only got some iPhone quality ones of what I could take photo's of, I'm sorry! Better than nothing though! Here we go....

So here's the really cheesy shot of me with my tickets and my purple wrist bands. There were 2 places you were allocated to sit the seated forecourt seats (us) and the monumental steps (the steps that lead up to the Opera House).

Fast forward to the day, walking through Circular Quay following the signs


We had to line up after 2:30pm and of course with 6,000 people the line up was huge but I was very impressed how fast the line moved. Once inside we received a little Oprah bag which had a bottle of water, poncho, blow up cushion and sunscreen (how thoughtful right!!)


And we have our seats, not too far from the stage which was good. We were seated by about 3:00pm and Oprah's Audience Manager was great and entertained us for about an hour. We had to do laughing and clapping and cheering so they could record for the show!


Even though we were told not to take photo's repeatedly, as the show was coming to an end people couldn't help it so I snapped this. We were sitting next to the camera rig which had the screen on it. Shot of the finale with Nicole, Keith Hugh, Olivia and Russell. I've got photo's of the stage with them on it but this looked better!

So these photo's I grabbed off smh as they had good close up shots that I thought would be good to share too...


I really like this photo of Oprah because it shows what she was like. As they paused for commercial breaks, Oprah would always stay on stage and would be primped with her hair and make-up but would continue to chat to her 6,000 audience. She was quite calming and relaxed.


Taping paused for about 15 minutes while Hugh went off with the paramedics.


But he came back out on stage and got Oprah to try Vegemite on a SAO biscut. And I was so happy he told her you don't put too much on because really that's why any non-Australians don't like Vegemite, they put too much on. She said she liked it, and you know what - I believe her!

The finale was great. The Qantas choir joined them on stage and Nicole, Keith, Hugh, Olivia and Russell all sang I Still Call Australia Home. And you know in that moment I really did feel that I am proud to be Australian and lucky to live in such a great country.

Overall I had fun! It was a once in a lifetime experience. I really felt that Oprah has fallen in love with Australia and think what she has done for Australia by visiting, doing 4 shows out of her visit and involving all the companies she did was a truly fantastic thing for Australia.

As Oprah said, everyone thinks Australia is too far to travel too, but once you get on the plane, watch a couple of movies, eat, play scrabble on your iPad... you're here!

Oh yes, your probably wondering what prizes there were. Well I was lucky enough to get a one-off white gold necklace shaped in an "O" and featuring seven diamonds incluing a rare pink Argyle diamond mined in Western Australia.

Thanks Oprah!

images myfirstlittleplace, smh