Where's Mike?

Mike Goldman didn't show up for his "live chat" on the Courier Mail site today at 2pm, even though his post early this morning said he would be. 10 comments have been moderated and added to the blog, but no responses were posted. Maybe there was some voice-over emergency he had to attend to.

Trick to the Train Task?

For this week's Trainspotting task, the HMs have to memorise numbers on the carriage of trains that pass by the BB garden. The numbers they have to memorise on the trains are getting more and more complex. Such random numbers would be most difficult to remember in order for a whole week.

The housemates are doing a good job making up rhymes to remember the numbers, but BB instructed them they could use any method to remember the numbers, but no WRITING was allowed in the House.

I wonder if the trick to the task is that the HMs are supposed to use the digits stuck to the locker room wall to record the numbers of the trains. Or if the numbers of the trains is somewhere within the seemingly random numbers on the wall.

We know the task was planned from the beginning of the series, since one of the teasers was something about planes, trains and automobiles (BB's flight simulator, trainspotting task, and the combi van). Is this the reason for the numbers on the wall?

Rory Not On Par With Nobbi

Newspapers are reporting that Rory is now favourite to be evcited this week, stating he has lost fans because he waved his dick in front of Terri in the showers. They report that this is the same reason Nobbi was evicted last week, so will be Rory's downfall this week.

I think the bookies aren't really thinking about that too well. Nobbi getting his bits out in the spa happened Saturday night, so the majority of fans who only get their updates from the TV shows would not have even known about that event until Kyle and Jackie briefly mentioned it on Sunday night, and it was not fully covered on TV until Monday night after the eviction. So how do they think Nobbi was evicted because of that?

No, Nobbi was evicted for his past 3 weeks' worth of shenanigans, upsetting one HM after another. And his reign over FNL was what kept him in there as long as he was. Nobbi's eviction was the result of viewers' built up frustrations for several weeks.

So, Rory might be going this week, but I would say it's more to do with the others' popularities, not because of anything he did to Terri, or because of any pattern building between him and Nobbi.

Guests Galore: Steve, Anne, Rima, and Pamela!

Plenty more guests left to enter the BB House this year, or at least be involved with the show:

Steve Carrell & Anne Hathaway
Stars of Get Smart will appear live in the Dreamworld Amphitheatre this Friday night for FNL with Mike, Bree & Fitzy, playing games with the hosts. But will they make a House appearance?

Rima
The bandages are off and Rima will be back in the House as a guest from this Sunday night, for an indefinite amount of time. Though she will not compete for the grand prize, she will have a secret mission to accomplish in the House upon her return.

Pamela Anderson
God knows what this is all about, but now Pammy is going to enter the House on Wednesday July 9 during the Surprise Eviction show.

At this rate Dreamworld might as well start letting the theme park guests do tours of the House before the show even finishes. Then they call all be special guests!

Big-Mouth Vesna Settles In

Hopefully Vesna will join the Big Mouth panel as a permanent fixture. (As permanent as it can be with 3 weeks left.) After a quiet start to her hosting stint last week, this week she really relaxed and was really funny. Sitting her next to Tim probably helped because she has a close bond with him from their stay in the House.

Vesna and Nathan are probably 2 of the funniest HMs ever. Along with the intelligent (and funny) comments from Tim and Chrissie, they make up a great panel.

Of course the revolving panel really keeps it fresh every week, with a few special appearances like Susannah last night. But they really need to get rid of the "expert opionions"-- the dream guy, the relationship chick-- they do nothing for the show except slow it down.

Looks Like a Monday Finale After All

Today tickets went on sale on the Dreamworld website for the eviction show on Sunday 20th July-- the day highly speculated to be the finale for the series. It looks like this will be a regular Eviction show, with the Finale likely following on the Monday night, because:

• Dreamworld site says "Eviction", not "Finale".
• Cocktail Party tickets are also on sale for that evening. They don't normally have a cocktail party before the finale show because ex-HMs are all busy getting ready for the show and can't attend. Plus the live show starts earlier for the finale, so Dreamworld is still open up til the audience is just about seated for the finale.
• Cocktail party is scheduled for 5:30pm - 6:30pm. If this was the finale, the audience would be seated by 6 for a 6:30 start.
• Plus, having 2 HMs rattling around in the House for longer than 24 hours would be a bit silly and boring.

Looks like the Finale will actually be Monday 21st July this year. I guess if this is true the tickets for the Finale will go on sale on the Dreamworld site sometime in the next week.

This is great news for me because I have theatre tickets for a matinee on Sunday 20th July so it would have been a big rush home for the finale if it was that night. Now at least all I'll miss is the start of the final Daily Show.

Looking forward to confirmation of this in the next few days!

Grey Nomads' Popularity to Soar

For Nobbi it was likely the designation to the Kombi Van that increased his popularity. Both from those who saw it as an undeserved challenge, and from those who enjoyed watching the trouble-maker live through his punishment night after night. Will it have the same effect on Terri and Terrence?

Putting them in the Kombi together will likely create heaps of funny moments and lots of Daily Show footage of them camping out together. It will make the already popular HMs even stronger. Nobbi wasn't thinking ahead when he decided this would be a punishment for Terri, as he has now made her chances at a $250,000 retirement fund even better.

If Nobbi had put Terri in with one of the boring ones (Ben or Alice) it may have less of a positive effect on the viewing audience.

Now with Terrence nominated this week against 2 original HMs, will the new focus on him be enough to keep him there another week, or more?