Paul's journal

With Vesna gone the boys had to wonder when they would be leaving. They had a quiet day, no survivor type reflections on the past housemates. Maybe that's for next year? The boys were given suits to wear and spent time in the reward room while Big Brother set up an outdoor theatre for them to watch the final show from inside the house. The finale show starts off with the former housemates doing a tapdogs style performance (at least it's better than the Neighbours dance at the Logies). There's the finale for the Best Dressed Fan with several cute kids. The boys get a special presentation of highlights of the news from Sandra Sulley, unfortunately this has a lot of bad news. The thing that makes the biggest impact on Tim is learning that the NSW premier stepped down. Once the package is finished Tim can't stop talking about this news while Greg politely nods. It's hilarious. He's interrupted by Gretel who comes into the house to give the two of them some personal news. Gretel then interviews the ex-HMs in small groups on stage recapping the time in the house a couple of weeks at a time. Finally the boys are let out of the house and get to hug each of the past housemates (the most interesting connections there are the Logans reunited and Tim and Kate). On stage they get asked the ten big brother questions (minus three though, the who will be out next week and who will win questions get dropped). The big announcement comes (after a mild interruption by some guys storming the stage) and it's a bit of a let down. The Logans win rather than Tim. Greg was my least favourite of the final three, and the fact that David won as well isn't great. Tim is the only one who spent all the time in the house and his story was much more interesting. Greg didn't show any growth or development between entering and leaving and I still don't think we saw the real Greg (only aspects). Tim, you're the winner in my books!

In the aftermath of the games Vesna's freaking out about crickets that have come into the house. There's not much to see in these quiet days. Vesna considers running away and leaving without the others knowing? In the last Sunday night eviction it's a surprise to see Vesna go. I figured it would be her and one of the boys. Go Tim.

In the final round of games the housemates have a chance to win back all the money they've lost through fines. The tasks are more personal challenges rather than competitions. Gretel joins them in the house to take them through each one. The first round contains one those bouncy castles with the bungee ropes. Greg goes first and does reasonably well. Vensa takes it more slowly but has trouble getting too far, and Tim falls somewhere in-between. The second round challenges them to walk a plank and collect two ribbons tied to it, while suspended in the air. Greg again goes first and sets a high standard by doing the maximum height, a frightening 20m up. Tim did the same second. Vesna was confident until it went up and then started freaking out. She managed to walk to the first ribbon at a low height but then had to give up. In the next round the HMs faced bugs, something none of them are fond of. Greg and Tim rocked off for the worst of the two and Greg lost and had to pull a ball out of a tub of worms. He ended up just brushing them out with his head. Tim got to stick his head into a box into which were tipped crickets, worms and cockroaches. Vesna got the easiest having to just put her hand into a box of crickets and pull out a ball which she pulled off well. The final round went back to the house were Gretel asked the three of them trivia questions based on their time in the house. In the end they won back quite a bit of money.

The days are getting long in the last run to the final show. Vesna is feeling a little lost while the boys are spending their time together and in the gym. The HMs get to watch brief videos to share their real world with each other. Greg and Vesna end up in tears and Tim is quite delighted too, but also realises what Vesna means about how scary the idea of going back to the real world is after so long.

The HMs have some fun with Nadia in the house, doing an impromptu photo shoot with a Polaroid camera that allows them to give her a farewell present. She left the house and got to record a farewell video for the others. Without her the HMs are bored. They have an early night and BB concedes by turning off their lights early. Soon though Vesna is sobbing on her bed. The boys try to console her; she's scared about returning the real world.

After napping during the day BB gives Tim and Nadia the task of cleaning the outside windows. Nadia resists, getting some bread for afternoon tea, but is summoned to the diary room. She argues that she's a special guest not a Housemate, but gives in. Later Vesna gets the same instruction for the windows between the door and is upset by this. She's bored and annoyed by Big Brother. Nadia sums up the HMs for BB: Tim a cool geek, Greg eye-candy, Vesna in-your-face and loud but insecure. Greg plays a trick on her when she leaves the diary room jumping out to give her a fright.

There's something about Nadia. Since BB pulled the same trick last year there's no reason for the HMs not to be thinking it straight away. Miriam looked more like a woman than Nadia does so it's not that hard for them to pick it up. The HMs give her a tour then they have a special dinner in a converted store room. When she pops out to the bathroom Greg, Vesna and Tim (who runs back) compare notes but wont bring it up. Greg and Vesna have another fight over what she thinks Greg's standards are. It's getting up there with Kate and Tim discussions in repetition. In the spa Vesna tries to politely ask Nadia about her background but Greg is more forward and just asks her if she's a transsexual. She gets upset about being categorised with labels and wanting to be just accepted as a woman, which if fair enough.

Vesna freaks out when the boys barricade her outside so they can continue their ball games without fear of hitting her. Tim gives the goats a ride on his back. Mel leaves in the eviction, which she was expecting. After her farewell video Greg and Vesna have an argument: Greg doesn't like being told that he's hard to get to know, or rather what that implies. In return for toilet paper the remaining HMs put on an impromptu play set at a hairdressing salon. It's not going to earn a Logie says BB, but it does earn them each a roll of toilet paper.

The housemates are back in chains after the games, but swapped around again, Tim with Vesna and Mel with Greg. Tim takes Vesna to do his washing, annoying her. They are given a mini task, the team that can build the tallest tower using junk and tape within ten minutes wins a takeaway dinner. Greg and Melanie win with their tall tower of Pringles boxes, while Tim and Vesna argue. The Housemates are told they have failed their task, understandably given the other night. Vesna's kitchen ban seems to have ended as well. Tim feels that he's helped Mel out of her shell but isn't sure what he thinks about her now.

Going up against the housemates this week were four former BB housemates: Jess (BB02), Jo (BB03), Paul and Wesley (BB04) and they were playing for $20,000 either for the ex-housemates or the for the prize kitty for the new housemates. The first game, carrying water on a bike started off badly when the bikes wouldn't work. They had to be swapped in and out a few times. The Ex-HMs won first. For the second round Bree and Ryan left the set to join in, Ryan with the HMs and Bree with the others. The second round involved climbing an inflatable pyramid for point cards. The HMs went first and Greg did an impressive job of climbing to the top to get the 100 points. Unfortunately then the ex-HMs moved in and trashed them, Wesley effortlessly getting to the top. In the final round Wesley went up against Greg with an obstacle course to complete inside a large suit, similar to the penguin one. Greg did a good job again only beaten by a faster Wesley. Wesley would have been great had they had Friday night games last year. So the HMs get no money and no rewards room, but they do return to a pizza meal.

Today's Aluminium underpants day and Greg and Tim celebrate by wearing their special aluminium underpants all day. Overnight Vesna had enough of the chains and when Greg wanted to go to the toilet she decided enough's enough and took them off. Come morning, determined not to put them back on, the HMs were called to the diary room. BB was very unimpressed and fined each housemate $5,000 and banned Vesna from any participation in the kitchen or food preparation until further notice. Tim's had enough of Vesna not being able to deal with stress more quietly. When the chains are swapped to hook Tim and Greg tells Tim he was counting yesterday and Vesna whinged 78 times.

The challenge is not helping morale in the house. There's suggestion of harassment of Greg by Vesna wanting to touch like friends. Tim and Mel later win a bowling competition and win several packets of chocolate biscuits. Vesna moans about not having the comfort of chocolate like she does in the real world, and that everything in the house is about competition. Greg does a nice thing by going to the diary room and asking to trade something for chocolate for Vesna, hoping it might make his time in chains more bearable.

The remaining housemates are chained together in pairs. Tim and Mel get along ok, but Vesna and Greg are problems just waiting to start. Greg explains that he was annoyed by Vesna's comments about him not comforting people in the house. Greg's also aware of how Vesna is interested and mentions it jokingly, but tells her bluntly that he's not attracted to her. This gives Vesna something to stew over and wants further explanation. Greg digs his own hole by telling her the girls he has thought about that way and Vesna ends up in the toilet having a cry. The two of them are much noisier than Mel and Tim.

Greg and the HMs go to feed the animals but are followed home and under the closing door by the goats. They have to throw food back under to lure them back. Vesna playfully yells at Mel for complaining about being fat and needing to lose weight. Tim cracks it over nominations, believing it to be rather unfair for them to have to nominate when there's so few of them left in the house and rants to BB in the diary room for a while. He later confides to Vesna that he's a little embarrassed about his performance last night.

In retaliation for Tim's War on Dirt, the girls declare a War on Tim and a pillow fight between Tim and Mel begins, escalating to involve Kate as well. Greg watches from outside and gives us a look inside the house under natural light conditions that makes the house look more real than usual. Kate's not too upset to leave the house, already feeling like she would this week and happy with what she's had so far. The departure of course hits Tim hard and he has a cry in the toilets. Tim regrets his use of the three-point twist that put her up for eviction.

Kate's gone from the BB house! Kind of figured it would be her, although it's odd that the final four include a replacement and an intruder. I don't think that's happened before! They could probably throw in six replacement housemates now and keep the show going another month! Tim is obviously upset and has retreated to the toilets to cry.

The housemates enjoy a pre-games BBQ. Greg and Tim both come out to join in because there's plenty of food to go around. The HMs also get to see the premiere of their video (The title Desperate Housemates seems to have been added by BB) and have a good laugh. In the now girls only bedroom the girls quiz Kate about why she doesn't like Tim and she gives the same excuses she always does. Poor Timmy. The next morning Tim gives out the tasks for the week to few complaints. When the housemates go to feed the animals they find the goats have jumped out of their pens and are running around. Talking in the sauna Mel explains how she gets annoyed by Tim hiding behind big words and doesn't get along with Greg. Kate also thinks that Vesna is jealous of Mel.

Vesna gets a personal challenge of hosting a successful dinner party in reward for sweets (ice-cream and chocolates). The dinner part is fine but she has to keep conversation going for an hour with no more than five seconds silence without arousing the other's suspicion. This is not so easy. Vesna just keeps talking trying to make conversation but her thought processes come across as very weird to everyone. The conversation ends up with the HMs thinking that she's a twin, a mole, an actor, has mental problems, a bloke? Despite the HMs running off to hide in the backyard when she moves to the sink in the final few minutes, she passes and the HMs enjoy their deserts.

The theme for the games tonight was all-Aussie adventures. The first game involved them applying vegemite n toast with their tongue, them carrying it in their mouths to a board on a bouncing ball. Not exactly pleasant but the boys did it really easily and Ves lost. In the second round they were dressed in large animal costumes, not as large as the penguins though. They had to put on underpants run to a clothesline and then swap them for famous quotes to match on a board. Greg in the Koala costume was very awkward taking several humorous spills and trips. The girls didn't do much better, Kate not knowing Bert's "Here's Moira", and she and Mel go out. In the last round the boys have to guide Bert's 'hairpiece' around a maze with a leafblower. Tim wins, second week in a row, and chooses to take Greg in to the rewards room after BB concludes that Greg was disadvantaged in the last round (by the pipe being blocked by feathers) and has the boys rock off in the diary room to decide. I think he might have taken Kate in other circumstances.

Tim, this week's housekeeper, decides to entertain himself by launching a war on grime. The movie is finished but not before the final twist of doing the last bits as a musical. They're given a wrap party after hot showers and getting dressed up but Kate (especially) get depressed when they realise that food isn't going to be surprised. Kate's also jealous of Vesna being all over Greg commenting to Mel that Ves would never have done that if Christie was still in the house.

Today the film has been changed again and needs to be a dubbed film with the soundtrack recorded first. The name of the film is Desperate Housemates. Was that show on the air when they went in? Had it become popular. I'm thinking that for all they know the show has already been moved to 1130 Wednesdays. Over dinner the tough questions are asked. Greg opens up about his relationship with Christie and how comfortable she made him feel about being openly affectionate. Kate is asked if she feels like she always wants to be the centre of attention and being too confident. Mel explains that she has insecurity and trust issues which is the reason she's reserved in the house.