Big Brother 08 - Week 11 Recap

Well, it's nearly time to say goodbye my friends. With only one week remaining and Channel 10 finally axing Big Brother, this could well be the penultimate Big Brother Recap EVER.

/cue violins

Bah, sod the violins - let's trash the place.

Week 11 saw the mid-week departure of Malibu, aka Blonde-zilla, aka Brigitte.

But, as usual, there were a few other things happening inside the house...

In her farewell message, Bianca gave her share of the cash to Ben, then promptly threw her Housemate Hand Grenade at him. She decided he needed to be a better spooner, so she made him the cook.

Ben was to be aided in the kitchen only by the other non-cooks Travis, Malibu and Cherry.

For the weekly task, housemates had to dress as paparazzi, and when the sound of clicking cameras was played in the house, they had 90 seconds to snap pictures of celebs who appeared throughout the house, either as a photo behind a mirror or a look-alike in the rewards window.

This was, of course, all a set-up for the entrance of a real celebrity on Wednesday night.

Still on Sunday, though, and Terri and Travis had a talk about caesarians. Terri informed Travis the procedure was named after Julius Caesar who was the first to be born that way, and the conversation continued as follows:

TRAVIS: That would have been like years and years ago.
TERRI: Yeah thousands...oh hundreds of years ago.
TRAVIS: Oh I don't think hundreds of...it would have been 200 years ago. Julius Caesar was around back in, um, Jesus' times, and Jesus was, um, walking around 200 years ago I think.

Yup, that's Travis. He goes to church every week and knows the story of Jesus like the back of his hand.

Ben found himself in trouble when he accidentally threw a ball against the water tanks and broke the level indicator, causing water to pour out. According to Big Brother, more than 4,000 litres were lost.

Ben was consequently made to conserve water, and was banned from the shower, with only a bucket and loofah to wash himself. And that was just the beginning.
Monday's nominations saw Rory top the charts with 8 points, followed by Cherry, Ben and Terri all on 3. After Cherry saved himself, Malibu and Alice (2 points) also ended up being nominated. This left just Travis (0 points) out of the eviction spotlight this week.

After a Paris Hilton look-alike appeared in the window, Cherry showed what a lovely fellow (read: shallow tosser) he is by asking BB if she would be back, and could he have her number.

Ben decided to get around the washing in a bucket thing by washing plates in the laundry, and "accidentally" letting the hot water wash him at the same time.

Unfortunately for Ben, he couldn't stop there, and he rebelled further by using the outside shower. As punishment, Rory had to wash with only one bucket a day as well.

Under the cover of darkness/infra-red cameras, Malibu and Cherry engaged in some bed time snogging.

Rather than buying Alice and Malibu a hairdressing appointment, Cherry instead bought a ball and rackets, and a message from home for Terri from the vending machine.

Obviously keen for the girls to have their hair done for a certain photoshoot planned for later in the week, Big Brother offered Alice and Malibu a deal. They could have their hair cut, coloured, and styled if they gave up the treadmill. Bizarrely, they declined the offer. They had less than 2 weeks to go for goodness sake and they couldn't do without the treadmill? Couldn't they run around the garden?

The ever-petulant Malibu continued to whine about her hair, and when Rory mimicked her she just had to have the last laugh so she put chilli powder in Rory's locker.

Ben continued to defy Big Brother, and washed himself again while doing the dishes in the outside sink. Unfortunately, he came off second best once more when Big Brother confined him to the yard, meaning he became the kombi's fourth resident of the series.

On Wednesday night, the housemates were hit with news of a snap eviction.

We saw Pamela Anderson arrive on stage in an outfit that would look skimpy on a Barbie.

We were also treated to an on stage interview with Malibu's "friend" Eric. The producers originally intended to have a confrontation between Eric and Malibu's father, but this was pulled once they knew Malibu was going to be evicted. Consequently, we instead saw Eric grilled by Kyle over certain things he'd said about Malibu on the internet (ie. behindbigbrother.com), to which Eric refused to say anything. Great TV that then.

So a devastated Malibu was evicted, with Princess Sparkles in hand, and was reunited with her doting, insipid parents on stage. It was somewhat satisfying to gain some evil pleasure on seeing Malibu freak out when she learned that Eric had been interviewed earlier.

Back in the house, Pamela Anderson appeared in the rewards window for the paparazzi task. The HMs speculate whether it was really her, but in the end they decide it probably wasn't.

Rory was called to the Diary Room where he met Pamela, though he initially believed she was a look-alike.

Pamela entered the house, met the housemates, and got a house tour. The housemates couldn't stop taking photos of her.

The HMs enjoyed a vegetarian banquet with Pamela before she left for the evening.

To no-one's surprise, Malibu's Housemate Hand Grenade was lobbed at Rory. He could only eat what basic, dull food Big Brother supplied for him.

On Thursday morning, Pamela returned and directed a photoshoot of the housemates.

Pamela enjoyed oiling up the boys, and was probably a tad annoyed at Travis' inability to take direction. Regardless of what he was told, the lad was unable to have a photo taken without making a silly face.

With Malibu evicted, Ben confined to the garden, and Cherry unable to help because he was Head of House, Travis was the only person left who was allowed to cook. Despite being warned not to help him, Terri did so, so Big Brother confiscated their dinner.

Was Travis pissed off like any normal person? Of course not. He remained possimistic and was happy he got a chance to cook again.

Thursday also saw the other HMs give Terri a hilarious emo make-over.
Friday night's FNL was Circus Night, with the HMs dressed as clowns.

A number of point scoring rounds were played, with Ben, Alice and Terri topping the leaderboard.

Travis joined back in after winning the second chance pie-eating round, and then made it to the final against Ben.

Ben was victorious, becoming Head of House (but was still stuck in the yard) as well as winning a shiny new 42" plasma TV.

Pamela then returned for her final visit to give the HMs their photos.

Amusingly, Pamela was made to do 10 push ups by the HMs after she said the banned word "mine" in the HM's game.

To cap off their Friday night, the HMs had a slumber party with giant teddy bears, and individual pillows and doonas.

On Saturday, the housemates were given a new challenge - a silent disco marathon. They had to dress in lurid 80s clothing, and dance to a rotation of 4 pop songs on their mp3 players while remaining on their assigned discs.

Cherry was eliminated first when he stepped off his disc, and commenced sabotaging the other HMs by contaminating their water bottles with things such as pumpkin and tuna.

After an incredible 10 hours of non-stop dancing, Alice and Rory were declared joint winners, with each winning a parcel from home.

Sunday's eviction was entirely predictable with Cherry given the boot. That is all. Until next week. Then it really will be all. Unless Channel 7 pick up BB as has been suggested. Might be interesting.
 

Board Game City

Thanks to The Spiel, I recently found out about a little deal offered by GatePlay.com.

For a nice discount, they were offering a package of five top games. We're talking very highly rated games here. In fact, all five games are ranked in the top 10 games on Board Game Geek.

So did I go for it?

Yes. I. Did.

Wanna know what arrived in the mail last week?

Puerto Rico,

Power Grid,

Tigris & Euphrates,

Caylus, and

The Princes of Florence.

All games have been opened, with all the pieces counted and sorted (as I am wont to do), and no doubt the sounds of board game joy will be reverberating around up the vacuum thingy very soon.
 

Big Brother 08 - Week 10 Recap

The mole was the focus of Week 10's Big Brother. Prime fodder for ranting also presented itself this week, manifested by the reprehensible behaviour of Rebecca Wilson on Big Mouth. More on that shortly. Meanwhile, the recap begins last Sunday night...

Terrence's Housemate Hand Grenade was more of a Housemate Party Popper. He reversed Knobbi's earlier Hand Grenade, meaning Terri could return from the kombi to the house. He also removed the hair straightener.

Nominations were sprung on the housemates on Sunday night, with Bianca and Rory amassing 7 points each, while Alice gained 4 points. Having earlier voted for both Bianca and Rory, Cherry saved Alice, although he didn't really want to. This put Terri and Travis in the firing line for eviction as well.

Rima told the house they had 3 days to uncover a mythical mole, and the other HMs bought it hook, line, sinker, rod and copy of Angling Times (bonus points for identifying the reference).

Terri and Alice immediately speculated the mole was Ben, while Cherry, Ben and Malibu thought it might be Rory.

Basically, the HMs went crazy trying to work it out.

For the weekly task, the HMs had to become wrestlers and, when their individual theme tunes were played, dress in their costumes and race to the ring in the backyard within 90 seconds. Once there, they had to wrestle a ninja dummy.

BB gave the HMs suitable characters for the task. Ben was "The Prosecutor", Bianca was "The Iron Maiden", Malibu was "Blonde-zilla", Alice was "The Determinator", Cherry was "Cherry Bomb", Rory is "The Roaring Lion" (rather lame name really), Travis was "Captain Possimistic", and Terri was "Naughty Nanna".

We interrupt this recap of happenings in the BB House for a special rant. Monday night is Big Mouth night, and one person in particular really needed to keep her big mouth shut.

As usual, the evictee from the previous night ventured on to the Big Mouth set. Unfortunately, this particular evictee was Terrence, and he wasn't so much walking on to a set, as walking into a carefully contrived execution.

While in the house, Terrence had speculated that Malibu, given her shocking lack of good manners and her blatant rudeness towards Terrence, might have not had particularly good parenting. So the Big Mouth producers ambushed him with Malibu's uppity father on the phone during the show. Ostensibly an opportunity to discuss Malibu and her behaviour, the segment instead degenerated into a two pronged assault on Terrence. It was excruciating to watch.

Rebecca Wilson even had the gall to defend Malibu's nasty outburst of "at least you got one you cry baby" after Terrence cried when his wife wasn't in his video message from home. When this was brought up, Wilson jumped in with a spiteful "Well deserved".

No, Rebecca, it wasn't. Yes Terrence was an annoying old bloke who, while seemingly oblivious to the reaction of the housemates to his stories, was secretly enjoying antagonising them a little. That in no way means he deserved to be ridiculed and treated with utter disrespect by Malibu, or her father or Rebecca Wilson for that matter.

And you want to know the nail in the coffin for Wilson's credibility (not that she had much to begin with)? When they brought on "one of the world's most respected psychics" (a contradiction in terms if ever there was one), Wilson revealed she was a total believer and had actually had her house cleared of spirits. Seriously.

Back to the recap...

Bianca began what was probably the storyline that would book her ticket out of the house by saying that she would never speak to the mole again, simply for lying to her. I think Bianca had become so involved with her environment, she had forgotten it was a game.

Bianca took her mind off mole issues by luring Ben to the kombi and finally getting him to (awkwardly) spoon her.

More mole speculation followed on Day 65, with suspicion falling on Malibu.

Cherry bought clues to the mole's identity from the vending machine, but the HMs were disappointed when all the clues said were that the mole wasn't Terri or Rory.

BB spiced things up in the mole hunt by calling Malibu to the Diary Room then planting a pen on the chair after she left. The ruse worked as the next person in the Diary Room, Cherry, discovered the pen and questioned Malibu about it.

Terri told Alice she thought there might not be a mole, but Alice was quick to shut her down and say there had to be. Poor Alice was so caught up in the excitement of a mole, she really wasn't thinking logically.

On Wednesday the HMs finally had to say who they thought the mole was.

Rory and Alice said they thought it was Malibu.

Malibu asked if she could pick herself, but forced to pick someone she went with Alice.

Bianca jumped on the Malibu bandwagon.

Travis said he thought there was no mole, but I suspect he did this only because he didn't want to go through the trauma of actually picking someone. Forced into a corner, he reluctantly picked Malibu then burst into tears.

Terri and Ben also nominated Malibu as the mole. After Ben said that he thought the evidence added up to Malibu, the blonde brainiac told the other HMs they were all bad at maths.

Last to say who he thought was the mole, Cherry decided to go with his gut and picked Alice.

Her mission complete, Rima was spirited away from the house (unpsychically) without the other HMs' knowledge.

Even before the truth was revealed, Bianca became emotional, crying as she and Rory second guessed themselves and thought that maybe they should have nominated Ben as the mole instead.

Alice too became annoyed because Cherry hadn't told her he thought she was the mole. Hello Alice? It's a game. You don't always want to show your hand and tell your suspect you think it's them.

Rima then appeared on the TV screen to say she had left the house, and that the mole was not Malibu. She continued on to say that her Housemate Hand Grenade was to mess with the HMs heads as there was no mole.

Cue the fireworks. Storming off in a bleeped out fury, Bianca vented her anger on Terri's innocent washing, drying in the backyard. She firmly stated she'd never talk to Rima again.

Ben agreed that the whole mole thing was nasty.

Terri tried to defuse Bianca by telling her not to let Rima win, but then burst into tears herself.

Cherry, easily the biggest game player in the house, took it all in his stride as he saw the game side of the task.

Things calmed down somewhat on Day 67.

Rory was amusingly called to the wrestling ring while buried neck deep in the sandpit.

Terri proved she couldn't bounce a football.

Bianca resumed chasing Ben.

The HMs made cardboard cut outs of each other, with Rory reprimanded for making a cut out of Rima as a mole with a knife in her back.

Friday saw Travis get a new haircut, from Bianca, that wasn't much better than Knobbi's earlier hatchet job.

At FNL #10, as it was the 4th of July, the HMs were dressed as New York Yankees baseballers for "I Love New York Night"

The most amusing thing during the night was when Terrence joined the hosts on stage and, while relating how people have reacted to his time in the house, said his son was told "We saw your dad's dick on national TV". The producers quickly jumped on to the bleeper to edit out the naughty "d word", but stuffed it up so what we actually heard was "We saw your [bleep] dick [bleep] TV". Hilarious.

Cherry's competitive nature was shown once more as he beat Bianca in the final to win his second straight FNL.

As a reward, Cherry won a 4th of July banquet for himself and three others. He chose Rory, Alice and Ben to join him in the strategy room cinema banquet room.

Saturday saw the HMs told they had passed the wrestling task. Despite the task having the potential to be good viewing, and while we saw some humorous moments, it barely registered on the daily show after Monday which was disappointing.

Saturday also saw Bianca sneak into the Diary Room as Alice was leaving, only to be told by Big Brother to leave and ring the bell. Unfortunately, the temper tantrum queen slammed the door on the way out, causing a "maintenance issue" with the door and preventing her from re-entering.

While Ben continued to spurn Bianca's advances, Cherry was rewarded for his own persistence as Malibu finally let him snuggle with her.

Eviction Show #9 saw Terri and Travis saved before Bianca was evicted.

I think we all saw the writing on the wall for Bianca after her dog of a week. And what is it with the word "dog"? Everything negative in the house is a dog. Rima's deception was "a dog act". People keep "dogging" other people".

Well, only two weeks of dogging remain, with seven housemates still in the house.

A snap eviction will take place this Wednesday, along with some obscure blonde American woman going in to the house. Oh the anticipation.
 

Reiner Knizia's Amazing Flea Circus

I hit the big two-oh in my 2008 new games quest with a little card game called Reiner Knizia's Amazing Flea Circus.


Apart from being Reiner Knizia's Amazingly Long Game Name, this is a game designed for kids. That's not to say that adults can't enjoy it, for of the five players on Friday night, there was only one child. And that particular five-year-old was pretty darn good at the game.

The idea of the game is very kiddy. You play cards that form your circus show, and attract as many spectator dogs and cats as possible. Each dog is worth 2 points, and each cat is worth 1 point. Whoever has the most points when all the dogs and cats have been taken is the winner.


Each player starts with 5 cards (and draws back up to 5 cards after each turn), and then the players take it in turns to play a card. What happens when each card is played is dependent upon the card type.

Each card is played from your hand face up on to your stack. Only the top card of your stack forms your current "show".

In total, there are 55 cards. 28 of these are attraction cards (4 each of 7 different attractions). When you play an attraction card, you take dogs and cats equal to the number shown on the card (either 2, 3 or 4).

For example, if you played the card in the image above (the fire breathing flea), you gain 4 spectator points. You would then take cats and dogs equal to 4 points - either 2 dogs, 1 dog and 2 cats, or 4 cats.

It sounds straight forward, but here's the catch (and where the fun begins). If someone else has played that attraction on his or her last turn (remember, there are 4 copies of each card) and thus has it face up on top of his or her stack, then you take the 4 points worth of spectators from that player.

If no one else is currently showing that attraction, then you take the dogs and cats from the central pile. Be prepared to have those animals stolen by another player though!

In addition to attractions, there are also 12 clown cards, 7 free ticket cards, 6 acrobat cards, and 2 animal catchers.

Clown cards are worth 1 point each, but you can play as many as you like at one turn.

Free tickets allow you to poach 2 points (ie. 1 dog or 2 cats) from another player.

If you play a flea acrobat, the total number of points you get is equal to the total number of acrobat cards currently showing. So, for example, if no acrobats are showing, you only take 1 cat from the central pile. If the player to your left then plays an acrobat, he or she can take 2 points.

Finally, the animal catcher is worth negative points to everyone except the person who plays it. Every other player will lose points equal to the value of their current show. Attractions will lose their card value, clowns 1 point, free tickets 2 points, and players with acrobats showing lose spectators to the value of all acrobats showing.

In addition, all cards in player's shows get shuffled back in to the draw deck whenever an animal catcher is played.

If you have an animal catcher, it can be advantageous to wait until other players have high value cards showing before playing it. For example, if you played an acrobat, and that started a rush on acrobats by the other players, each seeking to earn one more point than the player before, you can then hit them all with an animal catcher on your next turn for major losses.

Be aware, though, that he or she with the most number of cats and dogs will be targeted for cat and dognapping.

Once the pile of 20 dogs and 20 cats in the middle of the table is exhausted, it's game over. Everyone then counts their spectator points to see who wins.

Due to the nature of the game, and the great fun to be had stealing animals from other players, I'd guess that it will usually work out fairly evenly. Indeed, in the game we played, Maka, Michael and Gypsy (the five-year-old) tied for the win on 12 points, with myself and The Giggling One on 11 (and yes, that only adds up to a total of 58, so I'm guessing there has been animal escapage over time).

Quick, cute, easy to learn, and a good laugh. All good qualities for a fun game.
 

Big Brother 08 - Week 9 Recap

The kombi and the train station were the focus of week 9 in the BB house.

After being evicted, Knobbi threw his Housemate Hand Grenade at Terri, sending her to replace him in the kombi. In a further twist, Terrence was banished to the kombi as well.

Terri and Terrence became the Grey Nomads, and showed their age when they couldn't work out how to answer the kombi's mobile phone.

The weekly task was all about trainspotting. The housemates had to pair up and wait at the Big Brother station (the stage in the back yard) until their (toy) train came along. They then had to memorise the number on the train.

Malibu and Ben took the first shift on the train platform as business commuters.

In keeping with the humour of the task, Big Brother made announcements by tannoy.

Nominations took place, of course, on Monday. Terrence (6 points), Rory (6) and Malibu (5) were the nominees, but as the winner of FNL, Malibu saved herself. Bianca (3 points) replaced her as a nominee.

Still on Monday, Malibu had another shift at the train station, this time with Terrence. Unable to cope with the annoying old bloke, Malibu proceeded to vandalise the station.

Rory told other HMs that Travis was doing his head in. Unfortunately Travis overheard and made it even worse for Rory by insisting on a chat.

Tuesday is Vending Machine Day in the BB house, and this week there were Hand Grenade reversals on offer (though not for the Grey Nomads). Unsurprisingly these were what Malibu opted to buy, thereby reversing Bianca's, Cherry's and her own Hand Grenade.

So Malibu finally got her stuff back. Awwww.

Unable to sleep that night, as BB wouldn't turn the bedroom lights off, most of the housemates went outside and decided to have fun at the Grey Nomads' expense.

After throwing balls against the kombi, Cherry turned the hose on the van, giving Terri and Terrence a leaky present.

Stoically, the kombi residents ignored the dripping water, and somehow managed to remain calm when Malibu then opened the kombi door and completely drenched them with the hose, then threw flour on them for good measure.

Some people say funny. I say over the top. Poor form.

The following day, Terrence managed to keep Terri calm as she dried out the contents of the kombi. The ring leaders of the attacks were rightfully told off by Big Brother.

In my opinion, this is where the Australian BB house could do with the small jail that the UK BB house has in their back yard at the moment. Spending a few hours behind bars would serve Malibu right.

Day 60 (Thursday) was so full of excitement that I could barely keep up. My solitary note reads "Rory teaches Travis how to lay bricks". As I said: excitement.

In another blatant cross promotion (so much so I have half a mind to rename the series Blatant Brother) FNL #9 was Spy Night. Cherry beat Malibu in a game of snap (?!!??) to win the night.

Cherry chose to take Malibu, Bianca and Terrence to watch the new Get Smart movie with him.

On Saturday, the HMs had to place all the train numbers they spotted during the week on a board in the correct order. They did so correctly, and passed the task.

Terrence was made to clean the windows in the back yard for talking without his microphone on, sparking an angry retort from Ben aimed at Big Brother. Methinks Ben is struggling with authority at the moment, for after he was forced to join Terrence washing the windows, he dissed Big Brother again and had to clean the windows alone.

Malibu showed her astronomical intelligence once again by eating hair wax.

The HMs enjoyed a costume party and pole dancing on Saturday night as a reward for passing the trainspotting task.

Having woken up the other housemates bright and early on Saturday morning just to get some ingredients for a cup of tea, Malibu and Ben returned the favour in the early hours of Sunday morning by opening the kombi door and waking the Grey Nomads with a cacophony of shouting and saucepan banging. After Malibu and Ben left, Terrence and Terrigave us this little gem:

Terrence: I'm going to photocopy Brigitte's brain.
Terri: Are you going to build me an idiot?

Gold.

On to the eviction where we saw that Rima did indeed return to the house.

After Malibu told the other HMs she saved herself ("I saved me because duh.") and Bianca found out she was nominated, KyJO announced Rory was saved.

Then Terrence got evicted. I saw it coming, but I really wish it had been Rory.

Rima then went in to the house on a secret mission. She has to tell the other HMs a fib, and say that one of them was a mole. Not exactly what I'd call a "secret" mission. Especially after she mentioned she had a secret mission as soon as she got inside.

It has also been confirmed that super bimbo Pamela Anderson will enter the house next week, also on a secret mission. Just when you thought the show couldn't stoop any lower hey? Rumours are that this is when the fake eviction will take place.


Edit: But wait, the show reached brand new heretofore unknown depths on this week's episode of Big Mouth. More on next week's recap.
 

Big Brother 08 - Week 8 Recap

A clever and amusing task twist, along with the eviction of Knobbi were the highlights of Week 8 in the Big Brother house.

Beginning with last Sunday, and after the lamest treasure hunt in recorded history, the HMs discovered the $250,000 prize money hiding in the Diary Room chair.

In another pointless gimmick, evicted HMs get to pass their share (which begins at $25,000 initially) to the HM of their choice upon eviction. Why? It all ends up with one person anyway. If the prize money were divided between the final 2 HMs, then that would make it interesting.

Monday's nominations saw Cherry and Terrence lead the pack with 5 points each. Rory and Alice followed them with 4 points. Knobbi saved Rory from the chop, only to replace him as a nominee along with Malibu and Terri.

Just while we're on nominations, why is that nominated housemates (and Big Brother for that matter) refer to themselves as being "up for nomination"? All HMs are up for nomination (unless exempted like newly arrived intruders). Once you've been nominated you are then up for eviction. Get it right!

The HMs were told their task for the week was to "paddle" a canoe (on wheels) away from a shark before the protective net drops all the way after the shark alarm sounded.

Knobbi and Bianca were then told the shark task wasn't real, and to pass this week, the pair had to join the Secret Order of Moon Monks and secretly worship the moon in a ritual at 2 o'clock every morning. Bianca was given a watch to aid with this task.

The Moon Monks also had to avoid direct sunlight, so as a cover story, in front of other HMs, Bianca challenged Knobbi not to go out in the sun all week.
Bianca and Knobbi succeeded with their secret worship on night one, completing their secret handshake and chanting undetected.

On another side note, the task was great. It had the humour factor, along with the suspense factor making it great viewing.

On Tuesday, Knobbi finally relented and bought the hair straightener from the vending machine to shut the women up.

Cherry became the third Moon Monk and the second ritual went off undetected.
Some dirty laundry was aired at Wednesday night dinner, with Rory and Cherry claiming each was the most untrustworthy, and Alice stating she thought Ben was going under the radar.

In more spa pashing, Travis was horrified to be on the receiving end of a major snog from Alice.

Knowing the shark task was fake, Knobbi embarked on a campaign to sabotage it, much to the annoyance of the other HMs who wanted food next week. Sure Knobbi needed amusement, but he rather recklessly risked his own task by sabotaging the shark task.

Alice joined the other three Moon Monks for another successful worshipping session in the early hours of Thursday.

Flirting was the go on Thursday as Ben & Bianca, and Cherry & Malibu spent time together. Cherry, however, later told Big Brother he and Malibu had "pulled the pin" on their relationship and were "just friends". Aha.

In an evil twist, Big Brother added two new HMs to the Secret Order of the Moon Monks: Terri and Malibu. With 6 HMs in the Order, and only 4 unaware of its existence, things became much trickier for the worshippers' plans. Somehow, they got away with it.

In FNL, the HMs participated in Bogan Night Heavy Metal Night. The semi final saw the four remaining HMs in an air guitar competition. The judging was completely arbitrary as Malibu and Travis made it through.

Malibu was victorious and as a reward, took Travis, Alice and Terri in to the BB Cinema to see her favourite movie: How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days.

Friday also saw Terrence become the final Moon Monk and despite Big Brother playing the shark siren in the middle of their worshipping, the 7 Monks were not caught, and returned to complete the ceremony successfully, passing the task. Well done to the Moon Monks I say,

Malibu continued her nasty attitude towards Terrence and her flirting with Cherry, though she somehow didn't see it as flirting. She really is simple.

On eviction night, Alice, Terrence and Cherry were removed to one eviction room, while Malibu, Terri and Knobbi were sent to another. We were then shown a graph that displayed one HM as having 66% of the eviction vote. KyJO speculated as to who it could be, which was rather farcical as we all knew it was Knobbi.

After having earlier removed references from the official website regarding a particular incident of willy exposure in the spa, the speculation from certain other sources (ie. eyeonbigbrother.com) forced KyJO into "discussing" the incident on TV with Knobbi in an obvious attempt to show they had "dealt with it". Rather pathetic really, and even though the incident was later to be discussed with Knobbi on Big Mouth, all Knobbi got was a proverbial and friendly smack on the hand.

After padding the show out further while certain housemates were saved, it was finally time for Knobbi to get his arse kicked out of the house. Sayonara sunshine.

For once I wish Gretel were back hosting because she would have torn into Knobbi rather than the Kyle-love and Jackie-lameness that he got. Aargh. The BBUK crowd would have booed him all the way home, which is what he really deserved.
 

Big Brother 08 - Week 7 Recap

Twas a rather bland week in the Aus BB house to be frank. Not all that much to go the snark about. So, here's the boring recap:

After being evicted, Renee's Housemate Hand Grenade was to deprive Malibu of a message from home. Malibu was, once again, a little miffed.

The HMs were advised of this week's task: in a blatant cross promotion with Adam Sandler's new movie, they had to play at being hairdressers.

Each HM would be both a hairdresser and a hairdressee during the week, styling wigs in particular styles while keeping up constant conversation.

The nominees decided on Monday were Knobbi, Terrence and Alice. FNL winner Knobbi saved himself of course, and was replaced by the other two intruders Rhianna and Cherry.

Rory's relationship with Rhianna continued through the week, growing from cuddles to kissing to, well, naughty digitally manipulative things involving adult time slots.

Knobbi decided to talk gibberish to Terrence in an effort to stop his boring stories. Terrence later cottoned on to this and gave as good as he got.

On vending machine day, Knobbi ignored the majority request for a hair straightener and bought Malibu's party dress, a footy and frisbee, and chocolate instead. Some HMs applauded Knobbi for sticking to his earlier commitment not to get the hair straightener. They say it was honourable. I say it was stubbornness.

On Day 45, HMs received video messages from home. Except Malibu of course. In protest, Malibu lay in the Diary Room doorway until Big Brother asked her to move.

Terrence got upset and cried when his wife didn't appear in his video message. Malibu was not remotely sympathetic when she told him "At least you got one".

Cherry declared to all and sundry that he hates Rhianna. Is this a way to get in with the other boys? What a nasty piece of work he is.

At FNL, Knobbi won again. *sigh*

Knobbi won a viewing of the Adam Sandler movie they'd been plugging all week, and he took Rory, Ben and Travis with him.

Knobbi apologised to Cherry for not taking him in to see the movie, causing the girls to think Knobbi was trying to recruit Cherry to his gang.

While Knobbi and co were watching the movie, Cherry plotted to oust Knobbi by trying to give him the 4th most votes, meaning he'd be nominated regardless of who is saved.

Rhianna later dobbed on Cherry to Rory who told Knobbi the next morning.

Cherry and Malibu were given strikes for discussing the nomination of Knobbi. A lovely way for Malibu to start her 21st birthday on Saturday.

Malibu's day got better when she had her party (wearing one of Bianca's dresses). All the HMs boarded (read "squeezed into") the Big Brother Airways "Lear Jet" and arrived in Sparkle Land - all pink and bubbly and sparkly.

Malibu finally got her message from home with a birthday video message from her family.

Malibu was also given Princess Sparkles back as a birthday present from Big Brother. Spoilt brat. I don't see Big Brother giving in to Knobbi and letting him back in the house.

Afterwards, the housemates crowded back into the tiny plane only to be informed the return flight would last 6 hours. It's times like this I love Big Brother.

The Eviction Show was fairly uneventful. We saw that part of the backyard was converted into a dig site, with a treasure chest containing a riddle to the location of the $250,000 prize buried somewhere under the sand.

After Cherry was saved (I hoped he'd be going) it was Rhianna who got the boot.

Finally, the housemates were told the prize money was hidden in the house somewhere. But first they had to dig in the backyard to find puzzle pieces which told them where another chest was containing a clue. Only that clue was destroyed by water so Big Brother supplied another one, and in no time flat they found the money in the Diary Room chair.

How lame a treasure hunt was that? Oh, and also lame - the gimmick that evicted housemates have to choose one of the remaining housemates to give their share of the prize money ($25,000 initially). Erm, it all ends up with one person anyway, so it's rather pointless don't you think?