Thinking about going to Finale in Perth? Think no more!

Hi, I'm Danielle but most people call me Danni (except for my parents who tell me that if they wanted me to be called Danni they would have named me Danni) Anyway, moving along... If you want to find me in the forums, my name is danni-girl and on Twitter I'm @danni_lane (yep, I'm still rebelling against my parents at 31!)

With the Perth Finale talk fresh in the air, I thought I would share my experiences from the Round 1 Finale in Melbourne. If you can afford to go to the Perth Finale, you should definitely make the trip. It's an amazing experience and you should think of it as a reward for all the hard work you're going to put in over the next 12 week. So, here goes...

After a crazy few days working from our Melbourne office, my amazing friend Rachel flew down and joined me on Friday night and when she arrived, I could see the excitement in her eyes (or, was that just the glass of wine she had on the flight down? Her first glass in 12 weeks!). We’ve both been to Melbourne a few times before but both Rachel and I had absolutely no idea how to get from where we were to St Kilda.  So, we spent the rest of the night trying to work out the tram timetable, ticket prices and tram stops. Considering we needed to be at the Catani Gardens at 7.30am, there was no room for error so we decided at midnight that the only thing to do was race downstairs and do a practice run. We didn’t actually get a tram to St. Kilda but we worked out where to wait for the tram and also how we could purchase tickets.

Waiting for the tram

After what felt like 5 minutes, Saturday morning arrived, alarms went off and we were up and at ‘em! I didn’t get much sleep as I was too excited for what lied ahead so I told myself, you’ll just have to run on adrenalin today. After a quick shower and super quick brekkie, we were out the door. We were so excited that the thought of rain had never crossed our minds but Mother Nature had other ideas. Standing in the middle of the road at the tram stop in the rain, we were hoping that the trams in Melbourne were more reliable than the Sydney trains. Turns out they are and a few minutes later we were on a tram headed to St Kilda. Hurrah, we did it!

With the rain continuing to fall, we made our way to the registration desk and proudly let the organisers know we were there to volunteer. We registered, got all our little knick-knacks then made a beeline for the coffee van. It was absolutely freezing so I ordered a tea, to keep my hands warm more so than anything else.  Standing around the coffee van, we met our fellow volunteer team members (more on these awesome people later) and our team leader who we affectionately called, “boss lady”.  Boss lady handed out our awesome traffic controller vests and volunteer hats and we set about allocating ourselves to the areas where would stand to ‘control the traffic’.  Then, out of nowhere, Mish appeared. She was in her workout gear with headphones around her neck and was looking fit as! She casually strolled over to meet all of us, photos were taken, tears were shed and then it was down to business. 

The awesome traffic controllers

Meeting Mish

Us traffic controllers toddled off to our allocated areas and started welcoming and ushering the thousands of people who were coming to participate in and smash, the world record for the largest group circuit workout.  The rain continued to fall however Rachel and I persevered, jumping up and down to keep warm and happily greeted the crowd. Now, remember those awesome team members I was telling you about? Well, Sarah, Kristy and Melinda were stationed at other posts so Rachel and I abandoned our post to go and check on them. Sarah and Kristy were enjoying their traffic controller duties (well, ok, maybe Kristy wasn’t enjoying it as much as Sarah!) but they both stuck it out. Melinda had unfortunately been abandoned by her team mate after 5 minutes as it was “too cold” so we hung out with her for a while to keep her company. After a while, we all made our way in to the main, let’s call it an arena, for the group workout. Us traffic controllers were now on Guinness Book of World Record duties and had to assist with counting. No, we didn’t have to count heads, just make a note of anyone that had to leave the arena during the workout for whatever reason. We were able to enjoy and participate in the workout and at the same time, encourage others to keep going. It was truly inspiring! We managed to catch up with most of the SWSYD crew while we there and quickly changed out of our volunteer gear to get a quick photo which was later shared on Mish's 12WBT Facebook Page. There were people of all shapes and sizes and varying fitness levels sweating it out but what was even better was to see them doing it all with a smile on their face. Wow, just wow! I couldn’t believe I was a part of such an amazing family and was lucky enough to be involved in breaking a world record!

The Awesome SWSYD Crew

When the workout ended, Rachel and I made our way back to our apartment and set out to beautify ourselves. Hair was booked for 3pm, make up at 4pm. We decided to take the train as we thought it would be quicker than the 20-minute walk to Melbourne Central (we were on a really tight time schedule). Turns out the trains in Melbourne aren’t as easy to work out as the ones in Sydney so we ended up travelling in the opposite direction to where we needed to be. We eventually arrived at Melbourne Central with a list of things to gather and do. Eat, get band-aids, buy a clutch, purchase tanning products, and get hair & makeup done. We managed to get everything done with time to spare (I don’t know how considering we had no clue where anything was) and made our way back to our apartment with a quick stop for some bubbles and snacks.

On our balcony just before we left for the party!

Getting dressed was easy, hair and makeup was done so just needed to slip on our outfit and shoes and head out the door.  We hailed a cab fairly quickly but the trip to the Plaza Ballroom was anything but quick. People complain that Sydney traffic is bad. I’m sorry to say but Melbourne, your traffic is shocking! When we finally arrived at the venue we huddled out the front and met up with our fellow South West Sydney team member, Elisabeth. We were so excited to get inside but we were waiting on Mish to arrive. This time, she arrived by chauffer driven car and after some quick pics; she made a swift dash inside the venue.

The gorgeous sisters from Adelaide, Sarah and Kristy

The venue was amazing and the crowd quickly filled the room. Rachel and I were determined to find our new awesome friends but one of them found us first. While standing in line for the food, Melinda spotted us so we went and joined her in what we later found out was the ‘flying solo’ bar. We took off to get some more photos taken and while waiting in that line Rachel screamed out “It’s them!” and begun chasing down the lovely Sarah and Kristy! I can’t believe we found them in a sea of 1200 people. It was obviously meant to be. The night continued with lots of dancing, laughing and photos followed by the award ceremony where we witnessed some inspiring transformations from the top 20. I bumped into Margie  in the flying solo bar and just had to tell her how much I enjoyed watching her on Loser. She gave me a huge hug and Lis and I managed to get a quick snap with her. Mish even came and boogied with us on the dance floor to Maroon 5’s Moves Like Jagger.  WHAT A NIGHT!

Rachel and I woke up the next morning wanting to do it all over again and we can... in 3 months! I’m super excited to see the results that my friends (new and old) and SWSYD crew achieve, as well as my own! 


Good luck for your first official weigh in tomorrow everyone and remember, it's a very short week so don't be disheartened if you don't notice much of a difference on the scales. Just keep putting in the effort, and you will definitely see results next week!

Meeting Margie!

Until next Tuesday,
Danni
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