Sweet Surrender Read Free

various topics, from the news of the day to issues affecting young mothers at home. I felt quite comfortable with this. The chance to express my opinions and attitudes about the problems facing modern society was an opportunity I certainly didn’t want to miss.
    I must admit that when I quit
Gardening Australia
I was relaxed about not being tied to a weekly television commitment, and not the slightest bit fazed by the notion that I would probably never work in television again. In fact I felt relieved to be out of the thick of it. Yet here I was just a few years later, preparing to try out for a show that involved a daily commitment that would mean that I would have to live in Sydney for most of the week – madness! What I hadn’t realised was that dozens of prospects were being tested out for the show on that particular day. When I arrived there were women in small groups chatting and comparing notes: I didn’t know any of them and felt rather out of place and overwhelmed. I was dressed very simply in a linen suit – not power dressing but not casual either – and I had spent quite a bit of time getting my hair and make-up right because I had been told our auditions would be taped so that our performances could be seen by network executives.
    Eventually it was my turn to face the camera alongside three other women to whom I had been introduced only minutes before. I was the oldest, by quite a margin, and everyone – not just me – seemed nervous and unsure of what was expected. We had been given a list of topics to think about – nothing very challenging – and the idea was that we wereto bounce them around in a conversational manner, just as women would do when gathered around the watercooler or coffee-maker at the office. To be quite honest, I can’t remember who the other women in that audition were, or what topics we bandied about. I do remember that after a rather shaky start I relaxed and had some fun – I tried to be as natural as possible and even managed to slip in a couple of slightly saucy one-liners. The experience wasn’t as painful as I had feared.
    When I heard nothing back from the network within several weeks, I assumed that I had been eliminated from the search. I had learned that more than sixty women from all around the country had been called in to the first round of auditions and I expected my chances of getting to the next stage of the process were very slim.
    Then, out of the blue, I had a call-back from the producer. Could I come down for another round of screen tests? I was surprised but quite chuffed and wondered who else had been selected and what form the next audition would take. The producer told me the reaction around the network to my first tape was that I was knowledgeable and down to earth, yet wicked – an ingredient they wanted in the production.
    This time a decision had been made to allow a ‘getting to know you’ session before the taping. I was introduced to three prospective co-hosts: the gorgeous ABC and SBS television journalist Indira Naidoo (I was a huge fan); another ABC journalist who I wasn’t so familiar with, Shelley Horton; and tall, willowy, utterly beautiful Cleo Glyde, a former model who had become a magazine style editor. The four of us seemed to gel pretty quickly, chatting excitedly about the possibility of doing the program, and I was surprised to discover they had ‘googled’ me to discover my background. I hadn’t even heard of Google in those days, and felt a bit underprepared; I had been living out of the city for years, and was no longer up on all the latest trends and technology. Cleo also talked about having a ‘spray tan’ so she would look better on camera. I’d never heard of a spray tan, so again I felt slightly naïve and not as savvy as the others.
    It was obvious from the start that we had been cast to cover a range of requirements. Shelley was smart, funny and