It was a Tuesday in September 1995, Period 3. We were in music doing our work, when there was a knock on the door. It was the principal, Mr Coates. There had been a competition with all the schools in Heidelberg to get to meet Tina Arena and have the day off school to go out for the day with her.

Well, I had won the competition and you could take some friends. It also was to go to the M.C.G. on grand final day when Tina Arena sings. You would be up on the stage with her. So I took Suzi, Tamara, Amy, Melissa, Amanda and Renee. We all were so happy to have won this competition.

So the next day, when we came to school Tina was there. There also was a limo and two bodyguards. The limo was white. We went into the city. We also had $2,000 spending money, my friends had $250 each and I had $500.

First we went clothes shopping, movies at 12.00. Tina had to sing at the shopping centre. We were up on the stage with her. We also sang and everybody loved us. She said, "You and your friends have great singing voices."

We said, "Thank-you."

After that it was about 1.00 p.m. and we did some more shopping and other things. Then we got into the limo and Tina said, "We are all going to my hotel." It was great. There was room service, a swimming pool, spa, everything you could dream of. We were in paradise. We sang for a long time and we left to go home about 5.00 p.m.

The A.F.L. grand final was four to five weeks away. Tina Arena goes for Carlton and so do I. She said to me, "I hope Carlton gets into the grand final."

I said, "I hope so too. Who do you think is going to be in the grand final?"

She said Carlton and Geelong. I said to her, "I think those two teams too." We got everything we wanted.

The next day at school all the kids came up to us. They said, "How did the day go with Tina Arena?"

We all said it was great and we had lots of fun. It was now two weeks to go till the AFL grand final. It was exciting. Tina came to our school on Wednesday August 30th period 4. We were in Social Ed. It was 10 minutes before lunchtime. She took us out of class to have some singing lessons with her. The singing lessons went very well. It was the day of the grand final. We had to leave very early in the morning. It was a beautiful day, very hot about 20 degrees at 8.30 a.m. in the morning.

We were leaving to go to the MCG. Tina came to pick me up in a limo. I got into the limo, then we went to pick up the other girls at their houses. After picking the girls up, we were on our way. It was about 9.00 a.m. now. We got to the MCG at about 9.40 a.m. and sat down in our seats in our box. We all had VIP passes. It was a great view of the ground and you could see all the people. They were all talking. It was 11.30 a.m.

I could see my mum and friends, Lauren and her mum. They were sitting in the first row. All of them were sitting together. It was now time for us to go on. Tina sang 'Chains'. Tina and all of us had very beautiful dresses. We started dancing. There were 60,000 people watching us. The next song was 'Sorrento Moon' and we danced too and then to 'Heaven Help My Heart'. The last song was a special song, it was 'Hero'.

It was a day for everyone to remember Ted Whitten. Tina, Suzi, Renee, Tamara and I sang.

Then the banners went up. Everybody screamed, "Go Carlton!" The two teams broke through their banners. The players stood in two lines either side of the stage. Then we started singing for Ted. We were halfway through the song when we saw Ted's spirit, just above the stage. There was not a sound to be heard. Everybody stood up to see Ted. We hoped Ted could stay to see the grand final before he died. He saw the State of Origin, but he did not see the grand final. Carlton won the grandfinal 25.15.165 to 18.20.128. Carlton won by 37 points. It was a very good day for Greg, Ted's son. It was his birthday present.