A DUBBO teacher made an appearance on national television this week as a contestant on Millionaire Hotseat.
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Vonnie Gilpin, who teaches religion and art at St John's College, said her daughter Louise entered her online.
"Like many people do, I suppose, I was whingeing about money one day so she went and filled in online applications for all the adults in our family," Mrs Gilpin said.
Mrs Gilpin was invited to audition in Sydney in November, where she made an impression by singing a song by heavy metal band Hatebreed.
"My son's very much into metal music, and it definitely got their attention," she said.
But as bold as she had been in the audition, Mrs Gilpin said she was quite nervous in front of host Eddie McGuire when it came to filming her segment in May.
She nevertheless powered through the first four questions by knowing that craps was a dice game, Quality Street was a brand of confectionery, the character Leonard McCoy had the nickname 'Bones' in Star Trek and that the Stawell Gift footrace was staged on a grass surface.
However she came unstuck with a nightmare fifth question asking which word was declared Oxford Dictionaries' Word of the Year in 2013.
Mrs Gilpin answered 'twerk' instead of 'selfie', dipping out of contention.
"You would have seen me agonising over that answer, but the reason I chose 'twerk' was that at a trivia night we regularly go to every time Wrecking Ball by Miley Cyrus came on the screen the best twerker on the dance floor won a voucher. Thanks to my son's twerking we won lots of free dinners," she said.
"People might say, you would get that right because you have teenagers, but I got that one wrong because I've got teenagers."
She said many students with the benefit of hindsight had been quick to inform her of the answer she should have chosen when she went to work yesterday morning after the episode aired on Monday night.
"Do you have any idea how many kids told me the answer was 'selfie'?" she said.
Mrs Gilpin said she and husband Dave, who was in the audience, were treated like royalty before, during and after the taping and it was an experience she would recommend to everyone.
They were flown to and from Melbourne where they were provided with accommodation ahead of the filming of the show.
"Julie the make-up lady was amazing," she said.
"Normally I don't wear much make-up and I usually have my hair in a bun or ponytail.
"She suggested wearing it out and a lot of people hadn't seen it like that before."
Backstage in the tearoom, contestants were provided with refreshments in what Mrs Gilpin described as a "wonderfully supportive environment".
"We were watching the other contestants on other episodes as they were being taped and we were all cheering them on," she said.
Mrs Gilpin's next mission was to get husband Dave on the show as a contestant.
"His trivia is way ahead of mine," she said.