I am involved in a lot of charities and causes, but one of my favourites is Miracle Babies. Every year 42-thousand sick babies are born in Australia and Miracle Babies helps the 23-thousand of them who are born premature, as well as the families and hospitals that care for them.

I am really looking forward to attending this Saturday night’s annual fundraising ball at Luna Park with fellow ambassadors including Jackie O, newsreaders Ron Wilson, Deborah Knight and Amber Sherlock, former premier Morris Iemma, traffic reporters Vic Lorusso, Alf Paranihi,  Amelia Oberhardt and journalist Kelly Connelly.

At the ball two years ago Amber took to the stage to tell us of her rollercoaster ride of having a premauture baby. Amber’s story brought tears to our eyes as she told us about the guilt she felt following the premi birth of her little baby, Piper.

Her story really made us all think of what it must be like to have a newborn that is in such a delicate state.

Miracle Babies founder, Melinda Cruz, says her organisation keeps growing and is now an around the clock service for thousands of mums and kids in need.

Each year the ball gets bigger and we have a blast with great music and entertainment, and this year there’ll even be a chance to win tickets for a One Direction concert and experience!

To find out more about how you can attend or to donate head to miraclebabies.org.au

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Australia and ABBA are forever linked. This band from Sweden burst onto the world stage in 1974 when they won the Eurovision song contest with Waterloo and they’ve now sold almost 400 million records!

They’re staggering success puts them just behind the Beatles, Elvis and Michael Jackson, but without Australia their career may not have exploded the way it did.

After Waterloo, ABBA went quiet , but then in August of 1975 Australia’s Countdown flogged Mamma Mia week after week and public demand forced the record company to release the song as a single.

Australia then became obsessed with ABBA and at one stage the top 10 was full of their songs like I Do, I Do, I Do, I D, SOS, Rock Me and of course Mamma Mia.

They came out to do a one hour special for Channel 9 that year that ended up outraging the moon-landing!

Then in 1976 their success hit dizzy new heights with the smash disco hit Dancing Queen and the ballad Fernando which stayed at the number one position on the Australian charts for more than three months.

Their Best Of Abba also sold over a million copies in a country that had a population of just on 14 million – think about that for a moment. One in 14 Australians purchased a copy of that one album!

They’re success continued right through untill the early 80′s with hits like Knowing Me Knowing You, Name Of The Game, Take A Chance On Me, The Winner Takes It All, Chiquitita, Thank You For The Music, Summer Night City, Does Your Mother Know, Gimme Gimme Gimme (A Man After Midnight), Super Trouper, Voluez Vous and I Have A Dream.

By then ABBA had become the biggest group in the world.

In the years that followed the Swedes made a massive comeback in the 90′s with ABBA GOLD thanks to the Australian movies Muriel’s Wedding and Priscilla Queen Of The Desert.

Then in 1999 Mamma Mia the stage musical became the biggest show in the world and the movie was released in 2008.

That movie is now one of the the biggest selling DVD’s in Australian history, and their Greatest hit compilations CD’s and DVD’s are constantly in the ARIA charts.

Even the legendary Imperial Hotel in Sydney has launched its own Mamma Mia tribute show!

Some people dismiss ABBA as just another pop band who had a hit with Dancing Queen. As I’ve explained that is not the case. Indeed, as Bono has claimed they made the best pop music ever.

If you don’t believe me grab their Greatest Hits turn it up loud and listen to the melodies, string and keyboard arrangements and the amazing vocals of Agnetha and Frida.

Make sure you don’t miss Channel 7′s ABBA special on Sunday Night at 6.30, where Agnetha speaks to the first time in 30 years in the build up to her comeback, and the release of her new album A in a few weeks.

The album features the long awaited duet with Take That’s Gary Barlow.

Bjorn also makes an appearance on Sunday Night as well.

Here’s a sample of Agnetha singing SOS with some help from reporter Rahni Sadler on “SundayNight”

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As most of you know I am a long time Prisoner fan. I’ve loved the great acting and the shocking acting! As well as the great story-lines and not so great story-lines.

When I heard last year they were remaking Prisoner I was very skeptical, as I have seen remakes fail and not live up to the original shows.

So when I got a call a few months ago from my friend and Daily Telegraph TV writer, Holly Byrnes, to accompany her to the Sydney launch and screening of episode 1, I attended with trepidation.

When I walked into the screening room with other TV critics and the cast of the new Wentworth, I was assured by the makers of the show this is not Prisoner part two. I must say I was initially disappointed to hear that, but my worries soon disappeared.

Within minutes I was transfixed by this stunning new show as we saw the new Bea Smith, played by Danielle Cormack, being transported in a dark, claustrophobic prison van to the Wentworth detention centre.

This is not the hardened top dog we know from the original, but a frightened woman, arriving in a new world that is completely foreign to her.

We are then introduced to the governor, Meg Jackson. She is an authoritative, intimidating woman who you would not want to cross.

Then the fun really begins as we meet lipstick lesbian Franky Doyle, aboriginal inmate Doreen Anderson, Lizzie Birdsworth and a scary new character, Jacs Holt, superbly played by Kris McQuade. If you thought the original Bea Smith was a woman not to be messed with wait till you see Jacs!

Erica Davidson, as the young ambitious social worker, is also one to watch out for.

The acting is superb and some of the scenes involving body searches and drug smuggling are chilling.

The end of episode 1 is a cliffhanger and I can’t wait to see the next one.

Every reviewer in the room gave the screening a standing ovation and I came out of the theatre as a big fan of the show, not in the least disappointed it wasn’t Prisoner part two!

The best way I can describe it is a salute to the original, which explains the name of the show and some of the characters.

You have to forget about Prisoner and go along for the ride, and accept things are different in this re-imaging of the show.

I predict it will be a massive success for Foxtel.

If you don’t have subscription TV don’t worry, Im sure the DVD’s will come out and I wouldn’t be surprised if this is snapped up by one of the networks.

In the meantime, try and get hooked up so you can watch the debut this Wednesday night on Soho at 8:30pm.

I understand the company is so over the moon with this show it will be simulcast on 4 channels including Hits 111 – don’t miss it.

On Friday night I was honoured yet, nervous beyond belief about appearing on stage and performing with an orchestra for an event to raise money for the children’s hospital at Westmead.

When I agreed to take part in “Singing With The Stars” I thought ‘what the hell’ it’s for a good cause and hey, I talk to thousands of people on the radio every day – how hard can it be!

But let me tell you, in the half hour leading up to my rendition of Take That’s 90′s hit “Back For Good” I felt sick to the stomach with nerves and broke out into a sweat of panic.

Despite spending days learning the words I went blank and had to take the lyrics on stage with me, like a safety blanket.

Thankfully Deni Hines and Casey Donovan backed up the advice given to me earlier in the week by the legendary Shauna Jensen; just go for it and have fun.

The crowd at Doltone House was with me and thanks to their sense of humour and goodwill I managed to get through the song to the end without collapsing – though I might have slightly murdered it!

No offence to Warwick Capper who was on before me, but it gave me courage and the realisation that you don’t need a great voice to entertain the crowd.

At the end of the night we raised a truckload of money for the hospital, I got to meet a lot of 2Day FM listeners and yes, I did chat to Pauline with my husband Jason.

Whether or not she will change her views on gay marriage remains to be seen, but I wasn’t there to talk politics and social issues.

At least she  had a laugh with us and I get the feeling she enjoyed our company, so hopefully we made a small difference to her perception of gay couples!

Sitting here today I feel I achieved a few things. First and foremost getting over my nerves to sing for the hospital, and dedicating the song to a friend of mine Anthony who lost his battle with cancer last week.

I was invited to his funeral yesterday on the South Coast, but I chose last night to pay my own special tribute to him and his family.

By the way, if you need a singer for your next charity event I’m available and I’m cheap!

From the moment the curtain went up and the entire Addams family appeared on stage at the iconic Capitol Theatre in Sydney we knew we were in for a treat. It’s a screamingly funny, outrageously gloomy love story that will leave you begging for more!

The Addams Family musical was conceived on Broadway by writer Rick Elice (also the writer of Jersey Boys) who turned the much loved TV show on its head after he imagined Uncle Fester falling in love with the moon! Elice said: “I just worked backwards from there“, and the story he created sees a now 18 year-old Wednesday fall in love with a ‘normal’ guy, much to the shagrin of her (and his) parents!

Without giving too much away, the weird wacky family shows us that being different is not such a bad thing. In fact it adds joy to the universe and the people in it!

All the cast were superb including John Waters as Gomez and Chloe Dallimore as Morticia, but for me one of the standout performances was from Katrina Retallick who plays the ‘normal’ mother of Wednesday’s love interest. Her scene-stealing performance at the Addams family dinner table is delicious!

Teagan Wouters who plays Wednesday is also amazing. Keep an ear out for one of the early songs in the show where she brings the house down with a pitch perfect, spine tingling final note.

Special mention to Russell Dykstra who plays the lovable Uncle Fester as well – and yes he does use his trademark light bulb!

The Addams Family will appeal to both couples and families… in fact anyone of any age who understands that love comes in many forms, shapes and sizes.

I just saw some new research which is pretty frightening. The study is called Binge Listening and it makes for interesting reading.

It claims iPods, heavy duty speakers in nightclubs and powerful car and home music systems will cause many in gen-X and gen-Y to become deaf as they grow older.

Working in radio has made me very aware of this problem because we use headphones every day.

I always make a point of turning them down because I’ve met older colleagues who have lost a lot of their hearing after years and years of working with blaring headphones.

Professor Harvey Dillon warns that even going to an extremely loud rock concert can cause irreparable hearing damage.

The Binge Listening study shows that a third of people questioned between the ages of 18 and 25 were not aware that hearing loss is permanent.

My advice is to try and stay away from really loud speakers at concerts and clubs, and if the noise is deafening wear earplugs (even though you look like a nerd!) Also keep an eye on the volume level of your iPods.

It goes without saying that you won’t want to have to wear a hearing aid at the age of 40!