JULIA Gillard is having a good night. The redhead with the flawless skin is at the football, at a function at Sydney's Homebush stadium.
Her team, the Western Bulldogs, is not playing, but that doesn't stop her getting into the swing of things as members and guests share drinks and canapes in the rooms high above the ground.
It's winter 2007 and the then deputy opposition leader is still an unknown quantity to many of those gathered that night to be part of the Field of Women event, where they will don pink ponchos and march on to the ground to draw attention to breast cancer treatment.
There's Gillard's polarising voice for a start, not to mention her history as a left-wing and union-linked lawyer. Some still wonder whether she really is what they say -- an old-style Trot, humourless and doctrinaire to boot. At the VIP function in the rooms high above the ground, there's a certain wariness among a group of "50-something" women gathered around her.
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