Everybody needs good neighbours...

Don't you just love your neighbours?

I'm not talking about that annoying person living next door who grows their Leylandi trees to monster proportions blocking out your sunlight. I'm talking the crappy Ozzie sitcom that has been going 22 years. Can you believe that!? 22 years!! And it's all the fault of us Brits. Yes we are to blame. The Ozzies hate it. In fact it got cancelled when it first started after only 20 odd episodes or something and then got taken up by another network, exported to the UK and we've had it on our conscience ever since.

It also was responsible for Jason Donovan and Stefan Dennis. Don't that make ya feel good?! ;)Sorry, bad pun. The less said about that the better. We'll let them off for producing Kylie - cos she is a little trooper and I don't mind some of her recent dancey songs.

But you gotta love it. Well, I used to. About 13 years ago. Yes you know the drill, when you're at school you think anything that's exotic (ie not located in the UK) is marvellous. So after tea it would be Home and Away on ITV at 17.10 and then Neighbours on BBC1 at 17.30. If you were off ill you'd be lucky enough to see it TWICE a day - it was the repeat at 17.30, the first airing was at 13.30. And not much changes: believe it or not that is STILL the line-up, after it started way back on UK screens in 1986 (we're a bit behind). The only difference is that Home and Away moved to Channel 5 and it now on at 18.00 (it did get cancelled a few years ago but got a reprieve). And the worrying thing is that I know all this! ;)

Anyway, back to the point, I fulfilled a childhood dream and got to stand on the hallowed street with my mate Helen (who I met in Adelaide remember - are you paying attention?): yes, Ramsay Street. It's actually called Oak Pine Court in real life and yes people really do live there. There was a security person watching our every move, but the residents get paid plenty to put up with this so I'm sure they're used to it by now. They should be after 22 years! They're not allowed to change anything about the exterior of their homes either - it's in their contract. So in another 20 years they'll look REALLY dated! ;)

The street looks a lot bigger on screen. 'Erinsborough' is hidden in a small suburb of Melbourne. We got to see the street, got a commentary from our guide (although after he finished talking about Jim Robinson, Harold Bishop, Madge and Charlene I kind of switched off because I had no idea who he was talking about - well, I haven't watched it in over a decade!), and visited the school that doubles as Erinsborough High - we even held the sign to prove it. The thing that strikes me about Neighbours is the fact that so many Asian people live in Australia but I can't ever remember an Asian person being in the show. That may have changed now of course.

We also got to see that iconic episode en-route to the street: Charlene and Scott's wedding. That brought back memories let me tell you. I nearly shed a tear. I said nearly. On the way back we got to see a 20th anniversary special done by the BBC introduced by Andi Peters. The less said about that the better really.

Anyway, back to the trip from Adelaide to Melbourne. That was the best trip yet. I met a fantastic Japanese gentleman called Kazu - ohayo gozaimasu Kazu! - and the best thing was that he was the same age as me. Someone, finally, the same age as me! He gave me an impromptu Japanese lesson (and tested me on my knowledge which was shockingly poor by this point) when we reached Melbourne and I gave him a salsa lesson in return - great fun! I promise to teach you some more next time we meet Kazu. :)

Anyway, back to Adelaide. We left early in the morning and our guide for this trip was undoubtedly the best guide we'd had all along: Lawrence. He was truly hilarious. We stopped to hike up Hollow Mountain and to see McKenzie Falls - which were rather impressive, they had the most water in that I'd seen in Australia so far. There was another Oz Experience bus behind us going in the same direction and they arrived later than we did at the mountain. We got back to the bus as they set off on the walk. Once they' d gone, Lawrence noticed the back window of their bus was open so he climbed in and grabbed all the soft toys off the dashboard (it was a female driver) and placed them in all the passenger seats! They looked like they were on their own little trip. Then he climbed out, shut the window and we left. I wish I'd been a fly on the wall to see their faces when they got back. Priceless!! :)

Anyway, other highlights of this leg of the journey included The Great Ocean Road - a legendary stretch of highway which has a lot of rock formations and beaches on it. Including Bells Beach of 'Point Break' fame. Sadly it was NOT the location used the film the final sequence in which Patrick Swayze as surfer Bodhi succumbs to the monster wave of the 50-year storm. You may wonder how many times I've seen this film - probably too many. Anyway, it was disappointingly not the same beach it purported to be. Alas I could not walk in Keanu's pigeon-toed footsteps. Boo. Ah well, onwards and upwards as they say.

There is one rock formation along the road called London Bridge. It is obviously not the London Bridge, it just looks like a bridge. It used to be one piece of rock attached to the mainland, however, one afternoon in the late 1980s a couple ventured out onto the rock for a romantic afternoon. Unluckilly for them, as they had their liaison, the bridge area of the formation collapsed, leaving them stranded on a rock in the middle of the ocean. They were rescued but it was all over the TV. You may think that was ok cos they were married: just not to each other!!! We chuckled at that one. Mean, but we did. Well, it serves them right cos they were doing wrong: hand of God and all that.

I also took part in a helicopter ride over the 12 Apostles rock (middle photo) formation - not as impressive as the Fox Glacier helicopter ride but still worth seeing. It was only 10 mins sadly. I got a twin room with Marie that night too. We stayed in a lovely place called The 13th Apostle and 10 or so of us got split to another building that had its own kitchen (fully kitted out with breakfast materials), bathroom, lounge (with DVD player and films to watch!) and bedrooms - of which we had a TWIN. With proper beds. Heaven. It was nice. Tastefully decorated in purple too. I didn't want to leave...

Julien was on our bus again too (bearded, didgeridoo-playing, rainforest-saving Julien) which was ace and he was really cool to hang out with, bless. Hey there Julien - plant a tree for me. :)

On to Melbourne (bottom photo) - which by far had to be my fave city in Oz - not too big but not too small either. I stayed at Base in St Kilda, which was the beach area, and was a 30-min ride from the centre of town on the tram. Yes they have trams - manufactured by Siemens, so new-style, not old-style like Christchurch - the same type that are in Tokyo and Hiroshima! So there you go. I felt at home. I stayed in Base, which was actually one of the nicest ones I've stayed in - apart from the fact that most of the girls in my dorm were ill, and guess what, I caught it too, but more of that later.

One of the best things about Melbourne was the night market held at Queen Victoria Street Market every Wednesday night. It starts at 17.30 and there is a wonderful mix of exotic stalls (a lot of Thai-style and Asian influenced products) and food from all over the globe. I had okonomiyaki!!! Yay. My fave from Japan. Sadly it wasn't the real thing - it was more like a vegie and potato pattie, but it was still nice and the sauce was similar. I still recommended it to Kazu.

I also got picked up by a random stranger at the market! It was about half 6 at night and I was walking along tucking into a ginger cup cake (see what I mean about eclectic food stalls - they had German bretzels (like pretzels) too - heaven!) when this rather good looking guy, tall, dark, Ozzie accent, smiled at me. I smiled back. He then started talking to me and asking which food stall was the best to eat from and if I was enjoying the market. I told him about okonomiyaki and basically walked off. He asked if maybe he'd see me later outside the front of the market where live music was going on? I said maybe and left! WHY did I do that?! I was kicking myself all the way back to the hostel. The thing was if it had been 3 or 4 in the afternoon maybe I'd have struck up a conversation, but I was tired and wanted to get back. Stupid girl! How many times do I get picked up in the street - NEVER!! How many times do I get picked up full stop - NEVER!! Ah well, it boosted my confidence for a few days which was nice. The thing was, I wasn't in Melbourne for long and you really shouldn't talk to strangers so I simply couldn't be bothered. It was flattering though. :)

So what did I do in Melbourne. Well, I met up with Helen again (and did Neighbours tour as mentioned above), we also met Kazu and took him to Queen Victoria Market and had our photo taken outside the giant Xmas tree. We also watched the giant advent calendar on the side of the Australian Museum of Moving Image in Federation Square being opened. It was very state-of-the-art. This lady got dressed up in an elf outfit, and was hoisted up to a big screen, which played out a cartoon about this elf's search for Xmas. She ran alongside it and interacted with it, it was very clever. Then she unveiled a new picture behind whatever number the date was. I guessed correctly that the pic would be a cracker. Yay. :)

Anyway, will tell you more about our festive activities in the next gripping instalment!

Later.. x