Melbourne has definately been the place ive loved the most since ive been travelling...and not purely as its the home of Neighbours, tho that has a bit to do with it...since i emailed u last time, I went on another Neighbours Pub Quiz night and met former member Stu Parker (which completes my set of Parkers), Steph Scully (my 2nd Scully) and the legend that is Toadie Rebbechi...ahh man just being in the presence of genius...i wrote him a banner saying 'legend' nd i think he appreciated...tho the girls wouldnt let me hold up a banner saying 'Where's flick...?' when i took my pic with Steph...spoil sports...! I was gutted to find out later on in the trip that Holly Vallance actually goes out in Melbourne by the riverside quite regularly...her loss i guess :( I was so tempted to go on another one as the following week it had both Harold and Paul...legends...but i couldnt afford to go...there's always next time i guess when i come back. We also went on the Ramsey Street Tour on Xmas Eve...bit disappointed we didnt get to go round the studio's or meet another star, but we toured round the Neighbours High School and saw the famous cul-de-sac, it is sooo small in real life...spoiler alert *Harold gets his drive way re-done soon...!* The last piece of Neighbours related tourist attractions came at the Melbourne Museum, where we went with a couple of Welsh guys we met in the hostel called Jake and James...got to see the old Robinson's Kitchen and Scott and Charlene's wedding cake...very nostalgic...they also had the exhibition of the Ashes Urn there...something us Englishmen arent gonna see for a couple of years...was pretty cool to see the history behind it and to see it up close...

Ed and I did a tour of the MCG relatively early on in our stay and was so amazing to see the views from the stadium and being on the hallowed turf, definately more impressive than the Adelaide Oval...they were expecting a capacity crowd for the Boxing Day test match, which we had tickets to...unfortunately Englands ineptidude in the first 3 tests meant that 89,000 people were there on Boxing Day, compared to 100,000, still impressive...was an amazing day...the atmosphere was electric, just made me think how it would have been if the series had still been alive...but watching Shane Warne get his 700th wicket was pretty special, something i wont forget in a long time...Ed and I also got the VIP treatment that day, as I bumped into this Sri Lankan guy in our hostel who said he worked there and gave us tickets to a VIP lounge...not many backpackers can say they got the VIP treatment for a Boxing Day Ashes test match at the MCG, so that was pretty special...we had tickets for the other days to and even though England were pretty shocking, I really enjoyed the whole expereince...the Barmy Army were amazing...! Our cricketing action didnt stop there...we also got to meet a few legends, both proper, and up-and coming, in the days leading up to the cricket... Kevin Pietersen did a bat signing and managed to get a decent pic of him, while Shane 'Warney' Warne did a book signing the fri before the test match...queued up for 2hrs for a blink-and-u'll-miss-it opportunity to be in the presence of greatness...he wished me Merry Christmas, but before i could say 'I loved your cameo appearance in Neighbours' i was being ushered away, i kno there was mutual respect there tho...sooo many people turned up to see him, it was unbelievable...! Sporting wise, we also caught a game of football over here...saw Melbourne Victory (captained by the legendary Kevin Muscat) go 4-0 up at half time against New Zealand...the Barmy Army shouldnt have been worried as the best chant they could conjure up was the ingenious 'we're north stand, we're north stand, we're north stand over here...we're south stand etc'...Big up for geographical chanting...!

As for other touristy related stuff, I saw the Shrine of Rememberance and Captain Cook's Cottage, as well as the Immigration Museum, which was pretty interesting...they even had a Bollywood Dreams exhibition (Hiren u wouldve loved that). Socially, our hostel was awesome and we've definately met the best people here in Melbourne...our hostel had a scout hall feel to the dinning room and a rooftop garden, so u couldnt help but get to chat to people...most of them are heading over to Sydney for New Years as well. We visited the Crown Casino four times, which is the largest Casino in the Southern Hemisphere...practice for when we go to Las Vegas...ended up being $11.50 down, which isnt too bad i guess...i didnt live up to the family reputation of 'All-in Anandan'...House always wins people...!