Firstly, a big thank you to my old STB chum, Dan Clarke and his lovely girlfriend Hollie for putting me up in their spare room for a week. So nice to not be in a hostel for a change, my own room, no noise, sky tv... All adds to to one of my shorter blogs I suppose!

So, stayed in St. Kilda, one of the suburbs of Melbourne, and to skirt over the things I did during the week (and get onto the important stuff) heres a brief summary of my time there...

- Took a couple of trips into the city by tram, really only looking in some shops...
- Had a look around Victoria Market (lots of tat for sale)...
- Went out drinking in the city on a friday night (scarily similar to drinking in London)...
- Saw one of Dan's friends in a band then found a strange little nightclub up some alleyway in chinatown...
- Played guitar hero 3 on the playstation...
- Took a trip to the beach and burnt my shoulders... again...
- Cooked a curry...

But more importantly... Much more importantly...

I went to Erinsborough! Oh yeah, went to Ramsay Street and the Neighbours studio! Started by visiting Erinsborough High which turned out to be some random school, where they just hang a sign at the front and never actually film in there. Then onto the outdoors sets! Lassiters and the Scarlett Bar (or whatever its called now, havent seen an episode for nearly 6 months) and the lake and the mechanics and the bus stop where everyone leaves from and... well it all looked so tatty!

The bus stop for example is just a couple of pieces of plywood nailed together and painted magnolia. All the shops are just wooden fronts and if you look throught the windows theres nothing there apart from some old props and rubbish. The scenes (and this is classic) of Lou a couple of years ago in Hong Kong were filmed in front of a sheet of painted vinyl hanging on a wall behind the allotments. I kid you not! The lake is about the size of my living room, on a tree in front of the bar are three fake cockatoos (will have to look out for them!), and theres a plastic duck in the pond outside Harold's shop. Oh and the gates leading into the studio are used as the jail shots when anyone goes to prison and the front offices are used for airports or hospitals or whatever depending on the scenes in question.

Basically my neighbours dream has been shattered, but well done to the cameramen for making all this look so real.. Its a bit like the old ICHS plays we used to put on all those years ago!

Ah well, the sets are naff, but it had to get better the night I went to a pub in St. Kilda called the Elephant and Wheelbarrow, where they host a meet the neighbours night every Monday! Exciting stuff! Excepet it started about three hours late, and Rachel Kinsky didnt turn up, but did get to meet the Doc! And Janelle! And Connor! And some bald bloke (Steve Parker apparently)! And got fairly drunk and lost a quiz night but hey the Docs band played us some tunes, and it was all good fun in its own cheesy tactastic way.

Highlight of Australia so far? Well its up there definately...