Yeah! Melbourne, the home of THE best soap ever! Thats Neighbours, in case , by some unthinkable means you have not seen the light and realised this undisputable fact...Yes the day has come, I have actually been to the very-tiny-in-real-life Ramsay Street- it must be like the tardis as it always seems to fit so much in- endless games of cricket in the street, Stingray's very sudden and shocking death, Susan mowing down Brigit....ah the memories! AND I met the cast- Declan-boring, cocky, not very interesting anyway (the only gossip being he likes snowboarding zzzzz) Rachel- very tiny, very pretty, likes to dance, and Connor, came back from the dead looking rather portly, though I hear he likes to dabble in narcotics of various kinds rather than eating lots of pies in the afterlife...but far and away the highlight was Dr Karl Kennedy...a man born for his role and, indeed, who loves his fame and the wonders of Neighbours a cheesily disturbing amount. So much so, his band played for what seeemed like a very long time, what with the novelty wearing off after about 3 minutes and the reality of his terrible singing dawning rapidly...

Other highlights of Victoria included The Great Ocean Road. While it was great, the 12 Apostles in particular (even though no one is sure how many there are but all agree its not 12) it wasn't as good as the secenery from New Zealand. Although I did see a whale.

Fluffy delights included seeing real live wild koalas- soooooo cute and fluffy and munching happily on eucalyptus, grey kangaroos a-bounding and stern looking emus a-strutting. And happily, no snakes or killer arachnids or even bed bugs.

Food here is very good, especially crepes with pear and nutella, yum ( I seem to be sampling the crepes of the world, its a tough job) and a very good authentic Italian restaurant where I escaped the (apparently rife) mafia by speaking my best italian...molto bene.....