Got into the city centre of Melbourne ok on the train, looking forward to some major cheese on the Neighbours tour. I didn't think that our tour guide would be Irish, and know so much about Neighbours from only being in the job for 9 months!!
It was a really cheesy, but also really fun tour.
There weren't just Brits on it either; a few Ozzie ladies, and even two girls from Denmark! Neighbours doesn't even go to Denmark, they had started watching Neighbours when they got to Oz a few months ago, and had gotten hooked on it, mostly because of one of the male characters called Declan!

We went to Erinsborough High School, which they're only allowed to film outside so they put up a false sign when they need to film there. Then we went to Ramsey Street, or Pin Oak Court as it's otherwise known! It's actually a small close with only 6 houses, and they're also not allowed to film inside the houses. All the inside shots you see, are made up of 6 studio sets a few miles away.
We got to see a few older episodes whilst we were in our little bus, including the super cheesy Scott and Charlene wedding episode!! Those terrible mullet haircuts, and the awful clothes!!
We also got a few inside secrets into how Neighbours gets filmed, and we got to meet one of the cast members - Scott Majors who currently plays Lucas. I only vaguely recognised him as I'd been able to catch a few recent episodes! He was a pretty good sport - quite funny and chatty. We asked him a few questions, had a few photos, got a few autographs, and then had to shuffle back on the bus to go back to the city.

I had a bit of time to have a walk around the city before I had to get my train back, and saw a few nice art sculptures along and near the harbour, which was nice. A few of them didn't have plaques or anything telling you what they were, so I've got to remember to google them at some point to find out!
There was a nice bunny statue, and a very abstract statue called continuum.

Tuesday 17th March 2009

Spent most of the day packing up my suitcase and playing with the doggies. Also took a jaunt to the Post Office again and spent a small fortune sending three packages home! Really must stop buying so much stuff....I don't think I need to buy anymore souvenirs for myself or anyone else so I hope that's the last package I need to send home.
My suitcase does feel rather heavy, so I'm sure I'll have to pay a bit of money when I get on my JetStar flight to Tasmania tomorrow. Groan. I have got an extra jumper in there, and I'm sure I could weed out some other things to get my suitcase to be a bit lighter. Tamsania is meant to be a bit cooler than mainland Oz, and looking at the weather forecast, the nights seem to be rather chilly! Hopefully I'll get some nice days though as I'm looking forward to getting my walking boots on again. It has been nice being chauffeured around by my friends but my legs have almost forgotten what it's like to walk around!
I may not have a super duper tan by the time I get home (the sun seems to have gone missing round here) but I'll definitely have big muscles by the time I get home!
I don't think my suitcase weight will be too much of an issue when I get on the train, but for my flight to Sydney next week, and my flight home it will be. However, I am flying Qantas from Cairns to Tokyo and they seem to be a bit more lenient on suitcase weight....though I should really try and pare down my suitcase contents in any case!!
I thought that I'd get better at not accumulating more stuff seeing as I had to carry it around with me, but I don't think it's taught me anything of the sort!! I'm just a hoarder at heart....

Did want to take April and Simon out for dinner but the only good restaurant in Warragul is Chambers and Simon basically wouldn't let me pay as he said it was too expensive! I might see if I can send them a nice pressie from Tasmania or elsewhere in Oz to say thank you properly.
Chambers is a really lovely restaurant and uses old children's books to put their menus in which is really cute. They also have really lovely cakes....mmmmmmm.