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Published: December 15th 2006
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MCG
Pitchside I've now been in sunny Australia for about a week and half and I've yet to see a spider, long may it continue. The hostel here is pretty sweet as you get free rice and pasta so food wise, I'm saving some good coin. The price for of beer is also cheap. I paid 2.8 english sheets for a jug of lager which is 2 and half pints. Anyway, first day here we decided to do the MCG tour which is set in a massive sporting complex just outside the CBD. They've got the Rod Laver Arena, Vodofone Arena, Olympic Park and plans to build a football stadium there as well, all in the same area. God knows what the parking is like on match day, it's bad enough at t'well! The stadium is class, 100,000 all seater and you can tell there's been some serious dough spent on it. Inside everything is spaced out with endless numbers of bars. Our tour leader was this old boy who kept dropping air biscuits every 2 minutes. Not sure what had died up there but these were vile. He never batted an eyelid either, just kept going like a pro, fair play to
MCG
From the stand the fella but my lungs took a few hours to recover afterwards. As part of the tour we set foot on the turf pitchside and took in the view. The atmosphere when the ashes comes there will be fantastic, just hope our boys can handle it.
The following day we had the Neighbours tour where you visit Erinsborough School and Ramsay Street. Before we set off we got to meet Max from the show who introduced himself to us and stopped for a few pictures. On the way there, I spotted a sign that read, "Blackburn 4 miles, Doncaster 10 miles". I'll leave you to make your own jokes there. For a bit of atmosphere they played some tunes by old neighbours stars on route. There was the usual Kylie stuff and some newer tunes but the one that stood out was Paul Robinson's hit from the 80's. Can't remember the name of the song but the chorus was, "gonna make you feel good" Bloody hilarious! Erinsborough School was the first stop and it's situated not too far away from the studies and Ramsay Street which makes it an ideal location. Our tour guide got out the school sign
Captain Cooks Cottage
The Union Jack flying proud and plonked it on the fence for some snaps. You wouldn't even recognise it to be fair if you were just passing by as it's just a regular kids school with no distinguishing features. After a 10 minute drive, we reached Ramsay Street or Pinoak Court to give it it's real name. It's a real street whereby Grundy (the people who make the show), pay the residents to film there. In return, the residents have to allow tour groups to the street and inform Grundy if they're going to change anything to their house. When we were there, some family were tarmacing their drive so watch this space! There's only 6 houses on there and it looks a lot smaller in real life. Didn't manage to spot Harold either which was a shame.
There's a nice beach side town here called St Kilda which is a cool place to chill out. We went there the other day and ligged out on the beach. It also gave me the chance to have a dip in the sea and try some swimming to exercise my knackered knee. It seems to be getting a lot stronger which is a relief, there's also
Observation Tower View
Yarra River and Melbourne's tallest building an aquatic centre nearby with a 50m pool so I'm definitely going to knock out a few lengths there......not entirely sure that sounds right!
I managed to get a ticket on t'ebay to see Noel and Gem from Oasis at the Melbourne Forum last Sunday. They're currently doing a 4 day semi-acoustic tour in Oz so it was spot on. I was stood about 10 foot away from the man himself and because it was such a small arena, it made it even better. There was this pissed up Irish bloke in the crowd who kept sprouting shit whenever a song had just ended. One time, Noel pipes up, "You German?" which took him off guard and shut him up for a while! I reckon 'Slide Away' was probably the highlight as you don't normally hear it played acoustically although they were all class tunes. During the show a few Manchester chants started up before some bloke in the crowd shouts out, "Yorkshire, Yorkshire, Yorkshire". Nearly brought a tear to my eye. I waded in straight away to add my support, proper going for it as if I was at a Barnsley match back home. Quality stuff! That evening
Observation Tower View
You can just about make out the F1 circuit that goes round the lake I settled back with a few panda shandies in the bar then remembered that Barnsley v WBA was on Sky Sports. I managed to persuade the lads behind the bar to whip it on so I watched that till 2am when it finished. Funny seeing em play live all the way from here.
I've also been up to the observation deck here which is in the cities 2nd tallest building. You get a quality view over the city where you can see for miles. You can pick out allsorts from up here including the F1 circuit, MCG and the Telstra Dome which is the cities other stadium, albeit a lot smaller. The same day, I ventured to the Botanical Gardens which are supposed to be the best in Australia. They've got allsorts of different trees and plants from around the globe. It's also teaming with exotic birds such as the sparrow and starling. I nearly choked when I spotted the mallard. It's a cool place to chill out with the t'ipod and take in the scenery. Hopefully I'll be going to Philip Island in the next few days, you can get day trips out there to see the Pengiun's
Me and Max
For the Neighbours fan's amongst you. Unfortunately met no celeb women walk up the beach. I'll update the blog if I do.
Melbourne reminds me of San Francisco as the centre is quite hilly and they have the same sort of tram system. It's a lot less crowded than other big cities so you're not been pushed around all the time like in London. One thing that is annoying though is that it's always windy here. I think our hostel must be on some sort of wind tunnel as the moment you step outside, you practically have to crawl out or risk been caught in the updraught. The weather is also unpredictable. The other morning it was supposidly 40c but by the afternoon, it had cooled to somewhere in the early 20's......and I thought English weather was strange!
I'm flying to Sydney next Tuesday, it's about a tenner more than getting the bus and takes 11 hours less....no contest really!
Hope everyone's well back home, Xmas aint too far away and I'm not sure what I'll be doing. Most likely recovering from the night before and chilling on Bondi Beach. If anyone fancies donating to the Stonebridge fund, contact my ma and pa and they can transfer the
money in ;-) You know you want to......
JP
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Pierre Le Pont
non-member comment
G'day cobber
Like the pictures lad - half a point for Max, good attempt but one of the fit birds would have been better. How's the old tan coming along then? should be as brown as "Whatever" by the time you get back here. I'll e-mail you a photo of the Tyne Bridge when we get back from Newcastle. The one in SYdney is a scaled-up model of that. Take care son. Favva