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Published: June 27th 2006
It's official: World Cup fever is in full flow down under. We arrived in the Sports Capital of Australia (Melbournians would suggest the World) on 20th June and a lot of our time has been spent watching the beautiful game at crazy o'clock in the morning.
Our first day involved a lot of sleeping due to the fact we'd been on a night bus from Canberra and were absolutely knackered Me, Bully and will managed to catch the free tourist bus around the city though which takes in a lot of the main sites and gives advice on what to do in Melbourne. We also had a look in the famous Queen Victorian Market, which was really near our hostel. You should note that Melbourne is in the state of Victoria so when I say Victorian Market i don't mean everybody is dressed up in old fashioned clothes or anything! To be honest it just looked like any other big market you might go through anywhere else in the world, although apparently it's deemed somewhat of an "institution" to Melbounians- according to the brochure anyways.
We got up at 4am the next morning and went in search of a
bar showing England's final group game against Sweden. We found a bar next door to a nearby hostel, we ended up checking into this hosel as soon as the footie finished as it happened aswell. As for the game: Yet again England were terrible, Owen out for 5 months, great goal from Joe Cole though and it's always nice to see Stevie G get on the scoresheet. Another thing that was confirmed during the game was the fact that England tends to have a higher proportion of absolute Wayne Kerrs in their fanbase than any other nationality- some of the "fans" watching the game in the bar made you embarrassed to be English, they hardly watched the game incase it distracted them from chanting spiel at the solitary Swedish girl in the place?!
Thursday proved to be a productive day. Me, will and Bully headed up the Realto tower, a highrise building offering views over Melbourne. We could see the famous MCG (Melbourne Cricket Ground)and Rod Laver Arena (of Australian Open Tennis fame), aswell as the Melboune Grand Prix track. Before we went up the Tower we were treated to a shot film about the city, which highlighted what
Dr K
Ever the showman.the place had to offer. It seems that eveything here revolves around Sport, the most popular being Aussie Rules Football (Known simply as Footie over here?!
On Thursday afternoon we followed in the footsteps of thousands of backpackers before us and went to Ramsay Street!!!!!! We were all a little bit xcited about this to put it mildly. Our tour guide/driver was really enthusiastic and enjoyed telling us about future storylines and storie of past characters. We set off in the "Neighbours mobile", a bright blue minibus with the word "Neighbours" emblazoned along the side of it did get a few disapproving stares from the locals as we drove through Melbourne, they clearly don't see what the fuss is all about (Our driver insisted they were all just jealous!)
Ramsay Stret is a short drive uot of the city, en route we wee trated to the music videos of past Neighbours stars a few of which you've probably heard of-Kylie Minouge?! We also stopped off at Erinsborough High,which in real life is a school that teaches foreign children most of whom haven't even heard of neighbours. We passed the sudios,which are well hidden behind security fences and trees.
Double Vision
Seperated at birth? It was as we were passing the studios that our driver regaled us with stories about past characters- Most of the Actors aren't well paid sohave toget normal jobs after the show, Philip Martin now drives Wagons, Mal Kennedy works in a bar, Todd Landers gives tours over Sydney Harbour Bridge and Hannah Martin (God, she used to annoy me) is a receptionist in London!! Ha Ha Ha how the mighty have fallen Ms Martin!
The driver played the music off the opning titles of the show just as we turned into Ramsay Street, God it was emotional- all those memories from the past 17 or so years suddenly came rushing back, Helen Daniels, Bouncer, Scott, Henry, Charleene, Annalise, Madge, Harold, Flick, Nina...
The most noticeable thing about Ramsay street is how small it is in real life- it was tiny! Apparently the Camera trickery makes it look a lot bigger on the TV. People actually live in Ramsay Street, although it's real name is Pin Oak Court. The real life residents get paid a bit of moulin for letting the crew film the show otherwise a lot of them wouldn't put up with the constant stream of
tourists. In fact a security guard patrlols the street from 8pm until the morning to stop over eager backpackers taking "souvenirs", the straw that broke the camels back and finally led to a security guard being hired was when two backpackers were caught having sex on Harold's front lawn?!?!
We had our photos took by all the houses with the Ramsay street sign as our driver told us about upcoming storylines. Izzy gets chucked out by Paul Robinson whilst he hooks up with Lyn Scully, what is he thinking?!? Izzy has actually got a band in, that phrase again: "Real life" who are getting pretty big over here so don't expect her to be one of those past characters that ens up in the gutter somewhere. Also Connor gets killed by Paul Robinson's evil son, i was elated by this news- bloody Irish! Anyways this will give Connor more time to hook up with his real life girlfriend Michelle Scully?!?
On the way home from Ramsay Street we were treated to two classic epiodes, Harold and Madges wedding and Todd's Death (you know the one, where he gets ran over on the way to hospital to try and
stop Phoebe getting an abortion)
That night we headed out to watch Italy Ghana and then at 5am we the Socceroos in their crucial group game against Croatia. The Ozzies needd at least a draw to qualify. We watched the game at Federation Square a"Square" by the river with a huge Screen showing the game, thousands of fans were there (Unbelievable considering it was 5am and this country doesn't even like "Soccer"). The game was incredible and the atmosphere in the Square made for one of the best night i've had in Australia. Thee was a small pocket of Croatia fans waching who went mental when Croatia opened the scoring after 2 minutes, they were letting off loads of red flares and banging dums. When austrlia equalised the place went crazy, everyone was bouncing and chanting-the noise was deafening. At half time we were able to see the TV Coverage, which was feeding pictures of Federation Square's reaction to the goals to the rest of the country.
The 2nd Half was just as nailbiting as the first, an absolute clanger from the Aussie Keeper left most of us in stunned silence as Croatia took the lead. English referee
Ned Kelly's Face Mask
Moulded just after he was hanged Graham Poll had a stinker and should be banned form refreeing again in his life, he missed a blatant hand ball that would have given Australia a penalty and the fact he booked someone 3 times before sending them off beggared belief. 78 minutes: Harry Kewell, Australia's best ever player steps upto the plate and equalises- the Square got a bit lively after this! The Sceroos held out for the last 15 minutes and therfore made the 2nd round- Despite it being 7am parades were going through the streets celebrating the Aussie's achievement, flags were waving and people were in full voice chanting "Let's go Ozzie Lets go". Went to bed absolutely dead!
Managed to get up before midday and went off to visit some family I have in the suburbs of the city. It was just over half an hour on the train from the city centre to where they lived, Blackburn (So many places over here named after English places!) I met Jennifer ( Mam's half cousin), her husband Paul and daughter Fiona and was made to feel very welcome the whole weekend. On the Friday night i went to the RSL with Paul, it was pretty similar to the British Legion back home only instead of having Baz handing out the raffle tickets it was a couple of old women. Felt like it was a "real Australian bar", everyone was talking about the "Soccer" aswell rather than the Aussie Rules, unheard of in these parts. After a few drinks we headed back to the house where a Roast dinner was waiting for us (First one of those i've had in a while!)
On Saturday, after a great breakfast of bacon and eggs, Paul and Jen took me on a tour of the Melbourne Coast line: passing through all the different suburbs in the city including St Kilda. The weather wasn't great but it was good to get out and about, it also showed how spread out the city of Melbourne actually was. That night I headed into the city with Fiona and a couple of her mates: ended up in a club which had all the usual cheesy music on so had a good night. Jonny, Will and Bully met us at the club, apparently Dan wasn't in a fit state to join us due to his infamous drinking exploits! Rolled into bed at about 4am and slept through till midday the next day.
After more bacon and eggs it was time for me to say my goodbyes and head back into the city. I Had a great weekend, it was good to have a few home comforts again after so long travellling and see some family Down Under. They really pushed the boat out (Or as Jonny thinks the phrase goes: put the wheel out?!?) and it was great to see them all.
On Sunday night/early Monday morning we watched England stutter to another victory over Ecuador: at least we're winning i suppose. The next day I got some more history under my belt, heading to the Old Melbourne Gaol with Bully. It was at the Gaol that infamous Bushranger Ned Kelly was hanged in the nineteenth century. The Gaol was really interesting telling stories of past criminals especially of the Kelly Gang, it had a few tortuere instruments on display as well as a model of the gallows on which Ned was hanged. Face Masks, aka moulds of the hanged person's heads, were on display in many of the cells. Many people have reported sightings of ghosts in the Gaol, especially in cell 17, but i never saw anything.
That night we went to Neighbours Night, basically where loads of backpacker obsessed with Neighbours goto a bar, get drunk and meet some characters!!! The characters there that night were Toadie, Steph Scully, and Ned- we were all obviously over the moon that Ned was going to be there, i mean he is everyone's favourite Ramsay resident (ahem) We randomly met a couple of lads who were at Tapton in sheffield the year before us: as Jonny would say, Small World! After several announcements over the speakers that the characters were "arriving shortly" the waiting was finally over and out jogged Ned, Steph (Seeming pretty battered) and Dan Holtby (Dan? what are you doing on the stage get off.. oh wait, no, it's not Dan it's Toadie!!!!) The characters were in good spirits answering questions posed to them by the audience- someone asked Toadie why he was so fat?! He had the comeback lined up already using one of Sprigsy's favourite lines, "Cos everytime i shag your mum she gives me a biscuit"
The characters walked around the pub getting their photographs took with everyone. After initially laying into Ned when we found out he was gonna be there, we felt really guilty to find out that he was actually a really nice bloke-thats another one you've called wrong Scotty! Steph was much fitter in real life than she is on the show, even if she was a bit merry (Probably needed sme Dutch courage before facing hundreds of over excited fans)
After the charcacters had left the building it was time for THE main event: Dr Karl Kennedy's band!!!! He waltzed on stage with a swagger of Jagger wearing a leather jacket in a Shaking Stevens stylee aswell. He was awesome, me aand Will manasged to get right by the front of the stage- shaking his hand several times as if he was the Second Coming or something?!? He played a few covers including Don't Look Back in Anger. A highlight was him doing
"24 years i've been sleeping next to Susan" to which the crowd went, you've guessed it, "Susan, who the f#@$ is Susan"
After Karl, a Liverpool supporter by the way, had sang some "Hey Kewell" to the tune of Hey Jude, it was almost time for him to leave and for the Football to begin- Italy v Australia- surely they couldn't put out the Italians? As it happened, no they couldn't-i was gutted for them! Conceeding a dubious penalty three minutes into stoppage time and losing with the last kick of the game left everyone a bit shell shocked, hopefully England will beat Italy in the final for the Aussies (That's one of Sprigsy's many predictions that could still come true by the way, now that Japan aren't gonna make the semis!) We walked home that night, took us over an hour but the walk done us good. We fly to New Zealand in less than a week and are hoping to hire a car soon to do the Great Ocean Road, apart from that it's gonna be much of the same- watching the World Cup. Right i'm tired of writing now so adios,
Mike
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Andy
non-member comment
The best yet!
Easily your best blog yet Smudge! Im so jealous that you went to a Neighbours night, suppose i'll have plenty of time to go to 1 or 2 or 3 when i head over there. Just one thing though.... thanks for spoiling the next 6 months worth of stories, perhaps you should have included a 'if you dont want to see the scores, look away now' kinda warning. Izzies band is getting fair bit of airplay on Radion 1 here at the moment too.