Fine, I'll go to Palm Beach if I Must!

Spring is well on its way over in Sydney and every day that I'm able to wear my thongs (I'm not only learning the lingo over here but I'm also using it in day to day life) without my toes freezing off, I plan a trip to one of the many many beaches the New South Wales coastline has to offer.

I'm a sucker for a good beach day and I'm one of those crazy Brits that loves to run into the ocean as soon as the outside temperature gets past 20 degrees...which incidentally has been a regular occurrence throughout the "winter" here so I've already explored a lot of the coastline.

With this in mind, it was inevitable that at some point I would eventually swallow my pride and head on up to Palm Beach which is where The Other Soap is filmed. However, you'll be pleased to know that I dressed for the occasion and wore my Scott and Charlene for this outing as a very subtle protest.

Dancing on the beach in my Scott and Charlene t-shirt

Palm beach is actually a suburb about 40 km north of Sydney on a beautiful peninsular so I had to take a ferry (they are part of the public transport network here which is pretty damn cool) and then quite a lengthy bus journey up the coast afterwards to reach it but it was so worth it!

There are several different beaches dotted around the place and I made my way to all of them. As someone who hasn't watched Home and Away since it got axed from ITV (I know I know, I am the worst kind of hypocrite) I wasn't entirely sure what to look out for in terms of filming locations but I amused myself by being a rebel and writing rude things in the sand...

My dirty protest!

Beautiful views over looking one of the beaches

Because I'm such a huge fan of the show I originally thought the building pictured below might be Alf's Bait Shop...until I actually reached Alf's Bait Shop and realised how foolish I had been to think that!

I originally thought this might have been Alf's Bait Shop...

...until I found this sign further on...

...and then got to this television-ready building and felt like quite the fool!

After that I climbed up to the lighthouse which I assume must featured on the show. The panoramic views from up there are absolutely breathtaking and I really wish I had a better camera to do them justice.

One lighthouse

looking back onto the peninsula

So much ocean! 

After my decent I went to the beach on the eastern side of the peninsula which I think is where most of the beach scenes are filmed. The sand on that side is really red and sticky (it's an absolute bugger to wash off) as opposed to the western beaches where the sad is white and your feet sink ankle deep with every step you take.

This is the most Summer Bay shot I could possibly hope for

More filming locations...

...with more opportunities to take photos of me standing outside them wearing inappropriate clothing! 

All in all, despite the obvious massive flaw to this beautiful place, I utterly adored exploring Palm Beach (as a fan of beaches and ocean scenery, not as a fan of the rival soap) and I'm very glad I got over myself and made the effort to go.

The one thing that impressed me more than anything was the fact that you could actually buy quite an extensive range of Summer Bay related merchandise from inside Alf's Bait Shop, which then made me sad there is no Neighbours equivalent other than the very feeble attempt at merchandise Bunyip Tours has to offer...get onto it Erinsborough Council, we need official merchandise god damn it!

Shipping Container Exhibition (and other exciting things at the National Maritime Museum)

Darling Harbour is fast becoming one of my favourite places in Sydney. By far the most exciting part of the area is the Maritime Museum full of walk-on ships, submarines and I kid you not...a free shipping container exhibition comprised of six different themed shipping containers exploring the history of how containerisation changed the world...needless to say, I am now heavily clued up on the history of transporting goods on a global scale!

I can just picture Finn and Bea walking around here before they moved to Erinsborough with Finn coming up with his dastardly plan to get revenge on everybody on Ramsay Street and lock them all in that shipping container in the middle of the bush!

It turns out my Uncle Malcom is the founding father of the shipping container and is indirectly responsible for imprisoning of Susan, Elly and Bea!

Did someone say "pineapples"?

Not only are there shipping containers galore at the Maritime Museum, you can also have a guided tour around a replica of the Endeavour (the ship that Captain Cook sailed sailed away in on his Aussie adventures) AND far more excitingly...a cargo ship called the James Craig, which originally was called the Clan MacLeod.

I definitely think this would have been a much better boat for Hamish and Louise [McLeod] to steal than the broken piece of junk belonging to his ex lover's ex husband! Just think about it, there'd be no engine to restore, he wouldn't have had to come up with a ridiculous and convoluted plot to get his bastard son on side just for it to all backfire and ultimately piss him off so much that he decided to twat him over the head with a gnome AND Louise would have a bell WITH HER NAME ON!!! 

The James Craig, formerly the Clan MacLeod...moored up right next to the [Lou] Carpentaria!

Ding ding, all aboard the Nurse McLeod!

However the actual most exciting thing in the whole museum wasn't remotely Neighbours related at all* (it may come as a shock to you but I do also have other interests) in the form of a temporary exhibition all about James Cameron's love of the ocean which included many props from Titanic! It was very very difficult to walk out of that place without buying my very own Heart of the Ocean in the museum shop but somehow my will power did not let me down which is a relief because the decent quality ones (ie the non plastic ones) were extremely expensive for something I would have eventually felt an overwhelming urge to fling into the ocean at some point in my life.

* I say it has nothing to do with Neighbours but I do know Toadie is quite partial to a bit of Titanic 

Dessine moi comme une de tes filles Françaises! (excuse my terrible Google translation)

Yes, that is the real Heart of the Ocean and other items from Rose's dressing table

There are obviously lots of other exciting things at the museum, both inside the main building and all around the harbour (which is utterly stunning) and I highly recommend checking it out if you're ever in the area. Go to their website for more info.

My Very Small Contribution to Neighbours Wedding History!

Just over three months ago on Neighbours there was an absolutely gorgeous scene between David and Aaron at the beach where they both proposed to each other with engagement watches. A week after that aired on our tellyboxes I received what will go down in history as the most exciting text message of my life...an invitation to come back to the Nunawading Studios to work as part of the Neighbours Art Department for a couple of days!

I was planning to head on over to Sydney that week but obviously I cancelled all my existing plans because this is what my whole entire life has been leading up to, an actual real opportunity to make a small contribution to the show that has given me so much joy and laughter for as far back as I can remember.

I rocked up at Reception where I was greeted by the lady who had looked after me so well the previous time I was there. She told me they had asked me in because they needed an extra pair of hands to help set up for a wedding...as in THE wedding...as in David and Aaron's wedding...as in the first EVER same sex marriage that was going to be broadcast on an Australian drama since their government finally got their shit together and legalised it!!!

To say I was absolutely over the moon to be a part of such a historic piece of Neighbours history was putting it mildly and I was soon putting up fairy lights and festoons around the Pavilion which was where the ceremony took place.

I also made up lots of little boxes of wedding favours which comprised of the most delicious datey ball things I've ever tasted (I may have tried one or two of them as there were far too many compared with the number of boxes available. FYI, this is without a doubt the best perk of working in the Art Department...on one film I worked on, the entire Art Department had many a sit down banquet made up entirely from the left over food props that had to be eaten up before they went off!)

Day two involved blowing up hundreds and hundreds of balloons...well technically there was a machine to do the blowing up part but my poor little fingers had very little skin left on them by the end of the day due to the fact that nobody has invented a balloon tying machine yet! We made two balloon walls that went either side of the alter and a rather extensive balloon arch to go across the front beams of the Pavilion. After we'd finished we all had a new found respect for why events companies charge so much for balloon art!

So that is my little story about the two greatest days of my life...blowing up balloons for Neighbours' and Australian television's first gay marriage and assembling boxes of wedding favours. I will never forget this job as long as I live and how welcoming and friendly the rest of the team were towards me.

Watching Aaron and David getting hitched on Monday was the proudest moment of my life and I just hope that in due course they'll bring out a Births, Deaths and Marriages vol 2 on DVD so I can whip it out on all family gatherings and bore everybody to death with it just like Hannah Martin did with Scott and Charlene's wedding video!

All images in this blog post are courtesy of Fremantle Media.