English Lessons

I'm not entirely sure how this happened, but I seem to have become the resident English teacher at my hostel, being one of very few native English speakers currently staying there. It started off with my lovely Chinese friends asking me to test them on random words they had written in an exercise book, but now it includes day trips to the beach and other such fun activities with a wide variety of people from all over the world.

The other day I made them all watch The Lion King with the subtitles on and I was so proud to see them all busy tapping away on their phones looking up translations to words they didn't previously know the meaning of.

At the end of last week I finally figured out how to switch the monitor in the common room from PC  mode to TV mode, mainly because I was fed up of streaming Neighbours online, which was a huge personal achievement for me as I'm really not very technologically minded. After the Lion King success story at the weekend, I decided to up my game as an English teacher and figured what better way to teach the English language AND a bit about Australian culture at the same time than to sit my students down infront of the show that has made my own transition into Australian society pretty seamless.

So 15 minutes before Neighbours started on Monday I started fiddling around with the back of the TV (as we don't seem to have a working remote) and successfully managed to switch on the subtitles just in time for the main event, which means my weekday lessons will all start at 6:30pm from now on. Because of my new pedagogical approach to consuming Neighbours, I now completely appreciate the THREE ad breaks the Aussies have to endure whilst watching the 20 minute show. As a result of the bite sized portions of Neighbours over here, it means we can have regular Q&A sessions throughout the programme without disturbing my own viewing pleasure...because it turns out trying to explain the backstory behind the whole Dee/Andrea/Toadie/Sonya/Hugo mess to people who haven't been learning English all that long is incredibly difficult! 

My new improved curriculum looks like this!

I have also developed a new found understanding for Elly because after a good hour or so of correcting and explaining the complexities of English grammar yesterday evening, I definitely needed several glasses of wine to get me through the rest of the night!

Backstage Tour of Nunawading Studios

In the real world, when I'm not being a stereotypical Travel Wanker, I work as a Set Dresser/Art Department type for television and film productions.

The top most item on my life long bucket list has always been to work on Neighbours and a very big reason why I've put my life on hold for a year is to try and finally make this happen. A few weeks after I landed in Melbourne I managed to successfully get in touch with a couple of people who work within the Art Department on Neighbours and they very kindly invited me to their Nunawading Studios for an access all areas tour, which is the main reason why I haven't actually gone on the Official Neighbours Tour yet...although obviously I still might do that because you can never have too many Neighbours related things on your once in a life time trip to Australia!

So off I trundled to Nunawading Studios with my glue stick (it's a reference from the wonderful song my friend wrote for me) and hoped that I wouldn't come across as too much of a fan girl whilst I was there.

Just hanging out at the Neighbours studio with my glue stick...as you do!

Because I was trying to make a good impression infront of the people I desperately hoped would invite me back to work for them in the future, I was trying to play it cool and didn't take any photos as I was being shown around but inside I was more excited than a kid going to Disneyland. I had a pretty extensive tour around all the exterior sets including the backyards and inside the police station and Lassiters and the Community Centre etc. And then they had organised for me to sit in the studio whilst they were filming so I could watch the last four scenes of the day being shot which was super amazing.

I have been sitting on the knowledge that Ned Willis comes back and Toadie gets sprung with a surprise baby as an offshoot from his one night stand with Fake Dee in London and also that Aaron and David have wedding dance lessons from Dipi for three months now and it was extremely exciting to see these scenes being played out on the show last week.

Despite my earlier reluctance to take any photos, I was forced to pose for photos inside the interior of Harold's and also the Brennan household . Also my claims to fame from that day were carrying the plant that lives by the front door of the Brennan house into the studio and also wheeling the buggy of Toadie and Fake Dee's lovechild from the studio back to the Art Department storage room at the end of the day...Baby's watermelon carrying has nothing on me!

I'll have a Fiji water please!

Rearranging the fruit bowl

This couch smells of Brennan

Washing up before Mark's OCD kicks in.

A photo of all three Brennan boys...all fully clothed at the same time!

I had such a wonderful day at the studios and I will be forever grateful to everyone in the Art Department who really looked after me and made a random Pom who is a bit too obsessed with their show feel extremely welcome!

Grampians Getaway

Last weekend I went on a little three day getaway to The Grampians, which is a beautiful forresty/mountainy area between Melbourne and Adelaide and it is also absolutely packed full of kangaroos and emus.

As I don't have a car, I had to be inventive with my travel arrangements. I managed to get around my transport dilemma by booking myself onto a one day tour to The Grampians on the Friday and then I would be dropped off at a hostel, where I'd stay for two nights and then the tour guide who was coming out on Sunday would pick me up in the evening before his group headed back to Melbourne again.

On the way to The Grampians we drove through Ballarat and stopped briefly by the lake to have a cup of tea. Ballarat was at the heart of the gold rush in Victoria and more importantly...was where Libby Kennedy moved to for a while to bring up Ben, before heading off to China and letting her parents look after her son (although I would much rather be looked after by Susan and Karl than Libby if I had the choice). It was very gloomy and the middle of winter but I can imagine in the summer the area around the lake would be really lovely.

By the time we arrived at The Grampians the weather had cleared up, we had pizza by a beautiful lake and then we went exploring waterfalls, stunning lookout points and a really interesting Aboriginal Culture Centre. Our tour guide was absolutely brilliant and I ended up chatting to him loads about all sorts of things including the fact that his tour company had recently teamed up with two ladies and they were now doing a clean up the beaches tour of the Great Ocean Road. He also gave me loads of useful information about the best hiking trails and places to eat in the little town where I would be staying for the next two nights.

Lake Bellfield

Brambuk Information and Cultural Centre. The mountains in the background are the ones I tackled the next day!

The Balconies overlooking the vast eucalyptus forests of the Grampians  

I was dropped off at my hostel at 6pm and greeted by a super friendly woman who showed me to my room. I asked her if there was a TV as I obviously needed to watch Neighbours and she gave me directions to the lounge. At 6:15 I ventured out of my room, made myself a cup of tea in the largest mug I've ever seen and entered the lounge (which had a roaring fire going and the most comfortable sofas in the world) at which point a man turned around and immediately asked me if I was the Neighbours girl!!! It's nice to know that it takes just half an hour to get typecast...even over here!

Over the next few days I did some serious walking, including a grueling four hour hike to the get to The Pinnacle lookout point (on a very misty day so there wasn't much to look out onto). The next day I went up the opposite mountain and was able to see a lot more when I reached the top.

What a view!

I don't even need to go to New Zealand to experience Middle Earth!

A much better view than the day before.

After climbing every mountain I walked back through the little town of Halls Gap and I amused myself by taking photos of signs that I could make Neighbours connections to...which is a popular pastime I've developed since starting my travels.

Darcy Tyler's bar and grill

I really hope Shane Rebecchi puts one of these signs up on his wee generator.

I see Tim Collins is trying to compete with  the Robinson's hotel empire...

...and there's room for all in Ned's bed!

I appreciate this blog post is more about me boasting that I climbed several mountains rather than anything hugely Neighbours related although I did try to keep it on topic as best I could. I've actually hopped over to Sydney now for a bit and I'm not really sure how long I'm going to be there for or when I'll be going back to Victoria but I have really really enjoyed exploring Melbourne and the surrounding areas and I was quite emotional when I left.

My little trip to The Grampians was the perfect way to end this leg of my journey and I met some really lovely people in the three days I was there. I would thoroughly recommend taking the time to explore this beautiful part of Victoria if you can and I've left some helpful links below.


Autopia Tours - tour company I used for the first day and my transport back to Melbourne

Grampians Eco YHA - the most wonderful hostel you'll encounter in your life. Really family friendly and also has free eggs in the morning freshly laid by the resident chickens!

Trash Bags on Tour - small start up tour company that cleans up the local area as they explore