Yes that home and away stuff is on here, I am not sure how often but I don't think it has quite the same popularity as Neighbours although I stand corrected if I get shot down in flames on that one..lol

It's a shame that Eastenders and coronation street are sent to you lot too, isn't Britain depressed enough without spoiling the mental health of the rest of the civilised world?

These damn progeammes have gone from about 3 nights a week at the start to every night and now every day about 3 times with an omnibus on the weekend that lasts about 4 days. UK TV is full of this type of cr@p. Subsequently I turn it off.

Muck

I am shocked Mucky that you actually have confessed to watching Neighbours at some time in your life. You forgot to add that no one ever is over 21 either, perhaps its the ultimate teenage show. I do not know of any Aussie that does watch it actually.
Anyway I am on here to tell ya'll that I have just met with Betsy and her husband who were nice enough to visit me here in the depths of Tasmania and what a lovely couple they are. Betsy said that she was going to be meeting up with Melodie too in Sydney which she is looking forward to - particularly as they live close to each other in their homeland. The world is a small place after all.

Nothing beats the "USA" cable network, which we found to be playing literally nothing but "Law and Order" repeats day in and day out. Admittedly I'm a bit of a sucker for "Law and Order", and often it beat surfing through 100 or more channels in search of something to watch. The villains are very predictable, consisting mostly of (a) defense counsel (always); (b) wealthy residents of the East Sixties and their spoilt private-school offspring. The plots can be a bit labrynthine though.

There may be some closet "Neighbours" watchers out there, but nobody I know is owning up to it - it would be a bit like hearing your accountant confess to a penchant for cross-dressing. Mucky - I admire the fact that you've outed yourself, mate.

Hey Melodie, how's this for a thread hijack?

Thanks Neil (I think??)lol

Oh Liz, when we were in Oz we saw it then and it was about 3 months ahead of the UK (apparently.lol)

I reckon there are far more Aussie closet neighbours watchers than UK one's.
I reckon we should have a poll.

Muck

Makes sense to me, Muck. It sounds like it's socially less acceptable here than in the UK, so it would follow that Australian fans would be more likely to live in the closet.

Neil,

if I knew how to change the title of the original post to "Meeting Up With Neighbours", I'd do it!! :)

Melodie

Hi Melodie, I sure wish you and Sam a beautiful time in Australia. Having some free time..that will be nice I know. Enjoy!!

Thanks LoveItaly!

I was a bit taken aback that someone was actually talking to ME on my own thread since Neil hijacked it! :)

Yes, I actually do have a few pockets of free time planned - exciting! It will also be fun because Sam pretty much has NO idea what we're doing (fairly typical on any trip we take - since I'm the travel agent he tends to just leave everything to me and goes along for the ride, so to speak).

One of our free time things is staying on Dunk Island, which I'm looking forward to, and I'm also doing a site inspection of Bedarra one morning with the General Manager (see, still working)!

Melodie

Melodie, Nancy (unlike me) is a nice, sensitive person, and you can rely on her to tune in to nuances (e.g., this is actually your thread). I tend to overlook these fine points.

I reckon Sam will do his job pretty damn well - i.e. the quiet, thoughtful observer of bizarre native customs.

And Melodie, you'll just have to be a bit more forceful if you don't want losers like me hijacking your threads. I know you're a bit of a shrinking violet, but you'll just have to try to overcome that.

PS, after our waltz around Monterey I bought Steinbeck's "Cannery Row" at City Lights. I'm sorry I didn't re-read it before the visit. I'd have been looking out for the vacant lot between the Bear Flag Restaurant (the whorehouse) and Lee Chong's - the one where Mr & Mrs Sam Molley lived in their pipe - and the location of the Palace Flophouse and Grill where Mac, Hazel and the boys lived.

Not that I'm trying to engineer another hijack, mind.

Neil,

I shall direct Sam to your post, just in case he has any questions about what his function is on this trip, and yes, I'll try to overcome my natural shyness and be more forceful in the future (Sam will be THRILLED to learn that!)

It is too bad that you bought "Cannery Row" after the fact; I guess you'll just have to come again and I'll give you the more in depth tour, possibly combining that with the Steinbeck Museum, as by then you can re-read everything.

However, if you search back in your memory banks.....visualize the street --you're walking out of the Aquarium, crossing the street and there's a very very bright yellow building.....that was Lee Chong's!

Regards,

Melodie
<aka Certified Cannery Row Specialist

Neil and Melodie, LOL ;;) Me nice Neil? Not often accused of being that especially by a few family members!

Melodie you made me chuckle as except for one year marketing for an airline and about 9 months working in a travel agency I have never been involved in the travel business. However that didn't stop my dear husband for "allowing" me to make all of the travel plans. Sometimes I think he didn't even know where we were flying to or on which airline even when we got to the airport lol. So I sure understand!

Melodie, I thought the yellow buiding was the "Bear Flag Restaurant" (i.e. the whorehouse) and the brown timber one alongside was Lee Chong's - ah well, just have to go back and relabel the photos.

Another example of doing thngs arse-about - stopped off briefly in Bodega Bay and THEN watched "The Birds" on the flight home. Must plan better.

Neil re; Hitchcock movies. I don't know if you realized when you drove to Monterey you passed by San Juan Bautista where part of "Vertigo" was filmed . The sequence driving through the beautiful tunnel of eucalyptus from San Francisco was actually a blooper as the tunnel is south of San Juan Bautista not north as it would have to be in the movie coming from San Francisco

A/D

I didn't know we shared a Law and Order addiction. Its like rereading Jane Austen I 'm sure I've seen some of the episodes 10 times and still enjoy them

Andrew, to my shame I don't remember San Juan Bautista at all (must have been too busy back-seat driving as we fanged down US101 with Melodie at the wheel). To make matters worse it's been so long since I saw "Vertigo" that I don't recall that scene. I should revisit that flick.

(In the meantime I'm putting in a big plug for "A Prairie Home Companion", another clever and engaging Robert Altman picture. See it!!)

As for "The Birds", I'd forgotten that it starred Rod Taylor, from an earlier generation of Hollywood Australians.

Anyway, looks like our guilty little "Law and Order" secret is out.

A past conservative opposition was making so many hang-'em-and-flog-'em noises that journalists started speculating about the chances of their popular new candidate, Ms Laura Norder.

Neil and Andrew, I don't see either of your post regarding Law and Order but that is my secret addiction..also the offshoots of Law and Order. Interesting!

Nancy, they exert a kind of horrible fascination, don't they? They're very formulaic shows, but that's probably part of the attraction. The scripts are very tight, with fast pacing, and the acting almost always of a high standard.

The only thing I find a bit distasteful is the way defence attorneys are always portrayed as the scum of the earth - despite the many innocent people in real life who've been jailed or executed because of the bungling (or worse) of police and prosecutors. A bit of balance would be nice, but I guess would detract from the attractiveness of the main characters.

Part of the formula is that the cops or DAs often have to make some elementary mistake leading to evidence being ruled inadmissible, or some such - so elementary I'm thinking "Oh, come ON, you bozos - after all these years you guys must know you can't do that - I mean, even I do!" OK, I know that's the convention, because the remaining excitement has to come from watching them dig themselves out of their hole by the end of the episode.

By now many Australians must know more about the American system of justice than their own - it might come as a shock if they attended a real trial. They'd find the lawyers not roaming around the courtroom or physically approaching witnesses, for a start, and seldom engaging in amateur dramatics of the Hollywood variety. But of course this low-key, polite and matter-of-fact approach doesn't make for great TV.

Hello Neil, I have been out of town for a few days (party time!) and so just saw your post.

Another thing (and I so agree with your comments) is that at least in California our PD does not spend the time on one crime for hours on end as the PD do on Law & Order and the other offshoots of Law & Order. There is not the man power (or should that be man and woman power to be PC) due to budget problems. Although I have to say our local PD is above average.

Neil, I was rather surprised about 4 years ago to read an article (in the SF Chronical I believe) that Law & Order was one of the top favorite programs for women. I thought I was one of the few. Consequently after reading the article I asked several women, friends and family members, and consequently discovered that almost all of them "loved" Law & Order. Who knew? LOL. Take care, will send an email tomorrow!

Nancy, I'm sure no police force has the resources to assign a team of top detectives to work full time on a single crime, unless it's a really big deal. But hey, it's drama.

The best police drama I've ever seen was an ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) series called "Phoenix", made in 1992. I've never seen anythng to match it in terms of realism and sustained suspense - each of the two 13-part series dealt with a single case inspired by real events. The police, and their thoroughly nasty quarry, were depicted with such gritty authenticity that you could be forgiven for feeling that you were watching actual events unfold. Unfortunately it never received the exposure outside Australia that it deserved.

Info: www.imdb.com/title/tt0103511/

I'll participate in the hijack of this thread.

We always laugh that not only can you find an episode of Law and Order (or one of the spinoffs) on tv at any given time, you can also almost always find an episode of Friends showing on at least one channel.

Try it sometime, it is a fun US hotel room game to locate the channel!

Toucan2, we found the only problem with channel-surfing in the US is that by the time you've reached the last channel you've been bombarded with 50 ads for assorted medical treatments and you're a twitching, gibbering hypochondriac. (I've never watched "Friends" though.)