Beyond belief...

... the weekend has been one of heartbreak here in Victoria - with our hottest day recorded since records began - and one of devastation caused by bushfires...

Words fail me as I write this - I have spent the day trying to get my head around such a truly awful tragedy - again as I write the current death toll is 65 76 people with a rise in in the number expected... There has been approximately 600 640 houses burnt to the ground and one historic town - Marysville - completely destroyed...

I think what gets to me is that some of these places are within an hour or two drive from here - a nice little drive on a Sunday - in fact we were due to go out to lunch today to a pub which as it turned out was not far from one of the fire fronts - of course we didn't go and I doubt very much whether it stayed open for very long...

I cannot begin to imagine what it was like for people who woke up yesterday morning probably starting out their weekend as they normally did knowing that the day was going to be an 'over the top scorcher' - they would have been mindful of a bushfire threat - most people who choose to live in these semi rural communities have fire plans... Ironically I was speaking to a customer on Wednesday who lives out St Andrews way about her bushfire plan - today I wondered if she was one of the ones who needed to put it into action... But by the end of yesterday some of those people had died and many, many more would be homeless...

The day was hot from the word go 30C by nine in the morning and steadily rising throughout the day peaking at 46.7 at about 4pm before a cool change in the early evening... The problem was that yesterday was a dry heat which was accompanied by a very strong wind... While the firefighters were expecting some outbreaks - things had been under control to this point -they possibly weren't expecting - or perhaps were praying that the firebugs wouldn't be out today... But their prayers weren't answered and someone(s) set about lighting fires which aided by the heat and wind quickly turned into an fast moving inferno - impossible to catch let alone contain...

Unfortunately there were not enough fire fighters or units to be everywhere and people in the more isolated areas had to fend for themselves - they had to decide whether to stay and try and save their homes or flee - unfortunately for some it was already too late no matter what plan they had in place...

As I hear the updates there is more disturbing news... One of Melbourne best known news readers is missing - feared dead - his wife's body has been found and one can only presume he has died too...

I can't write any more - it is too distressing... I sit here and wonder if there is something I could do to help - even in a small way...

'NEIGHBOURS' in the neighbourhood...

If you have never heard or not a fan of 'Neighbours' this post will be of no interest to you... But if you have't ever heard of 'Neighbours' I will have to wonder where you have been for the couple of decades...

A couple of weeks ago we received a letter from FremantleMedia informing us that one of our neighbours had agreed to their property being used as a location shoot for the popular TV soap 'Neighbours'... This - it said - would be Tuesday 27th Jan - the day after the Australia Day weekend. At that point the exact property was not disclosed...I guess we were all a little intrigued to who owned the 'Neighbours" house - even Matilda - our new kitten- kept watch for clues...

We all tried to guess which house was the likely candidate and had agreed that there was a possibility of two - one - two doors down and the other - more or less directly opposite us - our street isn't a neighbourly sort of street so we just had to wait and see which neighbour was a Neighbour...

Love it or hate it most people would agree that 'Neighbours' has been an iconic Australian series that has opened us up to an overseas viewing market - I won't go in to its history but rather provide a link to its homepage here .

But back to our street 'invasion'... Tuesday morning dawned with the promise of an extremely hot day - the first of nearly a week of 40+ Celsius days (113 degrees in the old measure) ...Initially the street was as quiet as it usual is at that time but about 7am it became a hive of activity- there were people in fluro vests 'directing traffic' so to speak - trucks and cars rolled up furniture was unloaded - and there many and various people wearing headsets, carrying clipboards and lugging all sorts of things down the street passed our place...




The house in question was the one nearly opposite - so we had a ringside seat to the proceedings... But as they say one picture tells a thousand words so here are a few my daughter shot literally from our front gate...

The three actor/characters filming that day were Scott Major/Lucas Fitzgerald -Stefan Dennis /Paul Robinson -Pippa Black/Elle Robinson & not to forget the extras - a group of children who played a group of children at a mockup school crossing...

We rang a family member who is a fan and she sat on the front fence enthralled that the action was happening right in front of her - I later realised that this series had begun a couple of years before she was born.

I remember the very early days of it and how the critics bagged it suggesting it wouldn't last... So here it is in its 24th year -numerous awards - many celebrated actors breaking into 'the business' via 'Neighbours'... Kylie Mignoe and Jason Donavon - two of the most celebrated... I often giggle when I see re-runs of their wedding - it was the church I had been married in 13 years prior...

Even with the soaring heating E said they went through the same scene again and again until it was perfected - the not so glamorous side to acting... At a guess, for all the footage which was shot, only a few minutes, if that, will be seen by the time it has been edited... We rarely watch Neighbours but I am sure that we will tune in to see 'our street' when the episodes go to air...

Of course there were lots of fans who came to do what we were doing - watch the action - E said that everyone without exception amongst the cast and crew were extremely patient and posed for photos and signed autographs...

I missed most of the excitement as I was at work - but as I was leaving home the location manager was walking passed and we had a bit of a chat - he seemed a nice guy who was genuinely concerned about disruption to our privacy...

E commented that once again she met our neighbours - the last time being five years ago when we had a 'one in a 100 year' storm which 'drowned' the park opposite us - turning it into a lake, submerged cars and flooded homes and surrounding roads - we were all out in the street about 3am inspecting the damage... As you can tell we aren't too neighbourly - a direct contrast to the series - where everyone knows everyone...

Around about 1pm filming finished and within a short time the street returned back to a quiet backstreet... But... they are to return at a later date to do some more filming - so once again we will become 'Neighbours'...