Sunday night in Sydney and the excitement was more than I could bear, for this was no ordinary Sunday night. Oh no! Tonight I was meeting some of the cast of Neighbors - an event I had been anticipating for nearly three weeks. I am aware that the nature of this story is unbelievably sad but nothing could lower my excitement levels that evening and truth be told, I still have a slightly maniac-like grin on my face whenever I re-tell the nights events to work colleagues or family (or strangers on the bus....)
For those of you that don’t know what this is, it is an opportunity to meet some of the cast of the programme Neighbours. While it is filmed in Melbourne, once a month some of the cast flies to Sydney for a meet-and-greet with the Sydney backpackers.
We eventually arrived at the Coolabar after asking randomners on the street directions – (FYI Neighbours website people, saying the bar is on the corner of Pitt and Market street is not sufficient information)
“Excuse me, do you know where Arizona Bar is?”
“You looking for the Neighbors party?”
“Er…. Yeah” Morto! Not only were we actually going to one of these sad loser type functions but worse still - we actually looked like those kind of losers that got these sad loser type functions thingies… “The name of the bar has changed – it’s now called Coolabar and it’s over there”.
Well, there was nothing ‘cool’ about the place, the music sucked and was far too loud, the drinks were over priced, the food was MINISCULE - no actual joke there - in proportions, the decor was foul, the disco lights outdated and the entry fee humongous! And yet we went in….
Now we lost a few people at the door when the entry fee was mentioned ($35!!) and even I blanched a little at the price – the Neighbours party website has not been updated in oh-so-long because it said it was a $20 entry fee and had the wrong name of the bar on it – I mean come on! - the bar changed its name 18 months ago (we were informed). Nonetheless, despite the dingy interior of the bar, the hefty entry fee and their serious lack of interest in meeting Dr. Karl Kennedy, Grainne and Aisling stuck by me and accompanied me in to the twilight zone of Neighbours Fans. I owe them big time.
After a long discussion on where best to position me in relation to the stage and how best they could obscure themselves from view, we sat down at a booth and ordered a few drinks. Grainnes excitement peaked when she heard there was going to be a Quiz (and they call me the competitive one!) and we busied ourselves filling out questions to ask the Neighbours cast. Shock horror the cast themselves did not turn up until 7:30pm so we ordered some food (remember the miniscule portions I referred to earlier – well the pizza (if you can call it that, personally I thought it had a closer resemblance to a cheese cracker with tomato sauce on it….) and chips we ordered kept us entertained for a while).
The three cast members who were scheduled to attend were Toady, Steph Skully and Ned. Disappointingly there was no Dr. Karl Kennedy but Toady more than made up for it and I sure that Dr. Karl and I will meet sometime soon – it’s destiny!
As the time to the casts’ arrival approached, I became steadily giddier and giddier. I couldn’t stop grinning – it was like I had a coat hanger stuck in my mouth. Nor could I focus on the girls’ conversation, which was slightly annoying for them, as, every now and then I would interrupt their conversation to express my dismay at the absence of Toady Steph and Ned (whoever he was) and then resume my rubber necking look out the window.
EVENTUALLY, three people looking very chilled and ever so slightly bored rounded the corner (Steph was carrying a BEER!) and my grin got bigger, my palms started to sweat and I practically sat on Grainne, pressing her against the seat and the window, in order that I could get a better look out the window at them before they came into the bar. Psycho Emily was out to play…..
And then the STUPID DJ did a count down 10, 9…8…7 well you get the picture - we had ALL just seen them walk up to the bar because the windows are SEE THROUGH you Moron! (Naturally I said this under my breath for fear of being kicked out before I got my photos.) And in they came. They were introduced one by one (but if you think I can remember their real names you’d be wrong, Toady was Ryan (I think) and Steph was …. Carla (?) Oh I don’t know – they will always be their characters to me..)
After a short Q & A, (during which I was terrified they would read out my question thus making me turn puce because this is what I do in high pressured situations like exams/telling a lie/job interviews/stalking famous people and being caught), the Celebs were escorted around the room to the different tables of losers by their minders for the photo-ops and chit chat.
Nervous anticipation peaked as I waited for one of them to come over to our table…. This then became manic anxiety when Paranoid Emily started to think they weren’t coming over to us at all. I thought about going up to one of them and just standing near them while one of the girls quickly took a photo – you can do anything with PhotoShop these days so I could edit it to make it look natural and less stalker like - but Aisling gently reminded me that the instructions (printed out and distributed to each table!) specifically demanded you do not approach the Stars or you would be thrown out.
While we waited for them to come round to us a general knowledge quiz was going on. As you can imagine I was of no help whatsoever as I had the attention span of a goldfish (ooh pretty plastic castle – I’ve never seen that before… swim swim… ooh pretty plastic castle – I’ve never seen that before… swim swim…ooh pretty plastic castle – I’ve never seen that before… swim swim…etc) but Grainne and Aisling pretty much had that covered and it kept them entertained and quiet – didn’t want them loosing the plot like some crazy people do around Celebrities….
Finally, after what must have been a whole 8 minutes of waiting and watching everyone else have their photos taken and mingling with the cast, The Toadfish came over to our table and SPOKE to us:-
“Do you guys want to have your photo taken?” Is what I will have written on my tombstone…because that is what he said…….Ahhh Toady…..
Suddenly I was even more of a blundering-tongue-tied-manically-grinning-idiot and all I could manage was a YES PLEASE! at exceptionally loud volume as I sprang out of the seat and latched onto the poor man like I was never letting him go.
Grainne wasn’t interested in having her photo taken and instead had sneakily taken on the role of photographer to avoid being captured on camera as a loo-her-ser. Clever Toady spotted her plan and managed to drag her into a photo (when I say drag she wasn’t that hard to persuade and in fact, one could say she was quite eager if you were to take bounding up to Toady as an indicator of eagerness…) It’s the best photo of the night so be sure to check it out.
We went on to have our photos taken with Ned (V. hot, nice arse) and Steph (Gorgeous, quite small) and once the winners of the quiz had been announced (not us incase you were wondering) we decided the mission of the night had been accomplished and we would depart the Coolabar and it’s collection of crazed Neighbours fans for the safety and relative comfort of good old PJs.
I couldn’t stop grinning all night and occasionally jumped up and down from the excitement. Fun was had by all and they are photos I will treasure for EVER. Amen.
Emily
