Message from Mitchenstein

I'm sure you won't have failed to notice that today is Mitchenstein's six-month birthday! Happy Birthday Mitchenstein. Over that time we've cut our hair, bought some goats, discovered the greatest Neighbour of all time, dressed up as characters from Lord of the Rings, pretended to be top French horn players, rubbed shoulders with celebrities, travelled to random islands, lost plant friends, featured on t-shirts and looked for toilets in Hendon.

Here's to the next six months!

So all that remains for me to do is to wish you all:

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Fröhliche Weihnachten! God Jul! Hyvää Joulua! Gleðileg Jól! Gleðilig Jól! Glædilig Jul! Wesołych Świąt! Veselé Vánoce!

God bless us each and every one! (in the words of Tiny Tim)

The Greatest Neighbour of all Time

And the results are in. In a couple of seconds you will know who the greatest Neighbour of all time is. Are you excited? You should be. (See earlier posts for positions 11-50)

The top ten Neighbours characters of all - as voted by you the public - are:

10. Joe Mangel (1372 points)
9. Sky Mangel (1547 points)

8. Toadfish Rebecchi (1797 points) We know it's going to be Harold 7. Helen Daniels (1818 points)
6. Madge Bishop (1849 points)
5. Izzy Hoyland (1967 points) Little bit of a surprise there...4. Karl Kennedy (2473 points) 3. Paul Robinson (2743 points) It'll be Harold 2. Harold Bishop (3089 points) It probably won't be Harold
and the top Neighbour is (believe it or not):

With a whopping 3385 points:

1. Susan Kinski (Kennedy, Smith, etc.) Well congratulations Susan - little bit of a surprise there, but the people have spoken. But let me congratulate myself for predicting the exact top ten last week. Congratulations Mitchenstein!

Bitsa This And Bitsa That (Remember That Show?)

G'day everyone - how's it going? Well this is going to be a bit of an updatey blog filling you in on various things! Firstly, have you checked out the nostalgia section in the right-hand column? I've tried to add a little something for everyone :-D Let me know what you think!

By the way, there's a Salvation Army group from the USA (The Singing Company - isn't that a great name?!) who have released one album and a Christmas CD - check out their 'Joy to the World/Joy in The Salvation Army' track at www.thesingingcompany.com. Their 'Marching On in the Light' track is very cool. It's so great to find a young group that are proud of their Salvation Army heritage. Here they are:

Aren't they cool? I'd like to be their friend :-D

Anyway, Christmas is coming up soon - 6 days! (5 days for all you Europeans who celebrate it on the wrong day). So that's very exciting - but it's also a very busy time for many of us. I've grown up in The Salvation Army so I've been carolling on the streets for many years, but this was the first year where I actually conducted the band. Scary stuff. I had a feeling that someone was going to hit me with something, but they didn't and people seemed to really enjoy it - and the kids played really well, so I was a happy bunny. That's right.

I haven't been posting so much as I have a big essay to be working on (I really don't have time to be doing this!) but you know how it is when you're supposed to be working... Actually the essay is going pretty well - I just need to spend time on it making it completely unitelligible to anyone who might want to read it. That seems to be what they expect in MA essays.

Of course, you're all wanting to know who came in positions 11-20 in the poll to find the best Neighbour of all time, aren't you?! My money's on Harold. So here they are:

20. Jim Robinson (630 points)
19. Billy Kennedy (682 points)
18. Dylan Timmins (726 points)
17. Janelle Timmins (798 points) No! I really thought she'd be higher than this!
16. Mrs Mangel (805 points) Another one of mine... She was classic!
15. Stingray Timmins (931 points) Them Timminses is mighty popular
14. Charlene Robinson (935 points) That's pretty low...
13. Stephanie Hoyland (992 points) Are you kidding?! She's pants!
12. Lou Carpenter (1343 points)
11. Libby Kennedy (1365 points)

OK, so Harold, Helen, Karl, Susan, Madge, Joe, Toadie, Paul... Who's it gonna be?! Sky?! Izzy?! Man, Ned better not be on that list. It has to be Harold. Well, keep posted and we'll see!

By the way, there were supposed to be pictures of Lou and Janelle in this post, but blogger won't let me add them. It says that it has, but I think we can all disagree with that.

Make a flake!

Today I found an American website where you can make your own snowflakes! Hooray, I hear you say. How long have you been waiting for one of those? And it gets better. The more snowflakes made, the more money the website will give to The Salvation Army. Fun and a good deed - it doesn't get much better than this! So here's the link:

http://www.popularfront.com/snowdays/

And check out the three Mitchenstein snowflakes. If I may say so myself, they are very good! I'm not entirely sure who these Popular Front people are... They seem to throw parties in order to make you popular (?!) but when it's for a good cause, who's arguing!?

Now for the REALLY exciting stuff - who came in positions 21 - 30 in the top Neighbour of all time competition? Well, here you are (it makes more sense to do them in reverse order I now see):

30. Boyd Hoyland (385 points)
29. Stuart Parker (387 points)
28. Connor O'Neill (410 points) Argh...
27. Lance Wilkinson (412 points)
26. Darcy Tyler (427 points)
25. Daphne Clarke (430 points) Neighbours' first death, I believe...
24. Scott Robinson (521 points) No! The first one of my votes has come up already! But in fairness, look at the massive differnce in points between Scott and Daphne...
23. Henry Ramsay (548 points)
22. Drew Kirk (556 points) Killed by a horse. Tee hee.
21. Janae Timmins (592 points)

Superficial?

Apart from the particularly moving post about Peter (see below), it could be said that my blog is fairly superficial. I don't go in for the heavy questions about life that Matt, Stephen and Glyn go in for (and do so well).

Well, I'm determined to prove there's more to Mitchenstein than just superficiality. And that's why the time has come to announce who's come in positions 31-50 in the poll to find the greatest character in Neighbours of ALL time! If you remember, back in August I mentioned that www.perfectblend.net - a website I found entirely by chance, I promise! - had started a poll to find the best Neighbour of all time! Four months later, and the first results are out!! Yippee!

So, here we go!

31. Gail Robinson (372 points)
32. Bree Timmins (367 points) Nice!33. Dione Bliss (357 points)
34. Joe Scully (355 points)
35. Cheryl Stark (345 points)
36. Liljana Bishop (349 points)
37. Serena Bishop (326 points) Are you kidding me?
38. Elle Robinson (322 points) The worst actress in Neighbours ever. And that's saying something.
39. Nina Tucker (318 points)
40. Rachel Kinski (304 points)
41. Lyn Scully (288 points)
42. Felicity Scully (285 points)
43. Julie Robinson/Martin (268 points)
44. Anne Wilkinson (266 points)
45. Dorothy Burke (256 points)
46. Max Hoyland (247 points) The most boring character ever? =48. Annalise Hartman (238 points)
=48. Cody Willis (238 points)*
49. Philip Martin (223 points)
50. Clive Gibbons (217 points)

*Victim of Neighbours' most realistic death scene. A drugs bust takes place in the middle of Ramsay Street. A gun goes off and shoots Cody, who happens to be in her lounge. Marvellous.

I'm quite impressed to see that none of my top ten characters have appeared yet (Harold Bishop, Susan and Karl Kennedy, Janelle Timmins, Scott and Charlene Robinson, Madge Bishop, Helen Daniels and Mrs. Mangel. Have I selected the top ten by chance?!)

I'm glad I seized this opportunity to add some real depth to my blog.