English Accents, Blond Actresses, Scottish Filmmakers, and Mysterious Kangaroo Behavior

1. Started to watch an episode of Home and Away.

2. Thought that Nate Cooper (Kyle Pryor) sounds a bit British.

I'm probably wrong, though.

I'm not good at distinguishing accents from each other.

3. Felt very happy and proud of myself.

Lord Wiki says Kyle Pryor is an English actor!

He immigrated to New Zealand when he was about seventeen.

4. Wondered if maybe I'm getting better at the accent thing.

5. Thought that Ricky (Bonnie Sveen) looks like a cross between Jenna Rosenow and Elisha Cuthbert 

6. Learned from Lord Wiki that Jenna Rosenow left Neighbours.

I also learned that Amber and Josh's (Harley Bonner) baby is named Matilda.

Amber and Matilda left Erinsborough for a job in Queensland.

7. Started watching One Perfect Day.

8. Lacked interest in the movie.

It doesn't seem like my type of thing.

9. Hoped to end up being wrong.

10. Thought that movie was strange, but not in a cool and positive way.

11. Tried to remember the first time I saw something with Dan Spielman (the main actor in One Perfect Day); then remembered it was Offspring.

12. Felt the movie was starting to get mildly interesting.

But for the most part, it's way too artsy for me.

13. Stopped watching One Perfect Day for today.

I'll probably watch more tomorrow.

14. Went to the Tropfest website.

Today I'm going to watch a 2008 film called "Made in Australia".  It's about Scottish people trying to make an Australian film.

It sounds like it could be fun...and funny.

15. Thought the film was very cute so far.

It's making me smile a lot.

The film starts with two Scottish guys on a train in Scotland. They want to enter Tropfest but feel they have no way of winning, because Tropfest films need to be by Australians and about Australia.

SO...they decide to fake it.

Their first step? Watching Australian soap operas. One of the guys offers to start watching Neighbours, and the other says he'll watch Home and Away.

16. Finished watching the film.

It was adorable. It pokes fun at Australian stereotypes and the way us outsiders tend to view Australia and Australians.

17. Decided I wouldn't include myself in the group of outsiders who view Australia in a stereotyped way. I think I'm past that.

But I'm sure I do it with the rest of the world.

Like....Swedish people all look like Abba and spend all their time wearing sweaters at ski resorts.  They sit by the fire holding mugs of hot chocolate and coffee.

18. Thought about how  a lot of "Made in Australia"'s humor comes from the overuse of Aussie slang.

I've seen comedy scenes like that about English people.  I think there was one on The Mindy Project where one of the American characters tried to pose as an English character.

19. Wondered if Monte Macpherson, the director of the film, ended up moving to Australia. He's listed as an assistant to the producer for the miniseries The Secret River.

20. Saw that Macpherson made a short film in 2012 that was filmed in Australia.

21. Saw that Macpherson made a full-length movie in Scotland. It's called The Silencing.

I can't find much about it outside of IMDb.

22. Imagined that Macpherson made a film about Australia; then eventually moved to Australia.

23. Wondered if he's an Australian fan like me.

24. Started to read a 2012 interview with Macpherson.

He started a program in Melbourne called Film By Democracy.

It sounds like that Bar Karma series I saw the other day.  It involves having people vote on what they want to see in a web series.

25. Started to think Film By Democracy is the one that made Bar Karma, because they're saying their first project is a fantasy type thing, and Bar Karma was fantasy. But I'm pretty sure Bar Karma was made in the US.

26. Looked at Bar Karma on IMDb.

It was made in 2010—two years before the interview. And it's listed as being from the US.

27. Followed the interview's link to the Film By Democracy website.

It doesn't work.  I think the program might not have worked out.

Maybe they should try again?

I wonder if they ever ended up at least making a series.

28. Went to a 2008 article about Macpherson and Tropfest.

29. Confused.

The article says MacPherson has Australian in-laws and is English-Australian.

How would having Australian in-laws make him Australian as well?

30. Thought about it....

Maybe he married an Australian and at one point lived in Australia; then moved back to Scotland?

30. Read down further.

He talks about moving BACK to Australia.

So, that IS the answer. He lived in Australia previously.

31. Tried to understand the news about the misinterpreted kangaroo photo.

The belief was that the female kangaroo was dying and her romantic kangaroo partner was holding her up to say good-bye to her son.

Some scientist is saying, though, that the male kangaroo wasn't holding her up out of kindness. He was in a state of sexual arousal.

Okay?

So does that mean she's still dying?  Or was she just really tired out and not interested?

32. Read another article. The kangaroo actually died.

Well. I don't know. Maybe the kangaroo was both mourning AND in a state of sexual arousal.

There's a lot of possibilities.

A) The male didn't know the female was dead, because he doesn't understand death.

B) Death is a turn on for him.

C) He was sad about the kangaroo dying but at the same time thinking about sex with someone else.

D) The two kangaroos weren't even a couple. I mean does anyone have proof that they were?

Maybe the male has had a crush on the female for years, and it wasn't until she died, that he got the chance to touch her.

33. Went to Mark Eldridge's page on The Australian Museum's website.

Eldridge is the guy who determined the kangaroo was more into sex than grief.

Eldridge kind of reminds me of Ross from Friends. Maybe it's just because he's a scientist and works at a museum.

There's not a huge resemblance.

34. Decided it's the personality.

I mean not that I know Eldridge's personality. But the personality I imagine from looking at his photo is a Ross-type personality.

35. Went to the Neighbour's website, because now I'm curious about what's happening on Ramsey Street.

Apparently, there are some new people.

Steph? Belinda? Michelle?  I don't think any of those people were around when I was watching.

36. Looked at some spoiler photos.

Daniel (Tim Phillips) got a haircut.

There's a mysterious journal with a flower in it.

There's a photo of Michelle.

I wonder who she is.

37. Saw that the criminal car guy is back! I can't believe it. I thought all that was over.

Maybe now I'm glad to not be watching Neighbours anymore, because that storyline annoyed me.

38. Started to see, from the photos, that Michelle is the one who worked with the car criminal guy.

38. Looked at a cast list to confirm the Michelle (Ra Chapman) thing.

39. Saw that Steph is played by Carla Bonner. I'm guessing that's Harley Bonner's mother. I think I remember learning that his mother was on Neighbours.

40. Learned, from Lord Wiki, that Steph was not homosexual in the past; or at least she didn't have homosexual relationships....as far as I can see.  I was wondering because the Neighbours website said something about Sonya (Eve Morey) pushing Steph and Belinda (Nikki Shiels) together. I assumed it was in a romantic manner.

But, anyway, according to Lord Wiki, there IS something romantic going on between Steph and Belinda.

41. Saw that Steph is full of drama...which is probably a good thing if you're a soap opera character.  Although as I've said before, I prefer soap opera storylines that are more low key.

Still...some of the storyline does sound rather exciting.