Dion

It was almost 18 months if you include the periods where Genie only made fleeting returns. Laura basically was away for over a month after her death was faked in the lead up to the Twist of Fate primetime special in December 1996, came back for February '97 sweeps and then left again (Laura moved to Switzerland with Lesley after Stefan threatened her), made a few appearances in May '97 sweeps and then didn't appear again until May '98.

Lulu was actually Maxie's rival for a period of time but of course by 2009 they were bffs. Their feuds since then haven't lasted very long; despite Maxie lying about the surrogacy, or the period where Maxie blamed Lulu for Nathan's death. I'd also argue that Spinelli has been the constant romantic pairing in Maxie's life. Sure, they have been platonic for years what with Bradford Anderson only guesting for brief stints since about 2003; but the show has always kept their link alive via their co-parenting of their daughter. True, although it's been so long now that some of the mob crew are as tenured as their Days counterparts.

Manny's identical (even the tattoos! lol) good twin, Father Mateo was one of the hostages during the Metro Court hostage crisis; but other than that, Mateo's story went nowhere. Manny also shot and killed Justus, and Carly's biological father John Durant (played by Corbin Bernsen). He didn't actually shoot Lucky but held Liz hostage at knifepoint and Lucky injured his back when he went to rescue Liz. Manny's shooting of Sam prompted Jason to tell Alexis that Sam was her daughter. Alexis immediately took over and tried to cut Jason out of Sam's life. Manny (all roads led back to Manny) decided to cause a mob war between Lorenzo and Sonny by getting some clowns (that is, his goons dressed as clowns) to target Lorenzo's son Diego (who later became the text message killer but that's another story) at a carnival. However, it was Jesse who ended up getting shot during the ensuing shoot-out and he died. Jesse had only been introduced the previous summer (2005) when they tried doing a summer on-the-run storyline with him and Maxie. After Jesse died, Maxie initially went after Nikolas. But after Nikolas made it clear he wasn't interested, Maxie turned to Lucky and began supplying him with pills for his back injury. Thus began the "summer of sleaze" when Lucky slept with Maxie, Sam slept with Ric and Jason slept with Liz. Contagion was first, that played out over February 2006. Laura woke up in October.

@Mitch And her voice definitely sounds like Parker Posey too.

Cautiously optimistic in light of the fact that other countries have experienced a second wave.

@DRW50Laura has a fair bit to do with Lulu, Valentin, Nikolas and lately Cyrus (I'd like to think that after almost losing her for good in 2018, GH has finally learnt it's lesson where Genie Francis is concerned), but Kevin's only on like twice a month (and Lucy even less).

I think Brenda's Ashley was showing signs that she was about to break down again right at the very end, after Blade died and she found out Rick had posed as Blade and then realised Rick had basically raped her for several weeks/months. But that was Brenda's exit story in the role and Ashley fled Genoa City to Paris immediately afterwards. When Ashley returned played by Shari, the whole thing was glossed over and forgotten. After that, I think the only mention of Ashley's time in Paris post Blade/Rick was when Eileen was back in the role and it was revealed that during that time in Paris, Ashley had apparently gotten herself involved in a caper with her never before or since - once the storyline had ended that is - mentioned step-brother Rafael Delgado (Brent Davis' step-son from one of his marriages).

And now Shortland Street is set to resume filming:

@John Oh my bad lol

@John Yes, and WorkSafe Victoria will no doubt be involved too.

Yes it's a cute little term that has caught on in New Zealand. I don't know if the term has caught on in Australia (I don't think it has) but basically what Neighbours is doing is dividing people up into separate 'work bubbles'. Sharon Johal (Dipi) said we're going to start seeing more phone conversations, production tricks, long zoom lenses and limiting scenes to 3 people - https://www.abc.net.au/radio/melbourne/programs/drive/neighbours-sharon-johal-on-long-running-soap-resuming-production/12166504

Jack got married to Matiu! But no, they didn't come back. The wedding was entirely offscreen and only mentioned by Esther and Eddie to create unnecessary drama (since Curtis would be there and Eddie had caught Esther lying about still texting him just before Esther gave birth to Kiwa).

Dividing the cast and crew into (what we in New Zealand would call) 'bubbles' is an interesting idea and I hope it works out.

New Zealand level 4 lockdown restrictions will be lifted at 11:59pm on Monday 27 April, after which the country will be at level 3 for at least two weeks. The NZ alert level system is explained here: https://covid19.govt.nz/alert-system/covid-19-alert-system/

Faith was the name Karen grew up with after she was kidnapped as a baby (and just as mysteriously, grew up as a brunette! lol) I think Eric was faking blindness to hold onto Brooke at this point. IIRC at the party, Eric slipped up and Sally realised he could see.

Forgot to mention that Ben died in a fire two weeks ago. Thus clearing the way for Cece to eventually get with TK lol.

Though, not everyone was amused:

New Zealand will go into lockdown at 11:59pm, Wednesday night (NZ time)

Initially it was going to be Monday to Thursday, but now Monday to Wednesday due to the impending New Zealand lockdown:

From Saturday, but outlines the 4 level system New Zealand is using. Currently we are on level 2.

Not sure exactly what happened but it seems she wasn't happy with the storylines she was getting and decided she didn't want to sign another retainer/contract. EastEnders apparently was under the impression that she was only on a break and was coming back (hence the low key exit), leading me to remark at the time that she seemed to have done a "Beverlee McKinsey" Here's the interview with Rani Singh (who played Sufia Karim in the late 80s). She drops the bombshell that she's left 21 minutes in...followed by a limerick she composed about it! https://www.buzzsprout.com/650596/2780620-distinct-nostalgia-ep-5-eastenders-at-35-at-home-with-june-brown

I was going to go to Melbourne on the 30th but in light of these restrictions I've decided to stay home. It's possible they may be lifted by the 8th April when I was due to come home but it seems a bit reckless to leave NZ now.

And Cece told TK about Sophia being a murderer. Which probably means their affair is imminent.

Kylie decided to hand herself in after remembering she killed Dylan and her old primary school teacher (but sadly not Ian Reid, so it seems Claire was guilty of that one). It seems Friday may have been her last show. This puts an end to the two year saga of Kylie and Dylan --> Killer Kylie. A bit anti-climatic in the end, the least they could have done is get TK and Kylie to the altar (although a bit hard considering Kylie was still married to Daniel and basically the only grounds for divorce in NZ are a two year separation - it has only been six months or so for Kylie and Daniel, but that hasn't stopped the writers from bending the rules before) and have Kylie remember everything in front of a much larger audience (a soap cliche yes, but I do feel five years of TK and Kylie should have at least resulted in a wedding or a jilting lol). They did do a good job of tying up Frank and Kylie's relationship by having them return to the beach where they went skinny dipping back in 2017. Meanwhile Phoenix has run off after embezzling more than $1million from the hospital, leaving behind his partner Tess and their daughter Amelie. I'm predicting he won't be back and Frank will be paired up Tess soon enough. I'm sure TK and Cece will be having an affair in the near future also. They've already kissed.