Dion

I'm sure, somewhere out there in NZ, there'll be somebody absolutely horrified that this promo uses the American "Ashes, Ashes" rather than the British "A-tishoo, A-tishoo" lol.

So we got Gareth, Virginia (in car accident) and Victoria all with grudges against Drew, with potential conflict brewing with Boyd over Harper. Drew certainly has his hands full at the moment.

Just watched the episode now, lmao about Michael being freaked out by the infamous horse's head scene in The Godfather.

Oh and the end with Bella was so awkward.

http://www.maifm.co.nz/Former-Shortland-Street-star-Beulah-Koale-lands-lead-role-in-DreamWorks-movie/tabid/76/articleID/20773/Default.aspx

I'm guessing he'll be playing Tausolo Aieiti, the American Samoan soldier from the book (not the I've read it).

Oh and the finale screens on Monday December 14, in a 90 minute long episode.

They haven't made a big deal out of it, but I did figure he was Muslim considering his name and references to traditional values. He'll probably get an Islamophobia storyline at some point, and references to Ramadan, Eid etc and perhaps a crisis of faith. I mentioned earlier that he's like a young Sam Aleni, 

I don't know when the finale is, I'm thinking it'll be Dec 18 because I don't recall next weeks NZ TV Guide saying it was the finale (and I've currently misplaced that so I can't confirm).

Actually it'd be nice if for just this once they'd have the finale on Christmas Day like in 2004...or even run right through like they did in the really old days (1992 - 93, 1993 - 94 and 1995 - 96)

Ali and Esther look like they could be an interesting pairing.

Apparently TEN signed a "lifetime" deal to have the rights to screen B&B in Australia for as long as it remains in production.

I think the show still rates somewhere in the region of 300,000 to 500,000 viewers in the capital cities, which is much higher than Neighbours recent ratings of around 200,000 (though Neighbours is of course on ELEVEN which has a much lower profile than TEN).

Wow I think Wendy claimed the honour of having Soapland's biggest ever up-chuck! Gross!

I don't think you have to worry about Ali, he's the 2010s version of young Sam Aleni, so while he probably go through a 'bad boy' phase at some point I don;t think it will be this soon and I think it won't be with someone as young and inappropriate as Millie (I see him eventually falling prey to a cougar lol).

I think his girlfriend is the traditional type and I'm predicting now she'll turn up sometime next year for a six week  to three month storyline where they get engaged or something, plan their wedding, before ultimately calling it off (or if they do marry, she'll die tragically setting off his bad boy phase like Sam Aleni).

Packing Harry off to Grace was a good idea. I do wonder if they are gearing up for a recast. Reid Walker has been playing the role for six years now, making him one of the longest serving actors at only 15.

Yes he's exactly what I wanted when I said Curtis needed a male peer back at the beginning of September (kinda spooky actually).

I only realised at the beginning of yesterday's episode that Bella had feelings for Boyd, totally did not see that coming, but it feels like a natural progression so I like it as an addition to the story. Now we have a Ginny-Drew-Harper-Boyd-Bella-Jimmy love hexagon (or perhaps a love sextangle lol).

Also adore Kylie and Drew's friendship. I hope it always stays completely platonic. They're like brother and sister only Drew's a bit flirty (but they're not actually related so that's ok!).

He mentioned in an interview about six months ago that he suffered from bulimia and mental health issues from his teens right through his 20s, and didn't really recover until around the time of his 30th birthday (in 2008). He seems to be in a much happier place now.

Sharon didn't go to Uni, she just joined Michelle on a night out to a campus gig IIRC.

Due to having had Vicki, Michelle was a little older than usual for a Uni student (started going in 1991 when she was 21-22 and graduated in 1994 aged 25). She'd been persuaded to go back to her studies by her flatmate Rachel who was a University lecturer.

Yeah whenever somebody returns on a US soap at least most of the characters portray at least some kind of shock and surprise despite it having happened at least 30 - 40 times before! On Eastenders its been "oh so you're alive...meh". Tracy had more of an interesting reaction to it then either Denise, Martin or Dot.

No Shortland Street tonight due to NZ Labour Day  long weekend (interestingly there is an episode on Monday, but I suppose everyone will be home by then whereas tonight lots of people will be fighting their way through traffic) which suggests that the finale at the end of the year will be an hour long.

I get the feeling after tonight's episode that the required male peer may have arrived.

Yep you pointed out a link to the video a few months back so I purposely went into a bit more into a bit more detail regarding Bernie's death so you'd recognise it (the full story was that Carla had left Sam and gone back to the abusive Bernie to get her hands on his money, an earthquake struck Ferndale while they were arguing one day knocking them both over and Carla hit him with a candlestick. Sam found Bernie but Carla killed him in the hospital and Sam was accused of delivering the blow to his head).

Carla's many crimes included possibly framing her sister for marijuana usage, the incidents with Tiffany, faking a pregnancy and then letting her niece Minnie blame herself when she faked a miscarriage and taunting the truck driver who then went and crashed into the clinic causing Carmen's death.

Grace and Sam were interesting characters to bring back, I guess it all came down to the actor's availability. Sam was mainly remembered for the car crash that killed his wife T.P and best friend Steve.

I'd love it if Guy came back, I feel he got a bit of bum deal during his last stint in 2007 - 08 when he ran off with Toni and Harry and was a drug addict.

Haven't done one of these in a while, so in light of Nicole and Vinnie's wedding I thought I'd do a "front burner to footnote" on the first person on Shortland Street to have two (successfully completed) onscreen weddings, Nurse Tiffany Pratt Warner Marinovich (the almost long forgotten Mrs Chris Warner #2).

Tiffany Pratt arrived in early January 1995, a stereotypical  blonde bimbo of a nurse who made no secret that her number one ambition in life was to marry a rich doctor. One of Tiffany's first acts was to raise the hemline of the skirt from her nurses' uniform from near ankle-length to knee-length, causing scandal amongst her co-workers.

Predictably, Tiffany soon caught the attention of Chris Warner, heir to the Warner dynasty, who was somewhat perturbed to learn of Tiffany's comments about wanting to snare a rich doctor. Chris started playing along with Tiffany's ambitions and within weeks had proposed, partly as a joke. However, by then his game with her had turned into a real attraction and Chris genuinely wanted to be with her, only for Tiffany to learn about his initial disdain for her and dump him.

After moving in with Grace Kwan, Tiffany soon found herself the centre of attraction for many men as Sam Aleni and Billy Leach also had feelings for her. One admirer was a phantom cleaner who would weirdly clean the apartment Tiffany shared with Grace. This turned out to be Nurse Otis Jackson, who quickly fled Ferndale after his cleaning obsession was exposed.

Tiffany eventually hooked up with Billy, but her newfound romance was threatened by the arrival of the somewhat frumpy nurse Carla Crozier (sister of then Director of Nursing Ellen Crozier), who resented Tiffany for having the looks that she did not. As Carla married Bernie Leach (Billy's brother) after a whirlwind romance, the two nurses were set to clash with each other and had a catfight at Kennedy's (the local bar at the time).

Tiffany soon fell ill and learned she had Hepatitis C. Tiffany assumed she had contracted the disease from a needle stick injury, but hadn't filled out the required ACC forms at the time thus leaving her with no way of getting compensation if she became too sick to work. Carla, who was temporarily filling in as DON at the time (Ellen has somewhat suspiciously failed a drug test and while it was never confirmed, it was strongly suggested that Carla had done it), attempted to blackmail Tiffany into quitting Shortland Street. In return, Carla would backdate the ACC forms. However, Ellen returned and took back her position as DON and filled in the forms for Tiffany.

Some weeks later as her Hep C infection became fully acute, Tiffany fell ill and deliriously wandered out onto the road into the path of an oncoming truck as a smiling Carla watched. Chris happened to be there and saved Tiffany. Chris accused Carla of intentionally letting Tiffany walk onto the road, but Carla denied it and Tiffany told Chris to let the matter drop. Some time later Billy found out that he had Hep C as a result of sharing needles with a woman from his past in med school and realised that he gave Tiffany Hep C. Carla soon found out about this and seeing Billy as a threat to her marriage, blackmailed Billy into fleeing town.

Chris and Tiffany soon reunited and eventually got engaged for the second time. The Boganish Tiffany struggled to fit in at the Warner's and was somewhat jealous of all the attention that the pregnant Carmen Roberts (the partner of Chris' brother Guy) was getting from her future in-laws (ironically Carmen was even more boganish than Tiffany was so poor Tiffany couldn't even claim snobbery lol). After hearing Bruce and Margot Warner gush after the soon to be born 'first' grandchild, Tiffany snapped and revealed that Chris had been the sperm donor for nurse Carrie Burton and was the father of her triplets. The Warner's quickly went to Australia to visit the triplets before a terminally ill Bruce passed away, leaving Tiffany in some doubt over where she stood with Chris. But she and Chris reunited upon his return.

Chris and Tiffany married on Valentines Day 1996 and Tiffany continued to struggle with being a Warner, making the mistake of bringing Bernie Leach to a society function (Bernie was now a pariah as he had become abusive towards Carla). Some time later, Bernie was murdered by Carla (She hit him with a Candlestick in the 1000th episode, later switching off his life support). Tiffany helped expose Carla and thus clear Sam's name (he'd been accused of the crime).

Chris left with Guy and Tuesday to go to the USA and Tiffany promised to join him, though she kept putting it off as she was afraid of flying. For the rest of the year Tiffany did nothing much apart from changing her hairstyle (dying her hair red and adopting the 'Rachel' hairstyle made famous at the time by Jennifer Aniston) and supporting her new flatmate Emily through her relationship dramas. Tiffany eventually left to go see Chris in the states...

Tiffany suddenly returned in early 1997 and soon revealed that she'd caught Chris with his old flame Alison (who'd eventually be Mrs Warner #3 and Phoenix's mum). After a trying Valentines Day (also Chris and Tiffany's wedding anniversary), Tiffany hooked up with Johnny Marinovich. Margot tried to get Tiffany to fight for Chris, but soon learned about Tiffany and Johnny's tryst from his step-daughter Minnie. However, IIRC, Margot was somewhat understanding and accepted that Chris and Tiffany's marriage was over and so Margot and Tiffany stayed on friendly terms.

Tiffany supported Johnny when his one time fling Isobel Kearney announced she was pregnant with his child and eventually Isobel left town claiming the child wasn't Johnny's (but admitted to Tiffany that the child was). Tiffany also supported Johnny when he had troubles with a stalker and was accused of sexually assaulting a schoolgirl. By this time, Tiffany was a blonde again. At the end of the year Tiffany fell ill with Hep C again and became comatose. In the 1997 finale, Johnny tearfully begged Tiffany to wake up, finally admitting that he loved her.

Tiffany did wake up and she and Johnny soon embarked on a relationship. Around the time Tiffany learned she was pregnant, Isobel showed up with Johnny's son Bradley, and caused some drama, though she eventually left town again. After learning that Johnny's ex love Jenny had aborted his child and that Ellen (Johnny's ex wife) had not wanted children, Tiffany eventually began to wonder if Johnny was only with her for the baby. However Johnny reassured her and the two were married at his family's vineyard.

One day the now five months pregnant Tiffany saw a suicidal patient about to jump off a building. She went up to the roof to talk him down and was successful, only to fall off the roof herself! Poor Tiffany then languished in a coma for weeks as debates went on about what to do as Johnny wanted to switch the life support off but her parents wanted to keep her alive until she gave birth. Eventually Tiffany had seizures and the baby was delivered, a healthy but premature girl whom Johnny named Maria. Tiffany then died that day.

A brief custody dispute ensued between Johnny and Tiffany's parents, but eventually Johnny decided to move to Christchurch with Maria so they would be close to Tiffany's parents.

Anyway, despite being frontburner for most of the period between 1995 and 1998 with a sensational exit, Tiffany was barely ever mentioned again on the show. In fact I can't think of one single instance when Chris ever mentioned her after he returned in 2000.

I think it was just for the wedding episode. Robbie Magasiva is still doing Wentworth the remake/reboot/reimagining (whatever the term is these days) of Prisoner: Cell Block H.

Yeah Alex would have been my choice for a male peer, Daniel would also have the required maturity now but I think Phoenix wouldn't the backbone to stand up to Curtis.

I did think it was odd how Kylie referred to Maxwell as "VInnie's cousin, apparently". I would have thought she'd known Vinnie and Ula well enough to realise that Maxwell was Ula's (albeit non-biological) father.

I did know Maxwell was going to perform the ceremony as he was in NZ TV Guide two weeks ago

I'm increasingly of the opinion that Curtis needs a male peer to keep him in line...a platonic bromance.

I've been meaning to mention that James from the above video has a regular Shortland street themed Youtube channel called Shortland Street scandal.

Unfortunately the account has been terminated.

speaking of that Sarah and Roimata both got mentioned tonight which was nice (was beginning to think TK had forgotten all about wife #2, particularly as he didn't mention her when he was listing off all the people he'd failed).

I'm not too surprised Pixie died so close to Sarah's death anniversary (which was Tuesday just gone in fact). The end of the winter season has become the mid year version of the end of year cliffhanger (although sometimes they used to have that at the start of the winter season, like in 2012 with the 20th anniversary).

BTW did you know that Boyd's mum is Pixie's mum in real life?

Regarding the format of the episode (told in flashback through Marilyn's call to Fisher) I remember the show did several episodes like this around this period (surf carnival episodes told from Vinnie and Tom Nash's points of view and another episode that I think was something like an article/journal/essay that Shannon was writing).

Yeah I know (I refrained from posting about it til I was sure you'd seen it).

Yes he didn't suffer enough IMO.

Air New Zealand's policy on flying while pregnant is here: http://www.airnewzealand.co.nz/special-assistance-travelling-when-pregnant

As Fiji is only three hours away and Bella is less than 37 weeks and has had a relatively trouble free pregnancy (well physically trouble free) it's ok for her to fly.