bttb-rox!

The Coral interview is fantastic!!! Thank you, Coral, and of course the person/people involved in bringing the interview together . Yay! I'm entering again this year, if I think i'm up to the task .

Very, very windy and it's raining like there's no tomorrow! The weather people (I love calling them that!) at the BBC are forecasting very bad conditions for Scotland within the next couple of hours, and parts of Northern England are expecting snow and heavy gales aswell. Pretty much the whole of Southern England has got heavy winds and rain...wonderful...not.... Somewhere in Canada was basking in 12 degrees sunshine yesterday . For anyone who knows what the weather in Canada is usually like, that is HOT!!!

^^ LOL, John! I think someone might want to change ''his'' to ''her'' Ryan, well done! The map looks brilliant. I'm yet to feel the force of MT, but i've heard that it's not nice . Update: Ryan's 20 Naff Departures

Not really, to be honest. There was no similarity to the Madeline case in the storyline. If it had been a storyline about a young character going missing, yes, but I don't think a storyline involving a young child being hit by a car is controversial, in this instance, as it doesn't have any similarity to the McCann's ordeal, like Si said. If the storyline involved something similar to what's happening with the Madeline case then I would hope Five wouldn't show the episode. The BBC had to scrap a storyline for EastEnders earlier in the year because it was too similar to the Madeline case. Fridays episode was so sad . The montage sequence with the prayer at the end was really heartbreaking. Kate Ritchie...woweeee....the way she portrayed Sally's emotions towards Alf was incredible. Chloe (Pippa) did a good job of staying still, her eyes were moving a little bit, but she's only 5! Older actors sometimes have a tough time of staying still!

I think that's what the UK needs...a stable climate. People don't know what the whether's going to be like from one day to the next. It's a bit annoying because you don't know if you're going to roast, if you're going to freeze, or if you're going to need your wellies! At the moment i'm quite toasty, but i'm indoors, however, outside it's cold, grey and pretty miserable . Where's the snow?.... We'll probably have to wait until late January/early February now...

BBC Severe fog causes flights chaos Hundreds of passengers were stranded as severe fog grounded planes at Gatwick, Stansted and Southampton airports. As many as 2,000 people were affected by cancellations at Gatwick. Some 16 departures were cancelled at the airport, 12 of them Easyjet flights. In Southampton, flights were cancelled from 1700 GMT on Friday while arrivals were diverted to other airports including Birmingham and Bournemouth. Elsewhere at Stansted, three flights were diverted away from the airport. Another eight flights were diverted into the airport, mainly from City Airport. Passengers travelling on Saturday have been asked to contact their airlines for more information. ------ The amount of thick fog here last night was tremendous. I love fog, so it's fine by me . I feel sorry for the people whos flights have been delayed/cancelled though. One of the last times I was at the Stansted bus terminal there was an amazingly large amount of fog. It was there at 7am in the moring and it was still as thick at 8pm at night. Sometimes fog lingers for days, I wouldn't be suprised if that's what's going to happen this time. Does anyone have severe fog where they are?

Ric's diabetes isn't often mentioned now, it was a couple of years back. As far as I know, he takes insulin injections daily to regulate hypos (Hypoglycaemia) which occur when your blood sugar levels drop too low. I'm very interested in medical things btw .

Martha has 3 adoptive brothers, but apart from Macca, I don't know their names.

I just found this post that Dan made ages and ages ago... ...and I can't agree with the last part of that post more!!! It's SO true. England goes into a state of complete panic when it's extremely hot or extremely cold. It's farcical at times, it really is. I think it was last year, during the world cup actually , that the UK had a heatwave. The hottest week of the year fell whilst we were having work done on our house. And what happened? We had to stay out in a tent for that WHOLE week. We didn't have to sleep outside, but we were out in it from about 6am-8pm every day for about 3 weeks. I couldn't believe it. Seriously, I was so hot I almost fainted. My cat was fairly small then aswell, so I had to look after him when he was hopping in and out of the tent and into the extreme hot outside! I can't tell you how ill I felt after those 3 weeks or so. Everyone was in 'World Cup mode' including myself and you could hear everyone cheering and I just thought...these moments might very well be my last.... Maybe it wasn't quite that bad, but i'll never forget it that's for sure! At the moment it's a bit chilly, actually it's VERY chilly. I was waiting for a taxi outside some shops today and thank goodness I had some knee height boots on, I would have frozen otherwise . My feet always get cold before anything else . The weather was absolutely horrible the other day, it was so cold I can't even put it into words. Those fortunate people in Oz...30 degrees...sounds like bliss. It's cold enough for me to turn into a snowball right now! I LOVE the snow though, at least it's 'interesting' weather. When it's just cold and grey it's miserable, but if there's a thunderstorm or some snow falling, it's sooooooo much better! Talking of snow, has anyone got snow where they are?

Couldn't agree more! She's a true Summer Bay great . I loved last nights episode. Ric made me laugh a couple of times and Geoff was as cute as ever! Colleen's line about Tam being trouble ''with a capital t'' wasn't far off!

Hello...anyone around? I'm just using my brothers computer at the moment. I've got H&A on...in the background . Just relaxing before I have dinner. I've been playing my guitar a bit today and I still sound as awful as when I first got it! I think i'll have a read through my guitar training book later on tonight! I'm listening to 'Run', but not the Snow Patrol version...Leona Lewis did a live recording in the Radio 1 studio, so i've got that on and it sounds incredible. So, how's everyone else? Anything good happening at the moment? ...

Nope, your eyes didn't deceive you . Martha and Jack were funny last night. It's soooo obvious there is something still there between them. I agree with what Martha said about Jack not having opened up to her about how he feels. She's been pretty upfront about how she feels, and I think Jack has been holding back because of Sam.

The first one is excellent Jen! I really like the cropping, the posistion of the text and the colouring. The second one is great aswell. There's just a little thing that I think looks a bit out of place, and that's the curly line. It looks fantastic on the other ones I've qouted below, but i'm just not a fan of it on that particular one. Just saying that so you can improve, it's fantastic otherwise . These are really stunning. The green backgrounds in the first two are very eye-catching and the curly lines are a nice touch. Aww, the Beth and Mattie one is excellent. Makes me feel sad looking at it . Brilliant job! xxx

Simply upload the picture to an image hosting service e.g Photobucket or Imageshack, copy the URL from there, then click on this >< icon (which you'll find on the control panel where you select the smilies/emoticons etc.)......, and paste the URL in there. If you still have problems, feel free to PM me .

Hehe, don't worry! Yeah, i'm not a fan of the Five forum anymore. Too much nonsense going on . Just a little reminder...Back to the Bay has a rule about the use of text speak. Some members may find it a little difficult to understand your posts, so if you could limit the use of it, that would be great. Terms such as ''lol'' are okay to use in moderation but ''u'' and ''ur'', etc. aren't used in the forum because of the text speak rule. I'm not a mod, but I just thought I'd say.

are u Ted? i think i know u from five and u will know me too, if it's u put a message on five and i will reply and u will see who i am, if interested Nope, i'm not Ted. My real name is Lauren . Sorry, I found that so funny! I joined the Five forum ages and ages ago (I can't even remember my username!), but I've not posted there. I'm just wondering if the early years are going to be affected by this aswell? cheers That's a good question...I don't know if anyone knows yet. There are quite a few specials coming up over the winter break, so maybe the 'Early Years' episodes will be shown at a later date. I'll let you know if I find out anything .

^ I didn't think you were suggesting that they re-cast her anyway, so don't worry . I'm pretty sure that Kate will always be up for guest returns. She's given H&A so much over the years and I think she'll always feel very loyal to the show .

It's funny you should say that. On the Seven website there's a behind the scenes video and Kate and Lisa (who plays Julie), were talking about how similar they look. They really do look alike! They could easily pass as sisters! Sally is just one of those characters that can never be portrayed in the same way as Kate Ritchie portrays her. She has played Sally for nearly 20 years now and to recast her, would be the worst thing in Home and Away history!

^ I was suprised they came top aswell. I'm glad a less recent wedding won though...I was expecting JnM to come top. I thought the way the voting was done was perfect . But then again, I have to say that . Joking aside, I genuinely think that the voting was very fair and well done . Like Kat said, thank you to everyone that did vote and for those that didn't, get yourselves into the MPC threads now!!

I meant to say before, how great is it to see Morag back?! She didn't have much to do on Friday, but she's got a great storyline coming up! Oh, and having Pippa back in the Bay has been awesome. That little scene were Sally, Brad and Pippa met each other at the wedding location was nice .

Some actors choose to leave (sometimes before their contract ends, if they've had a meeting with the producer, etc.) and sometimes their characters are written out (e.g if their contract is coming to an end). Nothing is really set in stone though. Some actors stay in the show up until their contract ends and others extend theirs for a while longer. But I guess the answer to your question is no...the producers/writers don't always write the characters out of the show after a few years. A contract for a permanent cast member (in H&A) is usually around three years, but that can be extended if both the actor and the producer(s) are happy . I'm no pro when it comes to things like that, but that's just what I know . I'm not 100 % sure about whether Kimberly and Zac decided to leave, or whether they were approached by the producer...so i'm not much help really!

We're now down to the third place in the weddings feature countdown .

I know! I was just completely amazed at her acting throughout the whole episode. We got the 'Kate Ritchie cry' at the end aswell....sooooo well done. I can understand why Rachel had a go at Sally. She's Brad's sister, so she's going to be protective of him. She did go a bit over the top though. Her saying ''You had a man who loves you and you threw it all away, for a ghost!'', was the line that really stood out to me in Rachel's arguement. I'm not taking sides, but you're right, she could have told him earlier. I know that Brad was very keen on getting married quickly and everything, but i'm sure she could have told him her concerns a bit sooner. But in her defence, Brad was very in the wedding 'mood' and so got a bit carried away at some points. The whole episode in general was very well acted by everyone involved, and I thought it really had that special factor .

I think the only place where the goodbye feature topic is posted, in in the 'announcements' board. Not everyone takes much of a look in there, so I guess it was the most inconspicuous place that kind of topic could be put, for members who don't want to know about which cast are departing, etc. But like Ryan said, I don't think there was a specific reason as such.