Hello my cyber friends!

Okay... let me start todays update by telling you that last week was not the highlight of my professional career.

I have come to the shock realisation that I'm more of a 'big picture' type girl, and not really a 'p.a.' type .. in fact.. I'm pretty crap at the p.a thing. Sure I have plans for Savage Garden to take over the world.. but do you think I can remember to take lip balm for Darren when we have photoshoots? Do you think that I have the telephathic skills to know that when it is a boiling hot day, and they are stuck outside taking photos that perhaps they might want a bottle of water?? The answer to these questions is a resounding NO!

I have been gently told by my young masters that the main reason I am on board in such a crucial position is because we are friends and it really has little to do with my skills, and in fact, I have also been told that I lack every single quality any good p.a. should possess (i.e. organising, being an all round pro, keeping my feelings to myself whenever I'm hot or hungry etc. etc.)..in fact, when Darren and Daniel did a photo shoot for Vogue recently, they werebeing so cool and I turned into the tantrum throwing pop star!

You may be asking yourself why I am raving on about this.. I can hear you all saying.. "LEONIE, JUST GET ON WITH IT, WE DON'T CARE ABOUT YOUR LIFE.. GIVE US SOME NEWS ON THE PEOPLE WE ARE HERE TO TALK ABOUT!!!!"

The reason I am raving is because an incident occurred last week that will indirectly affect all of you. We went out on Saturday night and when we arrived home, I put the kettle on to make some tea. Darren decided that it was far too late to drink tea and promptly turned it off. Now, it is debatable whether or not the stove was turned off properly.. what is NOT debatable, however, was the fact that I had left the backpack with both digital cameras in it.. next to the stove. You can guess what happened next.

Yes, that's right, my back was turned for a minute and the next thing I knew the backpack was up in flames. I managed to put the fire out (with no damage to the house and just a few blisters to my hands).. but the casualty was the digital cameras! I tried to hide the evidence, but unfortunately when Darren and Daniel awoke the next morning, I had to sheepishly tell them (pleading silently for them not to sack me) what had happened. They took it fairly well, under the circumstances, although Daniel made a point of asking me to hide the cameras from him because it made him quite sad to look at them in their melted state.

The upside here, is that the kind people at Columbia Online have managed to salvage the floppy disc from the camera to bring you this weeks photos. The downside is, that it may be a couple of weeks before I can get any new shots to you. I guess you'll just have to make do with my verbal ramblings for the time being.. for this, I am deeply deeply sorry!

So, this week we have some photos of the guys up at the Golden Gate bridge doing part of the Vogue shoot. In fact, this weeks mini movie will show you just how COLD and WINDY it was! They originally had no intention of shooting any pictures there (although, Daniel did originally suggest this as a good location), but as we were driving into town the clouds were sitting through the middle of the bridge and it was an amazing sight. Darren was driving and quickly veered off insisting that they take some photos there. Hopefully you'll like the finished product when they are published in the October issue of Vogue (Australia).

There were also some photos taken outside the front door of the guest house, using a black velvet backdrop. Actually, things weren't running too smoothly in the Savage Garden camp that day. We all found it incredibly funny when Darren and Daniel leaned up against the backdrop, looking incredibly cool... but only for an instant, because the next minute the doors swung open and they both fell backwards into the house (I think one of my responsibilities may have been to ensure that the doors were closed securely.. I can't be too sure though..) Anyway, I'm only sorry we didn't capture it on film for you.

The next day, Darren and Daniel took a little time out to meet Hugh, a prizewinner from Australia. He had won a trip via the Hot 30 Countdown to San Francisco to be the first fan to hear the new album. The guys took he and his mother, Barbara, into the studio to play them a few of the finished songs. He even managed to squeeze in a ride of Wallyworlds most infamous toys.. the electric scooters!

Hmmm... aside from the Vogue stuff, it has actually been a pretty quiet week. Daniel's brother and his friend were here to visit and we took them out for a couple of dinners at Il Davide.. the local Italian restaurant that Darren and Daniel frequent quite regularly.

The whole recording experience is coming to a close now.. and we will be leaving this haven of beauty within the next week. Actually, Daniel went back to Australia on Monday to start rehearsing the band for the inevitable live performances, and Darren has remained here to finish the last song and oversee the mixing process. Technology is amazing.. the studio engineers are sending Daniel the finished mixes over the phone lines using a process called EDnet. This is then downloaded to a dat so that Daniel can listen to the song and give his input instantly. It makes everyone here feel like Daniel is just in the other room!! Exciting isn't it!

Now, I just wanted to say one thing. I know that having me update the site like this is a very poor substitute to having Darren and Daniel do it for you personally. But, I hope you all understand that the reason they can't do it themselves is because their time is so limited. Due to the fact that they are so busy, you were not getting the Savage Garden information that you wanted, so they both decided that this was the next best thing. What I can assure you is that they read these updates, and when I can, I forward them your emails, and have them check out the new bulletin board. So..... hey....I hope you are all okay with that!

There was just one other thing that I wanted to clarify with you.... there have been rumours FLYING around that the first single from the album will be a song called THE BEST THING. I just wanted to let you know that this is untrue. All will be revealed in due time! Hopefully next week I will be able to give you concrete (or as concrete as we can make them!) release dates for both the album and the single.

So, for this week, that is all from me. Look forward to speaking to you all again next week!

Regards, Leonie

P.S. By the way, I know that a few of you are wondering what the name of the song was that Darren was trying to master on the piano. It is Truly Madly Deeply....... couldn't you recognise it??