When I woke up this morning on a wet, dark, November day, I wasn't expecting some Aussie sunshine back in my life. Indeed, I was setting myself up for day of breaking serious news, in particular with Chancellor Jeremy Hunt's autumn budget on the agenda.
But, not long before that, a joyous and completely unexpected thing happened. Neighbours, the only TV soap I've ever watched, is coming back.
And I'm not going to lie. A wave of utter joy swept over me in the moment that I saw the news. I welled up a bit.
I had watched the Aussie soap every day from childhood. From the days when you'd sit down after school, through my uni years (twice a day sometimes, what a time to be alive) and into my working life, when the 25-odd minutes of Ramsay Street life every night provided a little escape at the end of the day.
When it ended in July, it was a sad moment. The finale was very well done, though, wrapping up 37 years of stories in a wonderful way and featuring some much-loved characters of old.
But, after dwelling on it for 24 hours or so (it took me ages to get to sleep that night), life went on. I did miss my daily hit, but then again there are a billion things to watch on TV these days, so Neighbours time was easily filled.
There were various campaigns and petitions to bring it back, but I never really thought it would happen. There was talk of ITV, Netflix, and others, getting involved, but I figured it was all just talk, particularly as the months went by.
And then up steps Amazon. There hadn't even been any rumours, at least not that I knew of, just continued hopeful chat on social media.
Somehow, though, I think that emotion all caught up with me this morning when I saw a video on Facebook featuring long-time characters Karl, Susan, Toadie and Paul. All of a sudden, it was back.
Without warning, that little bit of Aussie sun and escapism took me away again. I struggled to concentrate on work for a while afterwards.
I can't explain why this show makes me feel like that. I'm sure everyone has their own version, though, in some form. It's not necessarily the show itself, more, I think, the fact that it was something that was a part of my day for more than 30 years. It was something that hadn't changed, even as most other things around me did. It was a connection to childhood, too.
Details of its revival are pretty sketchy at this stage, so we will see how it goes. We know there will be new episodes from the middle of next year and in the meantime Amazon Freevee is set to stream some classics.
We don't know who will come back or not, how the story will be picked up, or whether this 'new series' will be limited or ongoing, as it was before. There's already concern that it might not last. We shall see.
But, for now, I am relishing a massive bit of unexpected joy today. Just when I thought Neighbours had retired from its job of bringing the daily sunshine, it's just broken through the clouds in spectacular fashion.
