The location could hardly be better. The house is a terrace about ten minutes' walk from Melbourne Uni (three minutes by tram), and minutes away from the busy cafe, Italian restaurant and bookstore scene of Lygon Street. It certainly has character, and is affordable enough to free me up for lots of time out and about. Technically I suppose it's what's called a dump (20 years accommodating students will do that to a place), but its new inhabitants are in the midst of cleaning it up. My room, facing the street over a gesture of a veranda, has a working fireplace - which will come in handy come May, I'm told; the walls are a mustardy color I may need to do something about. The common room has a bunch of rather spent sofas, but a warm atmosphere. Beyond the narrow skylit kitchen is a sort of garden, well, a potted calla lily with two wooden tables and benches - which will come in handy on the long warm summer evenings just 'round the corner.
My three housemates-to-be are thirtysomethings from Canberra (though one's originally from Sydney), and two of them are in theater. I've learned things I'd never have known about Tokyo and Paris from friends in the theater there, so this augurs well for getting to know more of Melbourne, too! The third is studying copyright law at Melbourne Uni. That might come in handy somehow too I suppose, you never know... (No, this isn't a picture of them. Does anyone know where the picture's from? Philip Pullman says it's the funniest book ever written. And what or who is the koala holding in his hand?!)I move in next week!
