Up to three hours is a lot of travelling
time each work day. I download an app to the tablet, start looking at
apartments and flats—what’s the difference?—in suburbs handy to the MM office
in Collingwood.
I pore over the Melway. I’m a
child of the south-east and the far east, find myself looking at the unknown
north. Northcote is trendy, pricey. Thornbury seems better priced and the 86
tram runs through it. I check out Kew, Fairfield, and Collingwood, of course.
Two nights ago I stumble into
Richmond, find two apartments at prices I can countenance. I roll up and down
narrow Ellis Street in Professor Google’s maps, scan left, and there’s an ugly
grey box of apartments. The internal shots on the real estate website are
encouraging, Tasmanian myrtle kitchen, polished boards throughout, European
appliances in the kitchen.
A second place just about sits
on the outbound platform of West Richmond Station. I’ve always said I’d live on
a station platform; this is as close as it gets. The front gate is unlocked,
the place empty, and at half past seven on a Sunday morning I’m free to peer in
the window.
I roll the Jazz slowly around
some Richmond backstreets. The architecture is as eclectic, the streetscapes higgledy-piggledy.
I like it.
I take the drive up St Georges
Road into Thornbury, explore a few streets whose names jump at me from real
estate website memory, then head back to the far east.
I lived in Bendigo’s ‘inner
city’ in but it’s not the same thing as inner Melbourne. It’s not just about
convenience to work, but convenience to all manner of things. The MCG is a
five-minute walk away, transport options make car ownership unnecessary.
Hmmm. It’s all food for
thought. Rent or buy? Rent or sell my own house? How much might I extend the
mortgage by and feel comfortable?
Rock on.
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