Something I discovered on the way to the northern suburbs

Yesterday marked a bit of a threshold.  After six weeks of getting fed up with the capricious vagaries of real estate agents (ahem, property managers), then going through the turmoil of packing everything up and endless trips between dwellings to clear out the last bits, it's finally done.  The old apartment has been handed back to the landlord, after a frantic week of cleaning.

I lived along the Punt Road corridor in South Yarra for the last eleven years.  Having now become a northern suburbs local, there are a few things I've discovered.

The air is clearer.

There is less grime.  The fridge was a complete mess when it arrived at the new place: not so much whitegoods as greygoods.

It gets dark at night.  And quiet.  I've finally stopped having weird dreams after a week of dark, silent nights.

I have half of a functioning desk, after a fashion.  Working at it is a feat of gymnastic skill.

Sitting on a chair with castors takes considerable art in a house without carpet.  It's a bit like random dodgem cars.  As the boxes get cleared away there's less of a bumper zone behind the chair; I fully expect to have mastered breaking by the time the wall is the only thing left to hit.

Re-sorting my books is going to take a while.  My library falls into three broad categories, and the picture above shows the musicology section.  I did a lot of pre-sorting when I packed the books up, and now I'm organising things more firmly.  With any luck, I'll know where just about everything is when it's done.

Getting to and fro now requires planning.  Normally I'm very organised about leaving the house at a reasonable time to make it to the destination early, but the last week has been a complete shambles in that direction.

It still takes twenty minutes to get to the nearest freeway -- exactly the same time as it did in South Yarra, but covering roughly twice the distance.

Camping out of boxes is exhausting.  At the age of 12 it's an adventure, but twenty years later it gets very boring very quickly.

Mastering a new kitchen is a tedious process.  Once I've got the five essential base recipes working again I'll be able to go a little more experimental.  On the upside, there's a dishwasher (yay!).

Not having upstairs neighbours is....quiet.  It's surprising how you get used to hearing people walking around on the floor above.

Finding a decent local coffee shop will be a major project.  There is definitely a market opening for an interesting cafe to the north of Preston.

Tomorrow I have a morning free, and the sky promises to be clear.  Perhaps I'll get the bike out and start figuring out how to get to work.