Tales from the Inner West

A Single White Female catalogues her adventures living in one of Melbourne's worst suburbs

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It's been a long time between posts, but I thought this would make a nice footnote to this blog.

Two and a half years after moving to this wonderful suburb, and falling head over heels in love with the community I found myself a part of, I have decided to stay permanently. Tomorrow I will be moving into my first home, which is in the wonderful inner west. I'm so excited to be able to say that I own my little piece of this wonderful area. The food, the culture, and most importantly the people (for proof of that, search the #wefo tag on twitter), are reasons that the inner west is so under appreciated. 

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Just when I thought the west couldn't get any weirder. 

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I just walked through Central West. (I have many thoughts on this centre.) The music being played in the CD store was Pony by Ginuwine. The music being played in the centre itself was Celine Dion. I never, ever, thought that those two songs would be played at the same time. As expected, they do NOT mix well. 

Also, the fabulous Cupcakes by Paolo are at the Suzuki Night Market every Wednesday this summer. If you find yourself there, make sure you go say gday! 

Also also, my local homeless man has been uprooted. The RRL took over his little thicket of trees to extend their site office. He's moved about 400m further along the tracks. 

Finally, happy Lunar New Year, and welcome to the year of the Snake!

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Spotted in the Inner West #4 & 5

Both on Ballarat Road, unsurprisingly. All the most interesting things seem to go down here.

4. An elderly Asian woman standing on the footpath outside Masters, at 6.30 a.m., surrounded by shopping trolleys and looking utterly confused. I hope she wasn't lost.

5. A guy wearing silk boxer shorts, thongs and a singlet, walking up the median strip in the middle of the road, carrying a rolled up camping mattress. 

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Trouble in the West

It's been a devastating week in the West. 

Between the shooting of a woman by her defacto partner in West Footscray, and the heartbreaking tale of Bacchus Marsh girl Sarah Cafferkey's murder and subsequent arrest of three men, it does make you want to look over your shoulder constantly. Both distressing stories, both make you realise how lucky you are to be alive. 

Please, no matter your gender, age, anything, PLEASE be careful. Be careful who you trust, who you go places with, who you drink with, be aware all the time, and make sure someone knows, all the time, where you are/what time you are expected home. 

Don't ever make the mistake of thinking 'it won't happen to me'. Because I'm sure that Jill Meagher and Sarah Cafferkey thought that. Please learn from their stories.

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In Flanders fields the poppies blow Between the crosses, row on row, That mark our place; and in the sky The larks, still bravely singing, fly Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow, Loved and were loved, and now we lie, In Flanders fields. Take up our quarrel with the foe: To you from failing hands we throw The torch; be yours to hold it high. If ye break faith with us who die We shall not sleep, though poppies grow In Flanders fields. - John McCrae 

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How To Develop A Cliff and Homeless Man Update

So I was driving home the other day, and as I turned onto Duke Street right at the top near Surrey Road, I saw a For Sale sign. It was advertising something like 8 hectares of prime real estate, and claimed to have gorgeous valley views. Well, yes, it did have valley views...but mainly because this land is ON THE SIDE OF THE VALLEY. As in, the land for sale is actually like a cliff face. It's so steep that I wouldn't even walk up it in case I fell backwards for a million miles like you see in movies. I don't even know. I really worry for whoever buys it. And if it does sell, I really hope I get to see what gets built on it. The results are bound to be hilarious. 

Also. You may remember ages back I posted a couple of times about the homeless man across the street? WELL. The Regional Rail Link have set themselves up to redevelop the carpark at the end of the road, and yesterday afternoon they constructed a big fence to stop people parking in the area they are keeping equipment etc in. Guys, they fenced around the outside of the homeless guy's little pocket of trees. As in, they changed the boundary of their setup to exclude his little area. I might actually go take a picture of this later so you can see what I mean, it's kind of hard to describe. But it's kinda really cool that they realised someone was living right there, and let him keep his home. It's the little things that make a difference I guess.

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With sunsets like these, who needs Instagram. 

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Tweets from the Inner West part 3.

Found this one in the drafts folder. A few months old but always relevant!

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The Westside is the Bestside Visible from the train as it passes through Middle Footscray, the art was done by One Five Faction.

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Cupcakes by Paolo, 28C Ashley St West Footscray.

Honestly the best cupcakes I have ever eaten. Ever. At all. Incidentally, they also make excellent coffee. And are super nice people. 

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Carriages at Tottenham on a clear winter's day

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Spotted in West Footscray #3

A woman standing in the carpark of Central West Plaza, turning circles, searching vainly for her car. I know how she feels...however I didn't think the carpark was THAT big. 

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I could easily rename this blog "Tales of Public Transport in the Inner West". A man just got on the train at Footscray, by himself, and it hadn't even been a full minute before he was swearing and punching the seat. He then spent a few minutes muttering to himself "I'm sick I'm sick I'm sick", before asking the carriage at large "hey, is there like, anywhere to buy clothes to go clubbing in around here?" nobody answered until the girl who had spent the whole trip so far in fits of laughter about god-knows-what engaged him in a loud conversation about where he was going, before informing him that his jeans were fine and he actually looked good. I'm not even surprised by conversations like this any more.

Edit: On my train on the way home this evening, the police actually had to board the train to arrest a man who had apparently been making drunken threats against people, and who had a weapon of some sort stashed down his pants. Lovely.

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Tweets from the Inner West, #2

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Scary?

You know how sometimes EFTPOS transactions show up with interesting names?

The Shell service station westbound on Footscray Rd (near Hyde St) shows up in my bank account as 'Coles Expr Footscary'. 

I thought we weren't meant to call it Footscary any more?

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Somehow, this article manages to capture the essence of Melbourne in a short amount of words. And our beloved Footscray gets a mention.