The last of May

The last day of May – the day winter started. I was up early, 5.45am – that sounds better than a quarter to six. I had an inspection of two properties and was due at the first at 7.45. This ridiculous hour was at the tenant’s request. She has her own business and she opens up. I arrived on time and two large fat cats greeted me at the door. She was some where behind.

This unit is art deco with real charm – every now and again I wonder why I wasn’t buying property in Melbourne about 10 years ago when the current owner bought this for what was described as ‘next to nothing’. Whatever that means.

I wasn’t here ten years ago and if I had been, I wouldn’t have had the money or the foresight. The lack of foresight would have been my biggest handicap. Foresight is a great thing if you have it. It beats hindsight hands down. I have great hindsight!

We had finished going through the property and I had noted all the minute problems when she said, “Would you like coffee? I’m going to have one before I head for work.” “Thanks but no.” Why did I get up so early? I could have arrived after the coffee.

It is surprising during a Routine Inspection how many tiny things tenants find to complain about. It is as if they feel the visit is a waste of time unless the Property Manager trots off with a list of problems. I can watch their mind working, searching over the last six months, trying to find something that I can write down and when they do it’s as if we both have achieved something.

Then there was the day…. But the evening was great. Dinner and a movie. I have been in Melbourne for nearly 6 years and I still find dinner out a treat. Breakfast out is even more of an exotic experience but today it was dinner at the Bay Street Bar and Grill – a treat but not an exotic experience. Great food. It is a café that locals can trot along to and eat on a regular basis and it appears they do.

It’s right next to the Brighton Bay Cinema where we were to see the ‘My best Friend’ After a glass of cabernet merlot and a chicken and avocado pancake we sank into the comfortable arm chairs to be entertained.

The receptionist at work had said she and her friends laughed out loud at the humour in this movie. I found the humour subtler and more poignant. Loneliness or is something I can relate to. When I first arrived in this magical city I found delight in a minor conversation on the tram or with someone in the library. For days on end, unless I chatted to these people, I spoke no one.

Go, see the film. It is an interesting take on human relations and how we don’t really hear what another person is telling us. In the film Bruno, who appears to have the three S (sociable, smiling and sincere) says something about each person being alone, the main character Francois doesn’t hear him because he is still thinking about himself and Bruno in relation to himself. An entertaining film but also a moving one.

I was going to the gym this evening. I was pressured by my gym buddy to turn up for a yoga class at 7.45. She was very keen on Tuesday. To be a good friend I thought I should go. I rang today to confirm and she had forgotten and invited a friend around for the evening. I was relieved but I wondered about being a good friend.

Here we are back again on Monday 28th with the picture successfully loaded this time. This is the print .............

Monday – 28th

Hi
In property management some Mondays can be fun. There are applications from the properties that were open in the weekend, the phone buzzes and the office hums with energy.
This Monday was the other sort of Monday. A dead, flat, wet fish sort of Monday where the minutes drag and you look for an excuse to go out.
The Streets were dead too. The usual cars weren’t jamming Chapel Street. Toorak Road was empty. The whole city had the Monday blues.
It wasn’t a day to be creative but I tried. I took a lithograph from print maker Gray Tricker to be reframed. I felt odd doing this. My husband who died many years ago had chosen the original frame. He felt very please with it. It was one of those frames that hid the picture and the picture has been hiding on walls ever since. If you walked into the room your eyes would move over it.
I have chosen something else – quite different. Disloyal? A better choice? All I know is that there was a park right outside the framer.
I have just Goggled Gary Tricker and found a print called Green Tea. See if you like it? I’m a cat freak – well an animal freak. I go for dogs in the same way .
This is the print in the old frame – your thoughts!

Hi Everyone. I’ve set my blog up. It’s out there. I’ve checked. Magical. The weather has been magical too. A crisp early morning and it sparkled as I headed for the gym. My friend R and I are the older ones in the class and the instructor sought us out afterwards to say we were doing well. She takes classes at another gym where every one uses very light weights. How light I wondered? The Shoulder Muse is always telling me I should be upping the weight. We spoilt the healthy glow by having a shot of caffeine as we watched people walk along the foreshore. Should we have wound down on the run machine? We asked each other the question, sipped our coffee and agreed we could have been eating fruit bread toast. That café has the best fruit bread toast in Melbourne so we showed great restraint.

Have you heard of the painter Henryk Szydlowski? I hadn’t until I spotted one of his paintings in the recent Melbourne Art Exhibition. It grabbed me from several isles away and I raced towards the joyous colour and life it gave off. I loved it - $15,000 worth of love. I mentioned the painting to my artist friend J. I have inspired her to paint a painting in the style of Henryk Szydlowski. She has been at my house all afternoon searching for inspiration of shapes and colours and images that are ME….IT IS TO BE MY PAINTING !!!! .

You can Goggle Henryk. http://www.szydlowski.net My painting will be unique with her shapes inspired by my life and our colours. We talk colours. She has taken home two pieces of curtain fabric that used to grace my hundred-year-old New Zealand villa. I will post a photo when its finished.

Em

Saturday

The day I decided to write a blog my cat was dying.
Why a blog? . Living alone is great. I eat what I want and when I want . I can drink a glass too much of red wine in the evening without censure. I choose the TV program and the DVD. There is no one to talk to. I need to talk. To unload the day. A blog?

Today is a glass too-much red wine day. A celebration? My cat came home from the vet to live another day. Drowning a sorrow? At work I have lost 3 properties to another agent. That in the real estate world of property management is one of the greatest crimes.

“That’s okay” said my shoulder-muse. “The owner’s given them to a new friend.” I want to believe it’s okay but Real Estate is about numbers not reasons and excuses. This has become my fault.

I have read lots of diaries. Some years ago they were my favourite reading and I sought them out. Questions intrigued me. Did the diarists know others would read their work?

One of my favourite diarists is the Reverent Kilvert. I don’t think he believed anyone would read the evening records of his daily existence.

I visited the town of Clyro near Hay-on-Wye where he wrote the diaries. House martins were building under the eves of the house and I imagined myself isolated there in mid-winter where the people in the surrounding hills froze their dead until they could bring them down for burial in the thaw. While they preserved their dead he broke the ice on the water in his bathtub for the morning rinse. Would I have record that fact.

The day was warm and sunny when I was there. A blissful summer’s day with no sign of winter.

There it is my first blog. I will curl up and try to sleep and wonder whether I have a job in the morning.