Fog

Living in Melbourne for the last few days has been a surreal experience. A damp fog covered everything. It’s cold and dangerous but quite beautiful. There’s a wonderful view of the city in fog as you drive down St Kilda Road and into St Kilda Junction to make a right onto Dandenong Road.

Tuesday was this week’s Monday in Property Management. Queen’s Birthday holiday meant there was more chance of emergency call outs, leaking hot water tanks, power problems and oddly, problems with alarms to deal with on our return to work. Then for those people who had a miserable weekend it is a chance to think of things they don’t like about the place they’re renting and ring up and complain. Owners tend to dwell on issues that annoy them about their tenants. One owner had been mulling over how much compensation he should charge the tenants for a few small black marks on a skirting board.

I visited a property on Tuesday morning with another Landlord who also had been mulling over things in the weekend. He asked me to view the walls from different angles and sure enough in different lights some discoloration could be detected. These tenants had left a cupboard full crockery and cutlery behind. This often happens. I’m amazed people don’t go round and check everything when they finally leave.

The fog can change and soften lights and show the city scape as if it was a picture in a child's story book it can also be cold and bleak. The highlight of the week for me was dinner at the Indian Harvest café in Waverely Road, East Malvern. At 7.45 when we arrived it was packed and it was as well we had booked. By 9.30 the place was empty and we were the only people left. A strange feeling to be the only dinners so early in the evening. The food was good although fairly standard fare. The deserts were the most interesting. Try the Gulab Jamun - milk powder dumplings in light rose flavoured syrup and the Kheer – rice pudding. We shared and the two went stunningly together. It’s worth a trip. It’s licensed and B.Y.O. But keep in mind that if you take your own wine they charge $2.00 a head corkage. There were six of us and they charged $12.00 to open the one bottle of wine someone had brought even though I drank beer and not wine.
Home though the fog.