Over an extended Easter break we, the gentrified Perth branch, joined with the big guns family branch at Northcote in inner city Melbourne. That’s Jas and Stu’s house—under the big chimney— in the 1920’s picture on High Street above
It was a holiday with a difference; Jas held court each day from the heights of the old Bailey (a 12ft high aluminium set of steps); Isabel took advantage of the fine weather to take the grandies to the local parks and ice cream shop; grandpa was literally an old grumble-bum but did some cooking and Stuart practiced his hiking skills in readiness for a weekend bush hike thru the Dandenongs later this month.
Home on High is never dull.
The refit of the early 20th century mansion is progressing extremely well and now complete with bedrooms, celebrity bathroom, kitchen of c’est magnifique proportions, dining and family room.
Golden aged folk soon forget how three year olds treat their 2 y o sisters. And the marvel of how a newly celebrated one year old just gets up and walks all over the place.
Jason the gyp-boarder (him with the long mullet) wandered about the backyard gorging on the abundance of ripe red grapes on the vine. It bothered him not that a friendly neighbourhood rat shared his passion for the berries nor the fact that lorikeets joined in the harvest in the evenings.
The sparkies in their orange shirts and weighty tool belts gave enriched colour to the mix and we were forever forgetting to put out the bins on Sunday nights which, added to the builders’ rubble created a walloping accumulation of detritus.
But I digress.
The littlies could get up to 25kmh up the length of the passageway on their little bikes and it was a wonder Roma never got her toes run over. Frankie, Quinn and Roma can now all luxuriate in their own six foot circular Roman bath, or alternatively the family can wash together in a shower room replete with no less than 4 shower roses.
In addition to all of this Jas is handling one unit at uni and house maid at each change over of the Airbnb on Claude Street. And her classmate students in architecture seem to constantly complain of tiredness.
Footnote:
The cannons are Mark VII 8 inch breech loading rifled guns and were built in 1884 and 1885 by W.G. Armstrong and Co. of Newcastle-on-Tyne, Northumberland in England. The cannons weigh just under 12 tons each, or about 12,000 kilograms and could fire a shell weighing 95 kilos over 7.5 kilometres.
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