Melbourne

Looked up from my crouching position in the gutter to see this luscious young woman who works in my local deli. Uh, I said, I’m just taking some footage of this water rippling down the stones… look how beautiful it is! I rescued these from the bins at work, she replied, holding out her armful […]

2

My date took me to a bar that was open late. We sat round a splendid banquette like pashas. At the table one tier down, a girl sitting with her friends unfurled a really strange laugh. It was high and sort of squeaky-grunty, very loud: within moments she had drained the whole place of its […]

4

I was working in a cafe, head down, muttering the words aloud under my breath as I forged down the page writing for hours. The man next to me started to take an interest. I was unwilling to give over my concentration to him but gradually angled my screen away to avert his possessive interest, […]

Some days I really miss my cat. She is grey & downy and is a right little snuggleupagus. She’s also a kind of miracle cat because she got lost one night, this was in inner Melbourne, and stayed lost for five months until one day someone rang in response to one of my posters, saying, […]

8

Years before I had driven from Adelaide to Melbourne with my then partner. We towed behind us the tower of terror: all of our possessions lashed to a homemade trailer. His possessions were mostly tools and mine were mostly books. In a seaside town we stopped with his best friend and her husband. They had […]

Today I found a vintage store which glowed like a lit jewel box. Tried on this swishy 1960s poolside gown and just as I was leaving, with it wrapped under my arm, an intricately worked savagely pelted weskit of some ancient skin seemed to wiggle itself in the window at me. It was hairy. It […]

1

Girl on the tram, to her friend: “It made me wanna throw up. And not in a good way.”