Cafe #7: Cafe Rathdowne Corner Store

Date: Wednesday, 14 February 2007, 8.40am
Location: corner Rathdowne and MacPherson Streets, North Carlton
Coffee: $2.90 - latte, excellent
Reading: The Memory Keeper's Daughter

I am writing in a cafe at this ungodly hour because I was up at 7.00am to see another house in E Brunswick at 8.00am. This house is occupied by two boys and a girl in their early twenties, a brother/sister + other housemate. A bright-eyed, 22-year-old shirtless boy with dimples and sleepy light-brown hair answered the door. Very sweet and cute but not really a potential housemate.

I am sitting outside and when I look at the cafe picture window the sun projects the cut-out glass lettering onto the bars of the window-facing chairs where the seat wicker is wrapped. The first chair reads in bright transparent letters 'BREAK', the second is mostly in shade, then the partial letters of 'EINE'; the fourth chair says 'COFFEE', the fifth has a skewy 'RS' in one corner and stripes of bits of "LUNCH" highlighting the other end of the bar.

The cafe has a wide tin corner awning and inside is a big tan-brick floored informal room. No particular atmosphere but delicious Jasper fairtrade coffee.

I missed out on writing yesterday. All that I really had to report was my six and a half hour conversation with A1, one of E's friends whom I met for coffee at Soul Food on Smith St. She's doing a PhD in colonial history of Australia and New Zealand is intellectually interested in many of the same things I am. E knew right away we would hit it off - she introduced us particularly during her birthday party and A1 and I talked amongst ourselves for a long time at the pub.

We met at Soul Food at 8.00pm, got kicked out to the outside tables at some point (maybe around 11.00?, who knows?), then kicked out altogether. Yet we still did not say goodbye. We continued talking on the street for - apparently - a couple more hours, maybe more. It was 2.30am when I began my walk home! Amazing! I hate standing! A1 and I talked about feminism, relationships, family, language...

Beyond that I'm having trouble remembering what I did on Monday.

Yesterday was a full-on day. I woke up late and picked up E at work to go to the Victoria Markets around a quarter to one. I had a spinach and cheese filled bread stick type, pide-like thing called borak for lunch, E and A2's usual Tuesday market lunch. I bought some very cheap fruit and vegies and some not so cheap ones. A2 didn't come to the market as per usual.

Later in the afternoon, around 3.30, I embarked on the trip from E Brunswick to Monash to see what I'd be in for. I took the tram back to Barkly Street, where the sharehouse with the cropped-hair girls is, then began: a 20-minute walk to the train station, a 25-minute train ride to Flinders Street - though I should have gotten off at an earlier city circle stop - a 15-minute wait, 20 minutes to Caulfield, where I got off the train to use the bathroom, another ten minutes or so to Clayton and then a ten-minute bus ride to campus, which I didn't take (I asked the bus driver how long the trip was), as it was 5.30ish and I had just made an appointment to see a flat in Elwood. I figured while I was already on that side of town...

Luckily the first bus stop I found upon leaving the train station was not the Monash uni bus (wrong direction) but a bus to Elwood, which does begin at Clayton. Convenient!

But that wasn't the right flat for me either. The two gals were very mainstream - a graphic designer, the other worked at the Centre for Adult Education. They were nice, both of them, smart, just, well, mainstream. And though Elwood is near the beach and the side of town with Balaclava and South Yarra, it is far out and the bit of it that I saw had a small Australian town sort of feel.

Following that interview I was off to another house - this one close to the city. It was a nicer vibe - four Melbourne uni students, a girl, three boys, youngsters. One guy had studied at Wesleyan and we hit it off the most. The other two guys were shy and quiet and the girl had short spikey dark hair and a polka-dotted dress. The quiet Maths student of the group was 29 and fancied the idea of no longer being the oldest person in the house. They live in an old terrace house with two bathrooms and hardwood floors. The bedroom available is small but has a sink. All in all it reminded me a bit of American dorm style accommodation. Depsite the youth of the housemates, though, I think I could live there - it was laidback and easygoing and friendly.

All that 'travel' yesterday left me feeling quite worn out and I hope not to have to do it again soon. I'd really like to get offered the South Yarra house - normal people without pretensions and on the right train line and a lovely house. But I haven't heard back, so I guess not.