One of the best moments during the whole moving-house extravaganza, was waking up at 7.30am on the Saturday, to find Bethany in the hall pushing the piano with a friend toward the front door. With bravado and gumption.

i don’t usually think of a piano as something easily shifted, but Bethany and gray and all their gang hoisted it up on top of gray’s ute, and after much hilarity, drove it away down the cobblestone laneway.

The fun bit was when Ricardo started playing the thing on the ute, at top volume. At eight in the morning. Neighbours did not complain. His playing is much better than mine.

As soon as i can get a photo or two from B., i shall post here.

love michael

Lucky me to have such wonderful friends and colleagues helping me out !!!

Annie the angel comes over and completely re-organises the garage sale, so that it looks like useful things rather than a pile of junk; and then spends all day over here packing boxes for me. What a darling.

Tim brings croissants for breakfast. Ooo yum what could be better. Not only that, but then he packs up all my telephone and internet gadgets neatly into a box. Plus, he’s going to take away the fish and his tank. Yay Tim.

Jude and jody-Lee go mad on the council rubbish collection pile. Just keep piling they say.

Lovely Czek offers me a room even though he really doesn’t want or need a housemate.

Will and Jodie lend me their van on two separate days, meaning they have to get all thinkie on their schedules. So sweet!

Margot spends hours packing up all of the precious ceramic art, and then takes it back to her place for storage.

Amarina lets me store a mountain of boxes in her huge Land Rover called Keith. Plus, she brings up so many coffees for Louise and me, when our kitchen is not functioning. Am is a very generous and wonderful woman, so kind.

Lou does such an amazing job on the kitchen, cleaning it like it hasn’t been cleaned before (well, since Jude and Jody lived in the house, and Jude scrubbed every last bit of it.)

Then plenty of people – Ben, Maggie, Daryl, Deb, Zoe, Libby, Amarina – send across possible ideas for rooms or houses.

Fraser asks every time he sees me, and offers cardboard boxes in case i have to live under a bridge. Later i find out he’s been asking Syl, “Can michael use that space under the cupboard?”

Some days i feel like i’m surrounded by angels.
thank you all .. so much !

May the universe bless you all with this kindness and more.

Don’t know what’s going on with the Rental Market, but when i heard Ju-Yuen and her partner were given notice – for the second time in a year – i sighed with despair.

Two weeks ago, David came into work looking depressed, and told us that with his partner and child he’d been given notice. Four years they’ve lived in this place, and they’re not looking forward to the idea of having to find somewhere else.

Rohan at work is telling stories of boarding houses in West Heidelberg that fit whole families into a room (for under $200 a week). The Four Corners episode on Debt – a month ago – was horribly depressing. Apparently the number of mortgage repossessions by banks in the last twelve months is higher than during the entire early nineties recession (in Australia i think).

So .. anyway.

Fingers crossed, eh ?!

i read today that Melbourne is growing at a furious rate. 1500 people moving here every week. Nice to be so popular.

(News check: “Supreme Court files show lenders claiming a record 57 homes a week, triple the level of five years ago.” from the Hun, feb ’08. )

Well i took the latest letter down to John this morning. It’s fully legalese. He wasn’t so happy. “Oh you’re going the legal road are you? But we’ve always been friendly.”

Well until you gave us half the legal requirement for notice to vacate, yeah.

i hope things don’t get ugly.

Anyone got a spare 5br mansion for under $2000 a month?

Tee hee.

Good news, everyone!

When we consulted the very wonderful Tenants Union o’ Victoria (tuv.org.au), they told us that the Notice to Vacate was legally invalid, and the minimum period is 60 days – even when you’re not on a fixed term lease (ie month-to-month).

So, technically you could just ignore the letter, the lawyer told us. but if you’re on good terms with your landlord you might want to tell them, so they can draft another letter. Give them a chance to get it right.

Hmm, let me think ..

Oh no, the day has come. We thought things were a bit strange when Bobby the new landlord started having his mail directed to our mailbox. I think i’m still in shock.

So John comes around yesterday evening and asks to see me. He’s got a letter, and he says, “i don’t think you’re going to like what’s in there.”

Sure enough, our remaining time in the beautiful house on the hill has shrunk dramatically. From “the foreseeable future”, to 31 days. Notice to vacate.

No, it didn’t say ‘vacation’.

Ick. Now i’m upset. Don’t know exactly what’s going on in John’s family situation, but somebody wants to destroy their father’s vegetable garden as well as the best rental home in Melbourne.

Ouch. So if anyone has any leads on a new and marvellous place for michael or lou to stay, let me know. Thanks.

Yes, i’d like two large well-lit rooms, gorgeous views of city or parkland, music room, polished floors, big kitchen, huge backyard, plenty of really good heating, good eco-design, close to northcote and city, lovely housemates and friendly landowners, all for under five centi per moon.

Yep, that’d be good.