March 10, 2008
At the Sustainable Living Festival in Melbourne a few weeks ago I came across this concept called co-housing.
Intrigued we went to a meeting where the concept was being introduced and I have to say, I like it. The idea is that you build up to about 20 homes and add to it a common house that everyone owns together and shares. This way people can have several common rooms where you do stuff together.
The community of the co-housing inhabitants will them selves decide on all matters pertaining to matters of the common areas. The idea is to create a small scale community like you have in small towns and villages within the city and by sharing resources you can actually have more space and stuff without having to own it your self.
Apparently many of the cohousing communities also tend to become very environmentally aware. Waste and water usage become better managed. Anther aspect I love about these concepts is how these housing projects are designed to have no vehicle roads inside the main area. In Melbourne you never see a neighborhood / collection of houses that don’t vehicle access practically everywhere.
These cohousing things reduce roads and parking spaces to a minimum by having joint parking at the fringes and green areas taking up most of the space rather than (a few well selected words here) roads. The green areas are often designed to grow edible things. Olive trees, fruit trees, grape vines, vegetable gardens, herbs and cabbage grow inside the collective and the residents are able to use them from the gardens rather than buy them in shops. This by it self is just about as green as any green project gets.
We are very much into this concept, it sounds like something we would like to be a part of. In Melbourne there is as yet no such place but there are two projects under way now. One in the Dandenong area and one in Heidelberg. This concept is now quite developed in Denmark and some other European countries though and if the Australian ones will be equally successful our next home might just be in one such community.
+ Superbia, an article on cohousing
+ Canadian Cohousing network
February 29, 2008
It is all confirmed now, we have bought an apartment in the city! Offer accepted, deposit payed and mortgage approved. We will be moving in by mid April.
February 23, 2008
We have just made a complete change of tack in our residency plans since my last post. This week we found a little apartment in Melbourne City that we were really happy with and decided to put the boat plans on hold for a while. Provided the bank will approve our application for a home loan we will be the proud owners of an apartment in King Street by next week. The change came in the wake of some thoughts on the practicality of living on board a yacht in Melbourne for a significant amount of time. We are very happy with this decision and the fact that we are not over extending our selves on the amount we are paying for the apartment we expect to be able to buy a small sailing boat within the next 12 months.
February 9, 2008
It has been our goal for a very long time to acquire a sailing boat with the intent to live on board it. Our plan of late has been to buy an apartment in the city, live there for a few years and then buy the boat and move to the boat wile renting out the apartment. After some financial calculations and taking Suzy to the Melbourne boat show we are seriously thinking about reversing those plans, buy the boat first and then later buy the apartment. With the housing bubble, rising interest rates and inflation this may even make financial sense in the short term.
So now we are have taken to trawling the internet for sailing boats, rather than apartments. Boatpoint.com.au has taken over from realestate.com.au as our most popular website. Suzy likes the bright and open spaces of the Catalina and I keep hoping we will find a reasonably priced catamaran at a livable size. The end result however is more likely to be a hardcore cruising yacht of about 33 feet. Most likely an Australian design and build as they seem to be more reasonably priced than the imported boats. Australians are also very good at designing and building boats intended for living aboard and cruising the Pacific. Bruce Roberts, Adams, Van De Stadt and Hartley are all good examples. In the catamaran category we have the Seawind, Jeff Schioning, Craig Schioning & Prestige which are all very good cruising cats.
Unfortunately Melbourne is not the best place in Australia to buy a good value cruising boat. The best deals are up in Queensland, Sydney, Darwin and Perth. Going to these places to have a look at yachts, and then getting the boat we buy down to Melbourne will be a challenge. To make it easier we may even tie the timing of the delivery to Melbourne to our wedding, which will be in August this year. Stay tuned, I will keep posting news on the boathunt as things progress. Right now we are both very excited about this option. This is the second time in the last months we consider taking this option and this time we are quite serious about it. Don’t be surprised if when you next come to visit us, you will be staying on the bay rather than by the bay.
January 29, 2008
As you may know, we cycle to work most days rather than drive or take the train. Yesterday it just so happened I had to drive in to work and it took me a very long time to get in to work. For a while I have been wondering how long exactly it takes me on the bike and how that compares to the other modes of transport. Hence, today I timed my self as we cycled in. The results were as follows:
- 04.02 – getting ready to go
- 33.24 – cycling to work
- 02.58 – parking and getting to changeing room
- 05.54 – changeing clothes
All in all it took 46 minutes. The train in comparison takes approx. 10, 10, 20, 10 minutes or 50 minutes in all. When I cycle fast in it takes me upto 10 minutes less so when i dont have to change clothes and cycle fast the overall time is about 30 minutes and I get really good exercise. I hope I never get too lazy to keep up this lifestyle.
January 5, 2008
Christmas this year was very nice. We had Suze’s whole family gathering at our place for lunch on Christmas day. This was the first time in two years that her family had got together. Lunching and gift ceremonies were enjoyable and the internationally traditional Trivial Pursuit game in the afternoon gave the day an authentic Christmas feel. Fortunately the day was only about 25°C but to be on the safe and mod-oz side we opted to serving seafood during lunch followed by Valberg’s ever popular chocolate & mint ice cream (recipe). Naturally Christmas time in the southern hemisphere does not feel like ‘real’ Christmas to a globetrotter from the north. Even many Australians find that the whole ideology, colors, obsession with lights and snow a bit out of place on a hot day with the sun melting even the tarmac. Southern Christmas time has a different kind of meaning. Christmas here marks the start of the summer holiday season. Most people take their summer holidays during and following straight after Christmas. It will surely take me a while to get used to this. I kind of feel that Christmas as I remember it has exited the calendar to be replaced by a completely different kind of Christmas. No matter, she´ll be right!
+ Christmas Pictures 2007
December 5, 2007
It has been a while since last wrote a entry here and the reason for it is simply that I have been too busy. My entry backlog goes back as far as Melbourne Cup day and there is plenty since then to tell of. Lets start with Cup day. Melbourne Cup is called “the race that stops a nation” and I can attest that it is true. Australians take a very casual approach to public holiday timing. Most of the Australian public holidays aren’t that ‘Holy’, they are more days of convenience and the dates get moved around to suit the mood. They move the Queens birthday to a more convenient time and most other public holidays are put on a Monday or Friday to provide a long weekend to go away. Melbourne Cup day is a public holiday in the state of Victoria. A day of Horse Racing is a Public Holiday! How Australian is that! Cup day is even not on a Monday or Friday, but Tuesday. Melbourne goes crazy for a whole week while the races are on. It all starts with Darby Day and reaches a highpoint on Cup Day. People dress up in their finest garb. Glamorous long dresses for the ladies, hats, high heals and fine accessories. Suits, tuxes and often vintage clothing for the men. They then stock up on champagne and other intoxicating beverages and head off to the race course. During this week the trains will be full to capacity with finely dressed folks who later in the day will often be very drunk. It certainly is an interesting time to be in the city. I’d never seen a horse race before Cup Day. Our local pub ‘The King of Tonga’ put on a Cup Day event witch we attended. Steve had arranged for a large screen, food and some fun. I was quite surprised to find that I really enjoyed the TV broadcast from the race. It was very exciting. The race only takes about 3 minutes, after which the winner will have acquired $5 million and the rest of Australia get really drunk. We had a wonderful time and I look forward to the next Cup day. One of the greatest things about Melbourne is that when big sporting events are on the whole city participates!
November 18, 2007
Summer is rapidly approaching here in Melbourne. Scorching sun and warm winds are not the normal conditions for an Icelander but I reckon I am doing alright so far. Today the temperature has been hovering around 30°C which is hot but not too oppressive while the sun is behind clouds like today but this is the forecast for tomorrow:
Forecast for Monday
Fine. A mainly sunny day. Moderate to locally fresh northerly wind and afternoon
seabreezes.
City: Min 20 Max 37 !!!!!
