I love my suburb. I’ve lived here for seven years now, and when I grow up can afford to buy my own home, this is where I want to be. In a little renovated period house with a rose garden. Or even in my current unit, if it was modernised. It’s close to the city by car and public transport, relatively safe (despite its bad reputation from Underbelly the TV show and Underbelly in real life), and most things that I need can be accessed in the suburb itself or very close by. Neighbouring suburbs are very multicultural – I have lots of great eateries around.
It doesn’t wear the hipster glasses of Brunswick or Fitzroy, yet it’s got a cool edge to it. I think it’s an up and commer.
Along the shopping strip I frequent, the shopkeepers know me by name. I buy from the green grocer, butcher, chemist, newsagent, delis and little supermarket. If I need something from a major supermarket, it’s a two minute car trip away. It’s friendly.
And the cafes are good too. There is a great deli that does home style Italian food, one that’s just been revived that features some Mexican inspired food, and a few that advertise good coffee (I can’t vouch given I don’t drink coffee). Yesterday I took a walk and got some sun, picked up a magazine and had breakfast. A breakfast featuring all the good fats. Rye toast with mashed avocado, asparagus, salmon and scrambled eggs. They were so generous with their salmon serving too! Yum!
Today while picking up the newspaper and a chicken and salad, I saw that a bakery/cupcake shop has opened. It is called Mister Nice Guys and is decorated 1950s style – including the coiffed hairstyle of the barista. Isn’t it pretty? I want to take more photos one day, but today there were a lot of customers there. It’s got some kitsch retro accessories which I love!
There are a range of cupcakes in two sizes – I only had a very quick look and saw peanut butter, and then was won over by this one, a French toast cupcake.
The icing was delicious (and I’m not a huge icing fan) – it was maple syrup flavoured. I couldn’t pick what the cake tasted like – I would say cinnamony-custardy, like, well, French toast. The barista said I had picked the best flavour.
There is also not much street art in my suburb. It’s mostly ugly graffiti on the train station pedestrian underpass. When I saw this beautiful mural painted on the wall of a chicken shop, I smiled.
The brick wall has been designed like a chicken house, with a wooden house front, some window pot plants, and scenes of chickens doing human activities in a field. Free-range chickens indeed. Isn’t it cute?
I complimented the owner of the shop on the mural and he said lots of kids and their parents love the chickens and stop to photograph it, just like I did.
Do you love your suburb? What’s special about it?
Oh I wish I lived in a suburb like this. My part of my suburb is a collection of 4 streets filled with townhouses and nothing else. We sit isolated from everything else. There are lots of lovely nature walks nearby and the shops are only 5 minutes by car but we certainly have aspirations to move. How lovely to have this all on your doorstep.
So many lovely places to visit! It's so great to find a place that's truly home.
SSG xxx
Carly, I live in the same area as you and it's good to see the area pick up and attract new shops etc. I'll have to try and visit the cupcake shop on the weekend. Love your blog!
I love those chicken murals.
I don't think I've been in my suburb long enough to actually love anything, but I can say I hate the very patchy, sometimes non-existent internet connections.
I have the same canisters as the ones in that café! The colours on mine aren't as bright, though, thanks to being exposed to sunlight for a while.
My suburb is kind of cute, even if it is very hilly. But there are trees everywhere and all sorts of random parks and reserves, plus I can see the dandenongs from the footpath at my front gate. We have lovely cafés, cake shops, bakeries and fruit shops and even two op shops. You couldn't ask for more!
I'm glad you asked! I live in a town on Long Island about 40 miles east of New York City. I've lived here more than 30 years, but I only moved here when I couldn't find an apartment in the place I had been living — so I sort of settled on settling here. But it has turned out to be a fabulous community, and I'm very glad that I ended up here, even if it wasn't by choice, at first.
Our small town is blessed with a collection of cultural institutions that is hard to find outside of any large city — a world-class art cinema, and museum, performance space and book seller that all draw visiting artists and performers from the entire country. We have a very active political life, with our Congressman one of the highest-ranking members of the dominant political party. Great schools, medical facilities and a vibrant "downtown" that's mainly one main street, called "Main Street," of course, that's about three blocks long. Restaurants, cafes, etc. with a large shopping mall and "big box" retail stores.
Recently we were challenged by the Superstorm Sandy, which knocked down trees and power lines and kept local folks out of electric power for as long as three weeks. Once everyone got back to normal, though, folks looked to other parts of Long Island that had suffered much more than we had — areas close to beaches where whole communities were wiped out, homes were destroyed and schools were condemned. I'm proud to say that our local schools "adopted" schools in the hardest-hit areas; churches, synagogues and other groups stepped up with donations of goods and services, and then, most importantly, with sweat and blood as they traveled to the affected areas armed with work gloves and chainsaws to help clean up the worst destruction any of us had ever seen.
If you do decide to buy a house someday, Carly, maybe you should consider to relocating to Huntington, New York. We also have the best pizza in the country, by the way, if you need any further incentive.