Tag: melbourne

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This Week In The Loft

Leaving Loft 1


It’s a little bit of sad news today and I thought it appropriate to share it here. Back in January the tenants moved out of Loft 1. The small apartment I bought back in 2002 and where MelbourneLoft.com and the live webcam was born. I had loads of happy times here with making stuff for MelbourneLoft, the radio show and all my friends. But the time has come to part ways with the property. It was becoming quite expensive to keep an old property in the middle of the city. And it was starting to become a bit stressful. So last month a real estate agent put it up for auction and sold it.  In the coming days I will hand over the keys to the new owners. I will take the money and start some new memories somewhere else.
I was really impressed by the process of selling the apartment. Below are some photos taken after a staging company furnished it for the month long sale process. It was kinda fun hanging out there again during the campaign.



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This Week In The Loft

Cracker Night in Melbourne

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This crowd was just 1 block from my place last night as they all gathered to watch the annual New Year’s Eve fireworks display.   I wasn’t going to go out amongst it last night until I heard that the CBD towers were going to have fireworks going off them.   This has only ever happened twice before (that I know of).   That was for the opening and closing ceremonies of the Commonwealth Games a few years ago.   I ended up being jammed in a fairly bad position in the crowd at the stroke of midnight so my shots are not that great.   But I did get some good shots of the Arts Centre spire.  It was the first time it has been used in the fireworks display.   Overall the crowd was pretty friendly and I didn’t see much drunkeness as we’ve seen in past years.
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This Week In The Loft

Luna Park St Kilda turns 98


I was really surprised to read the papers this morning and learn that Luna Park in my old suburb of St Kilda turned 98 years old today.   It’s pretty amazing that it has been around for that long.   It seems to have had a long and chequered history too.   This article even blames Luna Park for bringing the seedy sex trade to this idyllic beachside suburb of Melbourne.   I lived just a few blocks from here and loved every minute of the life there.

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This Week In The Loft

Hilton Honors Member


I couldn’t actually afford to travel this long weekend (with the USA trip coming up) so I brought the holiday to melbourne.  I joined Hilton Honors on Saturday and to celebrate I stayed at the brand spanking new Hilton South Wharf.  I love a shiney new hotel.   The Hilton South Wharf has large comfortable rooms with floor to ceiling windows with great view of either Port Philip Bay or the Yarra River and the CBD.    The CBD is the better view (in my opinion).   This morning I woke up just in time to see 3 hot air balloons float past my window….   NICE!

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This Week In The Loft

Another City Flood


We had another fantastic storm in the city yesterday.  But this time a massive amount of ice fell.   But by the time I took this video the river of ice had melted.   he falling ice made an incredible noise!   This video was taken from the front window of the loft to show the trapped people on the tram out the front.

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This Week In The Loft

Flash Flood in the Melbourne CBD


I love these photos that people submitted to the newspaper yesterday showing the flash flood that occurred in the Melbourne CBD on Thursday.   I actually left work a little earlier than usual because I could see the huge storm rolling in and I didn’t want to be stuck in the middle of it.   I had not idea it was this severe!  These photos are taken in the blocks around the Loft.   The water disappeared as quickly as it had appeared.   I’m assuming that most of it ran off in to the Yarra River which is right behind the train station above.



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This Week In The Loft

Loft Visitors


It’s been so nice having Greg down in Melbourne this week.   He actually has a busier social life in one week when he comes to Melbourne than I have in a whole month.   So far we have eaten out a tonne of times, gone to 3 movies, watched a stack of British made comedies and sunk many G&Ts.   This is always the most popular time for visitors coming to Melbourne.  More arriving next week!

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This Week In The Loft

Deep Discount Books


We all love a good bargain.   Down on Elizabeth Street a book store has moved in to the old Strathfield Car Radio Store (near JB Hi Fi)…  okay so I didn’t record the street number.   It’s called Deep Discount books.   It has some real bargains on the ground floor, but it’s upstairs where you can find some dirt cheap books.   All books upstairs are $4.99 or 10 for $10 !    Of course I went for the 10 books and ended up staying longer than I wanted to as I started to look too hard through the masses of books.  My personal favourite is the book called “Hotel Hobbies”…   like how to build a balcony scarecrow.

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This Week In The Loft

Worst City Cinema


It constantly surprises me that the Greater Union cinema on Russell Street in the CBD of Melbourne is still open.   It has the same original Greater Union carpet from the early 80’s and many of the seats are twisted or completely broken.   The airconditioning is turned up higher than normal to keep the rank smells in the cinema down.   But hey…  we had free tickets.   We saw Morgan Freeman and Matt Damon in “Invictus”.   It was quite a good story.   I didn’t know most of it.  Not a big surprise there.

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This Week In The Loft

Melbourne Midnight Fireworks


I often take for granted living right in the middle of the city.   last night as the rain came down I was watching the fireworks from the front bedroom window.  And then I checked over the Yarra River and I could see the fireworks going off from the top of the Eureka Tower.   In fact I only had to move my computer chair slightly to the right to watch the show.   How lazy is that!