Hidden Under a Balaclava

I completed a circle today. I walked from Elwood, City of Port Philip, along Glen Huntley Road to Elsternwick in the City of Glen Eira. The main street of Elsternwick is Glen Huntley which in the scheme of Melbourne's incredibly long crossroads, is also in Elwood. There is also often two roads in the environs with the same name (Barkly for instance was a well known Melburnian so he therefore has a few streets named after him).

Elsternwick is a mixture of faces and races. However bakeries such as Aviv's, offering boiled bagels and traditional Jewish cakes and cafes advertising kosher fare, give away the predominant cultural enclave here. I found me a fine Lebanese diner in Elsternwick called 'Talk of the Town'. The owners were friendly and extremely good at selling me far too much of their tasty vegetarian fare with their cunning open-ended question of “what else can I get you?” after every order I placed. When faced with such choice and that question, what else was I to do but cave in and stock up with take-home meals for the whole week!? Red lentils with rice, couscous with carmelised onion and almonds, pumpkin, spinach and pine nut kibbe, spinach and cheese or potato and curry pie. So much for the diet! Curse them!

The streets here seemed filled with fifty-something women, perfectly coiffed in purple velour tracksuits and fur coats. The mop on the end of the leash they carry is wearing a coat bigger than it is. Yes, it seems mandatory in Melbourne to dress your dog in some embarrassing outfit. Big or small, no pooch is beyond the humiliation of doggie-style. Personally, I keep thinking that every mutt is a guide dog for the blind before remembering where I am and gaffawing at them.

Continuing the walk, I turned up the oddly named Orrong Road and headed towards Balaclava. I had been at one end of Balaclava in Carlisle Street earlier in the week on my market excursion. This time I approached from the other end, the obviously fabulously moneyed end of the neighbourhood. It is Saturday, the Sabbath and so I am seeing lots of Jewish families heading off to prayer. I can even hear the sounds of their chanting drifting from open windows above to meet my ears as I pass in the street. It is a world I have never entered before but an interesting one nonetheless. Having seen my fair share of massive ravens lately, I can't help being reminded of these birds as I see the men in black suits, curled locks and square hats perched on their heads. I apologise if this analogy causes offense to anyone, the comparison is purely visual.

There is a subtle change of housing from this neighbourhood to the one I have just left. Elwood is old money, houses built in the Arts and Crafts movement and between the world wars of the last century. The houses in Balaclava are old money but new style. Pallisades, columns and porticoes are the ticket in Balaclava. If Elwood is Melbourne's Remuera then Balaclava is Howick at double the price. Apparently I should make the effort to visit Brighton and prepare to be amazed.

Balaclava Road meets Carlisle Road and the neighbourhood changes slightly again. As I delve further along Carlisle Road the faces that I saw on my excursion to Chapel Street start to reappear. They are the faces that peer into rubbish bins to find the bagels that might have been discarded. These faces are everywhere in Melbourne as they are in every city in the world but as a traveler looking at everything around me with fresh eyes, I see them more and feel closer to them as I am, myself out of place at the moment. These are the faces that hide beneath the Balaclava.