Struggling to adjust to life in Australia after my return from Greece, I call 1985 my annus horribilis - loosely translated, a 'bummer of a year' - and yet I was lucky enough to have picked the old neighbourhood of McMahons Point where in 1972 I had lived in an old boardinghouse.
The old boarding-house had become a multi-million-dollar condo and the local butcher, the petrol station, and the laundromat where I had spent many Sunday mornings reading old Women's Weeklies and chatting up girls, all had made way for a string of caffè latte refuelling stations, but some of the old ambience was still there to get me over my angst.
Priced from the mid $6-millions! Even at current low interest rates, at a rate of 4%, or $240,000, that's a weekly "rent" of over $4,500! It's all based on the greater fool theory!
If you have to live in Sydney, make sure it's somewhere near its glorious harbour and within walking distance to work. For millions of Sydney-siders these are impossibilities and yet I had both, the harbour a short walk down one way and my office a short walk up the Pacific Highway.
I never joined the caffèe latte set and I never fully adjusted to life in Australia's biggest city, and in less than six months had left again, but I still visit occasionally, most recently via YouTube where I spotted this latest development, The Bradfield.
It's right alongside where the old boarding-house used to be. In 1972 I paid around thirty dollars a week for full board and lodging and a 180° view of the harbour from a rickety garden bench. Today the Bradfield offers eight 3-bedroom apartments priced from the mid $6-millions.
Please form an orderly queue.
