Balaclava balcony view.

Carlisle Street demolition.

The bewitching phenomena of destruction of the familiar, exploited by filmmakers from Godzilla stomping through Tokyo to aliens blowing up the White House, is in full effect in our Balaclava neighbourhood as new tram tracks are being laid along Carlisle Street. A squadron of concrete blasters tore up the road yesterday and dump trucks are taking the debris away today. It's supposed to wrap up Wednesday. For the sake of shop owners losing business to noise, dust and closed roads this long weekend, I hope that's not a typically fictitious timeline.

Unsurprisingly, pulverising years-old concrete is f*cking LOUD.

Carlisle Street looked like a soundstage from a Michael Bay 'Transformer' film yesterday.

Demolishing done, removal commences.

New sleepers are laid beneath new track, which comes nearly nose-to-nose with the old at Westbury Street.

Night work on rain-soaked Wednesday.

Thursday morning, all is normal on Carlisle Street in Balaclava.

Balaclava background.

I knew Balaclava -- a Russian and Eastern European enclave in St Kilda East -- would make a proper home from the moment Aradhna and I first took in its Jewish delis and bakeries along Carlisle Street back in December 2007. We'd traveled down from Sydney to take a crash course in Melbourne's diverse neighborhoods and I was instantly smitten. Authentic bagels from Glicks, immense breakfasts at Gattica, trams running in every direction, 15 minute train ride to Flinders Street Station in the CBD: this funky, inner-south suburb ticked all the boxes, to use an Aussie expression. We found a second floor apartment just off Balaclava Rd in St Kilda East (yeah, that makes no sense, but Aussie street names are an inconsistent, repetitive mess) and began our Melbourne encampment. We moved to a northern suburb called Ivanhoe early in 2009 for the sake of getting to know the city better but returned to Balaclava proper in March 2010.

One of the pleasures of living here is the opportunity to say 'balaclava' when asked where we live. It's a great word, slightly menacing, singular, exotic. Along with nearby Inkerman Street and Alma Road, Balaclava Road was named after a great battle of the Crimean War of 1854-56. So it was great interest I read this brief lexical investigation on Dictionary.com:

Balaclavas and cardigans have more in common than keeping you warm—they both owe their names to the Crimean War. During the Battle of Balaclava in 1854, British troops were under-prepared for the cold Ukrainian winter, and unlike their French counterparts, who were allowed to wear as many layers as required to stay warm, the British were expected to adhere to their uniforms. The poor conditions caused a scandal in Britain and motivated civilians to donate money and knit warm clothing for the troops using government-issued patterns and regulation yarn, including a wool cap to be worn under their helmets. The British referred to these caps as Balaclava helmets, and later just called them balaclavas. Troops were also issued button-down woolen jackets, which were named after the Lord of Cardigan, who led their ill-fated charge known as the Light Brigade against the Russians.

Popular References:

Balaclava, Movie (1928)

“Balaclava,” The Arctic Monkeys, CD (2007)

Relevant Quotations:

“Report says, these ill-clothed warriors did not cover themselves with glory in the Crimean war, and that on one occasion, during the attack on Balaclava, having more discretion than valour, they did not wait for the Russians, but retired hastily to the town again, where the women and camp followers, with a sad want of appreciation, gave them such a smart trouncing that the unfortunate Tunisians almost regretted not having kept the field.”

—Hunt’s Yachting Magazine, Vol 19 (1870)

“Mlle Riego gave a crochet receipt for it in her 1854 booklet, but did not call it ‘balaclava’ and gave no directions for knitting it.”

—Richard Rutt, A History of Hand Knitting (1987)

“In the first winter of the Crimean War, British women read reports that their men were dying by the hundreds of exposure to the cold. They began knitting close-fitting covers that left only the eyes expose, then sent the packages to ‘Balaclava.’”

—Andrew Evans and Marc Di Duca, Ukraine (2010)

Winter walk with my girl.

Aradhna & I took a long walk on a cloudless winter's day, Balaclava to St Kilda to Middle Park and through Albert Park (above), before succumbing to the rattle of a #16 tram at Fitzroy St for the trip home.
Looking south along Beaconsfield Parade in Middle Park.
A magnificent fig tree hangs over Albert Park Lake.
Aradhna waits for her dopey husband to quit imitating a nature photographer with his crap phone camera.
Australian black swans (black & white courtesy of illegally downloaded software).

Phone snap potpourri.

Guilt over losing my digital camera in Brisbane hasn't subsided so I'm still snapping neighborhood pics with a hand-me-down Nokia phone. If some look familiar it's because you've seen them on Facebook. You get what you pay for ... and this is a free blog.Morning in Caulfield Park.
St Kilda Botanical Gardens.
Fall colours along Balaclava Rd.
Local street art.
Saturday at Chadstone.
Shell-shocked face of a man whose wife is shoe shopping on Bridge Rd in Richmond.
Nothing screams 'Quality Merchandise!' like the frontage of this shop on Bridge Rd in Richmond.
Beloved literary character pimped out for overpriced threads. Or did Harper Lee decide to hawk women's clothes?
Oscar is Kitty King of the Mountain.

Bye bye Balaclava.

Aradhna and I have been packing, moving and settling into our new place in Ivanhoe for over a week. Oscar (shown inspecting boxed items in our Balaclava place, above) is just now growing comfortable with his new surrounds. Theo spends most of his time beneath a blanket in the bedroom, imagining that nothing's changed and he'll find himself in the old place when he peeks out. Tough to leave the bohemia of Balaclava for a more sedate and, quite frankly, lily-white section of Melbourne but we snagged a lovely apartment that's a short, leafy walk from the Ivanhoe & Eaglemont train stations. It's also less rent. Most importantly, Ivanhoe is in Melbourne's northeast (Balaclava was south) which means we've got many new neighborhoods to explore and, for me, dozens & dozens of new cafes to discover.

Snapped a few photos along Carlisle Street before shoving off ...Carlisle from beneath the train overpass.
The much-ballyhooed Wall Two 80.
Typical traffic madness.
Big Matt at Gattica, far & away the best barista in Balaclava and fellow gearhead/hip-hop fan. His familiar cap-topped cranium is moving to Geelong, however, leaving Carlisle St. bereft of Orange County cool.
I'll have to make do without fresh challah bread w/sultanas from Glick's every Friday. Then again, Balaclava isn't that far from Ivanhoe ...

Better in Brooklyn.

Melbourne's blessed with an unblemished sky and civilized breeze on this perfect summer day but I'd opt for a pre-Christmas snowstorm (above) anytime. Blazing flora (below) along the sidewalks of Balaclava & Elsternwick offers marvelous compensation, however.

Beloved Balaclava blasphemy.

Aradhna and I will soon be moving out of Balaclava and nostalgia for its bohemian spirit (and Jewish bakeries) is already sinking in. This poster went up before the US election and has remained, relatively unscathed, on a wall just off Carlisle Street. To juxtaposition Obama's image with the words 'Second Coming' is enough to detonate the brain stems of holy rollers back in the States. Woo-hoo!

I've yet to meet anyone in Australia who isn't optimistic about soon-to-be-President Obama. Especially as The Miserable Failure goes out in a final blaze of ignominy:

• A bipartisan Senate report confirms what the world has long known: Rumsfeld was responsible for detainee abuse at Gitmo. The Miserable Failure has never spoken an ill word about his former Defense Secretary, and I'm sure Rummy will be a welcome guest and confidant at George & Laura's new home in a segregated Dallas suburb.
  
• His administration has rushed through a new gun law that legalizes loaded, concealed weapons in nearly all US national parks. Gives camping at Yellowstone a sorely missing element of mayhem, don't it?
  
• Bush administration stooges at the EPA have decided against ridding drinking water of a toxic rocket fuel ingredient that's fouled public water supplies around the US.
  
• The Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld/Wolfowitz invasion-on-the-cheap of Iraq sent countless soldiers to their graves and left many more limbless by not taking steps that would have protected them from roadside bombs, according to the Pentagon's Inspector General.
  
• Then there's that 'aimless war' in Afghanistan ...
  

UPDATE: The Bush administration has just revised endangered species regulations so that the developers & federal agencies responsible for dams, power plants, timber sales and other projects do not need to consult federal scientists about their possible harm to vulnerable plants and animals.

It's weird. Bush never hesitates to profess his sanctimonious Christianity, yet also never hesitates to eliminate one of his god's creations when it suits business interests. So which is his one, true almighty?

Colours of spring.

Time to turn away from the grease and grime of US politics and celebrate spring's arrival in front yard gardens throughout Balaclava (above), Elsternwick and Caulfield ...

Local art.

This 2-story mural beside the train tracks in Balaclava appears to borrow its portraiture technique from the Wacky Packs I collected as a kid .....

More 'hood.

A sign along our train station's platform. The neighborhood was named after a battlefield in the Crimean War (1853-6).
As Balaclava is within St Kilda East, the overpass beside the train station is adorned with the 'Lady of St Kilda', a 19th-century English schooner.
Don't call it a mailbox!
Looking west down Carlisle Street.
Aradhna and I love this billboard in front of a building in progress. 'Manhattan passion'????

Today's office view.

Balaclava Sunday morning.

Bright sun, cool breeze and a stolen hour of sleep had Carlisle Street more crowded than usual this morning. Aradhna and I took a stroll ...
Sidewalk outside the cafe troika of Gattica, Lava 219 and Moka is choc-a-block.
Kiwis congregate at Batch Espresso for New Zealand-style brekkies and sublime coffee.
Aradhna turned the head of many a Batch passerby, as she's wont to do.