Interview informing ‘Evelyn on the Verandah’

‘Evelyn on the verandah‘ is a short story published in the 2010 One Book Many Brisbanes anthology

Interviewer: Ariella Van Luyn

Date conducted: 9 September 2009

Annotations: Ariella Van Luyn is referred to as A. Interviewee is referred to as I. Names are removed in keeping with research ethics.

A: If you want to start off with, sort of, describing your connection with the area?

I: Ok well, um, my name is (removed) and I’ve lived in New Farm my entire life. Actually no that’s a lie. The first year I was born I lived in East Brisbane but then we moved to New Farm when it was quite a run down and um, not the trendy area it is today, I guess. So, I went to New Farm State School. And we used to live on the Merthyr side and then we moved to the Teneriffe side ten years ago. One side of the street is New Farm and our side of the street is Newstead so technically I’m in Newstead now. And, I don’t know–I’ve watched the area change as I’ve grown up…a lot, yeah, it’s a lot more gentrified and, I don’t know, kind of a bit influx of what I would call yuppies, or maybe not but property developers and real estate agents, it’s the new trendy place when they wouldn’t have looked at it ten years ago. But I wouldn’t really want to live in any other suburb in Brisbane. I don’t find the suburbs of Brisbane exciting or really interesting at all but here it’s like—I guess it’s like a village I’ve always lived in which is a bit weird. And I’m 21 and I am still living with my parents in this big village.

A: Why do you say you’d only ever live in this area?

I: Um, just because there’s life and culture that I haven’t found in many other suburbs. Even, you know, Brisbane used to be regarded as a country town and in some ways still is but I, you know, I put the emphasis going out for coffee, and eating and there’s always places to go here: Powerhouse, there’s always arts and culture and there’s the boardwalks, there’s the river. It’s lively and it’s interesting and it’s still got a mix of like a weird, sort of—There’s the prostitutes up on Kent Street and like, the deros on Merthyr Road. And then there’s the police coming. And then the yuppies round the corner in Teneriffe. So, I don’t know. I like it like that, I guess. And yeah, it’s not too suburban, which is good. And that’s kind of stopped me from kinda, moving to Sydney or Melbourne sooner, I guess.

A: So what’s your earliest memory of the area?

I: Um, hmm, that’s bad, I’ll have to think about that. I guess I’ve always had a strong connection to, um, New Farm park. Like, it’s, you know, it’s a big family place. When we were little we’d always go there for barbeques and the river. And, um, I started playing soccer very young, so I had a girls’ soccer team so I always remember things like an Italian soccer club. So—And I had a group of girls that I went to, um, primary school with that I played soccer with and that sort of thing. Yeah, I really strongly connect with, I remember my state school and preschool so I went to the preschool at New Farm state school. And, um, it was a very small school there was only like a hundred kids at New Farm State School, a lot of Indigenous kids and Chinese kids and I learnt Chinese from a very young age so, I don’t know, I just remember the multi-cultural sort of mix. But as for memories, yeah, I can’t remember much else—I have this really bad memory. Um, I’ll come back to you on that.

A: Yeah, just have a think for a moment. Even not your earliest but just something that sticks in your memory.

I: Yeah. I remember—cause like my father is an architect and used to be a builder I remember I was always playing on the scaffolding, like in our house, which was probably very unsafe in retrospect. But, um, it was always a building site so from when I was three years old and then Dad would always take me, cause he was always working in New Farm so I’d always go to different housing sites and climb on the scaffolding in my pyjamas when I was like four years old. And drink the builders’ coke and do weird stuff like that, which I don’t think many other four year old girls did and I used to wear like those work man boots as well.

A: So your Dad used to take you along when he was working?

I: Yeah well, he’s like a workaholic and he’d started his own business and I was young. He was always working under the house. He had an office in there and so that was a big part of my life, I guess.

A: So why did you decide to moved from the New Farm side to the Teneriffe side?

I: Well, I guess that wasn’t really my choice but I guess it was strategic on my parents’ behalf because basically Dad always needs a new project. So—He renovated and renovated our old house for ten years until there was this crazy mix of rooms and hidey holes and stuff. And then I guess they were looking for a new project so looking for a new property, so they were looking to sell that one and capitalise on it because it had started to become a bit more trendy and there were still a lot more dilapidated properties in Teneriffe that I guess my Dad saw as potential that hadn’t been exploited so—When we went to look at the house it had like needles all around the garden, syringes, ‘cause it was like a junkie’s house. It was a big Queenslander with like, I don’t know, big bedroom and three bathrooms, whatever, it was like this crazy share house. And all of downstairs was padded, the wall, because they were musicians downstairs with like junkies upstairs.

A: Wow. How bizarre.

I: Yeah, yeah it was pretty weird.

A: So then your Dad did it up?

I: Yeah. And then he fell off the veranda like in the process. He’s like a bit of a shoddy builder. Like, he’s very well known in New Farm. He’s very social and he’s been working there a very long time. He had redeveloped a lot of New Farm. But he’s a bit of a shoddy builder in my personal opinion. Careless with fine detail, I’d say. When he was building the veranda, like when I was 12 he fell off the veranda on, like, two metres on to his head and spilt his head open and got like 30 stitches in his head. So then things took a back track and then his memory got a bit worse and so. But yeah the house building kept going. He was doing all these projects. He just built a big vegetable garden. Yeah. It’s like a village. Our neighbours have chickens.

A: Oh really?

I: Yeah, you wouldn’t think of like chickens in New Farm but they have their own chickens.

A: So can you describe for me the area when you first, sort of, came or as much of it as you can remember?

I: On this side? Or on the Teneriffe side?

A: Um, on the Teneriffe side.

I: I guess when we first went there the wool store area was pretty barren. Like, they used to have, they still had the tram tracks were there. And I remember when I was very little going to Paddy’s markets, which was this old shopping centre, supermarket, in the Wool stores. And, um, because I was always obsessed with food. So one memory I have was when I was very little and we’d go to Paddy’s market and it was menagerie of, it was like, pet shops and weird—I don’t know, nothing like it in Brisbane. Warehouse, supermarkets. So I asked Mum to bring we back like a treat because I was always, like when I was eating breakfast I was like always ‘what’s for dinner?’ because I was always in search of food. So Mum bought me back like this fridge magnet that had like resin with jelly beans in it and I was very angry because I couldn’t get into it. It was so unfair. So anyway, we moved over to—that’s pretty sad that that’s like my strongest memory—but we moved over to Teneriffe, but the wool stores had just been redeveloped. So it was pretty barren. But round our street, there’s still a lot of established family houses. And my best friend lives three houses down. She lives in the Chicken House. It’s this dilapidated house that hasn’t been looked after and um, her Dad’s a lawyer and they have money yeah but they’re very humble so their house has always been very run down and—but apart from that the area has still always been like the most suburban probably, of the neighborhood like pretty safe. Oh but we got robbed twice.

A: Oh really?

I: I guess there’s probably a lot less share houses then there are now.

A: So when you got robbed, did anyone steal anything or–?

I: Yeah, they stole everything twice. What was most annoying was that they took our passports—I have dual citizenship—and they took our English passports too. Which are hard, kind of, get back again.

A: How did they break in?

I: I don’t know. We have a big old front door they somehow they smashed open. So then we got a dog and an alarm and we haven’t had any break-ins since. Yeah and the area’s changed a lot. Every developer has capitalised on the land. Every share house has been renovated and like sold as a family home, which is sad, because if you push us out—like the younger or people who don’t have money, like students and stuff like that.

A: What I might get you to do is actually draw a little map of the area on the Tenerife side. Like that’s where your house is and the streets—

I: I’ll try.

A: As your drawing, if you think of something that happened in the area, I’ll get you to have a bit of a talk about that.

I: That’s Merthyr Road, where we are (draws road at bottom of page). There’s a little Chinese

restaurant where I used to go (draws square). Very standard Chinese food, which has been redeveloped. Everything’s being redeveloped.

A: What’s it been redeveloped into?

I: I don’t know yet. It’s got scaffolding all over it, so—Here is Kingsholme Street, which is kind of the big suburban houses (draws street).  And my street is this weird backstreet that—it’s weird. But there’s this house on this triangle block here (draws intersecting lines). ? street here and then the wool stores are around here. And my house runs around the back (draws house). And my street’s very weird. No one ever really goes in there. It’s like the ? And this street, there’s like this big house which is a boarding house but used to be a hospital, a war hospital (draws square for hospital).

A: Oh yeah.

I: And—

A: How did you know that it used to be a war hospital?

I: Oh because it’s always intrigued me and I’ve asked questions. And it’s got a weird feel about it. My best friend always thinks she can feel a ghost there. Like she’s a very practical, down to earth person, you’d never expect her to say anything like that but, I don’t know, it’s a bit weird.

There’s all this bush across the road here (scribbles bush). And like there’s no houses on one side, it’s just bush. And when I was little some of my friends thought it would be fun to go into the bushes and throw rocks at a bees nest in there(?) too, I guess. And then they found this guy like passed out in there. And that always used to be where the prostitutes would go.

A: Really?

I: Yeah. But it’s pretty clean now. We have this like party which is for the whole street(?) But in there’s like kind of been cleaned out a bit.

I: And up here if you go this way through you pass the State School (draws line and then square to indicate school). This is the worst map I’ve ever seen. Yes, that’s all, I don’t know.

A: What do you remember about going to the school?

I: Well I was a very good student. I think I was nurtured. I went to ? High School, like a private school. And I was just like—I never really liked it as a result because it didn’t have the small community feel that New Farm had.

A: What’s the strongest memory you have of like your time at school?

I: I guess it involves—like I had the some classmates for ages. Yeah, they were just crazy. A lot of Indigenous kids. There was always someone getting into trouble, someone would throw a chair out the window and pretend to be sick so the teacher would have to carry them down the stairs or—I turned out to be the captain of the school so I was like this little perfect thing in primary school and then went a bit off the rails in high school. And then came back on track afterwards.

A: Why do you say you went off the rails at high school?

I: I don’t know, maybe because I have like this very strong independent streak and I didn’t like the structure of the school. And there was a lot of money there. Opposite to my primary school so, I don’t know, I kind of—if I don’t like something I tend to do the opposite of what people want me to do. So I didn’t do any work. Then once I left school I could be independent again and I kind of, you know, went back up. So, yeah.

A: Yeah, I hated high school (laughs).

I: Yeah (laughs).

A: So, this is Merthyr road here (points to map)?

I: Yeah it turns into Macquarie street. The boardwalk (draws line) where I walk my fat dog. And there’s all like the gym and the joggers and everything. And then there’s these weird little steps that go up here (draws steps: two parallel lines with horizontal lines connecting them) which, um, you know you used to find needles on but now there’s joggers up and down, doing work outs and ? don’t like the joggers doing work outs because it’s just too loud.

A: Who banned them?

I: I think the residents in the wool stores houses complain, so—and I work at, like when I’m looking for casual work, when I’m at uni, at this place here (draws).

A: And what is this bit over here?

I: Yeah (laughs). And there’s like um this goes down to James Street (draws line). My best friend lives here (draws square for house). That is the chicken best friend.

And there’s like all these problematic people … it’s starting to feel like.. then I came back and I’m very comfortable at New Farm and it’s like wow, it’s like a little town but I won’t be here  for like the next few years or so – I need to get out.

A: So was there a big change your perceptions – when you came back from overseas?

I: Um, when I left I was hating it – sort of the small town thing – boring. I lived in Hong Kong for six months, studying and then I came back and I don’t know, I’m just content to live in the village. Like do my own thing. Its comfortable, I don’t feel any need to move out from my parents. I’m moving back to Hong Kong in November to work but I’m not really stressed about anything right now.

A: I might just write down all the street names and everything so I can come back and go…

I : Do you want me to name them for you? I guess I’m confusing

A: How do you know everyone on the street? Did you used to go out a lot – how did you meet them?

I: Umm, mainly primary school or the soccer club, the other school is Holy Spirit, more like an Italian Catholic School. A lot of those people played soccer and my soccer coach Fabio – he was like ‘the famous Fabio’ (laughs)

A: That’s good. (laughs)

I: I feel really bad for Fabio because back then we were like terrible little 12 year old  girls heckling him and he was like nineteen and thought he was like this big adult but really he wasn’t that old and his Dad had just died and he was like coaching the soccer team and we were like ‘Fabio you suck’ and you know we were so mean.

A: Was there a reason you heckled him or is it just because he was your coach?

I: We were all very boisterous girls, all my friends, always having been in this area, loud and independent, all done very different things. We all had very different friendships but we still keep in contact. Stuff like that – which is nice. All my friends around here are pretty crazy.

A: What makes you say that?

I: Oh I don’t know – like some have had depression and others have had eating disorders so.. all kinds of weird stuff. I don’t know what it is about this area but there’s unique people that come together.

A: In what way are they unique?

I: Um, well one of my good friends…. who lives with his Mum, he grew up in PNG, his Mum’s Greek but he’s like white Australian but his Dad lives in PNG and he’s just very unique like he’ll stay up all night researching photo blogs on the internet and you look at him and you’d think he’s a homeless person who hasn’t showered for three days and he’s got like blonde hair and he’ll grow this red beard and it’s like so terrifying and he studies journalism at UQ because his Mum told him to but really he’s like a creative writer and he’s so good at writing but he does really badly at journalism ’cause he doesn’t care about it at all – he’s like up for academic disqualification ’cause they kicked him out of UQ so he wrote this long letter and they’ve let him back. I don’t know – he just spends his life sitting around smoking and reading photo blogs.. oh, and like also people have tried to gay bash him cause he looks quite..he’s not gay but people just always think he is because he’s tall and thin and wears very tight jeans and in New Farm and the Valley, especially the Valley  – the Valley, we go to the Valley for clothes but not that much anymore for clothes – people tried to gay bash him like 3 times, same with my brother – he’s like not gay at all but he’s like a nice boy. I guess  my brother, he dresses in, he’s adopted this like 50s Rockabilly sort of fashion and people tried to gay bash him up on Brunswick St.

A: Oh no. Were you there when that happened?

I: No, but we’ve been very protective of him. Yeah. I guess some people still see the area as unsafe. Well I don’t walk anywhere in Brisbane after 10 o’clock at night on my own.

A: Yeah.

I: But I don’t really feel more unsafe here than anywhere else.

A: Have you ever felt unsafe anywhere in Newstead?

I: No, not really. Some guy tried to pick me up, he thought I was a prostitute, on my way to work, like a couple of years ago. It wasn’t pretty but I don’t feel unsafe.

A: Did he try to get you into his car?

I: Yeah, it was a convertible. I was standing outside my(?) house, but on my way to work. I was waiting outside, like in broad daylight and this guy in a convertible like drives past slowly then comes back and just waits there and asks me for a price and I was like pwuuuu (?fuck you?) That made me a bit crazy. Yeah, weird area.

A: So how old were you when you moved here?

I:  When I moved, yeah, I was eleven.

A: Eleven, ok, and where were you before?

I: I was at the other end of the river and I think there’s quite a divide between the Merthyr and the Teneriffe side.  The Methyr half, particularly the heights, is less developed, more share houses, more daggy, I guess, but it’s still nice.  New Farm’s pretty big, I guess. This is where I lived – llew… and I had two gay neighbors. Glen and Graham. Next door to us were like old people who used the house to write up old people meetings, I don’t know what for – maybe for war things and all I can remember is their old house, like shit, derelict and all you could hear was the typewriter. (makes noise of typewriter)

A: Really?

I: Once a week they’d go in there and write up their newsletters and there’d be this little dog barking and barking and then next to them is (names removed), they’re like two gay guys who were basically like my godparents when I was little. I would go over there a lot and they would give me presents, chocolates and I would sit on their bed and watch Foxtel, which was a luxury. Their house was quiet and nice, and our house was not like that you know.

I:They had a hairdressing salon on Methyr Rd and my Dad’s old office was like there. So.

A: And did you used to play in that area?  What other things did you do?

I: um, yes, I used to go to Dad’s office a lot. Mum and Dad were both working and I would go there. There was this little back area where I would read (?)  magazines and I would sit around. We’d have a babysitter sometimes to. She’d come over to our house – we had a really big backyard – wild and fun.

A: So what would you say are the distinctive sights of the area?

I: Mm. well the park, firstly, that really hasn’t changed much. I guess with the drought it’s not as nice but you know it’s still the hub of the community. Umm, the Powerhouse now, that’s only after the redevelopment.

A: What was that like before the redevelopment?

I: It just sort of had an abandoned warehouse feel. I guess the other iconic place would be the Village Twin, on Brunswick St, the old cinema. They’re trying to redevelop that, the ceilings are heritage listed. They’ve had some problems with ceilings caving in and it would cost millions and millions of dollars to restore and so they’ve stopped construction. I used to go to movies there when I was little and they had these painted ceilings that were like pretty cool. They were like straight out of the 70s and some of my friends bands have played like guerrilla shows in there – now, while its all boarded up, they bring a generator in – which is incredibly unsafe, the roof could collapse. I haven’t gone.

A: I was just about to ask that.

I: Yeah.

A: So is a guerrilla show where they haven’t asked permission, they just go in there.

I: Yep, Yep. I used to, like, when I was 16, 17, 18, 19 I had an ex-boyfriend who was in a band and I used to put on shows. And we did some guerrilla shows like, I had one in an abandoned carpark in the Valley, with a generator, next to the Valley pool and my friend Samson? was touring, up from Melbourne in a punk band and three bands would play. Everyone would meet at the Jubilee Hotel and then someone leads them, like, to the location, you know, tell them where it is or whatever. Then we’d see people play, then we’d all leave and then the cops came just after that, like when there was one guy left. Like loading the stuff up, but yeah, the police usually came and don’t take too kindly to those things. yeah, and there’s a lot of punk shows and stuff round here as well

(Section unclear: we were in a coffee shop and someone turned the espresso machine on!)

A: So any more.. what about the wool stores? How about that area, has it changed at all, or  ??

I: It’s just like before it was abandoned and completely industrial but now like, I don’t know, trees and apartments and babies?? I don’t pay that much attention, it’s not.. There’s some good restaurants where I mainly go there.

A: Yeah

I: I eat out a lot. I cook a lot. I have a food blog and food is like a big part of my life and um I get – you know the IGA up on Brunswick St, it used to be the Tivoli Theatre that was like this old warehouse where they used to get artists. I always remember that. It was like a big shed – another place that got redeveloped, sadly, by my Father. Shame. He gets commissioned to do a lot of stuff, probably like, what I’m opposed to but its his job, so.

A: Do you remember seeing a particular artist there or..?

I: No. I just remember like the big, dark, cavernous space and its like really dusty and junky looking but really big, colourful canvases and props from stuff, like big crazy objects. Pretty interesting.

(Aside discussion about coffee etc)

A: I think its good – I like the guerrilla bit. I’m wanting to get a sense of what it was like – that type of thing.

I: There used to be a lot more Vietnamese and Chinese, stuff like that, like China was always very.. Chinese was always very common for me, I started learning it when I was ten. um because they choose what language you’re going to learn based on the biggest migrant population in your area. So

A: So did you actually learn Chinese at school?

I: Yes, we had Chinese lessons twice a week and um the neighboring school, Holy Spirit, they did Italian cause they had  the Italian community there.  So we had like Chinese, Vietnamese and the Italian um, my neighbor is an old Italian lady who like (section unclear) I studied it at high school but I hated it and its just now that I’ve started learning it at UQ and I learned Mandarin(?) as well. They speak like Mandarin, the mainland Chinese um but I still learnt mainland Chinese there. I guess my connection, growing up here, sparked my interest in China, everyone’s like why do you want to learn Chinese and now it’s such like a current thing (?) The China-Australia relationship and a lot of business development and stuff so ….??

A: So did you have friends that were Chinese?

I: Yeah, yeah, quite a lot. Um Chinese friends and there were some African kids and really there were only Africans in New Farm, there’s a lot more in Brisbane now. Massive population. And I’ve always been intrigued by (?) Like there was one or two at our school. Like just Chinese and Indigenous kids.

A: What kind of games did you play?

I: Um, we were athletic, we were pretty boisterous. We, I don’t know, typical Australian, a lot of sport – cricket and that sort of stuff. Then there were kissing games in grade 7. There were like 5 boys  and I’m still friends with a couple of them. I kind of lost the connection with going to a different school (?) but after that everyone came back together kind of. A lot of people still live around here. I don’t know, we went on indigenous camps to South Stradbroke Island, no, North Stradbroke and you’d make boomerangs and …

A: Yeah, I’ve done that.

I: Yeah.

A: This might be a bit of a tricky one but do you remember a particular place or an area where you felt a distinctive sensation, in terms of something that smelt really bad, sounded strange or…?

I: Ummm.  I guess a lot of my memories are from the primary school and they had like this weird room which was like science lab with all these pickled snakes and stuff and I always remember going in there and like awww. I’ve always been intrigued by obscure things and I guess um the prostitutes always intrigued me as well. But my Mum is always like “don’t look, don’t look,” and they’d be like waving at you um and as for smell um I don’t know – batshit and possums – the smell of so many possums on the roof all the time – like fighting yeah.. And that I was very scared of (?)

A: Was there a place where you felt negative emotions?

I: I guess there’s occasional domestic violence that you get around or like, I always had kooky(?) neighbors in Teneriffe, you know, I heard fighting and we had to call the police. My neighbor was like getting beaten up by her boyfriend when I was like fifteenand I was like, “Mum, Mum we have to call the police” and she was like “go to sleep, go to sleep.” And I was like “no”, so yeah, they were our craziest neighbours. My next door neighbour, the one after that, he was this Argentian guy and he used to smoke a lot of weed, right through when I was at high school and all I remember is the shuffle of his feet (?) up and down and like him coughing and this stench of weed through my window and I would always wake up very sleepy, so..

A: (laugh) Bit if passive smoking going on there.

I: I make it sound really bad but it’s not. I don’t know. I don’t think it’s that bad, just interesting.

A: I guess these are the things you remember.

I: And I always played the piano and we had a pianola, you know that you’d put the rolls in and peddle yourself and that plays the song – really weird music.

A: Is there anything you can think of that you particularly associate with positive memories?

I: Um, this is my favourite coffee shop now, this is very recent memories, but for the last two years,  my friend works here, I come here nearly every day to read the paper. Nice, peaceful environment and I always see somebody that I know. I love drinking coffee or tea, so. And when I was little I used to go to, my friend Chee(?), her Mum used to take us to the Valley and we would have like babycinos, so I’ve always had that cafe culture I guess, arcades, and I always liked the delis, very Italian, and I’d always have, like a foccaccio and the sound of the coffee machine and it would be like lively.

A: So where was that?

I:  The New Farm deli. Its changed ownership now so but its still been going for a long time?? But my main memories revolve around food.

A: So what’s your favourite thing that you like to eat?

I: Last Friday I ate moussaka. There’s like this Greek takeaway at West End that I totally like. Ah, I like Peking duck, there’s a new Peking duck restaurant in Brunswick St that used to be at Darra, but it was so trendy that the New Farm people kept going down to Darra to eat Peking duck so they opened one here. I don’t know, I like lardy(?) comfort food really. I always cooked when I was little, my Grandma, maybe she was very old-fashioned but she used to give me little measuring things for my birthday. Maybe she was trying to turn me into some sort of housewife. Not what my mother would like – but. Yep, yep, cooking. I used to love Chinese food but after living in Hong Kong I really don’t like it anymore. Yeh, cause we used to go to Chinatown Mall for Chinese New Year and I remember the sound of the fire crackers, so loud and I was really terrified of them actually. Growing up there were always fireworks, Brisbane went through this weird fireworks stage and from our house you can see them all in the city – Riverfire every year, the nice fireworks and the rockets and then you go to the Valley for the Chinese firecrackers and it’s like aahh.

A: I’ve never been to Chinese New Year so what’s it like?

I: I only went when I was little – but every restaurant is full and there’s dragons, the dragons dance at each restaurant and you have to put lettuce in their mouth and that always like freaked me out a bit. I was like, I just want to eat my food. And I’d use(?) chopsticks all the time and when I go to China people are like, “oh you can use chopsticks.” and I’m like yep. They have quite an insular view – they ask me, ‘which Australia do you live in, the one in Europe or the other one.” In Austria. Their knowledge isn’t that good but we like to think our relationship with China is important(?). So yeah, New Year’s was always big, round tables of shared food and on Saturday mornings we always used to go for Yum Cha so they’d bring the trolleys around and you’d delicious (?).  Weird, I guess everything looked so alien to me – a lot of the stuff and that’s why I liked it. In the Valley they have all these Chinese grocers and roast duck hanging in the windows, always loved that. Weird, I guess if you want to go into the Valley, all the weird smells of the Chinese ingredients, weird things like lotus root and all the fish, shrimp paste – they’re really strong smells.

A: Why did you like Chinese New Year so much?

I: Um, I really liked it cause it was a nice family event. It was always busy and it involved eating so I was happy and the food was yummy(?) so you didn’t have to wait for it. But now I guess it’s kind of depressing in the mall because it’s gone downhill  – the Chinese restaurants are pretty bad, I don’t really eat there. I go to Sunnybank if I want good Chinese food and um yeah. You get a different perspective of the Valley when you start using it for different reasons – drinking.

A: The Valley at three o’clock in the morning is not nice.

I:  Pretty nasty.

A: So have you had a bit of a think about an area where you felt happy?

I: No, forgot about that actually. No. There’s always the park, always go back to that, playing sport, umm I don’t really like, I never really liked (?).  it’s very like good community bonding always playing at the park was always like a healthy activity, the endorphins make you feel good, at least like, it was very regular like twice a week training, once a week games, so I was always there three times a week from when I was nine years old or something. That was always like, yeah, fun – get your frustrations out by kicking things and Mum taking me from like when I was really little, preschool, they had chickens there and they had little grassy knoll patches things like awesome, magical and I used to eat berries of the trees which probably wasn’t very safe in retrospect and um we’d dig in the sandpit for things(?) they used to hide rocks in there, painted rocks.

A: The other kids?

I: No, the teachers did. So they were happy places. Otherwise, I don’t know, our back verandah was where everyone would come for barbeques. The thing I love about, or that I used to notice as lot more, was Queensland storms and tropical summers which to me epitomises some of the best things about  being in Brisbane. Like, when you’re sitting high up on a balcony and you can watch the storm and its warm and  you can smell, like we had a paw paw tree and the mango tree and the banana tree and the rain, on the tin roof, lashing and then there’s bats and you know.

A: I was going to ask you before, why do you think you like food so much?

I: I guess, I’ve tried to work that out myself and what I’ve come to realise it I’m like, I have an indulgent personality, umm, my mother blames it on my star sign, she’s always into astrology, she says cause I’m a Taurus, I like indulgent things and you know.  Like why are we here? Food and friends, the times when I’m happiest is communal eating, like enjoying something, just simple pleasures where you kind of make everything, so really good food and (?). You start out with very basic things, the little basic things that make you happy, so, that continues and you develop your taste. Yeah. I went to this really great restaurant called Crosstown (?), I took my Dad there for Father’s Day, in Wooloongabba, really simple food, they call it modernist food and tapas, big plates of really weird stuff I wouldn’t usually eat, like ribs and like mushrooms with really creamy, like mozzarella cheese and this big share plate, so tasty and comforting and uh, the best I’ve eaten in a long time.

A: Is there an area where you’ve felt negative things?

I: Mmm. Not really in New Farm, maybe in other parts of Brisbane. Like, I don’t know, I strongly connect with everything around where people have been, so there’ll be a house where people who I don’t talk to live or something like that. I guess that’s why I like New Farm cause I don’t really, I have very few negative emotions about it. I’ve been very lucky to have like a stable family life and that’s probably made me like less crazy than I could have been. So, that’s the good thing about here, there’s very few negative feelings or emotions and now there are so many memories here that  I don’t even think about them anymore cause I live in them every day, but probably if I came back after three years I’d be just, everything would remind me of something. Cause I’m leaving in November and trying to work in Shanghai next year and then go to Europe and I won’t be back for a few years and no doubt it will be redeveloped further so I’ll probably be (?) cause I get sick of the same old stuff, like the apartment buildings going up and so yeah. Very, very few bad memories.

A: Are there any other significant events you’d like to talk about?

I: Umm. I guess when my dad fell of the verandah. That was pretty bad.

A: Did you see that?

I: No, I just heard it. Like I heard all this swearing and then it was so disgusting cause you could see his skull. And he just sat there and it’s one of those moments when you’re very aware of your own mortality, kind of, because he was lucky, he’s always been very lucky. Um, so that was pretty stressful and then they found his had this  disease, it’s just something you have to take medication for – it’s got some weird name like Hashimodo’s disease, that makes you more vague and stuff. I don’t know, but…And I guess the domestic violence next door to me and this girl I went to school with, she was a year younger, she always playing in our street and a few years ago she just like hung herself in her house, when she was like really young and then I watched the family move out from there. But you know, whenever you go past that house you always think about that. Yeah, you just watched the family deteriorate I guess.

A: So how did you find out she’d died?

I: Um, probably my neighbour with the chickens, who knows everything about everybody, she probably came and told me. Yeah. It’s just like here, it’s no different from a village with goats and island roads, you know. It’s like the same little village and someone will find out. It’s nice to have that community support because I go away and I forget about New Farm and I come back and all these people are like “oh, how were your travels?” People like you haven’t talked to in ages but just know somehow. But, yeah, I really wouldn’t want to live anywhere else in Brisbane now. I’d probably move interstate.

A: Is there one driving reason why you would only ever live in New Farm?

I: Maybe I’d live in West End. It’s the diversity of the culture and the acceptance. Here I feel like you know, comfortable wearing whatever I want to wear. You know, I would feel less comfortable in you know, Ashgrove, walking around at night I think it’s safer because there’s more people.