I might have been to a lot of states, but for some reason I’ve never been to Melbourne. I suppose Mum and Dad never had business there enough to take me along, and from what I’ve heard it’s not exactly a world-class holiday destination. Absolutely no offence to Melbourne, I’m sure it’s a really important place, where important things happen, but it doesn’t see as many visitors as, say…Brisbane.
Actually, Melbourne raises this really strong image in my head for some reason. I knew this girl whose parents used to be Melbourne based glaziers – they’d sent her up North to my school, where she was a boarder. She always talked about their work like it was the greatest thing ever. She certainly made it sound attractive. I mean, they were making enough money to send their daughter to a prestigious private school, so business must have been good.
But now whenever I think about Melbourne, the only image I get is windows. Double-glazed windows, everywhere. It’s like some kind of bizarre stereotype, in which I believe everybody in Melbourne, no matter what they do for a living, has these super-shiny, super-insulated windows and of course glass balustrades. It is a city of glass. I think that’s a book or something.In any case, I now feel like I need to visit my friend so that I can correct this image of a city made entirely of windows. I sort of think sometimes that people from outside of my hometown must think the same kind of thing about us. That up north is just endless beaches and shanty towns. Stereotypes are a tricky business, and Australia has enough of them. Speaking of having enough, I really need to shelve a few of my sillier ideas. Maybe next time my uni holidays roll around I’ll head down to the colder regions so I can see the city for what it actually is. Glass balustrading might be impressive, but I bet there’s more to it than that. I hear the science museum is fun. And local Parliament might be really interesting.