Monti Cottage

Leaving L.A. around midnight, and arriving in Australia at six in the morning, I thought I'd fooled my physiological self into thinking I'd passed but a single night. But it turns out that the missing day that fell between--I left at the end of the 1st, landed at dawn of the 3rd--would not be ignored.

I held off sleeping, went to Helen's for dinner, and only took to bed at ten. I was nearly dead and figured I'd have a good long sleep. But I woke at three in the morning and didn't sleep much after that, I don't know why.

Monti Cottage is is one of four row houses sharing a white, crenellated facade. The names of each appear in raised letters along the facade, over the appropriate house: Victor, Guildford, Monti, and Leo. Through the front door you come into a narrow hallway that leads past two bedrooms and into the high-ceilinged living room; the next door going back leads into the kitchen, and past the kitchen the house splits, a door leading to a small brick patio, a passage opposite leading to laundry and bathroom. There is no heat except for a single wall unit in the living room and a couple wimpy space heaters. More would be nice, I have found.

I'd been sitting in the living room for quite some time, reading Trollope and watching morning tv news shows, before Bella and Sarah appeared. Bella put on an episode of Six Feet Under, which I'd never seen.

She let me use her laptop, and I opened an email from Alix that began, "I have some bad news"--never a sentence one wants to read. My own laptop, in Minnesota, had been stolen. Alix had been upstairs in the bathroom , with the radio on, when someone opened the the screen door and came in and took the computer off the couch. This news put something of a damper on the rest of my day. That someone would come into the house was a little worrisome, though I tried to convince myself that it had been simply a crime of opportunity. But there was no rationalizing the loss of the computer; I'd backed up my files (I think), but not iTunes, and I'm not sure about all the photographs, and I'm trying not to think of what else might've been on there. And oh yeah, it was my work computer, so actually I don't even own it. Some people are real bastards.

Around four Bella and Sarah set off with friends for a weekend at nearby Phillip Island. I was still hanging about the house, brooding over the lost computer. But finally I did go out, in the last of the day's light and walked down the strand a couple miles to Williamstown's waterfront--a park, a couple statues, a few streets of small shops and restaurants. People were out, buying at the fruit stands and fish and chips shops and bakeries. One busy pub was filled with workers from the fishing boats tied up at the docks. Among the sit-down restaurants were Chinese and Thai and Italian and French places, many not yet serving dinner. I chose a cheaper, less formal alternative, the Wok Rite In Noodle Shop and ordered the Combo Soup. Each choice was represented by a faded photograph above a long counter, behind which the cooking was done while you stood and waited. I sat at one of the few small tables and ate slowly, enjoying my first real meal of the day, and reading a tabloid newspaper.

I have Monti to myself now for a couple days. When I got home I put on The Golden Compass and tried to stay awake till ten.