Quaker's Hill, 2763.

So Mum left for Auckland, New Zealand this morning. I wish I could've tagged along. Like Melbourne, Auckland is one of my favourite holiday destinations. It's much like Sydney, only a little different so it's well within my comfort zone, which is probably why I like it.

Anyway, I woke up too late to tag along to the airport and have the traditional seeing-rellies-off McDonald's breakfast while watching the planes landing, taking off and taxiing. Meh. Suffice to say, today has been quite uneventful so far.

So this weekend, like most others, I'm staying at Mum's house in Sydney's north-west. Despite it's distance from the City and the westies (a.k.a. bogans, who appear to be a dying breed in Quakers Hill), I like it. It's suburban and a little rural too, but what sets Quakers Hill from the generic urban fringe suburb is that it's not depressing or lifeless. It's not dusty and it's not touched by urban decay. Well, not yet anyway.

Earlier, I went in to what I still call the town (the section of road near the railway station with the shops on it) to buy my lunch and the Saturday Herald. I crossed the railway tracks at the pedestrian level crossing, stopped by the newsagent/post office and Chicken Run before coming back home. I like crossing the tracks, I'm not really sure why. But there's talk of building a new railway station three hundred metres down the line and when that comes in, no more level crossing.

Times, they are a-changing. When Mum bought the house back in 1991, it was pretty much just our street that had houses on it. Now it's been cloned and all over 'Quakers' there are replicas of Zammit Avenue, except that the houses are boxier, the land lots are smaller and the properties cost much much more. And no one knows who their neighbours are. One thing we've noticed is the high owner turnover in most of the other streets. Apparently most of the people who buy in are either in it for a quick buck or those who quickly realise that they can't handle the mortgage.

Quaker's Hill has been swallowed up by the aspirational middle class. The federal electorate of Greenway is now in conservative Liberal Party/Hillsong hands. While property prices increase, the character of this place feels like it's been cheapened. Houses aren't homes anymore - they've just become brick sheds to keep plasma TVs, dishwashers and leather sofas out of the weather and a place to park four-wheel drives at night. People care less about the community and more about their material wealth. And it's sad.


Listening to:
Title: Pressed In A Book
Artist: The Shins
Album/station: Oh, Inverted World (2001)
Length: 2.55