Ankh Melbourne

645 pm in the office and the sun is just over Rottnest. The view looks like a cliched poster. I half expect to see curly writing expounding upon the existence of God, life or something similar. This is not to say it is not beautiful, nor vibrant, nor vaguely promising of something mysterious.

In a week it will be like this at 745pm as Western Australia enters the Australian daylight saving coalition (leaving Queensland and the Northern Territory stubbornly protecting their cows and curtains). No longer will Western Australia be 3 hours and 15 years behind the Eastern States. Now it will be 2 hours.... and 15 years.

I am too hard on my adopted city. I say this even having come back from Melbourne (which was just like a big, Australian Anhk Morpork, complete with river!) Perth has something more sinister to its suburban charm. Its claim to fame is serial killers, distance and desert beaches. Amongst its parks and neat rows of houses, even a housing boom, one can lose oneself and be reborn into someone completely different.

Perth is to Ankh Melbourne what 'Gremlins' is to 'The Shining'.

As I pad the pavement in the city and catch the train with the crazies tonight I may take a little of the city with me. Or it may be doing the taking.