Apartment Choice

The long retail spine of Sydney Road, Brunswick, just north of Melbourne's CBD, was once a prosperous trading outpost on the way to the goldfields. These days it's a bohemian mix of variety stores, op shops, halal butchers and Lebanese bakeries. Take a side street to the west, however, and a different picture emerges. Sandwiched between Sydney Road and the Upfield train line is an area undergoing rapid and widespread transformation. Light industry is fast being replaced by mid- rise apartment buildings , their inhabitants attracted by the short commute into town and cheaper prices than in the city's south-east. The quality of these units is, on the whole, depressingly bad; think poor ventilation and bedrooms that "borrow" natural light (a weasel word for being dark and windowless). The occasional jazzy façade tries feebly to make up for otherwise cheap construction amid a chorus of greys. At ground level, carpark roller doors alternate with mean pocket garden...

Travel accommodation is frequently seen as a mixed bag; something to be approached with equal parts wariness and trepidation. It’s a sentiment often reflected in popular culture, from the iconic motel shower murder scene in the film Psycho , to the famous lyrics of the Eagles’ Hotel California describing a hotel where “you can check out any time you like (but you can never leave)”. Nonetheless, most hotels can be relied upon to deliver a basic standard of quality, along with safety, security, and stability – important considerations when HR is sending its employees off to unknown foreign locales . A guest can expect a standard template of amenities when checking into a hotel room: bed, bathroom, desk, mini-bar, breakfast buffet, and daily housekeeping at the very least; room service and laundry if they're willing to shell out a little more. The shared option? Airbnb, in contrast, promises character and homeliness at a fundamental level. No two homes are the same – likewise, n...

In a recent friendly telephone conversation , Russian President Vladimir Putin may well have exclaimed to U.S. President Donald Trump , "Darn that dream I dream each night, but it haunts me and it won't come true." It would be a timely commentary on present day Russia . On this 100th anniversary of the October 1917 Russian Revolution , it is  useful to assess the existence and the failure of the dreams of 20th century Russian Bolsheviks with their aspirations for a new society and a world Communist revolution , and the consequent disillusionment of the faithful, and their sad fate, resulting from the disastrous reality of the Soviet regime led by Josef Stalin. Compelling narratives have been related concerning the drama and tragedy of the Old Bolsheviks in the Soviet Union in powerful and compelling works by Arthur Koestler, George Orwell, Alexander Solzhenitsyn and Victor Kravchenko, among others. Now, the narrative is recounted in a massive 1,100 page, brilli...