Introducing: 505 Great King Street

It is high time I introduce an individual very important to my stay in Dunedin. The quaint, green brick abode (pictured at left), nestled in the center of 505 Great King Street, houses two flats. The upper level flat, "J" is where I live with Anjali, Matt and Jessie, and Thimo, Al, Sean and Thomas reside below us in flat "K." There are green, grassy patches a-plenty, and many sweet climbing trees.

Matt, Thimo, Al and I recently took advantage of the trees' climbability by sitting up in the yard's front-most trees while Matt played the guitar and harmonica, and Thimo, Al and I sang, hummed, or tapped along. This quickly turned into a sociological study for those of us not playing music, as we looked down upon those passing on the sidewalk on the other side of the fence...

Some looked around them, unsure where the music was coming from, until, to their amusement, they looked up and saw the 505 Great King Street Band in the trees. Others knew of our prescence in the trees and continued to walk by, perhaps thinking that we were too silly, or that they were too serious - or they didn't want to allow us to enter their bubble. Those who missed us entirely had portable music devices engaged, were unable to hear us, and thus, were not compelled to look for the source of the music. Thier loss. It is also likely that those who did not acknowledge us relegate tree-climbing to the shadows of their past; they render the activity a loved but extinct pasttime of their sweeter childhood years, and avoid adult contact with it to save themselves the pain that can come of reminiscence. Another theory: it is also possible that our evolutionary ancestors came out of the trees nearly five million years ago, and we still harbour deep instintual feelings compelling us up, up into our specie's former dwelling.

...Perhaps the residents of 505 Great King will slowly return to the canopies - I will let you know when we begin to eat and sleep up there, but for now consider it a revolution in the making.

Okay, consider yourself introduced!

(In the images above: on top you see the building from the front - this is the entrance to flat J and a bit of the west garden; left you see a side view of the building, the walkway to flat J's door arching above, and flat K's straight ahead; right you see a shot of the south garden, with the big, beautiful, burgundy-leaved tree)