Ooh goody, it seems we've got ourselves a Houellie fan club. (I'm president, so it's my great pleasure to welcome you gals into the fold :)

Seriously, this fella, should be writing a book. I've been nagging him for a while to do just that. That's not to say that his barbs don't occasionally hit a sensitive spot, and I've had to verbally club him on several occasions to put him back in his place - not that it worked, but it was fun trying.

Just on the subject of places of residence. My family apparently used to live at Avalon, but we migrated to WA before I turned two. From that time on my dad cultivated his penchant for gambling and drinking and disposing of the family's money...so by the time I was eleven we were renting a "flatette" which consisted of three sparse rooms in a grand old house that had been split up into rooms and flats to accommodate the down at heel. The upshot was that because dad had never got over the fact that his family had been well-to-do, that our flat was in one of the best suburbs in Perth - Cottesloe. So we were as poor as church mice, but I had this wonderful suburb to traverse. I loved being there. I've been back since and the house for the down-at-heel has been restored to its former glory, now a private residence. "My corner of the world" still seems almost the same forty years on.

Careful you three… Whatever you're stroking may not be Mr H's ego – and then you may just have to brace yourselves for what comes your way as a consequence.

Or as I overheard one matron say at a party, "They say one day your Prince will come, but when he's come and gone, you know you've had it!"

Wm Trevor,

I don't expect for a moment that Houellie will "take this lying down". He'll be slightly affronted by we three maidens declaring our secret admiration for his style. In fact, he'll probably see it as a cunning plan to disarm his potency. I imagine he'll have his cynic-o-meter working flat out to counter our swoons.

Only a genius of such standing can bring us back to our senses - like a waft of smelling salts to a Victorian maiden. We await your salts Houellie Esq.

There is something very likeable about Houlley but I think the idea of a fan club might offend his sensibilities and make him blush.

pelican,

That goes without saying.

But he has made an art of throwing a spanner in the works of the most oiled and smoothly operating "sensibiities" - I'm sure he'll come up with something to defend himself : )

We're not stroking his ego or compensating for anything - we
simply find him interesting.

Now back on topic ...

The following link may be of some interest:

http://redfernoralhistory.org/News/News2012/tabid/291/Default.aspx

How local people talk about Redfern.