$18 Million Mortgages? How's that work then?

Amid fire, flood, cyclones and pestilence (what happened to the locust plague? Have they all drownded?), I can still find pleasurable schadenfreude style reading in our online newspapers. What a ripper tale from Sydney's Bondi Beach. Google's street view camera hasn't been along the street apparently. Pity. From the Sydney Morning Herald.

A Federal Court post-mortem is the latest stage in a society saga, writes Vanda Carson.

It's not how prestige developer Gary Baker and his wife, fashion queen Karin Upton Baker, would like to be remembered. But the society couple's financial woes have made their story a cautionary tale for Sydney's top end of town.

Mr Baker is facing bankruptcy and the family is facing eviction from its Elizabeth Bay home after the dream development project overlooking Bondi Beach turned into a nightmare. It left the couple unable to pay mortgages of $18 million and facing a series of legal battles.

A post-mortem on how it all came undone was held in the Federal Court this week, providing insights into the couple's personal finances as well as the high-stakes world of Sydney prestige real estate development.

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It is a world where generous property valuations are worth their weight in gold, as they can support higher bank borrowings. It is also a world where prices rise fast - and sink even faster when credit dries up.

The examination by the liquidator of one of Mr Baker's companies heard that the couple borrowed more than $10 million in 2006 as part of a risky development proposition in Bondi.

They planned to use the funds to buy the eight apartments at 6 Notts Avenue, a rundown 1963 building with postcard views of Bondi Beach.

The glamorous couple, usually seen rubbing shoulders with Sydney's elite, hoped to turn a quick profit by capitalising on growing demand for luxurious apartments thanks to an influx of new money into the trendy suburb.

The beachside strip is home to the former David Jones boss, Mark McInnes. The cricketer Michael Clarke and his then fiancee, Lara Bingle, lived there.

They hoped to transform the worst building on the best street into one to rival its polished neighbours.

The signs were promising - a neighbouring penthouse had sold for $9 million and on the other side is the Pacific Terraces building, a prestige apartment block that was once home to the billionaire James Packer and whose residents now include the fashion designer Nikki Zimmerman.

But the couple's plans were stymied when they were unable to get three of the owners in the building to sell for the right price. The Bakers were left holding five apartments in the block. Without ownership of the entire building, their development was unfeasible and they were stuck with a loan they could not repay or refinance.

Mr Baker recounted details of the immense pressure he was under as the couple's property empire crumbled.

In July 2008, Mr Baker said he was desperate to refinance his loans, which were due to be repaid to lender Challenger.

''I was running around town looking for money,'' he told the hearing.

Mr Baker had used a favourable $5.75 million valuation by LandMark White to show to other lenders - something that senior valuer Bill Fatouros had opposed.

''I've had enough of this f---ing bulls---,'' Mr Fatouros is alleged to have yelled at Mr Baker.

Mr Baker said Mr Fatouros ''flew off the handle'', slamming his hands down on a table and screaming at him, when Mr Baker tried to convince him to allow him to use the valuation.

''Bill was going off his brain,'' Mr Baker said.

''From that day on my relationship with Bill soured.

Another LandMark White valuer, Danny Sukkar, gave the rundown ground-floor apartment in the building the $5.75 million estimate.

The valuation was made as if the apartment had already been revamped into a luxury beach pad - and not on its decaying state. When the lender foreclosed, it sold for just $1.5 million.

Counsel for the liquidator, Michael Elliott, suggested the inflated valuations of the apartments just metres from the beach, Icebergs and Mr Packer's Bondi pad may have been the result of using inappropriate methods, a claim denied by Mr Sukkar and Mr Fatouros.

By having apartments valued on the basis that they were a ''development site'' - even before the Bakers controlled the whole building - the couple were able to borrow more than if they had been valued ''as is''.

More than two years on, it has emerged that the 47-year-old building more closely resembles the house in the Tom Hanks movie The Money Pit than its luxurious neighbours. Mr Baker, who wore a Hermes tie and belt for his appearance in the witness box, said the building was riddled with concrete cancer and the front of it was ''collapsing'', according to a geotechnical engineering report.

The saga has a way to run yet, with Mrs Baker now suing LandMark White, claiming Mr Sukkar negligently inflated the value of four oceanfront Bondi properties by millions of dollars, which left her saddled with debts she could not repay.

Pride March

While I am slaving away in the salt mines for a few lousy coppers, Household Management misses me terribly and finds it quite difficult to entertain himself.

4WD and SUV

I am sure there are some perfectly decent people out there who own 4wds and SUVs. I know one or two. I forgive them for their sin. Some even use them as they are meant to be used. I discount SUVs here because I did not observe any, but some 4wd drivers are fucking prick arseholes. They just delight in speeding through floodwaters, creating a wash that floods any vehicle around them and shops, businesses and houses along the street.

'It is all about me and what my machine can do to your poor chumps who cannot afford what I drive. I hope as you wallow in my wash, I have proved to you that I am superior even though I am so terribly underendowed and worse, 'it' does not perform nearly as well as my 4wd.'

I think I swore. I make up for it with some humour.

An old bloke was patiently waiting to reverse into a car space as a young bloke in a small sporty car slipped into the space. 'Hey grandpa, you need to be a bit quicker', called out the young bloke. The old bloke put his car in reverse, swung the wheel and slammed back into the young guy's sports car. The old bloke muttered to himself, 'It is nice to be old and rich'.

PS Sis in Law asked me for a $35,000 loan. Haha, I can pass on my credit card debt to you hon. I just add that in case you think I am old and rich. In my head I would like to be. I am not but I will concede to owning some very expensive bricks. They are not very digestible though.

The Aftermath

It seems the heavy shower of rain was a bit more dramatic than I thought. There are lots of flood pics out on the net and some personal accounts. But what about this tale of such dedication to work and duty? The lass fought floods and traffic to get to her work place. What a valuable employee. She should be paid more.

At nearly the same time tonight as I tookthe flood pics last night, all is dry and calm, the only evidence being sand in gutters and a tide mark of leaves on the irregular rectangle of grass.

To Paris

I wish. I must have stayed up too late one night at christmas time and saw one of those awful black and white English movies. The well known female actor, so well known I have forgotten her name, was in a rush to catch the boat train to Paris.

I would like to catch a boat train to Paris. We had to make do with the Eurostar.

What is this boat train thingie anyway? I think I know what it is. Let us research.

Well, I am getting disappointed. So far as I can tell, it is only a train that meets a ferry or ship and passengers transfer from the train to the boat.

Wait, The Independent has something interesting. Ok, this is what I was hoping. The train left from Victoria Station, drove onto a ferry at Dover and off again at Dunkirk and raced its way to Paris.

How terribly civilised the overnight trip of nine hours must have been. A fine meal in a dining car and then the gentle rocking to sleep by the North Sea in your warm and cozy compartment. Not so the day time trip though. The engine was disconnected and carriages shunted onto the boat. I don't think being on a shunted carriage would be so restful.

Perhaps the Eurostar is not a bad mode of transport.

Here is a train ready to leave Victoria Station and it is heading south, so it could well be a proper boat train.

Bit of a shower

In the nine years we have lived here, I have not seen the likes of this. Taken about 20 minutes ago.




The taxi hit the water at a fair pelt, but alas he did not stall. Damn.

Hookahs on Melbourne's Streets

There! I got the double entendre done in the title, so there won't be any more of that!

The first time I saw hookahs being smoked in public was in Edgware Road , London. The road has a middle eastern feel to it, probably because of all the Middle Eastern businesses, Middle Eastern eateries and Middle Eastern men in the street.

Then I saw some men with hookahs in their mouths in Sydney Road, Brunswick a year or so ago.

She couldn't have gotten her hair any blonder or her lips any redder. She was enjoying her hookah in Lygon Street, East Brunswick a week or so ago.

All very well for those north of the river types and their whacky baccy, but lo, R pointed out some hookahs in Mojitos in South Yarra. I've not seen them used yet.

Errr, I don't want to be a fusspot but do they have disposable mouth pieces? I am thinking I wouldn't be wanting a used hookah in my mouth unless it was thoroughly cleansed. Btw, does anyone know if hookah in French has a le or a la?

A Windsor Wander

I am not a young trendy person, but I do like to know what young trendy peoples are doing. I had reason to go to High Street Windsor other than to look at young trendy shops, but I thought we may as well take the time to check them out. East of Chapel Street in High Street is undergoing a renaissance. We entered a gallery that has some nice works. We went upstairs! to look at more works. We visited several other shops.

Hmm, a stylised and numbered print of a St Kilda view, bought at a fund raiser to stop the Triangle development. Nice bit of history, we liked the picture, but it was the wrong shape for the wall.

It was a bit warmish and I was trying to stay on the shady side of the street but R kept dragging me onto the hot sunny side to look at shops. I need a cold drink, I protested.

The interesting Chapel Street cafes were chockers with the young and the beautiful, as they would be on a Saturday afternoon. What is this place? A bottle shop with tables outside?

We occasionally go for a daytime drink to somewhere that charges outrageous prices just for a large beer or glass of wine. I always justify it because we never go out to bars at night drinking nowadays.

I am not sure if we sat at a barrel or a fifties laminex table at the bottle shop, there were both, but sat we did and I had an Asahi and R had an interesting imported cola, straight out of the bottle shop fridge. I conceal my shock when I pay $8 for an Asahi in some bars. This cost $7.50 for the Asahi and the cola. It would be a $1 extra if we wanted a glass. We slugged it down from the bottles like the common working class types that we are. The bottle shop does coffee too. I was most impressed. Our neighbouring drinkers were of Japanese origin. Only young Japanese can do style that puts westerners to shame and no young lady can pout better than a trendy Japanese lass.

No doubt the plans for these stairs in a gallery were brought over from Britain. They are treacherously steep.


Ah, it was laminex table we sat at for our refreshing drink.



Look V. You can come home and find gainful employment.


Might this be a night safe deposit facility at the Windsor ANZ Bank? Might the bank be closed? Might it be a backpackers place now? Might ANZ bank's name be sullied by such an historical attachment? Might that be Castlemaine slate?


A Jolly Roger, taken from the Queensway tramstop. Is it at half mast? Did a pirate die?

Shocking wind

Are we all holding our breath? The shocking wind won't be fixed by Dewitts Powder. Those to our far north are as prepared as they can be thanks to up to the date technology and forecasts by our weather bureau.

Our ABC is the nation's emergency broadcaster. I don't know what sort of hole in their budgets these tasks cause the ABC, but what a sterling job they have done through the Queensland and Victorian floods and now with the approaching Cyclone Yasi.

Across Queensland eleven local radio stations are broadcasting cyclone information via both AM and FM frequencies. Radio National is also broadcasting cyclone news as is News Radio, ABC Classic, and Radio Australia via shortwave. As was for the Qld floods, a special digital radio service has been set up to broadcast ABC Queensland across the nation, keeping all of us updated. ABC TV News 24 is playing its part too.

When the government next allocates money to our ABC, I hope they remember these times.

Later edit: BBC Asia Pacific is also giving the cyclone extensive coverage.

Fire

That's a bad. Off Little Bourke Street, Chun Wah's Cafe went up like the proverbial Hindu widow. It was a few months ago and was reported on the radio news.

Animal Kingdom

I was a bit annoyed that we missed Animal Kingdom when it was on at the picture theatres. However, we did hire the dvd to watch after christmas. I went to Blockbuster in Chapel Street because I had a membership card for them. I just knew it would go wrong as the lass swiped the card. How long since you have been here, she asked. About 2005 I replied. That was when R's sister and bro in law were here and they hired quite a few movies. We have not hired one since. I panicked as she said I would need to rejoin, and I hesitated and checked with R and he nodded. Fortunately it was only a few keystrokes by the lass and I was an up to date member.

I was looking forward to seeing it as I felt a personal connection. The personal connection was I went past in a tram the day after the Walsh Street police murders and the street was blocked off. We often walk along Walsh Street and I noted which block of flats the police were called to. And of course we look down on Walsh Street from the highrise. Plus I find tales of both Melbourne and Sydney's underworld a bit fascinating.

If the movie was about the Walsh Street murders, I missed that. If the movie was about a sulky morose teenager, I got that. If it was some fine writing for Jackie Weaver to deliver well, I got that. If it was about history of a matter I was interested in, I missed that. I found the movie very disappointing, but not due to the standard of acting.

Yasi

Oh, a band of rain approaching Queensland. I am inclined to say don't panic Captain Mainwarring, but then I recall ex Premier Brumby telling us tomorrow, a day in early February a couple of years ago, would be a bad day. We thinking people thought, ho hum.

Authorities are now prone to over exaggerating risk from unfriendly weather. I hope they are this time. What a pity there weren't warnings to Toowoomba and the Lockyer Valley.

A Big Gay Party

The 6th of September in 1969 was significant date for Melbourne's gays, so I learnt during the history walk. It probably was in many western cities that had significant numbers of gay men. One party organised to celebrate the date in a flat in Darling Street South Yarra was overwhelmed when Masies closed at the correct hour, with people unable to fit inside the flat, they spilled out into Darling Street.

But it was probably not a significant date for gays in the US where a different date format is used.

Quayleisms

There once was a US politician who rivalled George Dubbya but perhaps not in the way he wanted.

While following up mango(e)s and avocado(e)s I came across something I remember very well, Dan Quayle wrongly arguing with a student about the ending of the word potato. Quayle insisted it was potatoe.

I am sure it has been done for George Dubbya and a list of Quayleisms has also been compiled.

I am not part of the problem. I am a Republican.

I have made good judgements in the Past. I have made good judgements in the Future.

People that are really very weird can get into sensitive positions and have a tremendous impact on history.

Republicans understand the importance of bondage between a mother and child.

The future will be better tomorrow.

We don't want to go back to tomorrow, we want to go forward.

We have a firm commitment to NATO, we are a *part* of NATO. We have a firm commitment to Europe. We are a *part* of Europe.

We're all capable of mistakes, but I do not care to enlighten you on the mistakes we may or may not have made.

Welcome to President Bush, Mrs. Bush, and my fellow astronauts.

What a waste it is to lose one's mind. Or not to have a mind is being very wasteful. How true that is.
When I have been asked during these last weeks who caused the riots and the killing in L.A., my answer has been direct and simple: Who is to blame for the riots? The rioters are to blame. Who is to blame for the killings? The killers are to blame.

[It's] time for the human race to enter the solar system. Verbosity leads to unclear, inarticulate things.

One word sums up probably the responsibility of any vice president, and that one word is 'to be prepared'.

Illegitimacy is something we should talk about in terms of not having it.

I believe we are on an irreversible trend toward more freedom and democracy - but that could change.

Mars is essentially in the same orbit... Mars is somewhat the same distance from the Sun, which is very important. We have seen pictures where there are canals, we believe, and water. If there is water, that means there is oxygen. If oxygen, that means we can breathe.

The Holocaust was an obscene period in our nation's history. I mean in this century's history. But we all lived in this century. I didn't live in this century.

Quite frankly, teachers are the only profession that teach our children. We're going to have the best-educated American people in the world.

We are ready for any unforeseen event that may or may not occur.

For NASA, space is still a high priority.

We approach the end where he becomes introspective perhaps.

Public speaking is very easy.

I stand by all the misstatements that I've made.

Murphy Brown is doing better than I am. At least she knows she still has a job next year.