I live in a block of flats, which is pretty normal around here. It's actually a converted hotel. When I first lived in St Kilda it was a run down old boarding house, then it became a squat full of drug dealers and takers. Then it was added to and converted to flats. So I've contributed to the gentrification of St Kilda just by living here I guess.

But next door is a hostel run by a community housing society. and in the hostel there was a lady whom I never saw, but I heard her frequently. She had the habit of, occasionally, conducting long, bitter and very loud arguments with someone who was not there. This didn't happen every day, or even every week. Maybe once a month, sometimes less often. It was annoying, but that's all. she had been there longer than I've lived in the flats, so at least five years.

Then I heard that other residents in my flats had taken up a petition to have
Robin removed from the hostel. I rang the housing society and was told yes, that had happened. Furthermore, they had enlisted the aid of councillors and members of parliament who had added their voices to the demands that Robin must go. I said that that was not my opinion at all, but it was obvious that I was outnumbered. I heard last week that Robin has gone. Where? I don't know. I asked the petition signers. They don't know either, and they don't care, just so long as their delicate ears are no longer assailed by her despair and distress at the way life has dealt with her. They were amazed at my suggestion that Robin too was entitled to her home. But, they said, she was crazy.

I never know when to keep my mouth shut, so I suggested to these ladies that anybody who chooses to live in St Kilda should be aware that there are drug addicts, street kids, prostitutes and a variety of other troubled and damaged people on the streets. So why do they come? Do they not know this? One explained. "But," she said, "this is the most expensive part of St Kilda." No, actually, it's not. But the connection eludes me anyway.

Wherever you are Robin, I hope your neighbours are kinder than the ones you had here.