I'm really not sure what to use to describe the area I live in. I've chosen to call it inner west, but it's actually more accurate to say it's on the border of the inner south-west. I found an interesting article by Bob Gould about the area. The Prime Minister grew up around here before moving off to grander things. But Gould's article is also interesting from the point of view of the multicultural appeal of this area. Here's a snapshot of the diversity to be found here. For me it's great, having lived in Asia for ten years, as I can buy a tasty bowl of noodles in any one of a dozen eateries for around eight dollars when I don't want to cook.

Campsie is two just suburbs out from Marrickville, which must certainly be classed as inner west. Then two suburbs out from us is Lakemba, a suburb that generally features strongly in any news coverage of Muslim affairs, and must surely be classed as inner south-west. The Inner West Courier newspaper doesn't list Canterbury Council on its links page. And the Inner West Weekly, part of the Cumberland Group of newspapers, includes Campsie in its circulation area for the Canterbury-Bankstown Express.

But I'm sticking to 'inner west' in my profile — I feel more inner west than anything else, at least.

Apart from writing for socialist journals, Bob Gould is better known as the proprietor of Gould's Book Arcade in Newtown. The store was once located on George Street in the middle of the city. Then he moved to Leichhardt. But now he's firmly ensconced in upper Newtown, just a stone's throw from where I work.