The East Room

I just read in the paper this evening that there was a fire at Melbourne Central Shopping Centre this morning. My apartment building is right next door and yet I didn't hear the 12 fire/emergency units that attended the scene (according to the paper I first saw it in, which isn't online). Unless they arrived without sirens, I find that a little scary because it means I must have slept through it. And makes me wonder whether I'd sleep through a smoke detector going off. On the plus side, I know from my time living at college that the fire alarms do wake me up, so I guess I'd be safe while I'm here.

I'm pondering buying myself a sewing machine. It's been something I've been thinking about for a while actually. Usually when I want to sew something, I have to take it home and use one of my mum's machines. Since the one that works is currently set up in my room it's probably not that much of a hassle unless something happens to the machine that my mum has to fix. It'd be nice if I could do the sewing here, especially since there is more room for cutting out here and no cat to sit on the fabric. And I could get through the half dozen projects that I want to do without bothering my mum.

The one that I'm looking at is the Janome 415 for $299. The other possibilities are from Brother: the PS-53 ($339) and the XL-6050 (also $299?). I wanted to check them out before I purchase any of them, but I couldn't find them on epinions. Does anybody own one of them and would recommend it, or know where else I could find reviews?