Penultimate

On December 30th, you're between years. It's the lame duck period. Too early to fantasise about a new future, to late to avoid the fact that last NYE's future hasn't happened yet.

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Unexplored

Up a dead end side street that in 15 years I've never walked in previously is this - courtesy of a wet Boxing Day interlude and a Xmas phone - discreet and yet imposing entrance. It's the only door in 30 metres of identical brick wall. Opposite are a bakers' supplies depot, an electrician's workshop, a taxi depot and something that purports to be a gallery over a derelict garage. At the cul of the sac are two logistics depots, which along with furniture and car repair make up the majority of the local industry.

It's possible, due to the absence of people on a public holiday, to skulk up the driveway of one of the depots and have a look at the back. Corrugated iron is a staple of Australian rears; in these modernist times people even use them for frontages, but when Marrickville was growing up (the last half of the 19th and the first half of the 20th centuries) hiding things behind impressive brickwork was the norm. Not just a desire to impress; brickworks were a major industry in the 19th century, as evidenced by Henson Park, a former quarry recycled as a velodrome for the 1938 Empire Games. Also, I feel, by the texture of the clay about two feet down in my backyard; it could just about be used for modelling clay unwashed. Also, it's the same colour as local brick. The marble sheets have the look of a kitchen benchtop business.

But actually, not just benchtops, but art. If you had a friend who was (or yourself were) a truckdriver using the depots behind, or a bus driver working for the three coach bus line that shares the forecourt of the despatch sheds, and you were looking for an original greek sculpture, this is where you'd come. I wonder if s/he works in the pre-classical, classical, or post-classical style? Or is continuing to refine the craft, informed by the 20th century?

This is the side of the sculptor's shed. Maybe a picture is worth a thousand words, but this picture needs its sound effect; through this window is coming the sound of a piano, practised...heedlessly. A lot of mistakes, but plenty of competent passages too. Casual, bored by the long (Tuesday*) afternoon. If the window was still intact, maybe they'd know it had stopped raining?

* You need to understand public holidays in Australia. While it's true that Boxing Day was Sunday, Sunday is already a holiday. Not wanting to waste the few public holidays we have, it was moved to Tuesday.

Kitchen update

This is what $150 worth of physiotherapy looks like - plus a bit extra for paint and masking tape. More than 60 meters of masking tape went into doing this; in fact, just the masking alone took up the best part of half a day. Not being able to stand safely on the counter top (who knows how strong it is?) slowed me down a fair bit. It's a long stretch from the ladder to the top edge of the ceiling, which is about 12 ft. up.

This picture was taken immediately after all the stuff was moved back in; it may not look that tidy to anyone else, but for us this is the epitome (or apotheosis) of tidiness.

The main feature of the repaint is in fact the "feature" wall; although it's pretty un-startling compared to feature walls I have known elsewhere. Still, my thinking is that the blue has a fairly strong presence as well, so best not to overdo it. The off-white has changed from pink undertones to green/blue undertones, for obvious reasons. What else can I say? Oh yes, I filled about 20 meters worth of cracks as well. It's a complete mystery why Australian tradesmen (we've had 3 plasterers though) don't use lime mortar. It doesn't crack under small movements, so, perfect for walls on a clay footing. OK, now I know enough to insist on it, but I wasn't an expert on

renders when we moved in here.

If I knew what I needed to know to supervise the people who worked here, I wouldn't actually need any of them to work here. That seems faintly odd to me.

The cat doesn't like the new arrangement, and has decided to move into a new catcave. Perhaps it's the smell of the paint.