10 December 2025
Wednesday. There are builders in my dunny. I said I wanted a renovation show. I meant one about me.
The whole place on The Corso is getting done up for summer, top to bottom. New timber, new everything. The old girl had seen a lot of tourists since the Indisposed days, and the management decided she’d earned a facelift.
Nobody asked me about the paint. I would have said “sunset over the Nullarbor”. They chose “weathered”. I went and had a look. It is very weathered. It looks exactly like it did before, only more so. Kev says that’s the art of it.
I’ll admit they’ve got the important things right. The lantern. The long drop. The cicadas going off like a choir. The door, which locks exactly as it should, at exactly the worst moment. They even put back a splinter I was fond of.
Kev says there’s a school for wizards moving in down the hall. I have offered to drop in as a celebrity guest. No reply yet. Wizards are like that.
— Huge Axeman
