17th November

Two really good things happened today.

Firstly, I received a phone call from the Strata Manager of the building next door. She has apparently been activated by our solicitor's "hurry-up" letter and wanted to arrange for her appointed builder to have access to the leaky wall, this afternoon, with the view of fixing it, in a temporary fashion, straight away. There was no mention of the fact that she had previously insisted that it was OUR wall and, therefore, our responsibility to fix in its entirety. It seems that that little impediment was brushed aside!  She went on to explain that the total renovation of the wall would take some time to organise with consultants and in the meantine, even if it took "membrane" or "fibreglass" her builder was to employ as many workmen as required and stop the leaks as soon as possible.  Needless to say, I felt much better about everything after this call. So did Steve.

The second thing really enhanced my day. I'm not sure that I should admit here that I got my days wrong. When I awoke I presumed I was lunching with Hilary and Nola at the new Maitland Art Gallery. However, after failed attempts to make contact about travel arrangements, I realised that I had the wrong day. That is happening tomorrow. I find something really comforting and quite hilarious about not knowing what day of the week it is.

So, I threw on some work clothes and proceeded for most of the day to pack books into boxes. Twenty nine boxes so far. And that's only the non-fiction. Two wizz bins full of throw-outs. I have bought a trolley- lifter contraption that means I don't have to lug the boxes. I have wheel marks embedded in the carpet from where I carted filled boxes out into the big room, to rest for the next two months before they are taken to their new home. Wouldn't you know though!? Lester came home and said that there was one piece of music he needed to play music and of-course, I have packed it. He can't live without it for two months so I will to do some unpacking tomorrow!

I have yet to get to the really good thing. First some background. Last Friday the Newcastle Herald  published a book in conjunction with their journalist Greg Ray and his wife, Sylvia, who was responsible for image restoration. The book is called,"Newcastle The Missing Years" and is a photographic history of the Hunter in the 30's  and 40's.   He  bought a box of old glass and film negatives at an auction last June. When he got it home he soon realised that they were excellent photographs of people and places and were likely taken by press photographers. They had been collected and saved by a fellow called Ken Magor who had been a fireman and transport enthusiast. It is not known who actually took the photographs but some of the well-known news photographers of the time, Arch Miller, Milton Merilees, Tom Hall and Cec Piggot are named.  Of course, I bought the book on Saturday because I am a tragic when it comes to old photographs. Milton Merilees was my teacher in 1976 when Aidan and I enrolled at Tech (now Tafe) to do a photography course. He was the most  inspiring and passionate photographer; technically brilliant with a creative eye. This collection, if not taken by him, was surely taken by cadets. The photographs exhibit all the hallmarks of a good photographer. Greg Ray comments that "scanning the negatives was like an archaeological dig".  At the end of the book there is a statement saying that this book  contains only a few of the thousands of negatives in the box. Interestingly, to me, there were two photos of our building at 59 Hunter St. They were in the background of street marches and little detail of the front of the building could be seen.

So, this morning, after I realised I would not be travelling to Maitland and before I started throwing dusty books into boxes, I wrote an email to Greg Ray. I asked him if, perhaps as a long shot, he had any other pictures of the AMP Building and the little P & O Building next door. This afternoon, I received a reply with two photographs of the front of the building both taken in the 40's. One is obstructed with bunting for a parade but the other clearly shows what the facade was originally. I have three special photographs of the original buildings I have lived in. This is the third. It made my day. The really hilarious thing is that there are TWO nuns in the picture. (We have a running joke about scoring points if we can get a nun in the picture. I once scored well with two nuns in Cuenca and Lester has captured one in Cuszco  who was wearing gold shoes, which scored good points.)

It is interesting just how much the facade has changed. There is no awning. The ground floor was comprised of three windows (no shop front - there must have been interior stairs to the upper floors.) The windows on the first floor, which caused us so much trouble with Heritage, were indeed different from the windows which currently exist. These windows opened in the central section.  I love the advertising on the Westminster wall!





This is the old photo of our house  in  Stockton,  built 1886. This photo probably taken in the 1920's.



This is the third old photo of a house we have lived in (and renovated). This is Tyrrell   St.  Our house is not clearly shown but it is the first house on the left, facing the camera. This is an old photograph as the sailing boats are visible in the harbour. This house was built in the 1870's or even earlier.

Other than that, progress has been made with the details of the kitchen, (I have changed my mind on the colour again but it isn't too late.) A representative from the company making the big glass doors came out to see the site. Steve was able to spend some time on the details of the roof garden componants. And Greg...apart from dealing with the fellow who is about to fix the leak in the wall, got on with building bits of wall. Lester said it got a bit noisy downstairs. He had a little old lady sitting in his room with her fingers in her ears.