Greys Avenue Flats

Been a day of many parts. The morning was taken with S having an appointment in the central city while I sorted the final wording of a report, and also organised some stuff for the accountant (my most hated job). Followed by S ferrying me to the inner city Chambers of the barrister to whom I delivered the report before walking to the accountant's office, then heading home just in time to get to the nearby hairdresser.

The afternoon was letters and stuff. Not quite that easy. My new (two months old) MacBook Air suddenly developed a black screen with the backlight on the keyboard still shining to show that it wasn't a power problem. Did everything I could think of to force the machine to quit. Nothing happened. Used another device to look for help on the internet. I had done everything suggested. But I also found a not very cheering post that the mid 2013 MacBook Airs seem to have a bug that produces a black screen. Great.

So I rang the Ubertec people and told the nice young woman who was on for Tech support what was my problem. She asked if I had turned it off. Not (quite) screaming, I replied calmly and quietly that I'd tried that and it wouldn't turn off (I didn't even cry while saying that). Then she told me to hold down the on-off button for up to a minute and that WILL turn it off. Then turn it on again. It only needed six (rather than sixty) seconds to turn off, it then turned on again and I completed the afternoon's work.

And learned a new computer management trick. Invaluable, although I'd rather not have to use it again.

When all that was done I took a run to clear the head. And to get this blip. On the way into the appointment with S this morning I went down Greys Avenue which connects the K Road area to the central city, and saw this wonderful painted electronics box. So I came back get this photo. THAT is when I saw the spook.

Behind the box are the upper Greys Ave apartments. 86 apartments in this one block. Built by central Government and designed by the Government architect of the time, they were finished in 1958. Over time they became home to suburbia’s misfits – students, beneficiaries, artists, gays, musos, intellectuals, and other disruptive elements, and were seen as a source of crime, drug use (when that was uncommon) and there was at least one high profile murder. Perhaps that was the stimulus to create the spook in this painting.

Part of the justification for building this block of apartments, was "urban renewal", because of claims that the old Victorian era wooden houses constituted a slum. However, the move away from the central city which occurred in the 1950s to 1970s had more to do with the more affluent members of society wanting to be away from the city, than with the quality of the housing. It had even extended to where we bought our first home.

As these things do, the fashion changed and the wealthy have moved back to the central city and inner suburbs, and there was even a project to upgrade these apartments. It hasn't gone very far in large part because the style (appalling as it is) is regarded as important to maintain.