It’s still very clear in my mind, the day I walked into the Pain Clinic at Flinders. I was in my early twenties, and I immediately felt unsettled. The walls were rotting and peeling, and I felt squished and oppressed from the low ceilings and tight spaces. It was as though everything about the corridors and waiting area was designed to be as uncomfortable as some post-modernist Foucauldian institution.

I still remember the day I saw the poster to become a Host Parent hanging on the oddly placed community notice board at Aberfoyle Hub. I say oddly placed because it was near the toilets, but I suppose, I always did stop to read it - so perhaps it was correctly placed...

Today is Wednesday. Which means it's Cleaning Day in the Writer's Cottage. It is also Christmas Eve. So, I am cleaning on Christmas Eve. Which is very - normal.