Melba Hotel

Late afternoon, wet weather, blowy, drove down Rathdowne Street Carlton. Stopped opposite Commission Flats to photograph Melba Hotel. Hotel sandblasted, showing century of underpainting. Riot of revealed pastel colours crazing paint-work letters decals, wooden doors and window sills, cornices, pediments, all distressed and exposed and cracked. Dodging traffic to photograph the coloured exterior saturated by the intermittent rain. Wash of car tyres on the wet bitumen, click-click-click. Across the street at the flats three boys kick a large stuffed dog to pieces. White polystyrene balls drift across the road. The boys finally kick the destroyed dog into the road where it is run over by a bus.