The Stairway to Freedom!

Photo of stairs descending to the deserted platform at Gordon StationAs much as one stairway can symbolise imprisonment, another one at Gordon railway station (pictured) is a symbol of Freedom. It’s deserted, but I know there’ll soon be a late-night train taking me somewhere that dinner can be found. Huzzah!

Yes, I really was trapped alone in an office building, with deadlocking doors at the top and the bottom of the stairwell. One of the tenants is Westpac bank, so everything is solid. And I’d already phoned the client’s people but bounced to voicemail each time. I was looking forward to a long night on the stairs. Not.

And yes, I really did post to my website from The Stairway of Imprisonment.

My PowerBook has a battery. It talks Bluetooth to my Nokia N80 phone, and uses the phone’s 3G data link through Vodafone to teh Internetz. I used the N80’s camera to take the photo, and Bluetooth’d it back to the PowerBook for a quick and dirty bit of Photoshop. The photo transfer happened without disturbing the data link too! Impressed.

Luckily, while I was doing all that one of the client’s staff phoned back. I could take the call while still online, too. Hi, Loraine! She only lives 15 minutes of late-night driving from the office, so I was freed soon enough. And right now I’m on a train back to the City. Indeed, I’m posting this story precisely as I cross the Sydney Harbour Bridge!

Trapped in St Ives! Eek!

Trapped!

You won’t believe this! It’s 11pm and I’m currently trapped in the front stairwell of the commercial building at 186 Mona Vale Road, St Ives. Locked in because I tried leaving by the front door, instead of the usual rear exit. Except it’s deadlocked. And now I can’t get back up the stairs either, because that door has locked too!

Oh well. At least there’s carpet on the floor and three hours of laptop battery left… [sigh] How glamorous!