Photo Story: Piano Keys

In the year 2009 I enjoyed sharing a big house with a single dad, his two young daughters, and a couple of other flatmates who came and went. We rented the place together; it was high on a hill, nearly at the top of the same ridge I live on now, but much farther along to the south. It was also just across from a very large patch of bush that goes all the way down to the harbour on the inside, and this forest was big enough to get lost in and forget I was even in the city. I had a basement room, but worked mostly upstairs in the lounge, from where there was a fine view of the Hauraki Gulf not too different from what I see looking east today. So each morning I would cart my computer upstairs, and I would pass this piano in the front hallway. It was several months before I realised the door behind the piano led to a small bathroom under the stairs, which proved a useful extra facility. I vaguely recall that the girls were supposed to practise on the piano but I don't remember if they ever did. I do remember downloading sheet music for the Star Trek Voyager theme song and attempting to play it. I couldn't - and still can't - play much easier pieces, so it's no wonder I got stuck fairly quickly. However, the old piano's mismatched keys gave it great character and one day I snapped this shot.

I was asleep in my cold basement room when my father died, early one morning four years ago. Now his piano, in much better condition than the one above, stands in my house that I never would have found if the landlord at that other place hadn't decided he wanted to move in himself. I still haven't learned to play piano, not properly - but I do like to tinker, and maybe someday I'll get it right.