Christmas break

Serial is taking a break over Christmas. The next installment of chapter 2, 'Hotdog', will be published in 5 January 2010.

Hotdog 12

The serial number on the machine didn’t match the number on the box.
No instructions, she thought, I don’t know how to work it.

Insect life
Reference Number: B-131-06-001

Hotdog 11

It was only the size of a vacuum cleaner, smaller than the ones she had seen in Mitre 10. It had clean wheels but water dripped out of the hose. Looking for the guarantee she realised that there was no packaging and the box was battered.

Hutt Railway Workshops at Woburn. Interior view with new heating apparatus, 1929
Reference Number: APG-0891-1/2-G

Hotdog 10

Waving the hat at the hydrangeas she went in to inspect the waterblaster.

Photograph of Anisotome latifolia, Campbell Island, ca 1959
Reference Number: PA12-1425-060

Hotdog 9

There was a spider dangling from her hat. She raised her hand to brush it off the brim but stopped, watching cross-eyed the minute creature climbing up. All elbows.

Rear view of a man in doublet and hose
Reference Number: E-312-q-091-4

Hotdog 8

A line of fire. She adjusted her glasses. Slowly tilting her head she gazed at the lobelia until at a certain angle through the lens the ultraviolet petals were thinly edged with red.

A village priest on his way to attend badly wounded civilians, France, 19 April 1918
Reference Number: 1/2-013148-G

Hotdog 7

Green moss on the concrete, pine needles magnetised to the corners. Daisies. She put the radio on a stone and began gardening. It seemed the world was igniting in small puffs, bullet holes appearing in the Middle East.

Unexploded Turkish shells at Gallipoli, 1915
Reference Number: PA1-o-308-21-4

Hotdog 6

I didn’t undo the twists, Roly said. Hotdog?

Couple with Frigidaire electric appliances in Wellington Botanic Garden, 1972
Reference Number: PA12-3461-1

Hotdog 5

At the dairy she was searching for eggs when Roly and his girlfriend came in and stood at the counter. The girl was laughing. Off the balcony!

The Petone Fire Station, with hoses hanging up to dry, after the fire at Bailey, Austin & Arcus timber yards, 1910
Reference Number: APG-0411-1/2-G

Hotdog 4

It was too expensive. She didn’t really need it.

Detail of a kitchen interior, ca 1932
Reference Number: 1/1-015728-F

Hotdog 3

Waterblaster! shouted Roly. Three hundred, stainless steel tank, brand new.
He put the box in the wash-house, pulled his hoodie up and ran.

Painting for the cover of an unpublished book featuring paintings of the Napier earthquake.
Reference Number: B-155-023