Ahhh the sweet fragrance of a new bill, they always seem to find me. Something to do with that block of numbers in the corner and the street address. It’s always more than exciting [not] to hold one of those thin sheafs of compressed paper that seem to weigh less than a breath in hand. To slip my finger into its throat and rip it open. Yep I’ll just add it to the other collection of fluttering leaves pinned to the board in the corridor that swirl every time I pass, and sometime before gestation I’ll sling open the internet bank , tap on some keys and transfer imaginary dollars from my account to theirs.

Amazing really all this technology that allows us to pay for things and send things – for instance I just purchased a book from United States to send to Australia via a credit card. Of course I had to put in my name and address and tick the box that said ‘No, please don’t send me any more information’….. obligatory if you don’t want a flood of spam. So in a couple of weeks a small brown cardboard package will arrive with my book.

I used to get really exited when I’d ordered a big thing, a piece of REAL technology with buttons and knobs and flashing lights. I could track its progress on the Inter Web and I ‘d look out from my second story vista to the street below hoping that big white van with the words FEDEX would turn up before I went to work. When it did happen that way, fireflies would dance inside of me, wriggling ants of joy. With the papers signed the big cardboard box was wolfed to my room or the kitchen and a sharp knife slit the seams- there’s a funny smell when you cut cardboard, inside the box nuggets of foam packing beads had kept the item safe and secure, another slip of the knife delivered a waft of freshly sealed plastic. My mouth waters at the thought of holding this new piece of wizardry, it is delivered to the fresh air of the world just like one of those mangy bills……