Some boys think they're sweet enough to eat

As I walked with the dogs this morning I passed a house which is for sale. The huge sign out the front has been there for over a month and I've passed it many times. It has the date of the auction (next weekend) and also features colour photos of the interior.

The main photo shows the spacious living room: a modern closed fireplace on a tiled surround, a pair of tasteful blue two seater lounges, and an expanse of polished blonde wood floor stretching endlessly back towards the camera. It's obviously an old house done up quite nicely. And you know, in a room like that you could do a neat job of swinging a couple of cats tied together, without knocking over any knick-nacks.

But something was different on this nice sunny morning. The curtains were wide open and the real thing was clearly visible. My view of the room was from an angle only a little bit different from the one the photo had been shot from. The reality was so much smaller than what was implied by the photographer's skill with a wide angle lens. A maximum of two paces from the window would put me right inside that little fireplace.

It must be the same kind of lens they used to shoot the indoor swimming pool at a Sydney hotel I once booked online.


The real thing turned out to be about one third the size it appears in this picture. I think those plants must have been brought in just for the photo, and it all looked much more ordinary. I found the whole thing very amusing.