All lined up in a row

In November 1988 I was looking for a job. One afternoon I attended an interview with a placement agency in a 4 storey building on St Kilda Road Melbourne. Arrived at the building I couldn't help but notice it was almost devoid of tenants.

During the interview I remember looking at the building next door and thinking it had to be one of the ugliest buildings I'd ever seen. Of course, my next job was in that very building; I joined Unisys Australia in January 1989 and, apart from a 3 year sojourn at another Unisys site at Collins Street Melbourne and 3 months in Canberra I spent almost 12 years working out of that building.

Good times. Heck, I even scored a trip to Boston travelling first class all the way. Another trip, to Taipei, was also a score.

A couple of months after I joined Unisys that building next door lost its last tenant and up went the signs announcing yet another office tower. Demolition was, it seemed, imminent. They even took every toilet bowl in the building and lined em up in the lobby in a row.

At the end of 2000 I was made redundant at Unisys (that's the subject of another story). And as I left the building for the last time I passed the condemned building next door. There it still stood, patiently waiting for the wreckers ball, empty for 12 years and it's lobby still proudly hosting a row of toilet bowls, all lined up in a row.