A relaxing weekend staying with friends in Enmore included my first (and hopefully not last) trip to Reverse Garbage in Marrickville. In their own words, “Reverse Garbage is a not-for-profit co-operative that sells industrial discards, off-cuts and over-runs to the public for creative and practical uses, reducing the amount of waste going to landfill.” There was lots of cool stuff in side, some practical, some just plain desirable.

The first thing to catch my eye was a set of pre-made timber frames that would be perfect for turning into acoustic panels for the new studio, but it wasn’t long before I spotted and fell in love with this yellow Norwood typewriter. It’s really hard to explain but there is something so enjoyable about tapping out a few pages of lyrics on this thing - its highly impractical but it somehow just makes me smile. I guess it’s like comparing vinyl to mp3s. Staccato bursts of inspiration-made-real reverberate around the house, much to the annoyance of everyone else. Sure, computers are quiet, allow you to restructure with the swipe of a mouse, spell check for you and let you send copies around the world in an instant, but typewriters have so much more soul. I wonder if I will be able to find a new ribbon for it?