The Thousands

I’m building a model plane. It’s a Guillows Aeronca kit from 1962. The body is constructed from balsa, glue and tissue. I bought it from the Victorian Hobby Centre on Swanston Street for $26.

Dad would take my brother and I there as kids. He’d buy rubber-powered planes that took two minutes to build and we’d fly them in the Carlton Gardens.

A few weeks before I went in, my housemate and I watched that Stardust clip by Michel Gondry for the first time in a long time. We danced around the room and I thought about my Dad and planes and the boy in the video.

When I’ve finished painting the tissue I’m having a launch party. We’re taking it to the hill by the football oval at the end of our street. It’s gonna crash, I know it. But I don’t care. Not one bit.