What's it like around the table in the chamber?
Lots of spectacles, of the bi-focal kind! Hair, where there is any, is grey. Ish.
No-one has carved their names on the tables and I can't see a single cigarette burn in the wood. It's not an Arthurian round table, but a horseshoe - lucky I guess and perfect for making decisions on the hoof :-)
The carpet's been chosen for its colour, I'm guessing. Being red, it'd keep its counsel if and when there was blood on the floor. I understand there has been some but the present council has acted in a very civilized manner.
The ear-less walls boast art-works and maps - a watched clock and carefully draped flag - New Zealand's but in the style of Old Glory in an American courtroom. Amusingly, there's an 'exit' sign on the door-less rear wall. Beside it is an arrow pointing to the opposite wall which sports a door suitable for exiting.
There's some natural light, filtered through white net curtains. Those opposite where I sit are high and narrow, like the slots through which medieval archers let fly their arrows, only horizontal. I watch for passing birds, clouds and other signs of the real world.
Sounds are muted, by the carpet and the bodies of plump bureaucrats (joke!).
The acoustics are good however and our mumblings can be heard. There's a microphone for softly-spoken applicants and other guests.
Fans in the ceiling (I ask mine to wait outside). Sprinklers too, which I hope will never be activated.
That's about it. Bar the pit, about which I am not free to speak.
3 comments:
What a poetic description Robert, albeit one that left this reader thinking of a caged animal outside his natural habitat! Has it ever occurred to anyone to move the exit sign, or has it become an inside joke?
"inside joke' - nice Suz!
Once the excitement wears off, I might be wanting to try the back wall, door or no!
So far, it's engaging, especially just now.
If the media ring for comment, I'm going to say, "intriguing".
Makes you wonder how the creative designer is selected and by whom; possibly a plough-shaped birthmark?
I've heard that 'very civilized' may be a bit of a generalization. The non-ranked councillors doing more than their fair share of the being civilized.
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