‘We’ll want to downsize sooner or later,’ Chanel went on. ‘And I’ll want to entertain regularly once I’m promoted. Dinner parties for the other executives, barbecues for the financial team. We can’t expect people to travel out here. And it’s not just the distance and the ruro problem around the station. Everyone will see that there’s a rental across the road. Which reminds me, weren’t you going to talk to the Samoans about that nature strip?’

‘The girl came to the door – the one who looks like a young tree. She said that the nature strip is her rewilding project.’

‘Rewilding! Did you tell her to google Australian snakes?’

Chanel opened her laptop. ‘Come and sit here,’ she said, patting the couch. ‘I’ve got something to show you.’ That was when I learned that Gavina had been in touch about her latest curation, an upmarket apartment complex that was getting under way. ‘At this stage,’ Chanel said, ‘Gavina’s just reaching out to a few friends as a favour, so that we can buy off the plan and save.’

‘Did she really say friends?’

‘She said friends.’

‘Where is it, this complex?’

‘Inner north.’

‘But where exactly?’

The name of the suburb meant nothing. Chanel said, ‘It’s only fourteen, fifteen kilometres from the CBD.’

‘Inner!’

‘Okay, outer inner. The point is, it’s a luxury development in a precinct that’s still just a little bit edgy. That adds up to very sexy real estate.’ Chanel passed her laptop to me. ‘We’re talking exclusive living in a building with a historic footprint. It used to be an abattoir. Obviously it’s being remodelled to the highest contemporary design standards. But they’re planning to preserve the original bluestone slaughter floor – that’s where the enoteca and providore will be.’

The Prime Cut website described ‘an urban village in an emerging precinct where imagination, history and visionary architecture come together to create a whole new story’. Noting the ‘transport links within easy reach’, I located the complex on Google maps. There was a bus stop almost within walking distance, and a ring-road close at hand.

‘It sounds stunning,’ I said. ‘Or should that be stun-gunning?’

Chanel was unamused. ‘An opportunity like this comes once in a lifetime. I emailed Gavina to thank her, and she came back to me saying that if we act within a month, she can give us a five per cent discount. That’s on top of the savings on stamp duty.’ Chanel added, ‘Look – Gavina’s been here. The way I see it, she’s letting me know that this suburb isn’t what the Corporation expects of senior management. She’s trying to help. It’s a hint.’

Perhaps it is a comand, I thought. But when I looked at the display suites, I couldn’t help being impressed. There were so many sophisticated finishes and creative touches! The light in the pictures was golden and warm – there must be a filter called Bounced Off Wattle. People of all ages with cheekbones that caught the light were buying cheese from a smiling man in a striped apron or drinking wine on landscaped terraces under a smoke-free sky.