A small room above a bay window. A single bed, a table and chair, and a sink. I could manage something larger, with more conveniences, but I could never match the view.

Before me is a box filled with eighteen plastic pieces. When assembled, these pieces will look like a water tower (HO scale).

Seventeen years ago, when I was living at the North Burnaby Inn, I began buying train set models that I would paint and position on a table not much bigger than the one I am sitting at now.

After a year I had everything but the train. It was then that I lost interest.