By Matt Zis - news editor/chief of staff of the Community Newspaper Group
A YEAR ago I watched with more than a tinge of sadness as removalists packed up the last of the boxes for our shift “just down the road” to new company headquarters in Stirling Street, Perth.
As with any move, it wasn't just that we were departing our office of 20 years.
We were trading in the surrounds to which we'd become accustomed - such as the view across the railway tracks to the Perth Entertainment Centre.
Working within sight of the “Ent Cent” had been something special for me, even as the grand old building lay dormant for several years before finally being brought to ground last year.
After all, it was a place of memories - I saw my first live concert there as well as many, many adrenalin pumping Perth Wildcats games during the basketball team's heyday.
Yet it took only one day in our new workplace “home” to remind me that the grass on the other side can be greener than our old building ever was.
As for the “Ent Cent” - the memories survived, even though the building did not and I longer visit that part of town. Change, I proved to myself, can be for the better.
Nostalgia kicked in again this week as I spent a day at ye olde Burswood Dome watching the live tennis of Hopman Cup XXIV.
Next year the event will have a new home at the still-under-construction Perth Arena - which the State Government is building to replace the Entertainment Centre.
No doubt they're hoping that the venue we have watched rise (both in height and cost) in recent years becomes another place where memories can be made for many people.
There's a new year's resolution that we can all keep an eye on into the future.