It's a year since John Key first brandished the phrase "party central" in announcing the government's join purchase of Queen's Wharf with the Auckland Regional Council. He presumably thought it sounded groovy. Sadly, it now evokes nothing so much as all the pain of a hangover without the fun of getting drunk first.
Like the Auckland Regional Council, I have gradually come around to the idea of restoring the larger of two sheds on the wharf. Which isn't to say that I am actually convinced of Shed 10's heritage value – just that it seems to make more sense to spend millions of dollars on a permanent structure than on the temporary one the government wants.
As Brian Rudman notes, the supposed compromise of siting both the refurbished shed and the $9.6 million "slug" the government wants to build on the wharf is bizarre – if entirely in keeping with the shambolic tone of the whole project.
And if you can work out what's actually going on on the basis of this morning's Herald news story, you're doing better than I am. Granted, I am struggling today with an actual shocker of a hangover – not funny, not clever, but sadly true – but I fear that even if I wasn't, I'd fail to grasp it.
I think I will go and lie down for a while.