Quick update for all you webheads out there. Aunty B and Mr B are staying at their gorgeous sea-side pad, having a few Christmas orphans with interstate and overseas rellos here for lunch. I'm feeling a little bad that my folks are missing one of the two precious offspring this Christmas for the second time in a row. But I'll be there in just a couple of days .. we can still drink Baileys and eat mince pies.
Today we went shopping at the enormous retail chain recently located in Bondi Junction, and remarkably didn't get crushed in the stampede to buy hams, cake and bon bons. This weekend's summary:
Reading: Clash of the fundamentalisms - Tariq Ali
Shopping: For cashews, cherries and cases of beer
Watching: God on My Side at Moonlight Cinema (24th Dec)
Drinking: Too much.
Looking forward: To having little sister here for one whole week in Jan
See you all around in the silly season. I hope you all get to be really silly.
23 December 2006
19 December 2006
Stop, wait, go
I read a quote by Momus the other day about public disobedience and self expression. Something along the lines of "its okay to walk around naked in Berlin so long as you stop at the red man." I Was at the bus terminus near my place the other day, waiting for a special express bus to the city. Lets call it the 666. The said bus has a moving LED display above the windscreen that says alternately "666 to Circular Quay/ Pre Pay Only" and a giant triangular yellow sign on the front that says "No tickets sold on this bus". It runs about every 10 minutes in the summer and tends to sit on the curbside at the terminus for up to 10 minutes, before drawing up to the actual stop so it starts the journey on time.
I rocked up to the stop while the bus was sitting there, flashing silently, bus driver calmly waiting behind tinted glass. Two other men were at the stop. After about five minutes standing man has answered the mobile while looking at the front of lurking bus and made arrangements to meet them at Circular Quay. Then standing man asks sitting man "Do you know when is the bus leaving?". "Sitting man says "they go about every 10 minutes, did you know its pre-pay only?". He actually volunteered this extra information, unlike many residents of the Emerald city, who it would not have occurred to do so, as this was an Aussie-speaking dude. The reply: "Oh, really, no [mild panic, adopts righteous tone] and how would someone who's just a visitor to the city get a ticket?" Answer from both of us in unison "just there at the Newsagency."
In clear line of sight from the stop there is also a sign that says "Tickets for 666 sold at Newsagency, not 10 metres from where you are standing, pillock." Lesson for this week: Never assume someone will read something just because you put it in front of them in 100 point lettering on a yellow background.
I rocked up to the stop while the bus was sitting there, flashing silently, bus driver calmly waiting behind tinted glass. Two other men were at the stop. After about five minutes standing man has answered the mobile while looking at the front of lurking bus and made arrangements to meet them at Circular Quay. Then standing man asks sitting man "Do you know when is the bus leaving?". "Sitting man says "they go about every 10 minutes, did you know its pre-pay only?". He actually volunteered this extra information, unlike many residents of the Emerald city, who it would not have occurred to do so, as this was an Aussie-speaking dude. The reply: "Oh, really, no [mild panic, adopts righteous tone] and how would someone who's just a visitor to the city get a ticket?" Answer from both of us in unison "just there at the Newsagency."
In clear line of sight from the stop there is also a sign that says "Tickets for 666 sold at Newsagency, not 10 metres from where you are standing, pillock." Lesson for this week: Never assume someone will read something just because you put it in front of them in 100 point lettering on a yellow background.
5 December 2006
Bodies on the street
On Sunday night, me and my beau were strolling back along our moonlit street after a very satisfying veggie thai meal with our local GE campaigner and AC/DC fan. We came level to what looked like an old futon that had been dumped on the street several days ago folded in a sloppy kind of roll and somewhat water-logged, when I noticed the soles of a pair of dirty but very much real, human feet sticking out the end. I kind of froze, and Biz looked around as I said "er, there's some, er, feet in that." I just had an immediate vision of it being a dead body, and worse, a body that had been there for several days without anyone noticing.
While thoughts are running through my head like "Should I just keep walking? /Should I call the cops? /an ambo?/How will I establish if its someone passed our or just sleeping? /Oh my god am I going to have to touch a potentially dead body??". Meanwhile Biz takes a few steps closer, he tells me later, to get a better smell as that will give a good indication of what's going on. (By the way, he's an aid worker, not pyscho serial killer). After I think I said "should I call someone?" the feet wiggled, and the person probably sighed at the idiot locals, then rolled over. This triggered an immediate wave of relief - oh its just a homeless guy. Not dead. Nothing to worry about after all.
While thoughts are running through my head like "Should I just keep walking? /Should I call the cops? /an ambo?/How will I establish if its someone passed our or just sleeping? /Oh my god am I going to have to touch a potentially dead body??". Meanwhile Biz takes a few steps closer, he tells me later, to get a better smell as that will give a good indication of what's going on. (By the way, he's an aid worker, not pyscho serial killer). After I think I said "should I call someone?" the feet wiggled, and the person probably sighed at the idiot locals, then rolled over. This triggered an immediate wave of relief - oh its just a homeless guy. Not dead. Nothing to worry about after all.
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