tales from an ordinary world

2000-07-13

A familiar journey, I've done it a few times before. All these little towns, they never really change a hell of a lot. It'd be nice to have time to explore each of them, but that's something I'll never manage to do on my own.

It's dark by the time the bus reaches Canberra. We drop our stuff at the hotel and wander hungrily into town. The open mall is much the same as I remember it, 2 years ago, 5 years ago. The guy selling roasted chestnuts from his red wagon. The merry-go-round. The near-life-size chessboard. Plenty of Magpies, Mudlarks and Currawongs the latter more common here than in Melbourne, especially in the city centre. It'd been ages since I'd heard them.

In the Thai restaurant, a middle-aged couple at a nearby table played the romance game - wine and kisses, etc. She did most of the talking. At the beginning, she was saying stuff like "I think you could be the one". They discussed ex-spouses and such. A bit later on, I heard her explaining how independent she was, how a friend had commented on her single lifestyle - "he said, 'a lot of people try and be single. You are single'. And it's true, y'know. I can walk into a pub by myself and have a good time, no worries.". As I got up to pay the bill, she was asking him "can I rely on you to be there at the other end of the phone line ?". We left, with her saying "I can't do that. I won't do that..."