tales from an ordinary world

2003-02-01

I itch to explore my soon-to-be new suburb, but feel I'd be jumping the gun if I do it before I've actually moved in. In the same way I'll inevitably reach back to these areas once I'm gone, surely it's ok to "reach forward" ? I'm not sure. My pet Catholic Guilt suggests I should sit tight and not spoil the surprise, not get ahead of myself. Just last weekend I hopped on a tram bound for my new suburb, but by the time we reached the Queen Vic market I couldn't do it - I had to hop out and settle for walking up to North Melbourne and back.

2003-02-04

I remember this place - a little more foliage out back, the woman who asked about my boots one lunchtime, the same menu, the running water / mini pond, staring at the fence and the building next door while listening to Gram Parsons.

2003-02-08

Screwed up playing cards scattered across the train tracks. Lunch in suburbia, while two girls talk about money and relationships. Time out mid-afternoon to sit by the power lines all alone, at least until a cheer of "howzaaaat?" drifts across the rooftops.

2003-02-09

Dream: they'd filled in most of the catchment area down the end of the street, and stuck little poles in it advertising the Glen Waverley shops.

He shook as he spoke, sitting down next to me out the back of the cafe. Two hooded figures on the beach, he said. "Who was the picture of ? can you guess ?" I couldn't. "Curie and Einstein," he said.

2003-02-10

Dream: a five-stringed guitar ? black. in a round room with stairs and carpet and it feels like the seventies - a rainy day, in a brown room.

2003-02-12

Rather than a post-birthday hangover, I've had a post-birthday cold. It's too easy to withdraw. I felt better for making myself go out tonight, but it's still an uphill battle.

It'd been a long time, but I recognized the sudden dark look on her face after somebody else at the table made an ill-chosen remark. I looked at her as if to say "Yeah. I know."

2003-02-13

It's a eucalyptus and menthol kind of morning, trapped in my foggy-headed simple headphone mind. I'm watching all the familiar faces on the tram, because I'll probably never see them again once I move house. The girl in the health industry (as far as I could tell, once) reading Harper's Bazaar. The "uber-couple", as I think of them - a tall, well-chiselled and good-looking Chinese couple who seem like they'd go well on one of those old-style Communist posters (I mean that in a good way). The guy who looks suspiciously like Richie Tenenbaum (same sunglasses, same real short haircut). The young-looking but grey-haired guy who was reading his Boat License manual yesterday. I've never spoken to any of these people, but they're comfortingly familiar all the same.

2003-02-14

Dream: I'm waiting for a train, again. They all seem to be going the other way, or on the other lines. But not ours. We jump onto the tracks and wander around while we wait.