9:16am. I am sick of myself lost on the couch falling into the YouTube rabbit hole like I have been doing lately.
It is my first day off in how many weeks?
I leave home in search things to see, get some scripts filled, have a sniff around some shops, but mostly just to venture forth and not spend the day on the couch.
Sam’s working anyway, so I should be able to entertain myself for a few hours.
I buy a passion muffin at the bakery, but it isn’t very nice so take it home to Sam. and give it to him then I keep walking.
I cut through the commission flats grounds, and I think how ill-conceived the Labor Party’s policy of demolishing the towers and giving the land over to private developers to build tiny cities.
It is windy as I walked down Brunswick Street, very windy.
I’m listening to Tina Turner, Rough.
I pop into Chemistwarehouse.
Brunswick Street is pretty quiet this time of day, the emptiness feels reassuring that the world isn’t such an overpopulated place. Maybe that is true, or not true, but there is something about early morning being so calm it doesn’t really matter.
I walk the length of the Fitzroy part of Brunswick Street and most of the shops are still closed, not ready up and going for the day.
9.50am. I’m on the corner of Brunswick Street and Alexandra Avenue. The sun is just starting to shine. I take a seat on the public seat on the footpath and contemplate the day. I don’t know where I am going, and you know, that feels good.
There is a strong smell of car fumes here on the corner. It is a busy corner. Alexandra Parade never gives up its traffic.
There is suddenly a whole group of 30something professional types with children and prams and noise and commotion, sucking up all the oxygen in the place seemingly settling into the tables outside Blonde. (I wonder if it is the same Blond that used to be in Smith Street?) Oh go away, I think. And eventually they do, as they weren’t settling in, they were just getting all of their shit together to go.
I’m sitting looking at Patel’s Pharmacy which says in big, bold print that it opens at 10am. I look at my watch.
10:06am. The tram comes and I get on the tram and go to North Fitzroy. My first house was just here and this used to me my local shopping centre. I haven’t been back here in a while. It doesn’t look as though it has changed very much. How long ago did I live here? Rachel and I used to buy 12 iced chocolate donuts from the supermarket and eat them with tea in my back yard. I don’t fancy chocolate donuts any longer.
10:15am. I’m sitting at the tram stop in North Fitzroy waiting for a tram to venture further a field
10.31am. I get off at Holden Street, the next group of shops along the tram line. It is where my doctor is. There isn’t much here. I start to walk, but I only get to the next tram stop when a tram comes.
I’m heading up to St George’s Road, I don’t really know where I’m going now. It is nice not to know where you are going sometimes, we don’t do that nearly often enough.
St Georges Road flashes by. I think I will get off at Bell Street. Bell Street is so often the outer limit of ‘my inner suburban zone.’
10.41am. I didn’t get off the tram and now I’m heading off down Miller Street away from where I thought I wanted to be, but of course the tram doesn’t go up St Georges Road to Bell Street, you have to go down Miller Street, if you want to keep going on the number 11 tram.
This is where my friend Loli used to own a house. I wonder if she still owns it, as she didn’t sell it when she first moved to, um, where did she move to after this? Point Cook as an interim house on their way to live in Torquay.
10.49am. The tram signs all say Gilbert Road. This is Preston, even if I don’t ever think of it as Preston.
I reckon I could keep going with the number 11 tram to Bell Street, then catch the bus down Bell Street to High Street, then catch the 86 tram home.
There are a couple of very tasty looking bakeries, but I’ve turned down all the opportunities of buying cakes, but I am thirsty now. I’ll find a supermarket.
There is a couple of old women chatting behind me at the tram stop yapping on. I don't look around. Grrrr! I think, Oh go away. Weirdly, as I get on the tram the old women get on behind me and when they pass me to find a seat, they turn out to be two 15 year old boys which was kind of a mind fuck. Shake of the head.
10.54am. I’m at Bell Street. It’s kind of nice going about the city by tram, on a little expedition. There is something really freeing about travelling by public transport. You can get off it at any point and just forget about it, until you want to move on again, then it appears again just like that.
The two lads follow me to the bus stop, but keep walking.
The traffic on Bell Street is noisy and plentiful. It is the main traffic artery in the north, I guess. The cars thunder past.
11.02am. I catch the 514 bus. It is only a few stops to Plenty Road.
11.07am. I get off at Plenty Road. Now where is my lovely 86 tram?
I walk down Plenty Road. I am still thinking about a drink. I come to Woolies. I go into to get a peach iced tea and come out with a bag of mandarins. I eat them as I walk along. Every time I see a bin in the distance I peel another mandarin.
There has been a huge amount of apartment development in this part of, what I would call, Preston. They have wiped out all of the old brick factories and built tall concrete stumps in their place. I think it is a mistake, to wipe away your past, but I guess, that is progress.
I start walking down High Street.
11.30am. I’m in Vinnies (885 High St, Thornbury VIC 3071) looking at the cds, and just before I am finished one of those guys with apparent mental health issues comes in and starts banging through the CDs in the CD rack. He pulls the CDs out of their racks and makes piles of them on top of the DVDs in the DVD rack, for no apparent reason. I’ve seen this before in opshops where guys do this like a preoccupation, resorting and rearranging things. And then he suddenly leaves, leaving the piles of CDs all over the place.
They had Funny Girl and A Star Is Born, but they wanted $3 each for them, for CDs I will probably never play, so I left them there.
12pm. I’m in Lions Thrift Shop (735 High St, Thornbury VIC 3071) I get a Spanish language film, A Gun In Each Hand. It sounds interesting, six intertwined tales of love. And the Spanish are beautiful.
12.12pm. I’m halfway down High Street @505 and I have sore feet. The walk has been nice, though, the gentle sun on my face, fresh air, colour and movement.
I’m on my third Tina Turner album, acid Queen.
12.26pm. I am in the Sacred Heart OpSop on the corner of Separation Street and High Street. (387 High St, Northcote VIC 3070) It is the really big opshop, one in which I never have any luck. I buy a Kransky Sisters CD. I love the Kransky sisters, they are very clever.
I head across Separation Street and go to Chemistwarehouse.
12.31pm. I’m in the Salvos. The CDs and DVDs are up on a mezzanine. They don’t have anything.
I walk up High Street knowing that I am done and it is time to set sail for home.
12.43pm. I’m at stop 32, I guess it is Northcote. I ‘m waiting for a tram to take me home. It is that super stop in the middle of High Street.
I’ve walked the length of High Street.
It’s been a good walk. If you had ever told me I would walk the length of High Street I would have said you are kidding yourself, but it’s been nice, to tell you the truth.
I bought a Spanish film, and a CD all of which cost me $4. The mandarins were $2.90. I guess I spent $5 on trams and buses. I feel quite pleased with myself.
12.45pm. Here comes a tram.
12.47pm. There is some dick with a staffy on the tram. Seriously? Not that I really care. It looks like a beautiful dog.
This tram driver is rocking this tram along like he’s late for an appointment, or something.
1pm. I’m at stop 24 on Queens Parade. I stopped in Clifton Hill to have a sniff about, but it was really a waste of time. I wanted it to be more, but it wasn’t. Or perhaps, I was really ready to head home and I should have just stayed on the tram.
Now I’m waiting for another fucking tram. I’m getting ansy waiting for the tram to arrive. It doesn’t help that there had been 3 coming out of the city while I have been waiting.
1.07pm. Finally, the tram is coming. Hooray.
Oh god, the tram is full of people, which hadn't been the case all day before this. Just take a look at them, I thought, what a bunch of fucking losers. What a shallow fucken gene pool is represented here. I say that because there wasn't a smile, or a happy face, between them. It looked as though they were all trying to complete the grim task of just trying to get somewhere, maybe in life too. For some reason, they all looked like they needed a good shower. They all seem to eye me off suspiciously as I entered the tram, as if I was an intruder, or maybe my look of disdain, which may well have been my imagination, of course.
Maybe, I had just walked too much.
1.13pm. Some bitch gets on in Smith Street yapping into her phone loudly. Grrr! Oh shut up! I only call her a bitch as her phone is on loud speaker and we are all privy to both sides of her conversation. Phones should be banned on teams.
1:21pm. I’m home.
Sam asks if I went to Brisbane for shopping?
Ha ha, I say.
Otto is very pleased to see me, leaping about enthusiastically.
Then he sees his ball on the coffee table and he is transfixed.
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