Going To Get The Car

Jill and I head to Essendon to get my car. I tell Jill as we are heading over that we were going to Satan’s lair. She gives me side eye.

“Who?”

“You know?”

“I thought you were keeping better company?”

“What can you do?” I say. "When the houses plummeting from the sky keep missing him?"

We both laugh.

“I don’t have to go in, do I?” says Jill.

“Nobody is going in?”

“I don’t want to go in?”

“You don’t have to,” I say. “That is why we are going early.”

“I’m just saying…”

“The fork tine puncture holes playing up?”

She rubs her forehead. “Only when I am around him…”

“Like Harry Potter’s lightening flash around Voldemort.”

“Like Harry Potter’s flash when Voldemort is around,” says Jill.

The sun shines. It is an easy drive. It is very exciting, I hadn't had to do this for years. Jill’s off to Queensland, she is driving up with a friend and Bear, of course. I was supposed to drive up with her, but I accidently got a job. “Damn your pesky job,” she says.

“Weren’t you supposed to get a job too?”

“Yeah, something like that,” says Jill.

“We were both supposed to get jobs,” I say.

“What can I say?” says Jill.

“You’ve let the side down?”

“How about, I’m going to the beach.”

Grrrr. “I’ll think of you when I am dashing through the cold streets of Melbourne Monday morning.”

“Do,” says Jill.

My favourite red brick church is on the way. Favourite architecturally, not spiritually, you understand. I am partially to red brick buildings. It was empty, by the look of it, anyway. The collapsing Christian congregation, it is a good thing. So many less stupid people hoodwinked by mythology. It can only lead to a better society. Freedom for all.

I feel okay, but I wonder if I am still over, as my car fires into life. You know, as people still are. Is it called the Sunday Morning Effect? Shrug. The sky is blue, the sun is bright. I feel chipper, none the less. Surely, the police have better things to do this morning.

Jill follows me home.

We drive home along Park Street Brunswick to see if any of the houses were for sale. None are. I want to move there one day when the inner suburbs get too chaotic. Thank you Matthew Guy for ruining the inner suburbs with your unchecked approvals for property developers.

We eat breakfast at Arcadia. Jill, and I, have pancakes with berries and mascarpone cream. Sam has some sort of Mexican Wrap with beans and guacamole, which looks healthy. And coffee, of course there is coffee.

Out With Mates

We left home at 6.30pm, for Ms Chris’s and Sebastian’s for dinner, due at 7pm. Sebastian has just moved in with Ms Chris. He’d put up with James’s Wang’s mental decline for, oh how long has it been, years? And, I am guessing, there is only so much insanity you can put up with when the person themselves is doing nothing to help themselves. Sebastian and James have lived together for as long as I have known them, so this is quite a change.

We arrived at 7pm, to no familiar cars parked out the front of the house, except, of course, for Sebastian’s, but that was to be expected.

“I guess everyone has taxi’d it,” I say to Sam.

“I guess,” says Sam.

Damn it, we should have to? What was I thinking?

Everybody was there. Ms Chris, Sebastian, Lauri, Harry, Adriana, Jesse Jackson, Johnny and his boyfriend Billy, with who Johnny has been in a long term relationship, who we’ve never met before. Adriana, and I made a comment. “How could we not have met him?”

“How could we not?” I say.

“How?” says Adriana perplexed.

We’ve known Johnny since the beginning of the 90s when we all used to take drugs and party together, and we’d never heard of Billy, let alone met him. WTF?

“Yeah, Billy likes to keep a low profile,” said Lauri.

“What?” I said.

“What?” said Adriana.

“Really fucken low,” I said.

Adriana agreed.

She, and I, looked at each other and laughed, it seemed so incredulous. How? We shook our heads like it couldn’t be true.

And Billy was really nice? There was no reason to keep him hidden?

We drank wine and smoked pot, Johnny and Jesse were rolling joints. The joints and the wine kept coming. Pretty smartly, I decided that I wasn’t driving home. Besides, Jill was coming over for breakfast tomorrow, she could drive me back to get my car, she wouldn’t mind.

Sebastian cooked a mountain of food. Scallop potatoes. Greens. Beans. Moussaka. Pork, which was great. All the food was in serving dishes which weight a ton, all double handers. Don’t really know why, but knowing Sebastian that’s be some name brand kitchenware.

It seemed to take 2 hours between mains and desert. We sat and we sat and we sat. At one point, I tried to hurry Sebastian up by suggesting coffee.

“Don’t you want desert first?” he replied.

“Yes,” yes, I did.

We didn’t get desert until after midnight. Sebastian did the mains, Ms Chris did the desert. The desert was delicious, berry crumble. Sam thought Sebastian was bitching about Ms Chris and her kitchen etiquette. Sam thought there was tension between the two? Ha ha, I thought, two of the most “definite” people on the planet, of course there is going to be tension.

Old mates. We chatted the night away. We talked about music, of course. Sebastian had some music streaming service where his log on, whatever it is called, was Seabsatian666. Adriana laughed.

I said. “I have met people who have seriously said that Sebastian Gondola was Satan.” I was thinking of Jill when Sebastian drunk as you like threw a fork at her head. But there have been others.

Everybody laughed. Sebastian gets a bad rap, which he brings on himself, but he is really a pussy cat underneath it all.

Adriana talked about the old days. We discussed fluid gender issues, and the multiple sexes people are claiming these days. We all decided that it is simple, we don’t have to understand it, if we don’t identify with other than male, or female, we just have to accept it. We talked politics, all pretty left wing, of course. None of us are stupid conservatives, too frightened of change. We gave the state of the world a go. None of us really had any complaints, life is good for all of us. Plastic bags, just ban them, people will adapt, we can’t be worried about the fools who deny climate change and pollution. Ignore the sooks. Pot, one of life’s necessities. We talked drugs and how none of us do them anymore. How times have changed. Pot, of course, isn’t a drug, it is a herb, something natural, good for everyone. Just legalise them, you are only making criminals rich with prohibition, it has never worked anyway.

We left the car there and caught an Uber home. I did wonder if I could drive just before we left. Funny, I only ever think about the alcohol, never how much pot I have had. And I decided that I‘d too much wine. Four glasses in 5, or 6 hours. As the taxi was, seemingly, careering down Brunswick Road, I was pleased that I didn’t drive. It was like being twenty again, I haven’t done that in years, left the car behind.

Colours to remind you of your childhood

Bentley

Early morning shopping, Smith Street

Customer Service 21st Century Style

I called the photo people who are converting my old videos to digital. I called them after lunch. I was pretty excited to see these videos, as you can imagine.

I called them a week after I dropped them off, because they told me they should be ready in a week, only to be told they would never have told me that, as it takes at least a week and a half.

“Don’t worry, we will call you when they are ready.”

I hadn’t heard from them, so, I wait until Friday, which gave them two weeks, before I called again.

“Oh, we tried to call you on Monday, but couldn’t get through,” was the answer.

So, you tried to contact me on Monday and now it is Friday, and you didn’t try again? Is that really the best you could do? I thought. 

(Am I just turning into a whiner? I don't know? So many things to complain about, though, in this new technological age? It is promised that it is the consumers world, not something I have found to be true personally. But, eventually, I just have to look up and smile and think, I don't have any complaints with the world, because that is all you can do. Look at the bigger picture, and all the useless arses get away with their ineptitude, because that is the way of the world. But I digress..)

Is that customer service of today? They couldn’t get through, so it was up to me four days later to contact them, and this is after they said that I should wait for them to contact me. Whatever? They were ready and I headed off to pick them up.

The morning sky

I’ve Already Had Sex with You In The Toilet

8.05am. In the office. I’m good in the mornings, for the longest time I thought I wasn’t, but I am, so I like to move my arse and get to work early.

Hello to Boss. He’s always in when I get there. Yuk. Who wants that life?

Out to get a coffee and who should be there but Nicholas Wray, standing sideways, looking down at his phone, not taking any notice of me, his bulge on gorgeous display, just as big as yesterday.

“Good morning” I say.

“Hi, I’m Nicholas,” he says, in a shy kind of way. Still as ruggedly handsome, just reserved. Adorable.

Oh Nicholas, I’ve already had sex with you in the toilet, I think. “I’m Christian,” I say. And we were good together. I smile at the thought.

He smiles too.

(2023 - Of course, he would turn out to be a jerk, eventually, not someone I'd want to jerk off over again, but for this time, he was still fantasy material)

Laughing at other’s Misfortune

At Swanson Street, a person struggled to get on as the doors of the tram had closed on her. She got that embarrassed look on her face, you know, where they check everyone around them to see if anyone else saw what happened. The woman sitting next to me appeared to laugh at the persons misfortune, and while that is funny, I’m the first person to admit that, to laugh out loud so obviously? That is something.

A bit later I may have realised that she had headphones on and she may have been laughing at something someone said to her in her headphones.

I liked her better the first way.

Oh, okay, you can’t laugh at people... oh, I nearly believed that.😀

Bikes and Cars

I watched the cars turning left at Victoria Parade from Brunswick Street. The cars waited for the pedestrians to cross Victoria Parade, and just when the pedestrians had stopped and the cars could go, a bike charged through from behind in the very left lane. 

Surely, that is not the law? How can the car see that bike coming? I wouldn’t have seen that bike coming.

This guy dozed off on the tram with his phone in his hand so, naturally, I took a photo of him. You know, as you do.

I think they look kind of cute when they are asleep, cherubic, defences.

Of course, I am not going to say anything about those people who take it as a metaphor for him sitting there with his dick in his hand, no, I'm not going to mention those types.

He Pretty’s Up the Office

On my way around to get my first coffee, Nicholas Wray, one of the IT guys, was reclining back on his chair and the crotch of his tight blue pants resembled the Olga’s. I couldn’t help but notice. Woof! 

Monday morning! I thought.

Mid morning, I went to get another coffee, and Nicholas was in an office on the phone, standing in profile against the floor length windows, and the bulge on him was just as impressive. Standing up, I could also see his arse was like two cushions you just want to, I just wanted to, stick your, my face between.

I think he is my favourite work boy thus far.

I found out later he is 35 and unmarried. Er, shrug, whatever, I only want to look. He pretty’s up the office.

Let's Deport the Racists

There was a helicopter hovering overhead, annoyingly. Previously, it has been the traffic helicopter which is beyond annoying. But, being Sunday, I couldn’t see anyone checking the traffic.

We walked into town. There were police everywhere. There seemed to be some sort of protest going on. We found out later it was right wing racists marching through the streets.

It is really sad to see that racists feel emboldened to walk the streets of Melbourne in broad daylight today. The True Blue bunch of cunts, or whatever these sad, hateful twats call themselves. Once, not so long ago, there would be shame involved in admitting your hateful beliefs in public. Let’s send the racists back to whatever country their grandparents/great grandparents/however far back you have to go, came from. We don’t need them here. Australia would be a better place without them.

We could take in equal numbers of refugees to replace them, you know, people who would appreciate living in this country without spreading hate.

Gone Swimming

We went swimming at midday, our new exercise routine, now that Sam has learned to swim. Yay for Sam. We drove to the Leisure Centre. We haven’t managed to walk there yet, as we thought we might. Or ride our bikes, for that matter. We used 2 more of our discounted swim vouchers. Those discount vouchers disappearing off what we have left is encouragement to keep going. If that makes sense.

There was nobody worth looking at in the change room, very disappointing that. There never is, not that I go there for that. I only mention it because the men in the change room are so not worth looking at. I’d pay money not to see them naked.

The staff, on the other hand, are another matter, like that would come as a surprise to anyone. The lifeguard who looks like he has a permanent hardon comes to mind. And the swim instructor, almost makes me want to take up swim lessons again.

We swam laps. 25 metre is doable. I can do two laps without stopping now. Pretty good, huh? Oh, come on, not bad.

I went to the toilet about halfway through. I accidentally walked into the girl’s change rooms, again. Oh, I had on my goggles obscuring my sigt. Luckily for me, the entrance to the change rooms heads off to the left, and not to the right as in the men’s change rooms, so I do pick it up very quickly and haven’t actually gone in. Lucky for me. But it is the second time I have done it. If there were cameras, I might get put on the Leisure centre’s Sex Offenders Register. Ha ha.

The Future Looks Bright

We ate Sloppy Joes for lunch. We sat looking out the window and ate. Two strapping young men walked up in hiviz, they looked like they might be in construction. Shorts. Thighs like tree-trunks. Arses on them off which you could bounce tennis balls. 

Something caught their eye and they decided to eat at Sloppy Joes, too. They sat outside on the tables on the footpath.

The thing about the two of them was that one was a blond Caucasian, and one was brown, and they looked so cute together, such a contrast. They were both straight, I assume. (I, of course, instantly thought of them as boyfriends, but that is just me.) They looked very straight. Work buddies looking for lunch. Lots of new black Australians, changing society, and soon we’ll all be friends, just like that. (That is kind of a naff thing to say, I guess, but it is what I thought) That is the future, I thought. Thank the universe for the future.

Ivan Ivan Ivan

Years ago, I had a “thing” with Ivan Gapp, a nice boy with a nice sausage on him, who liked it up the patooti, more than he liked anything else. Good strong legs, a handsome face, but essentially a bogun from the hills of Melbourne out east who pushed back better than most boys I’d met up until that stage. (I think it was the football playing thighs)

We were young, he was a bit younger than me. 26 and 18. He’d just had his 18th birthday, he and his mates wrecked the house in which the party was held, if I remember rightly.

I came from a stable home life, middle class eastern suburbs, he was from bogun stock. (I think his father made moonshine on the side) I thought he was a nice guy, a bit rough around the edges perhaps. I think that is what I thought of him, he was nice and I liked doing it with him. To him. He liked having it done to him.

He was a change of life baby, (hand to face) clearly a mistake, as he had much older siblings, all of who were in the services, police, army, firemen,  suppositories for the less endowed with life’s opportunities, you get the type. I’m sure they all voted with the National Party.

He got thrown out of home by his deeply homophobic parents and disowned not long after we stopped seeing each other, when, in an unguarded moment he told his bible thumping ma and pa that he was gay. Out on his ear, no money and homeless, which resulted in a pretty disturbed Ivan, although that really came after he and I were done. I didn’t find out about this until sometime later.

I used to go and fuck his blokey arse on his bed at his place. Quite a number of times during the day when his parents were at work. I can’t imagine what would have happened if we’d been caught. It would have been a fucking nightmare.

He and I were very different, but we reconnected and kept up a kind of intermittent contact through our gay years on the gay scene over the years.

I had nice boyfriends. He became HIV positive, became an activist, then a drug addict, and then he spent some time in jail for bad things he did to people while he was under the influence of drugs. Hold ups with syringes of HIV tainted blood, that kind of thing.

His life got really fucked up, mine went from strength to strength.

Then we lost contact for some time, but recently we became acquainted again through a mutual friend.

He befriended on Facebook. He propositioned me and I turned him down. “I have a lovely boyfriend I don’t cheat on. Sorry.” The Paul Newman quote came to mind as I turned him down. Why would I go out for hamburger, when I have steak at home?

Ivan was impressed. That is his modus operandi, I would find out later. He’d proposition guys and then when they took him up on the offer, he’d call them dirty, cheating dogs and abuse them. I think he has separation issues.

I got to witness the true psychosis of his mental state through his ridiculous number of posts on Facebook every day. Too many. It did my head in.

He loved to tell people what the hell was wrong with them, but couldn’t handle any criticism, coming back at him. If that happened, he would rage against whoever the poor sap was who dared to question him.

Eventually, we had a disagreement about gay marriage and he blocked me, essentially, because I dared to disagree with him.



And that was that. It was a relief for me. Phew! Thank the universe that is over, is all I could think.



More recently, Aggro Ivan Gapp, or one of his many insane profiles, kept coming up on my Facebook feed because we are both connected to the same [name of page] group. So, of course, I had a look at what his current rave was all about. Same old stuff, look at me, look at me, look at me. Yap, yap, yap, yap, yap. Angry, angry, angry. Rage, rage, rage! He is always the victim of some perceived hurt.

He is smart, I will give him that. And he became an IT expert while he was in the slammer. In fact, he spent his entire time while locked up studying several degrees. Yay. Good for him.

Well anyway, he must have some app, or something, which has picked up that I have been looking at his never ending diatribe against the world. I didn’t think that was possible, but apparently it must be. And he has sent me a message, which I haven’t opened, but I can read the beginning of it. “Blah, blah, blah,” making demands of me. I can just imagine what the rest of the rave will be. So, the current mission, which I have accepted, is to exit stage left – he having multiple profiles withstanding – and to delete the message he has sent me without reading it.

I now invoke the Windsor rule with IG, and that is silence. I'm not going to respond, I am never going to respond to him, he comes with too much anger for me. He has proved to me that it is not worth my time to respond, it only makes him irrational if you don’t agree with him.

I don't believe he is rational, because he’s not. It would only lead to some sort of ranting circle of death, (figuratively speaking), where nobody gets out alive and everybody suffers. Life is simply too short to waste my time with this guy. Get therapy, is what I would say to him (such words would send him off in something that resembles a homicidal rave) … that is, if I even gave enough of a shit to say it.

He has many profiles and if necessary I will block every one of them, one by one.

His posts are mind numbingly boring and when he blocked me, however long ago it was, it was nothing but a great relief. I'm not heading back down that path of insanity with him.

Poor Ivan, I feel sorry for you, you are one fucked up unit, but I don't even have a second of my time to waste with you. Sorry. Bye luv. Felicia, ta ta, as they say.

Let's hope he doesn't obsess over me. Let's hope that is the last message I get from him. I'll float away into the distance, and once I am unattached to the [name of page] page, I will (mercifully) never hear from him again.

He is the first person I have deleted Facebook.



And then, out of the blue I get a friend request that says, “Ivan has accepted your friend request.” I never sent him a friend request.

First of all, I unfollowed him and put him on a restricted list, quick as a flash, thinking that would cover it, but 5 minutes later I unfriended him. I don’t want to be his friend, I don’t want to be subjected to the hate he spews over people, and I don’t want to receive his bordering on psychotic number of posts per day.

But, I didn’t send him a friend request? How did he do that?

Running for the Tram

Don’t you hate it when people who are walking behind you in the morning are talking loudly on their phones, as some twat was doing as I walked passed St Pats this morning. It is one of the things I like about walking to work in the morning, the quease and piet. It is almost therapeutic, one foot in front of the other, steady rhythm, the cool breeze whipping around one’s ears.

The constant yap kept up behind me, the idiot on the phone didn’t turn off at any of the plethora of alternate streets they could have taken.

Grrr!

So, then there was a tram coming and at the last moment I decided to catch it. To get away from Mr Yappy, as much as anything else.

So, I ran to catch a tram just before Spring Street, but missed it. I find the new trams, as nice as they are, never wait to pick you up, like the old one always seemed to. I don’t know if the doors are computer controlled rather than manually operated, or what have you, but they never wait, unless you are standing right there to get on. (Actually, this was one of the old single car trams, and I missed it by a mile, but who lets the truth get in the way of telling a story, I ask you?)

So, fuck it, I ran to Collins Street and caught it there. I love the new low rider trams (which, I guess, won’t be new when you are reading this. They are hardly new now, just new compared to these old dinosaurs) I flung myself into a seat and heaved and gasped. (What is it they say, short bursts of intense exercise are better for you than practically anything else)

“That was a good run,” said the lady sitting opposite me.

“Oh, I guess,” I gasped.

“I watched you run down the street.” She was gorgeous, dressed all in black, of course. Collins Street Melbourne, a Melbournian’s spiritual home.

“Well done,” she said.

I was panting. “It must be good for me, I think.”

“I’m impressed that you made it.”

“Get the blood flowing.”

“That is quite a run.”

“Oh, a bit of exercise in the morning.”

We both smiled. She was lovely.

It was a cold morning, we were all rugged up.

“Oh, but I am hot now,” I gasped. I took off my double-breasted woollen coat. I had on a short-sleeved short underneath. I find our office, like most other offices, is over-heated in winter. I wear short-sleeved shirts almost year round, just in winter I cover myself with a coat to and from work.

She shivered at my action. “I don’t feel the cold,” I said.

“Oh, I do,” she said. She flexed her fingers, wrapped in black leather gloves. And she smiled.

I love those moments on trams, the friendly chat. They don’t happen so much on trains. I think it is because the tram is connected to the street in a way that a train is not. Small moments of connection and joy, it is what life is all about, after all.

Sexual Harassment Training

I’d just got to work, and I was just finishing writing my journal on my phone that I’d been writing on the tram, when Declan arrived. I’d switched on my computer and I was still standing, as I was about to go and get coffee. He started taking off his motorbike gear, which he does every morning. I switched my phone over to camera, it was already on mute. I was still standing up, so I got the framing easily. It just looked like I was checking messages, or something. He pulled up his top and his t-shirt underneath rode up. I pushed the button on my camera and got good shots of his taught bare torso. The timing was good, more luck than anything else. Bad me? I know.

Cute Declan. He looks half Italian and half Vietnamese and he’s as cute as anything. He’s little and he’s handsome and he has a hot arse and you could just bend him over and fuck him so easily. He might squirm, but that would just add to the thrill, of it.

I had induction, starting at 9am. It came up on my calendar, I didn’t know until that moment. Really, I thought? Again. I know it has to do with their legal liability, but really, do we have to do it over and over again. There were four of us, all new. We had to do sexual harassment training. Companies are frightened of being sued, more than they care for any of their staff. Funny, I thought of the near naked shots I took of Declan barely an hour before.

Nearly An Oops Moment

I ate muesli and drank coffee and I was ready to leave for work at 7.45am. I like to get to work early, so I can leave early in the afternoon. It is nice to clear out of the CBD before every moron and his dog sets off for home.

Too much contact with the GP just makes me hate them more. Ha ha.

I thought at the last minute that I’d send my poems for the last 2 years to my work email address so I could print them on the work printer, they are always nice to read on the printed page. So, I decided to return send the email on which I sent my contract home, as I couldn’t remember my work email, it was just easier that way. So, I was rushing, as I wanted to get out the door and get going. I was pushing down on my mouse button, when I noticed I was cc’ing in the HR manager who sent me my contract in the very beginning. 😬 

I threw my mouse across the coffee table in an effort to stop the email from sending. How it didn’t send, I don’t know, as I had pushed send. There must have been a millisecond in it.

Oh, could you imagine?

I may have been able to talk my way out of it. “I had my night class and my printer at home was broken.” Except, I’m new and the file was 75 pages.

I could have said that I wanted to read them on the screen at lunch time. Like you do with 75 pages.

Oh, it wouldn’t have really mattered, not really, but it was better that it didn’t happen.

At The Pool

We head into the change room to change before our swim. The change room is busy, guys everywhere.

To get a locker, you are given a barcode on a piece of paper, at the front desk, which you take into the change room and you scan on a barcode reader on a screen attached to the lockers, which allows you to choose one of the lockers for which you set a temporary pin number for the time you are using it.

The wiry lifeguard with the ponytail was in the change rooms helping a rather nice looking boy with a hairy chest who had forgotten the password he set for his locker. The life guard fixes his locker and then turns to another guy who had also forgotten his password, (I’m guessing this is a common occurrence) who is standing a little way away from the lockers.

“Do you remember the number of your locker?” the wiry life guard asks the guy standing over by the basins.

“No, I can’t remember?”

“So which locker did you have?” asks the lifeguard.

“No, I don’t remember.”

“Oh, okay. What time did you get here,” asks the life guard? “I’ll look and see what lockers were taken up at that time.”

“I couldn't tell you," says the guy.

Oh, I was loving this. Mr Stupid cleared had the memory of a gold fish. He’d probably head out of the change room later and say pool, in a surprised voice, not remembering where he was.

I look at Sam. He whispers to me, “It is no concern of yours.”

“Okay,” says the life guard. “Was your locker on the top or the bottom?”

The genius shrugs.

“Okay,” says the life guard. “I’ll open a few lockers and we can look in them.”

The lifeguard opens the first locker inside which is a black backpack with red trim. The life guard says to the guy, “Is this your stuff?”

“I can’t see from over here,” says the guy.

I wanted to say, hang on just a moment, I’ll draw you a picture of the contents of the locker to see if you recognise it, or better still wait until I get my phone and I’ll take you a photo, but I don’t.

“Would you like to come over here and have a look,” says the life guard. The first moment that I hear his tone come off the cheery tone he has been using up until this point.

I’m grinning like a Cheshire Cat at Sam, by this stage. Sam gives me a nudge and gestures for us to leave the change room. I want to stay and see it out to the end, but Sam gives me his cross eyes. We proceed to leave the change room.

Einstein is gazing into the locker with an open mouth. “Um, er, I don’t think my back pack has any red on it.”

How many lockers to go, I think?

I give Sam big eyes and raise my hands in the air as if to say, Can you believe this guy? Sam pushes me, and we leave the change room.