Wormwood

Musings and ramblings from a small mind amongst the countless minds in our universe.


Seven days already into the new year. For seven days, or just a bit less, I haven't written anything down, except for odd bits and pieces at work, but that's another life: the life of a developer, or to be precise, an analyst-programmer. I don't know why that had to be two words stringed together by a dash or a slash, like there could no single word for it. I once said I was a developer and I was asked, "So you're in real estate?"
The oppressive heat of the night, dry and incendiary, was replaced in the morning by a light, welcome drizzle, softening and moisturising the earth, sending a cool breeze to the warm skin, giving comfort to the bodies aching and screaming for some respite from the heat of the last few days. Friday was bad, with the city reaching a record of 46 degrees C, the hottest since 1939.
From Victoria Square at 5:20pm I waited to cross Franklin St to work my way up King William. A man of about 25 was dancing at the traffic lights with earphones dangling from his head while waiting for the green light for pedestrians. In the hot summer Adelaide afternoon, he was wearing a brown leather jacket, black denim pants, and a red wide-brimmed hat with the words "The Big Issue" in front. As the green light came on, he walked across with his MP3 player and his music and his grey Caribee rucksack and a black swag. At stop V2 on King William St he sat under the bus shelter and dumped his swag on the floor, swaying back and forth, back and forth to the distraction of the man beside him. In a minute Bus 182 came bound for Blair Athol. The dancing cowboy boarded this bus, away from my curious surreptitious gaze.
Lunchtime Madness
GPO Melbourne. EIIR meaning Queen Elizabeth 2nd. As you come in a crimson welcoming sign greets you with: "Enter here to shop happily ever after. GPO Melbourne." On the left side is a marble frame on which was engraved: "To the glorious Dead. Commonwealth of Australia. Postmaster General's Department. Officers from Victoria who gave their lives in te Great War 1914-1919." Then followed a heroic list of names from Abraham JP to Wilson WK. The list of names would stir some proud, patriotic blood in you, especially if you have the same surname as one of these wartime heroes, Anzacs, diggers. Beside this marble frame memorial was a less honourable wooden frame enclosed in glass. It was an advertisement from IM - French and Italian Design - Lingerie - Sleepwear. Simply the best... undressed. www.imboutique.com.au. There was a picture of a woman in lingerie in provocative pose. On the other wall at the right side was another frame declaring: Postal Hall, established 1918, Hon. William Webster, Postmaster General. Another important name which gets glanced once over and forgotten quickly. Right to its left, another provocative IM advertisement, similar to the one across, was displayed on the same wall. Inside there were lines of shops, boutiques of clothes, shoes, designer labels enclosed in glass like fish tanks There were about three levels of shopping experience in this building, what used to be a gigantic post office. It's pretty much like what they have done to the GPO in Sydney which is not a post office anymore, although it has retained the name GPO (General Post Office). I must admit however that I have not visited it since they have renovated it and transformed it into some commercial enterprise.
At Little Collins Street, a sign in front of Cityblend Café declared on a blackboard: "The greatest knowledge is that even a fool can sometimes be right." That is so true. There are many of them in politics, and sometimes they can truly be right. I like that quote. I must find out where that came from originally. I got this inexpensive notebook from IGA X-press at Queen St., in front of the Melbourne Safe Deposit Box building, with the admirable architectural style from maybe 100 years ago. Without this notebook, I would be lost, and for $1.25, I’d say it was a good investment for it can contain notes and details which the limited brain can easily forget.