Fake Winter

    After a night in the City with a heap of American and Australian acquaintances, a conversation with a pair os Swedish/Brittish pirates in a 7/11, and a night-bus back to the Uni with my flatmate who got kicked out of the club, I woke up at 9:00 am. Six hours of sleep is not too bad, but it's just bad enough.

When I called Joanna about the bike tour, she informed me it was next Sunday. I thought I'd better have a productive start to the day and mediated and made breakfast. When I looked to my pre-loaded internet pages to draw more neuro-study-sheets from, I found them blank. So I napped until noon.

    When I woke up I was going to be productive again, but then got invited to the city with  Liz,  Michelle, and Mary-Kate. We were hungry when we arrived so we stopped at a pub just outside the station. I got a VB and some fries for $10 and we all bonded over one thing or another. We were enjoying it there, so we got three pitchers or "jugs" as they're called in Australia, over the course of several hours. I bought the last one, totaling another $10, making the unit cost per beer about $3.33.

Micelle and Liz were invited to a dinner, so we had to get head back by the time we were finished drinking. There was a 27 minute wait for the train, and I wanted to explore a bit. I left my comrades at the station and picked a direction to walk.

 I stopped to take an ironic picture, and a 67 year old Czechoslovakian man reversed his path to come talk to me. "Australia is shit." The man proclaimed. "You are taking a picture of Australia: beer bottles where a statue commemorating history should be."

 He proceeded to tell me his life story: He has been here 21 years, the beer is not good, he divorced his wife two months ago, just retired his gynecology practice, and used to teach physics. He began a lecture about physics, talked about Einstein and World War II, and how he was always trained to think Americans were the enemy. He conceded that I was "smart person" and not the enemy.

My phone alarm went off and I said I had to catch the train. He thanked me for my time. I often find myself as a therapist on the street.

    I  thought it might be fake winter, but tonight the real winter smells make me believe what the season is talking about, and not feel so bad about letting the day pass so quickly.