Oblique Observations

 From the Oblique Strategies deck:

Imagine the piece as a set of disconnected events. 

Getting the Mail.

Driving down Collins Street, the change is palpable. There are people. They've started to put up the Christmas decorations, big red balls hanging from the boughs of trees. They don't feel as festive as last year. The streets, though moving with people, aren't back to where they were. The empty shops and social distance warning signs put a dampner on the Christmas spirit. The Cartier Shop, last year wrapped up like a present, is without decoration. maybe they're waiting for December. 

Town is overrun with construction. It's everwhere. Main roads have turned into rat runs. There's no throughway down Lonsdale Street. LaTrobe Street is blocked off at the Spring Street end. There are trucks and other vehicles floating around the Swanston Street part of LaTrobe as well, making it a trap as you navigate around trucks, pedestrians and trams.

The State Library is closed. I want to go there. I want to write into the evening in the round room after work on my spare laptop. I want to amaze at the octagonal ceiling as the words pour out of me. I want to listen to the random snippets of conversation which occur in hushed tones. I want to feel the thrill of writing somewhere else, other than my lounge room, in my chair, with my cat giving me grief. 

The Parking Fairy did her job. A late model Honda was pulling out from a space outside the post office. I pulling in after it. The Parking Fairy is a very good entity and having faith in her  - and I presume the Parking Fairy is of the feminine persuasion, because she is kind and benevolent, but occasionally fickle. 

I look for Tom at the Post Office. Tom's been handing over my mail for nearly twenty years. He had a heart attacked last year, a bad one, but he's back at work now. He's probably nearly due for retirement. He's seen a lot in his time. Part of me wonders why I have a post office box, but I know how good it has been over the last six months. It's allowed me to legitimately go into town during this pandemic - and it's given me another perspective to this whole thing.

For what happens next? When will we go back to the offices? When will we be able to sit in the library? Will the city store get back to normal? I know they've done the Myer windows this year - I like to visit them when it's not to busy. Meander past on my way out of the library after the shops have closed. As I'm not from here, it's not a nostalgic thing for me. I have friends who wax lyrical about going to the windows with their parents and grandparents, and now they are taking there kids there. I'm not emotionally attached to the experience of visiting the windows. Normally I just want to see how creepy they are. I prefer the Adelaide Christmas Pageant - which I was in once - I was a clown. It was rather fun getting tanked up on Screwdrivers at 7 am and wandering through the streets a bit squiffy. I used to love visiting Nipper and Nimble as a kid - they were big rocking horses. You used to go to the Magic Cave at John Martins and have a ride on one of these. This doesn't happen anymore. 

We used to be so innocent. 

I wonder if we will ever find our way back there. 

Today's Song: