melbourne

Is it good luck if you look to the sky as you leave work, and notice seven pelicans circling high up above? »

I noticed a fellow morning tram traveller wearing a bracelet adorned with little hanging dollar signs. Not one, but two strokes through the S. I found myself wanting to believe that it was some kind of joke present (perhaps because she works at one of the banks along here?) rather than a statement of sorts. »

I sat inside and watched lights play on the striped ceiling as the band played, feeling bad about having to assert myself and ask people behind me to stop talking. If the mix was better, maybe his voice would’ve drowned them out, and I wouldn’t have had to worry. Well. It’s hard to feel entitled these days. It’s hard to feel as if I’m allowed to speak. It’s meant to be somebody else’s turn nowadays, after all. »

Drunk schoolkids on the tram (“It’s my last day, I just don’t care,” he shouted, spilling his UDL mixer drink on my shoe). I’ve started days better than this. I wasn’t counting on the kindness of strangers, though, while I drunk my coffee a little later – a small thing, certainly, but it turned my morning around. »

Another old haunt, subtly but only slightly different in the 8 months since I left all this behind. I’m eating in a restaurant alone and there’s two other people here, talking about their unhappy lives. It’s depressing how many people seem unhappy these days – whenever I can’t escape overhearing cafe conversations, it always seems to be about how somebody’s unhappy at work or home or both. Fortunately the waitress is all smiles. »