People Watching

Just when I thought it was Spring, the cold and grey is back with a vengeance. Feel great today despite the cloud cover and chill in the air and observed some interesting stuff this morning on the bus to work.

As you will have read in my previous post on PT, taking the bus in Newie is risky in many ways but it always fascinates the hell out of me. This morning there were 2 guys about 17 with Downs sitting across from me, both with pods in ears, one belting out some tuneless song with so much passion, he even had his eyes closed and was doing hand gestures. Everyone on the bus was kind of mildy awkward and I just wanted to slap this dude high five cause he was awesome.

Then a bunch of girls got on, all about 18, dressed in cheap suits and carrying briefcases. They must have been on their way to some kind of Business College where they were being farmed into future PA's so that one day they could move to Sydney to work in some souless corporatation to manage diaries and book travel. It was kind of sad in a way but hey, if it gets them out of Our Town then maybe it's a good thing.

The last thing I saw was kind of heartbreaking. A young family climbed on, 2 young and semi hessian type parents in their early 30's with their son who was about 7. The kid had a very cruel and uncool bowl cut and wore some second hand tracksuit but the three of them were having the best time together. They were laughing and being super affectionate and the parents were totally in love with each other and their kid. On the seat across the aisle from them was a girl about 13 who was in her school uniform and was sitting by herself just staring at this little family scene being played out before her with the most yearning eyes I have seen in a long time. She kept looking at the dad and the way he interracted with his son and I could tell she was a kid with no dad. She stared at them and I stared at her they stared at each other. And then the family got off the bus and she went back to looking at the ground.

I love people watching. I could go anywhere and just sit there and watch people all day. One could say it is quite a creepy pasttime but it's free and you can do it anywhere without any equipment.