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Perth on a public holiday is kinda weird

Some of the markets which are supposed to be open on long weekends aren’t, & some are. Ditto shops.

Pity that the Midland Military Markets burned down & haven’t been replaced, although some of the stalls press on in the Farmers’ Market in Midland proper & I did meet an amazing artist there (she was selling clothes & dolls; the language was a bit short but otherwise had a lot in mental common, almost exactly half my age but that didn’t seem to phase her at all).

Also met an 18yog on a train to Fremantle (both Markets open there) at about 10AM who had got to sleep at about 6AM so was not exactly firing on all cylinders but held a hilarious (if somewhat arbitrarily random) conversation which kept about half a dozen other passengers amused.

Her main (perceived) problem was staying awake on the train so she’d be able to stagger off to a Fremantle Cat to get home. She seemed to think men in general were evil but not this man, which was a pleasant if disorienting approach.

Unusual in that she didn’t know or care if she was “fat,” (not) & squarely honest about that, which was quite refreshing. For the pundits, dyed-blonde hair, blue-grey eyes & well-shaped legs with excellent skin tone.

Hmmm. We seem to have settled on femmes as a sub-topic.

Pharmacist was not in, neither was blue-eyed Deutsch shop-manager.

Had a great chin-wag with an Esperanto (ie, from Esperance) Mum & her ~8yo daughter struggling to understand Perth’s transport system (e.g. looking for “Wellington Street” on train diagrams) & also kept a 2yob & 3yob happily occupied for a Belgian Mum whose hubby had been a Transit Officer & now Train Driver but couldn’t take kids for a Captain’s Tour due to the number (now ~1 a week) of suicides across the front of trains.

Getting 2yob to focus on clinging safely to the handrail was surprisingly difficult but in the end successful & surprisingly satisfying. Ended up having to mimic a young child clinging to my own handrail, to Mum’s evident amusement. But it worked.

Comments

Leon RJ Brooks said…
Pharmacist was in today, & had a student assisting, so earned 2 coffees & 2 shortbreads, was visibly pleased.

Shop-manager was in also, eyes were still big ’n’ blue, was too busy with trade to blink but grabbed me a toasty roll & an Endless Summer anyway. Looked very attractive zipping around doing stuff calmly & efficiently. One of the assorted Jesses was there also, & pleased to see me.

Kept a 14mob quiet (& amused) on a bus-stop, then the 344 bus for about 12 mins, to the great relief of Mum, grand-Mum (en route to Girrawheen) & sundry bus passengers.

Got a nice jacket on special from Best & Less, plus a shirt, & organised some robust shoes a mark or two up from sneakers. Who knows? I may actually look somewhat respectable at the end of this — with what impact? We’ll wait & see.

Also have a teddy-bear cushion waiting for a young owner. Rash of Jesses seems to have been replaced by an ongoing selection of people from Sudan. Weird world we live in. Asynchronicity?

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