don't tell me....

Living next to a public park and car park has its perks. We get to see ALL sorts of things going on out there. Portable dunnies ablaze (don't ask) ; dancing drunks; kids on a massive Easter egg hunt; a strange well dressed woman who stops in to use the public toilet at least twice a day 7 days a week then takes a swig of juice and has a piece of chewy without fail before driving away (weird); shoes and jumpers mysteriously found high up in our tree, school sports day, the pre-school teacher skidding into the car park and scurrying in doing the pile of paper and coffee balancing act not two minutes before the kids arrive each morning; dog fights; grown men racing remote controlled cars; old men falling off bikes and hobbling home (dear me!!) and other things that are too intriging to describe in detail - if only I were an artist I could paint you a picture of the two people I saw crossing paths in the midnight rain while walking their dogs; talking, seemingly oblivious that they were soaking to the skin. The scene lit only by the glow of an orange street light, slower and slwer they moved together until they were in each others embrace, and although they arrived at that spot from different directions they left that scene together. I witnessed this while rocking a cranky baby to sleep one night, looking down from above. It was a strange, almost like a scene from a movie. Mmmm, maybe I have an idea of that book I was going to wirte (scoff scoff!) - I guess you had to be there..... Oh, it is all there to make life interesting.

On a lighter note, which is of course my forte in such a public airing of thoughts as this, we also HEAR the odd interesting tidbit from behind our fence, which makes us wonder about the goings on in the lives of some people. Only a snippet is ever heard. Usually we don't "listen" to what people are saying, even though we hear everything, but sometimes the hearing turns to listening when the snippet stands out for whatever reason. Nothing is heard in context so it adds to the intrigue, humour or mystery when heard.

Examples:

kids:

"you tell her".

No, you tell her

I'm not going to tell her. You tell her"

"TELL HER WHAT FOR PETE'S SAKE!" I felt like yelling out.

Another version is the old "you do it. No you do it (etc etc etc)..."routine.

Couple of blokes:

"Where are we going to get a 7" black guy around here? We would have to drive all the way to L.A or Toronto...." Say what?

Tennis players:

"OOOOOHHHHHH!" This one guy yells that out whenever he loses a point. He plays every single night of the summer and loses many points.

"...they've done alot of work to that house. A couple of English people live there". I think he was referring to us.

Tragic teen:

"I love you Chad, but I heard some people making fun of me in the bathroom and I just feel so humiliated. I just want to go home. I JUST WANT TO GO HOOOOOOME." I was a bit concerned about her. I thought someone was harassing her, but she was talking on the phone. Reading between the lines, I think Chad had been a bit of a bastard.

Nevertheless, it does provide us with entertainment. But I do have to remind myself, if we can hear them, they can hear us, not that anything particualrly enlighteing is spoken on our side of the fence.

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