Thursday, April 12, 2012

Travelogue: Australia – More Pictures I Can’t Take

Subtitled: Your Humble Commentator Gets Old


I have no further excuses! I have to admit it! I am getting old!

This epiphany occurred to me while sitting on the quay waiting for the Manly Ferry when a group of party girls (is there a collective noun for teenie boppers?) can swaying down the wharf.

Their skin-tight party dresses cut to leave only the barest minimum to the imagination and the sparkly makeup would have probably looked far more appropriate in the flashing lights of the discotheque at midnight than it does on the quay at six in the morning.

But the thing that caught my attention was that the way that they are walking reminds me of an exchange from The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy:

Arthur: “You know, if this IS the sea front at South End, there’s something very odd about it.”
Ford: “You mean the way the sea stays as steady as a rock and the buildings keep washing up and down? Yes! I thought that was odd…”

I do not want to say that they were drunk (or otherwise impaired) but the way that they were swaying definitely was unstable (perhaps on the boat I would not have noticed it… the wharf is not moving in the least – it is completely still).

I find myself looking at them and after a moment’s nostalgia (I remember when I used to stay out until all hours partying – heck, it was only a few years ago when I was living in London!) but that subsides and is replaced quickly with the thought that I am only one step away from yelling at kids to get off my lawn!

Which, come to think of it, as the president of my homeowner’s association, I actually have done! Oh, God! I have gotten old!

Wherever you are this morning I hope any epiphanies you have are, at least, pleasant ones!

Don Bergquist – 12 April 2012 – Canberra, ACT, Australia

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