Saturday 8 July 2017

Buying a washing machine then lunch

With a basket of clothes to wash I decided to put on a load of laundry this morning but the washing machine decided not to start. I phoned the repairman, who I have used before with the same machine, and he told me that I should buy a new one, so I went down to the shopping centre this morning. Before leaving home I tweeted my plan and the retailer replied, sending a link to their web page for washing machines, so I knew before leaving the building what model I wanted to buy. The model I chose had a special offer included where the retailer pays for delivery and installation. They also take away the old machine for you. In the store I got the attention of a staffer and told him what I wanted and he looked up my record on a PC in order to book the delivery for Monday, then he took me to the register where I paid.

After leaving the store I went down to the ground floor. There was a woman with long pink hair walking toward me on the concourse, and she wore a cream top. I left the building and crossed Broadway into Victoria Park. I could hear Indian mynahs calling as I walked along the path. To my left there was a flock of the birds walking on the grass. As I passed the gates to St Paul's College three men came out onto City Road, heading toward Newtown in the same direction as me. They all wore fluoro shirts and one had the word "Interspan" printed on the back.

At the Chinese herbal medicine shop there was a man behind the counter. On a telegraph pole on the footpath there were sheets of pink flyers with "Flamboyance fundraiser" printed on them with other details designed to get people to go to a musical evening in Marrickville. A man walked toward me with a picture on his T-shirt of a bear with horns and "Beer?" printed underneath it. I went down to the cinema and entered the cafe there, then used the toilet. When I had come out I took a table at the back of the room and ordered a flat white. To my right at the next table were a young couple, talking. I drank my coffee when it arrived and used social media.

After paying I went outside and walked toward Enmore. There were hemp bags for sale in the markets at the square opposite the train station that were described as being from Tibet. I passed a poster showing a woman with heavy makeup holding a sign reading "Don't deny the arts, it's what feeds our souls". A man and a woman were heading toward me on Enmore Road and the woman held a leash with a dog. They passed another couple walking a dog. The first dog lunged at the second dog and growled menacingly. As the couple passed me the man said to the woman, "Just control him."

At the Egyptian restaurant I ordered some food and a beer and sat down. When the food arrived I ate it then left, heading back the way I had come. On King Street there was a woman with two teenagers walking in my direction, but slower than me. "Pumpkin and ginger soup," said the woman as I walked past, reading from the sign set outside the cafe next to the cinema that I had used earlier. Further up, inside the bakery, a man turned toward the door, where I was walking past. "You too," he said to the person behind the counter. He came out of the store and passed by me carrying a baguette and a paper bag full of goods. Even further up the road a man wearing a fluoro jacket crossed King Street toward where I was walking. He carried three pizza boxes in his hands.

Because I had to use the toilet again I went up onto the bridge at the university but the Wentworth Building was closed and so I hurried across City Road and into Victoria Park. I went into the shopping centre and used the facilities there then went into the shop run by my ISP to talk about my plan; I wanted to cancel the landline because I had decided not to use it anymore. The young woman in the shop gave me a phone number to call. When I told her about the slow internet service she advised me to get a new modem. I left the building and turned down Bay Street toward the park. As I crossed a side street two women came into Bay Street, and one of them said "They won't have enough people to put on".

A man waiting to cross into Wentworth Park held a bag of frozen "straight cut" chips and a box of a dozen eggs. I went into the park behind him. On Wattle Street near the railway viaduct a man came walking toward me who had "Google" embroidered on his T-shirt. I went around behind the Fish Market and crossed into Saunders Street, where I noticed that the man with the frozen chips was still walking ahead of me. He carried a rucksack on his back with "West1' embroidered on it. He continued along the street but I turned right into Quarrymaster Drive, then went up the stairs and into my building.

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