Today, I did what I do every once in a while. It sounds simple enough and I'm not at all miffed about it - I take little trip to the city and I visit certain stores, get off at certain stations, walk on certain streets and buy certain foods.
I get off at St. James Station. I prefer it to Townhall and I like walking into Pitt Street and staring at all the things I want. The lack of toilets in the city always result in me visiting the wonderful facilities on the third level of the Centrepoint Westfield. Then I go into this little walkway with a few stores and then turn left to get onto George St. There's a few good chocolate stores, so I either buy candy or get some good old apple liquorice.
Then I turn into a street that's at the end of it, I know there is a large Coca-Cola sign (which marks for me, where Kings Cross is). After I walk by the Gloria Jeans (with many patrons complaining for the lack of toilets after they have just downed 5 cups of coffee) I turn left again and walk down a road with a cute clothes store I bought a ring from today and the $10 CD stores. After the novelty of those stores temporarily wears out, I walk back where I came from down George St. once more. I love walking passed Galaxy World and watching all em hardcore teenagers chillin' and looking oh-so-hard.
I visit a second hand bookstore and the poster shop just next door, run by a friendly gentleman who once discussed with me the importance of photographers and how the great ones can capture the beauty of a person in a fleeting moment. Then I go to Comic Kingdom in hopes of buying a Smurf item and too take a look at their war magazines. I entered with hopes of finding inspiration as to what to do for my two upcoming major works for school. I got two war magazines and on the train I flicked through them, reading the articles on Augustus and WWII. The lovely man who helped me out asked me if I as Filipino and then questioned my interest in the war magazines. A cheerful man with an approachable disposition, he asked me what year of highschool I was an if I was interested in buying a large (almost 70% of my height) smurf stuffed toy. However tempting it was, practicality (that is, having to carry it home) got the better of me and I had to say no.
With war magazines in a bag, along with the newspaper I had bought to read on the train - I had the sudden urge to eat some sort of chocolate. I found myself walking in the direction of the building that houses fudge. Still, on the way there, I had the sudden urge to kill something that wasn't really real. I stopped to play an arcade game of shoot-everything-but-don't-forget-to-reload. That urge satisfied, the want for chocolate intensified and so on I walked.
On the way, I went passed the pretty merry-go-round I can still remember going on when I was around 8. Next to it was a pirate ship type contraption and the song playing loudly in that area was 'Bitch' by who, I forget now. I know the lyrics however, 'I'm a bitch, I'm a lover, I'm a child, I'm a mother' etc etc. I laughed when I heard it playing as the children boarded the pirate ship ride and smiled happily as they began to artificially rock in fun.
I walked a while longer and finally arrived. I ordered a chocolate and macadamia fudge and then decided to head off. When I am at the city on Saturday, I always go to Market City and visit the weekend markets. I do this so I can just buy 250grams of diced pineapple, from the same stall, which is always in the same place and run by the same people. After that it's just a walk-a-bout, looking for things and eating my pineapple.
I realised after I was full that I had come to the city with a purpose of some sort. I needed a pencil case. I never realised how hard it was to find one until I walked about and simply, could not find one that satisfied me. On the way however, I managed to buy some new underwear, a wallet and out of thirst, a bottle of water. I was tempted to buy a new necklace, or a new t-shirt, or a new this or that, but no. No I said. No. I needed that pencil case and all these temptations were getting in the way of my real purpose. Following this train of thought, I found myself back at Pitt Street - however this time with a new flash of energy. In the end, I decided to just get a simple, yet attractive red pencil case. I was about to purchase the black version of it, but I resisted it's dark pull.
After that point, I was just aimlessly walking around. I had spent the day not talking to anyone. I was content. Still, a pretzel would have made me more content, so not denying myself my primal instincts, I got one. I walked down Pitt Street with pretzel in hand and mouth, listening to a Man in a beige suit play the sax. It wasnt at all terrible. Half of the Pretzel had dissapeared from my sight by the time I crossed the road to enter St. James Station. I took a quick look at St. Mary's Cathedral on the other side of the park and smiled at a few pigeons before I walked down the flight of stairs, into the long walkway. A week of damnable train-waiting and mental cursing at City Rail led to my utter surprise at finding the train I wanted to catch arrive in 3 minutes. Half dancing down to Platform 2, it arrived on time. Brilliant.
I flicked through all the reading material I had amassed in this one outing. By the time the train had reached Redfern, I looked out at all the buildings, apartments and houses. I knew nothing of the people who lived in them. Little of the workers who worked. I haven't met all highschool students and I doubt I'd ever strike up a conversation will all the people sitting in the carriage. Accepting all that to be so, I just opened up my bag of diced pineapple and munched on them.
