Yesterday, at 1/2 past way before the Sparrow stirs (1) I arose, grabbed my exceedingly well packed backpack, boots and overcoat, and tip-toed out the door for an adventure.
After an event-free drive to the train station (and I swear, that is because there were no events to behold and NOT to do with the fact I was on all levels bar the valuable car-driving level possibly technically unconscious. Well, I am pretty sure), I boarded a train and sat down in D17.
See how organised I was? BIG green water bottle!
So, for those of you playing at home and thinking "hang on, Jeanie, you have escaped our shared reality zone and I am not sure what before the Sparrow stirs looks like, let alone the view of a train station platform from D17" -
and you are welcome. Its a Public Service I am happy to provide.
Of course, we live in a modern world, and its not all about what goes on beyond our immediate environment these days, you know...
I could have actually even put in my earplugs and listened to the accompanying silence to that graphic of where we were in relation to where we were intending to go over the next 5 hours - but I chose to remain unplugged for the initial leg of the journey...
and for all that before the Sparrow stirs offers in way of entertainment out there in the world beyond the train, you will not actually be given the opportunity to view it, as there is a strict policy of keeping all the lights on at all times and therefore only offering a never ending view of ourselves reflected rather starkly back to us - not a pleasant vision for some of us who chose to eschew the beautifucation process prior.
Eventually, that magical moment of the passer pepedi (2) comes, and in terms of all the moments of such that I have witnessed, it wasn't too shabby.
Sure, a little mute of colour, but then dawn is not as flamboyant as dusk. The promises of the day ahead are certainly subtly made.
and as the landscape changed around me as we chugged our way South, glimpses of brilliance were mentioned.
The reality also dawned on me that the cheap seats that I had scored were perhaps deemed extra cheap because the show on offer on the sunny side also had to contend with the sunny side
and there is only so many laws of physics that you can bend with a mobile phone - and overcoming such an obstacle is indeed beyond the mobile phone.
On top of that, there just aren't the money shots on the cheap side of the train.
I mean, sure, there are hints at possible beauty, but when you look over
and look at what the guy opposite is sleeping through,
well, its a $28 saving each way, and its only a theory anyway. Right?
Still, 4.5 hours do pass, and eventually my way wended towards the ultimate destination.
There are increasing glimpses of civilisation,
indeed, it seems as if civilisation is trying to creep up towards me!
And in such a hurry, it seems!.
Sure, it doesn't always show its prettiest side towards the tracks,
although you do get surprised when beauty thrusts out at you,
sometimes it seems like we are travelling through wormholes in time as well as civilisation on the morning train...
a lot of these people perhaps think so, as they are sucked up daily from the farflung corners of this urban empire for whatever purposes or service lubrication needs of the intricate cogs and wheels.
Maybe. I think I need coffee. More coffee.
People live here. I used to live here. Well, not here right THERE here - but here in this metropolis.
Doesn't really feel like home, any more...
although there are bits where I get a tug of nostalgia - I don't think I really remember being at this platform, but there was a New Years in the late 1980s when I caught the first train from this station home after a night out.
Ah, to be young again.
Yeah, see, and then this one just reminds me of temp office roles and petty office politics and doing the time and mannequinning the moves and dreaming of not being there. Youth, eh. Not always what it appears on the surface.
Breathe. My city is the city of coffee shops and cool bookshops and hip friends and share houses and good food and weekends, but that isn't the city that I am visiting today.
Exactly, mobile phone technology. Sometimes you just need to turn away and refocus.
try and sneak up on it at an angle.
try not to gawk (3) , and just enjoy the fact that I don't need to contemplate driving and highway road tolls and petrol prices and other drivers and city navigation and traffic and parking. I can just hop off at one platform, go across and hop on another, run into a friend from Paradise on the same train (because it is indeed a very small world), get on the next train, travel for 4 minutes, get off at the second station, ask a worker for directions, walk up a hill, enter a large building, enter a lift, press a button, walk down the halway and get to see
And spend ALL DAY WITH HER.
What an awesome blessing - and indeed a grand adventure.
The return trip? Well, that is another story for another time.
1. and 1/2 hourly intervals before then for several hours - what is it about alarm clocks that I do not trust?
2 Unfortunately, my good friend Google was unable to offer me the true Latin translation of the beautiful Australian phrase, Sparrow's Fart. I did the best I could. All pedants will be held down and we shall offer them to the Passers to pepedi them all they want. 'kay?
3 or if you are going to gawk, do it from a different perspective
