» Tramps

Kindness of Homeless
I volunteer with wildlife and at times go to some unusual places to get wildlife out of scrapes and have them treated and rehabilitated. One time I had to go to Circular Quay in the city (Sydney), and find a homeless man who had called us the night before about a bat.

It was weird I hadn't been called out when the call came in as an animal in trouble can die if left and this bat had been left for about 9 hours at this point. I also wasn't optimistic that the homeless man would still be there or whether or not I'd be able to find the bat.

As it was, I found the man and at the same time saw the bat. This man had nothing, was grimy, thin, had a sign asking for money and yet was utterly lovely. He told me all about the bat and it really touched my heart that he had used some of his own money to make the call to try and get help given how little he had himself and how much help he himself needed. These are the kinds of people that, to me, are the ones I would help first - those who are kind and still have a heart.

The homeless man explained to me that the bat was pretty feisty (they usually are when sick and terrified, otherwise they are usually very curious about people and look you in the eye, not as a challenge but because they are interested - and not interested in eating you, stop being terrified people!), he'd given the bat water through the night and shared the small amount of food he'd been able to scavenge as well, which again I found deeply touching.

I went and picked up the bat who had concussion and really wasn't at all happy and people had been walking back and forth within centimetres of this poor animal all day without making a single call about her. Yet a man without a home, money, food, shelter, security or friends who could help him in a material way had ensured that help would come, that the animal would not die of thirst or hunger and kept an eye on her through the night and half of the day until help arrived. Also given how much pain and fear she was experiencing the man had taken a real risk of being bitten, of which he was aware as we talked about it, but he could not see another creature suffer without trying to help. All I did to help him was thank him profusely, and give him $10 and still wish I could have done more.

I have found on several occasions that the homeless will help someone worse off than themselves and while this man was the strongest in his help towards this sick bat, many homeless people have aided animals and deterred other people bent on mischief from interfering with animals.

I hope that homeless man has been able to get help as he was a wonder.
(Mon 6th Jul 2009, 9:00, More)

» Buses

Daring Explorer Bus
I was spending New Year's Eve with some friends out of town in an area where I was later to discover lacked street lights - a bit of a country area.

We all caught the bus into the local town square and made merry with others and watched the fireworks, then after that early-to-bed Dog was the only one who wanted to go back to the friend's place and go to bed. So Dog did.

Dog caught the bus back and had to then confess to the driver she didn't have a clue where she was meant to get off. The bus driver was used to a different route and so couldn't help. It being NYE, everyone on the bus joined the discussion and two were found who knew where Dog needed to go. Happy and helpful bus driver took the directions and started on his way.

Dog and all the bus passengers quickly came to love this bus driver. He didn't bother with the route much at all, he drove around the area and took everyone to their actual homes dropping them off at their door. Marvellous! Dog was the last passenger and the people who got off just prior reiterated the directions to the driver and so lucky Dog was let off in a pitch black country area with a cheery Happy New Year and the driver waited to make sure Dog found her way into the right house.

Hmm, not a very exciting story but as bus drivers are usually miserable examples of human excreta (probably with good reason), finding a lovely bus driver like this one made my night really.
(Wed 1st Jul 2009, 16:21, More)

» Amazing displays of ignorance

Sigh
Question from 49yr old sister to me:
"How is Harvey?"
Me:
"Who?"
49yr old sister:
"You know, David CopAFeel's brother in law".
Me:
"Ahhhhhh, you mean Harold?"
49yr old sister:
"Yes, how is he?"
Me:
"Still dead".
Other sister chokes and snorts with laughter.
(Mon 22nd Mar 2010, 18:33, More)

» The Boss

The Drunk
When I was 17/18 I worked for a local council. At one point I was working in the office at one of the depots for a few months.

I had a boss there with whom no one would ride in his car. Because he was always pissed. He started work at 7:30am and would arrive pissed. You could smell him from a couple of metres away.

I started at 8:30am then an hour later was morning tea during which more beer was consumed. Of course. Afterall it's 9:30am and when you're drunk all of the time you need to top yourself up.

The men's toilets were opposite the women's. Maybe 1.5metres apart. Way too close. The women's toilet door was kept closed - there were only two of us and we were trying to protect ourselves from the stench of the men's toilets entering the women's toilet and possibly melting the porcelain bowl. Sadly the men left their dunny door open. So there were lots of unfortunate views of titty mags, smears (don't ask, you know what I mean), often no toilet paper (god knows what they used to wipe given they all sure as hell emptied their putrid bowels daily, that or they had the most vile, straight from hell piss in the world) and a little table for titty mags and for when they thought they'd be a while in there and took a beer in too. Part of the brain must have been burnt out in all of those guys as to survive more than a second in that kind of violent, almost visible fug would kill a normal person.

I was instructed to store any questions I had for alco-boss each day and ask them all at once near the end of the day. He couldn't handle a question every so often. It riled up his alcoholic temper. Most especially if he was required to read his own writing. Focusing after sloshing down enough beer to flood a small country was pretty much beyond him.

There was one man working there who was nice and impressively not an alcoholic, nor a perv or someone who thought drinking on the job and especially, driving, was a good idea. He or the one other semi-decent chap would come in on some days a couple of hours before my usual knock-off time (5pm), and tell me it was time to go. The first time I was really surprised and asked why, this was my first week. Apparently alco-boss had laid into the beer a lot (I was to find this was normal for most days) and he'd got to the point where he couldn't be trusted around women. The nice guy would stand there, wait for me to get my bag, turn off the computer and walk me outside ensuring I didn't run into alco-boss. Alco-boss never really had an excellent command of language and his leering and sexist comments were standard but after a certain point he would degenerate to utter filth, not to mention his acting out of certain things he'd like to do with women (he was married, I don't know how his wife coped with him, she was apparently a nice person).

I got used to being sent home early at various times but I never lost that sense of urgency to get out of there once I'd been told to leave. Alco-boss was a nasty drunk and how he got home each night and to work the next day is beyond me. He drove a big ute and swerved all over the road. He's dead now. And so he fucking should be the filthy cunt.
(Thu 25th Jun 2009, 0:11, More)

» Unexpected Nudity

Lefty
The title should tell all really. I was at the beach with my dear, sweet, ever ready for a laugh, friends. We were all 14. It was the 80s. My cozzie was cut up to here on the legs and down to there in the boob department. No, I didn't have cleavage - I never grew the boobs Barbie promised me with her plastic perfection. Bitch. But anyway. We're in the surf at Warriewood, the weather is perfect, the beach for once isn't crowded and all is right with the world. Until I noticed my friends have been laughing for too long since the last wave hit us. And I don't know why. And I've been standing up in knee-deep water thinking I look damn fine. Turns out more of me was out for admiration than expected. My cozzie had slipped over and my left boob was standing out for all to see. I nearly died, dropped under the water and fixed things up.

Tried to find dignity under there too, sadly, gone.

I still sometimes get called Lefty. We're all now 40. Fuckers.
(Tue 2nd Jun 2009, 6:47, More)