People Watching

People watching is, surprisingly, one of my favourite pastimes.  This is surprising as I am quite an introvert and really like my own company rather than be with people.  But this is the point - when I watch I am not being.  I am in another world, a voyeur, a fly on the wall, what they call in writing terms 'omnipresent' which is also a bit god like.  And like a god I find I get very judgmental of people and what I see.  I don't do a lot of smiting tho.  No, I just write it all down.

I make assumptions based on what they wear, how they talk, their action. I make up their stories - but isn't that what writing fiction is all about?  Here are a few notes from my day out in Freo:

• Older women, cargos, airwalker shoes, floppy hat, wanders into the restaurant  uses the loo and then walks out.  Bit cheeky, although I don't blame her, the public loos are disgusting .... and whats with that?  When you have to do a quick tinkle and you are out in public and have no choice but use a public loo (that always stink and you just want to pee and get out) and you use those thigh muscles to hover over the seat without touching and very proud of yourself, when the wee goes on and on and on.  Your muscles get wobbly, you grit your teeth, you become your own personal trainer and say (to yourself, to say it out loud would just be weird) ..come on, you can do it, just hold on a little longer, feel the burn ... and still the trickle goes on.  You try and recall what you have drunk since the last one, so you can gauge how much liquid is actually in your bladder, you come to the conclusion that it was just a cup of coffee and surely you have peed that out by now ... and oh god how much longer, your thigh muscles are burning now, you start to speculate just how dirty that toilet seat really is, discount that and keep your pose.  Finally, you think you have emptied your bladder, and then the pathetic little trickle starts, too much to blot with some loo paper, but annoying and painful in your present state.  Too bad you think, as you grab wads of toilet paper ... at last you can stand up .. except you cant ... your thigh muscles have locked in place and you are stuck, poised over a dirty loo seat.  Or is that just me?
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• A chubby mother, carrying a chubby child.  Her dress, or skirt or some kind of material is wrapped around her body, covering most bits except her thighs, bum and boobs.  A young man, father/boyfriend/husband trails behind her pushing an empty, expensive pram.  Later I see them - he has gone into a t-shirt shop (Metallica t-shirt anyone?) while she stands in the doorway, boob even more exposed and popped into the plump and content child's mouth.  I am a bit perplexed by this scene, I applaud her for breast feeding her baby but I wish she had arranged the wrap-around haute couture a little more discretely.  But  I am guessing they are a couple not on the hipster scale, but right at home in boganville.
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• A foreign speaking (French?) skinny, deadlocked, bike rider in the central square, like a child is aimlessly cycling about, round and round, not even going anywhere.  Does he not work?  He looks about 30-35.  Even a tourist would be doing something more productive.  He reminds me of a bored 7 year old.  There seems to be an awful lot of men and women this age doing not much at all.  Does nobody work anymore?

See, its very hard not to be judgmental!   A few stories for me there.