Urban Eyes

On Saturday I woke up and felt a bit tired from the night before when I watched the Sydney Swans annihilate Collingwood at ANZ stadium to get a spot in the AFL grand final in Melbourne. So I decided to go for a walk as it was a beautiful sunny day and I hadn’t really checked out any of my new surroundings. I walked to Maroubra beach and then thought I could walk along the shoreline as much as possible to get to Coogee to have some breaky and explore Maroubra more.

On my walk I could see the beach where constant waves approached waiting for surfers were taking advantage off, families playing in the sun and couples frolicking together.

To keep hugging the coastline, there was a little beach, which lead to a staircase to get up the other end. I could have taken the easy way, up above where houses lined the road but I decided to scramble across some slippery rocks to get to the staircase. There was a family of four doing the same thing but they had on sensible sneakers for the job, I wasn’t expecting this rocky route and just had on my thongs. I followed them along the rocks and up the staircase to a steep hill that led to Malabar Road! To my surprise, I could have just stayed on Malabar Road right near my house and just walked along the road to get to this spot but where is the fun in that! I walked all the way to Coogee basking the beautiful sun and cursing that I hadn’t brought suncream or a hat with me and later found I had sunburn as I could see strap marks.

I found a little café that did all day breakfast on Coogee Bay road and scoffed down a cappuccino and a plate of poached eggs on a stack of potato rosti with spinach, avocado and ham. It was so yummy and a good way to end a long walk.

I had planned to go back home but I saw no buses that took me back to Maroubra so I hopped on a bus to Bondi Junction, with the thought of checking out the new Zara shop recently opened. I like buses for the observation factor, I get to look and see around me at different people, hear little titbits of conversations and even have a conversation with a stranger I meet on board. Usually it is a couple of sentences but on this particular day, and older man of about 50 started talking to me, he looked like a cross between Rolf Harris and David Helfgott. I am not sure why it is always older, a bit on the crusty side, men that talk to me and not the yummy kind. Perhaps it is that older people just want someone to listen to them as this guy said he was catching the bus to get to Mitre10 for something for his house. He said he plays the stock market and is a financial trader; he lives in Rome for 9 months of the year and has a house in Double Bay that he is fixing up (hence wanting to go to Mitre10). We talked about public transport in Sydney not being what it is overseas and our jobs and then I told him I had just moved to Maroubra to be close to work and he said “I thought it was for a boyfriend or does that come later?” which sounded a bit condescending and personal. I think sometimes older people talk to me as if I am younger than I really am (at 32, I probably look about 24/5). So I didn’t really feel like talking too much after that remark; I shut up but the man didn’t notice and just kept talking until we got to our destination and parted ways without a goodbye.

I looked through Zara and thought it was a bit of a rip off compared to prices of Zara in New York, I saw a dress in the store I bought for my friend while I was over there earlier in the year and it was 10 bucks more expensive. It doesn’t sound like a lot but for me it was too much. The range wasn’t as good either so I walked out leaving the hoards of people in the store to grapple over items and wait in a long queue to try clothes on.

As time was my own, I thought of going to see a movie and picked Ruby Sparks. It is about a writer (Calvin) suffering from writers’ block and through a suggestion from his therapist, starts to write about a girl (Ruby) he dreams about. After he writes about her, one day, his dreams come true and Ruby appears in his house as his real flesh and blood girlfriend. Calvin is so happy at this amazing event he goes along with the fact he has a girlfriend and through a funny scene, Calvin and his brother find out Ruby’s personality changes after Calvin writes a new sentence for his book on his typewriter.

The movie is an interesting and entertaining look into relationships. It made me realise that the concept of ‘the one’ isn’t that realistic for to meet the perfect partner of your dreams or to even make someone into the perfect partner is a bit idealistic. People come with idiosyncrasies, emotions, family baggage, insecurities, positives and negatives that are just are a part of their make up. The film also delves into the idea of being independent in relationships because as soon as Ruby wants to do something that doesn’t involve Calvin, his insecurity takes hold of him and he changes her into a woman who is needy and dependant. But this does not make Calvin any happier and he ends up changing her again and again to suit what he thinks is the ideal partner. I enjoyed the film, pondering over the different themes in the movie when I wandered out of the theatre looking for a bus home.