Dosed

Earlier today I did some browsing on Gertrude Street, which is dominated by severe 20th century antique shops, full of severely functional and severely expensive modernist furniture, with severe shop assistants who can tell how much money you have, down to the last dollar, just by looking at you. Severely.


Currently I’m on Smith Street in Collingwood, which is like Brunswick Street in Fitzroy for people who cut themselves. Today is apparently Crazy Homeless Person day around here. Perhaps the CIA is running a ‘receive one mind-reading implant, and get another one FREE!’ promotion. It seems that every second person is completely out of it… “it” being an amalgam of sanity, reticent good manners and personal hygiene.


I’m avoiding them by hiding in a café with a small restorative coffee. One thing I’ve discovered in Melbourne is that the coffee inevitably comes in smaller doses than I’m used to. Ordering a flat white in a café results in the delivery of something with the volume of a lime, rather than the grapefruit I’d get in Perth. However, the coffee is commensurately cheaper in Melbourne, so overall you probably get more for your money. Also it’s nice to go to a café for coffee and a cookie and get change for $5… even if the coffee is gone in a single gulp.