Not Fair

The rain poured down at Cronulla. It rushed along the paved area under the pines, and down the steps onto the beach. Everyone except a few hardy surfers ran up the steps and headed for cover.

Fish and his sister, their mummy and daddy, their grandma and grandpa stood in an alcove next to a cafe, out of the rain. Behind them were bins and a metal door that went up and down. The mummy took three cakes out of the picnic esky and broke them in half. She put them on top of the esky. Everyone shared the cakes.

The children ran out into the rain laughing. Then they ran back. They were wet.

Mummy held the boogie board over her head and went to get the car.

....

Later....back at home.

The children were making a birthday cake for mummy. It was a surprise. It was hard to keep it a surprise because mummy was in the kitchen. The children said the cake was for daddy, because he'd been good. Mummy appeared to be fooled. The cake had chocolate icing, tiny M and Ms, and sprinkles heaped high up in one particular spot by Fish. And obliquely leaning candles.

.....

Lavender was sad. Where were her mummy and daddy? She wanted to go home. She decided to write to Kobo.


dear kobo, ( she wrote )

kobo i am in sydney on a leap of faith. kobo i want to come home. the knittings are going to stay here in the shoebox. they are stupid and won't obey orders. the children here are lucky. they are called butterfly and fish. fish has a snotty nose which sometimes bleeds. he can play i spy. butterfly picks pretend berries off the christmas tree and puts them in a bucket. the children like sausages. they bite their broccoli and drop it on the floor. they don't like carrots. they get cuddles. kobo i want a mummy and daddy and cuddles. i don't know how to get home. can you just for once stop reading kierkegaard and help me? your niece lavender. ps i dont think life is fair.

What You Don't Know

We had breakfast at the West Beach Surf Life Saving Club yesterday morning. I ordered muesli with banana.

Ten minutes later a girl came up to our table with a piece of paper. I'm sorry, she said, but we don't have any bananas. Would you like yogurt or berries instead?

I'd like berries, I said.

The berries were mixed, and red. My breakfast looked so beautiful I took a photograph. But when I got home the photograph was out of focus.

After our breakfast we went to the Broadway Kiosk for a cup of tea. I took some more photos in there. My favourite is looking out through the glass door towards Glenelg. I came so close to uploading it here for you to see. But I didn't know how. Correction, I knew how, but I couldn't locate the photo.

The reason I like it is this. There is a man standing outside with his arms folded, and his head turned so that he's looking directly at the toilets. He looks rather pained and disbelieving. So the photo reminds me of my experience in the toilets, a few minutes before the photo was taken, although it had nothing to do with the man.

These are automatic toilets. You press a button, the door opens, you go in, you press a button, the door closes, and a voice says YOU HAVE TEN MINUTES TO COMPLETE YOUR MISSION, then music begins to play. I won't tell you the whole story. Everything works with buttons, that's all. And some of them are in the wrong place. And if you don't complete your mission in the correct order, the toilet won't flush. Maybe they won't even let you out.

That's what you don't know.

The Long Lunch

Our friends are enjoying their rest day in Morzine-Avoriaz. They are having a picnic of bread and cheese and berries in a sweet-smelling meadow overlooking a spectacular valley.

Jean Paul Sartre: Pass the cheese, please, Simone, ma cherie.

Simone de Beauvoir ( passing the cheese): Don't eat too much of it, mon petit. You will get heartburn.

The VeloDrone: Oh let him eat what he likes today. It's a holiday. Pass it to me when you're done with it, Jean Paul.

Belle et Bonne: It isn't a holiday papa, it's a rest day. You are supposed to be gathering your strength for the climb up the Col de la Madeleine tomorrow.

Le Bon David: Groan!!

Belle et Bonne: What's the matter, Uncle David?

Le Bon David: I am too old for this. I ache all over. This may be my last Tour de France. If philosophy teaches one how to live, then I have learned nothing.

Belle et Bonne: Don't be sad Uncle David. You are one of the most famous philosophers in the whole world. I'm sure you will figure out how to live quite soon. Let me in the meantime ask you the philosophical question I was going to ask you yesterday.

Simone de Beauvoir: Yes, ask him. I too will be interested in the answer.

Belle et Bonne: Yes, she will. It's really her question.

Le Bon David; Well. what is it then?

Belle et Bonne: Simone has to wear something blue to a party.

Simone de Beauvoir: I thought we weren't going to frame the question in that way!

Belle et Bonne: Oops! Sorry. I meant, Uncle David, do you think that colour can exist in the absence of light?

Le Bon David: I say! This isn't going to be a question about her undergarments, is it?