I'm Watching You!

Hi Readers,

No starting with excuses for not writing for so long or banging on about retirement. Straight into it today!!

So why a post about this topic I hear you wondering about?

Over the past week and a bit I have finally got back onto my road bike and have started road cycling again. I'll admit that I have been on the roller frame in my shed on a different bike during the past year, but the legacy of operations on an ankle, a shoulder and my hands has kept me off the road as I just haven't felt confident, safe or able to tackle the road in this time. And after the first 30 minutes on the road I realised how much road skill I had lost in this time.

Rather than just go out once and leave it for a few days, I have been forcing myself out on the road every day for the past 12 days ( except for two days while I drove back from QLD) and only now am I feeling that I have my 'bike legs' back.

While I'm out on the bike I don't have much else more to do than pump the legs and enjoy the scenery. Usually I might have the earplugs in and listening to music, but while I'm focussing on getting familiar with the road again I have decided to ditch them for the time being.

So I find myself looking at things more intently, and surprisingly, I'm noticing even more things, particularly on routes that I may have ridden countless times.

This has now had me thinking, how much do we really pay attention to as we are out and about? There would be an unimaginable amount of things that we notice and don't pay any attention to and only remember them if something else triggers the memory of them.

Try this little activity.

Try and retrace your steps from the moment you left your house this morning. It might mean that you suddenly remember that you had to go back inside to check that the iron was turned off, or to lock the back door. As you backed your car out you had to suddenly stop as you saw your neighbour's kids out on their bikes. Then you had to give way to a taxi as you left your street. And so on.

It's only when we really slow ourselves down that we remember the little things that would otherwise be lost forever somewhere in our memories.

I remember doing this recently when I had a hire car while my Pajero was being fixed after someone kindly parked their ute into the back of it. When I was returning the hire car, I had it in my mind that I was given two sets of keys, which has often happened with other cars I've hired over the past two years. Despite looking everywhere, and in the obvious places where I would normally store the spare key, I could still not locate them. I then tried the exercise that I just asked you to do. I retraced every moment from the time I picked up the car, and what I would normally do once I got home. At no time can I recall having another set of keys, but there was this continuing nagging thought that i DID have an extra set.

So, I gave up and gingerly hauled my sorry arse down to the hire company to return the car. Without the "spare keys" that I thought I had lost.

Do I just fess up straight away and say that I lost the spare key?

 Or do I just say nothing?

The overwhelming advice from everyone I spoke with suggested the latter, but it was against my wishes to try and scam them.

However, when I picked the car up in the first place the girl who served me was just so rude and abrupt despite how cheerful I always try to be when being served by someone.

When I walked in this night to return the car I once again put on my "Mr Cheerful" which was welcomed like a worm in a half eaten apple. She was even grumpier than the first time, so I knew my work was going to have to go to the next level.

She just looks at me and says abruptly "What do you want?"

"I'm just returning a car" I say with a rapidly fading smile.

"Keys?" she snaps. Now in my mind I took this to mean singular or plural, as we often refer to a single key as our car keys as we have them on a key ring for the most part.

I placed the one key on the shelf and looked at her, waiting for her to snap "Where's the other one?" But she didn't!! She kind of looked at me in a way as to make me explain where the other one might be, but I said "Anything else?". She just dissed me with a roll of the eyes and nodded towards the door, as if to say "Off you go". 

As I calmly (on the outside, but stressed on the inside) made my way out I got away from there as quickly as I could, always expecting someone to come after me for the extra key, or for Miss Rude to ring me requesting the same thing!!

For the life of me I was convinced I had two keys, but as it turns out I must have only had one all along.

But I still stress a little every now and then thinking they might ring me asking for the spare key!!!

So that was a little experience I had where watching someone intently helped me out of a bad situation, but there are so many other times when people watching can be just a riot.

In previous posts I have described how extensively Jen and I travelled overseas before her passing, and one of our most relaxing and enjoyable things to do was just do 'people watching'.

Of course we visited the main attractions wherever we went, but there were times where we just needed to slow down and just experience the real essence of where we were at the time.

I remember one time in Milan where we just sat at the edge of a large square at the front of the huge cathedral, just watching the world go by, and reflecting on how fortunate we were to be doing what we were doing, and to be having this time together.

Soon we started to hear this beautiful music being played by a nearby busker. We became captivated by him, eventually buying his CD. Then we started watching the people feeding the pigeons, and they were having a ball. "Locals" helped them by offering them seeds and crumbs to give to the pigeons, only to then be accosted aggressively for payment for the seeds, of for the "locals" to take a photo for them.

We were well aware of this behaviour and always ignored these people when they approached us to have our photo taken with the pigeons.

And for the most part it was just great to just watch people, many just like us go about things in their own touristy sort of way.

Milan

Watching others do selfies often looks humorous, or worse. I can only dare to think what people must have been thinking as Jen and I always took a selfie of everywhere we went.

The busker in Milan

Just a man having a coffee in Casablanca, but it captured the essence of the time and place. This photo alone brings back so many memories of our time there.

But Readers, it wasn't always milk and cookies when we were people watching, and one experience taught me that even Jen had a breaking point!

It was always a running gag in our house with the 3 boys that "Jen can go from zero to bitch in 10 seconds", meaning that she was never hesitant to stand up for herself if she felt she had been wronged. The people at Foxtel could attest to this when she rang to cancel our subscription one day and they kept trying to make her sign on for even longer. Although she remained calm and polite, her bluntness even surprised me!

Anyway, we were sitting in a square in Casablanca this time 8 years ago just watching the world go by when this stranger kept coming up asking me if I'd like to buy a wallet. I dismissed him politely, but a few minutes later he was back, this time he wanted me to buy a belt. "No thanks mate, we don't need anything", and off he goes, eventually. 

A few minutes later he was back again, this time it was a watch that he thought I needed.

Not being one who likes confrontation, I just ignored him and stared wistfully into the distance. He stepped back a few metres and kept watching us. I was feeling good as I thought that I had finally got rid of him and had protected my wife so bravely.

However, he then started coming towards us again, and just as I was about to try another diversionary comment, Jen stepped straight up to the plate and in a very stern and no-nonsense tone, stared him down and says "F%#K OFF!!"

Even I was taken aback, but it worked. This bloke just turned on his heels and never returned.

But the look she then gave me was "That's how you do it!!"

The guy on the bench in front of us learnt the hard way not to annoy Jen!!

So these are just a few things that have happened to us when we just take the time to pay attention to the little things around us that can sometimes mean so much, or at other times, so little.

But what about those trivial things that we sometimes see down the street, or waiting in a queue somewhere?

Here are some that I have noticed when out and about that sometimes just amuse me, or really bug me. Some are things that I realise I do a lot!

Other 'people watchers' probably see me doing most of them, so I'm not being perfect here!

• An exaggerated "Man I'm busy" activity that people put on when someone superior walks nearby, but then stops as soon as they are gone.
• To swap your socks around so that the holes are not aligned with your big toe (I do this all the time!!
  
  
  
• To have that sneaky look at someone's name tag at a function to hide the fact that you have forgotten their name...GUILTY!!
  
  
  
• Getting trapped in a queue the moment you switch sides to join it
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• Someone who just keeps hitting the button at the pedestrian crossing, when once is clearly enough
  
  
  
• The constant changes in the angles adopted by a pie eater so that the meat doesn't spill out everywhere.
  
  
  
• Watching someone speak to someone else, but constantly glancing around for someone more interesting to speak with
• People who wipe their hands all over their pants immediately after using a hand dryer
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• People who make 'cute' faces at babies, that only make them cry
• Having to walk through lanes of rope at the airport or a bank, when you might be the only person there
  
  
  
• When you pass someone in a corridor for the fourth time in 15 minutes and you've already used up all your usual greetings and just do an awkward nod, or look down or sideways. 

So Readers, another ramble about nothing of consequence, so it seems. But what it does bring home is that just as much as I might be having a sneaky look at those around me, the same applies that others may be looking at me and having a little giggle at my expense!!

Try a bit of people watching yourself, or it it could be something as simple as just sitting on a bench watching the lake, your garden, the sky. Anything!!

Whatever floats your goat!!!

When I say 'people watching', please don't think that it always applies to people. It can be anything at all, just taking time to appreciate the little things.

The coming days mean some more riding, kayaking and caravanning, so more things to look at and write about.

Until my next post,

Cheers 😁

7 hours later

p.s. After thinking about this post it dawned upon me that I had neglected to include my two experiences of people watching that have by far had the most profound impact on me. how on earth could I not include them as they are as plain as the very nose on my face!!

Firstly, a few years ago I became quite ill with chronic fatigue like symptoms. It turned out to be a liver infection, but before I found that out I was sent to Peter Mac in Melbourne for tests. For my overseas readers, Peter Mac is a world rated cancer hospital in Melbourne.

Anyway, what struck me as I waited in the large waiting room for my appointment  was that each of the people around me was today going to receive either really good news or really bad news. This could be the best or worst day of their lives. I found it hard to look around me, seeing those who looked calm, and those who could not sit still to save themselves. As for me, I was fine because I just didn't even stop to think that I might have cancer, it had never dawned on me until this day when I was observing so many others who were suffering with it. Just by watching what so many others were enduring was enough to make me appreciate my own health a lot more.

Just by watching those around me taught just how lucky I really was at that time of my life, even though I was a bit sick, but nothing like any of these other people were enduring.

Fast forward a few years and it is mid 2021/2022 and Peter Mac has become a home away from home for Jen. By the end of 2021 I had moved to Melbourne and was living in a flat a few hundred metres from Peter Mac. Jen needed daily treatment there so I was able to drive her to the door then wheel her up to the ward for her daily treatment. For a short period she was able to live with me, but this soon became too hard for her so she was moved into Royal Melbourne Hospital, just across the road from Peter Mac.

Sitting in the waiting rooms for her ward was not a pleasant experience at all, and I now found myself trying so hard to not look at other patients, or meet their stare, as everyone there knew what the others were most likely going through. If anything though, the respect, care and understanding shared between these patients and their families was overwhelming, such was the empathy. As for the staff, in my eyes they all walk on water♥️

In a nutshell readers, just taking time to observe the little things in life that we so often dismiss can be the very things that make us who we are. Try it! Let me know how you go in the comments tab below - You can be anonymous!!!!