Sunday, July 12, 2009

Week Twenty-Seven / Day One

It has been quite a fowl week; I mean, they were just everywhere! The shots above and below were taken on the fly with my trusty iPhone as I zipped past the museum in a cab. When I say there is Art, everywhere in Melbourne, I'm not depending on your GULL-ibility...

...I mean, there they are, just waddlin' down the street in the middle of the week; I thought for a minute that I was quackin' up. The sight really beaked my interest...knew I had to post an image or two on the....web....you "down" with it?

Okay, I'm done.

The good mood pretty much remains. Many of the undercurrents to which I have alluded, before, remain dynamic and active; but working on this fundraiser for this coming Friday evening has been such a tremendous shot in the professional (and personal, for that matter) arm for me.

Working with such an accomplished group of ego-free professionals, focused on creating the best possible experience, no matter where a given concept, idea or facet originates, has been exhilaratingly reassuring...and a damn lot of fun.

I wish I could tell you more about the actual performance; and I will be able to do that with the next post; but what has managed to remain a surprise, until now, I am compelled to keep as a surprise so that our local audience is able to experience without preconception. It will come as a surprise, however, to no one who knows me that there have been, oh, one or two moments of quietly emotional tears washing the face o'Kile, at some point during most of these rehearsals.

At least we know that I'M gonna like the show!

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There is a traffic signal, here, that I have seen no other place in the world.

When one wishes to turn right from a thoroughfare, one gets in the left lane and plants oneself in the intersection and watches this light...

...then, after all oncoming traffic has been allowed-through, the Australian J-Turn is executed.

Go. Figure.

Not a bad idea, this: keeps the two lanes of traffic clear, blocks no one behind the turning driver, and they zip off to the right and through the intersection the moment the coast is clear.

Imagine trying this on the left-turners in Ellay, hm?

(Remember, traffic flows on the opposite sides, here, than in the US or on the continent...)

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I've been tutoring the manager if my local IGA (that's Independent Grocer's Association, here - similar to a family of small markets; one of which is in my building) in speaking English, on weekends. He learned that part of what I do is write, and was asking me questions about writing. It turns out he used to be a math teacher, in Egypt; emigrated to Oz with his family and went into the grocery business...but with a shady partner. Lost everything and is now managing a store with the idea that he really wants to return to his passion; which is teaching.

The only thing in his way is his thick accent and our wacko sentence structure. So, I meet with him for an hour a week to have coffee and talk, in preparation for a course he is about to take in writing. Not that I'm a qualified teacher, but we ALL know I know how to talk... And, I think this is good for me, simply as an occupant of the planet, to reach out in this way when I see a need.

He studies voraciously, reads constantly, and I told him I thought he might do better to read aloud, repeat aloud the news on tv, repeat talk shows aloud, get used to hearing the way the words actually sound and be more clear on pronunciations. (Try explaining "read, read, reed, red...") I believe it is helping him, already...

In our first conversation, at our first meeting, he began talking about his family: three kids and a wife whom he loves and who has stood by him, how working at the store then studying at the library has taken so much time...how he needs to provide for his family but how he misses time with them. He began to share what he has learned from being with his three-year old boy...how it reminds him of what's important in life...

At which point, surprise of surprises, we both began to cry.

I know; what GOOD am I, dammit! Hold it together!

Anyway, I asked at that moment, "Magdy, where is your family, now?" He said, "they are at home." So, I said, "well, you get your ass home and go read to your son. THAT is how you should be practicing English... Do not miss a minute more from your family than you need to miss!" He laughed, and we packed up and left the cafe.

I saw him, in the grocery store, later in the week; and he's already doing better. He called, yesterday, running late... I said, "Are you at home with your family?" He laughed and said, "yes!" I said, "Stay with 'em; I'll see you, next week. There is nothing more important than being with the ones you love."

There is NOTHING more important than being with the One You Love.

Nothing.

Not. One. Thing.