Met an old man on the bus today. His name was Mr. Bickirton. He lives in Petersham and said that I am a very nice lady and not half-bad looking too! We had a good ‘ol chat all the way to Wynyard. We were in such deep conversation that he almost missed his stop. He kissed me on my hand just before we departed and proceeded to wave at least 8 times to me before getting off the bus. Once he was off, he continued to stand and wave until the bus drove away. I caught him walking in the opposite direction to Wynyard - he was on his way to bondi.
We were on the bus together for about 45 minutes and during that time he taught me three very valuable lessons, which I would like to share with the 4 people who read my blog.
1. Old men turn into little boys when it comes to Kites
2. 43% of Australian marriages end in divorce. Apparently that’s second to America. (this interesting fact was prompted when he started asking about my father)
3. Australia is the only country in the world where you can’t tell which part of the country someone is from by listening to their accent. Apparently this is unique to Australia. In America or England you can tell if they are north, south, east or west simply by asking for the time.
He gave me his address. I was thinking about sending him a kite. He loves kites. He told me he doesn’t own one anymore because some sly dog cut the string whilst he was flying at the annual bondi kite flying thing he was on his way too. Apparently they cost around $100. If you would like to donate to the Mr Bickirton Kite Fund please send your money to me.
It was a strange start to my day. A day I started by turning up 4 hours early to work. The rest of my day was pretty normal.
