Published: March 12, 2022
After a streak of torrential rain over the last few weeks here in Sydney it was time to have some outdoor fun as the sun was shining again. However, the public transportation schedule went crazy due to severe weather conditions and hence I had to postpone my next visit to CBD for about two days. As the traffic situations got back to normal and coupled with beautiful sunshine, I was finally able to get back to the project.
In the morning, I went to the station couple of minutes earlier just to catch the train right before its departure as scheduled.
It was nothing but rains over the past few days and winter is about to set in here in Australia.
A gentle breeze was sweeping across the station. The blades of grass on the ground swayed back and forth and I started to feel a little chill. Not fully ready to embrace the winter I dressed lightly. As I was walking down to the other side of the station looking at the overhead display, it showed much longer delays before the train would arrive.
The timetable kept updating erratically and the train was delayed by almost half an hour, as it turned out, and as I got on board, I sat next to the windows just to get some warmth from the sunlight.
Half asleep with some soft music playing along I got off at Circular Quay, almost another half an hour later. I was hoping that the tourists will be buzzing around with their charming and cheerful vives as the borders are now open after the covid and those tourists would be pouring in from all across. But to my disappointment they were few in numbers and as such I decided to come back to townhalls just after an hour.
More than an hour have gone by now and I barely approached anyone yet; partially because I was feeling somewhat low walking up to someone and trying to stop them. Some days you feel like the adrenalin surge waned.
I saw a few guys and girls wearing colorful t-shirts waving their hands trying to strike a conversation. I was approached many times in the past by those people who would want me to sign up for charity.
Cold approach selling is a difficult job I suppose. I was here just for fun, but I was also feeling the push – I have to make some approach today. Yes, there has been a delay – a jetlag from not being out in the midst of unknown people over the past few weeks but hey it’s just saying “hi”, so what’s the big deal – I thought.
“C’mon just smile and wave your hands.”
“Look at those boys over there how they are approaching others – every single one of them. They are really making it a breeze. Look at them. Maybe they can teach you how to approach people.”
My head was banging with random thoughts and suddenly I found myself in front of one of those sales guys who just waved his hand at me with a big smile on his face. I smiled back and walked off knowing if I get engaged it would be another half an hour gone. As I was walking down the street, I noticed most people are busy on the phone, talking to others, looking anxiously around waiting for the bus, or preoccupied with something – maybe they are running late for work, may be something terrible going on their life – who knows.
Townhall, St Andrews cathedral and finally now I am in from of Myers, I am still walking around with no approaches at all as yet.
For how long? Well, could be two hours or may be even more.
I had an appointment with one of my friends later during the day, so I set the alarm. I was hoping the time would go a bit slow today but hey, it’s just me. All people are busy – all of them. I walked up and down the street and could not bring myself to stop anyone and then I decided to move to Hyde Park sometime later; may be fifteen minutes have passed and I only have just over half an hour left before I have to call it quits for the day.
Many people go to Hyde Park to eat their lunch or to enjoy a sunbath lying down on the grass reading a book. As it was lunch time, I noticed some people enjoying their meal siting on the grass or on the bench while chatting on the phone or playing some music or some video while many others are joined by their coworkers. Only a handful of them were by themselves. Some of them went far into the grass way beyond my vocal range to catch their attention. As I was walking down the footpath inside Hyde Park, I could vaguely remember one girl standing behind a tree further away from the footpath which again was too far for my reach from where I was. I could have gone walking directly up to her over the grass from the footpath; however, I didn’t. Something stopped me. Now, as I was walking from St James train station side towards the intersection at Elizabeth St via the foot path inside Hyde Park, halfway down I noticed her walking in front of me. I believe it was her white top against her green trouser and perhaps the green earrings I could notice at that moment from the side in distance and all of sudden my strangers’ approach aura kicked it and I screamed at myself **approach** (silently of course!)
I am now walking fast; my adrenalin surge went up and within seconds I went next to her and in a bid to catch her attention I said particularly loudly “excuse me”!
Although I didn’t ask, I might have startled her by my inquisitiveness, and she looked back at me. She seems surprised by this. I went onto explain the whole thing – how I came across the idea, how I write about others on my blog etc. and asked her to join my project and to my delight she happily consented.
So here is Tessa who lives in central Coast but currently studying graphics design in UNSW.
I asked her many random questions to get some expression out of her and get her engaged and she followed suit.
One point she mentioned of her twin brother Tim who has a secret. One day he might bring it before his parents, but he keeps it as a secret as of now that he is nonbinary. In our society many people still feel very shy about it due to social conditioning.
After taking a bunch of photos of her I wanted to try something different – unorthodox. My timer was ticking and when I looked at it, I could see fifteen minutes left before it would start beeping. I took her to another side of Hyde Park where there are lots of light and shadows. One of greatest blessing of nature is light. And it could be argued if many artistic pursuits would have ever existed had there been no light. The majestic arts that have been created with different shades of light and darkness truly dazzles what can be done with this magical tool.
One spot seemed promising. I took a few shots. Was not quite happy with the outcome as the exposure was a bit too harsh for what I wanted to achieve. However, the bellow two turns out to be salvageable. It seemed to me like a girl who went to the school but fled during the hours to explore the nature because she hated the boring classroom.
During the discourse she mentioned of her fascination for animals. With a bunch of pet animals on her possession she is definitely an animal lover. Woman in general might be fond of cats – I guess. My mom used to pet a lot of cats. Some of them were very vicious giving me scratches all over my hands. So, when she mentioned of her fascination for animals, I assumed cat would be on the list and I was right. She has two (2) cats along with three (3) cows and two (2) donkeys. That amused me a bit. While I asked about the donkeys, she mentioned of those being rescued by rangers and later adopted. She also mentioned of her love for creativity during her childhood as she used to draw back then.
I jokingly told her at the very beginning: “you gotta tell me something interesting about you because I wanna put in on my blog”. She remembered it and later on, she mentioned of a childhood incident when she drew a money with big breasts as she was eight (8) years old back then. I was wondering if she should repeat the same for the cat and the cow and also for the donkey and report it back for the viewers of this page as she is now past her childhood.
Well, childhood memories are fun; aren’t they? Nostalgia sets in when I watch over some of my old photos these days. I find myself submersed into some eerie feelings about those fleeting memories.
After a few photos I had to wrap up for the day and I was on my way talking to her when my alarm went off. We bid goodbye to each other, and I was somehow hoping that the clock would run a bit slower for the day as it went like a blink over the last three hours or so.
