Kindness a strangers...

1. Back in December, on Wray Street in Fremantle, I came across a shop called Madame Bukeshla.  Sculpture and textile art in the window, hand painted wallpaper, Belgian linen sheets, a fine collection of vintage covered hangers, an open studio at the back of the shop floor, shelves and shelves of vintage fabric on display and ladies in vans pulling up with trolley loads of more....I went into a kind of spin.  Trish Bygott and her business partner were very tolerant, and we raved a bit about blogs and marketing and hand-making and art and so on.  

2. I encouraged Bronwen to visit, despite the festive family flurries going on around us, and she bought a beautiful linen petticoat skirt.  Trish sewed on the buttons to fit and then she gave Bronwen this print, for me.  Bronwen's sister has mailed it from Perth, so I've only just received it. I am so touched.

3. I met John (also from Perth), in the front bay windows of the Espy Hotel, before the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion gig.  We talked about the randomness of youth, covered coathangers, musical laziness in  places where the living is easy, and so on.  I was having trouble shifting my ticket to the second gig (responsibilities at home called) and John said he was interested.

4. The gig was superlatively good in a very strange way.  Some reviewer somewhere wrote about the way the band seems to be channelling something... from...um... somewhere. For me the show was a divine, hellish sound compost. Sexy, smug, tongue-in-cheek and dead earnest all at the same time. And giving. Dangerously beyond the limits of talent or showmanship.

5. There had been plans to go out after the gig. I don't think I was the only one who needed to go straight home, alone, and lie down for ten hours.

5. We did the ticket swap at Hell's Kitchen, before I put my sorry happy carcass on a train back to the valley. The woman behind the bar looked hard at me when I asked for a "healing soft drink".  Then she magic-ed up the concoction pictured above.  I watched as she loaded a glass with pieces of fresh lemon, lime, orange, and strawberry. Then she swilled in soda water, raspberry, a dash of cola and just the right number of icy rocks.  The just-right-medicine was garnished with a sprig of mint. And the kindness a strangers.