I am signed up HERE for a thing called Dry July. It's when people stop drinking for a month and raise cash via social media for people living with cancer.
The funny thing is, every month is Dry July for me. HA! The money I raise will go to the Nepean Cancer Clinic, where Dave was diagnosed and treated for his Non-Hodgkins lymphoma in 2008. I only mentioned it for the first time the other day on twitter and some wonderful people have already donated $586 - THANK YOU! (I'm crap at asking for things.)
My friend Shae said on twitter that "Nobody likes #sobertweetfriday." So we decided to make it a thing. Today on twitter, Insta, Facebook or your blog, we want you to think of something simple and beautiful and tag it #sobertweetfriday. A photo, an update, a tweet, anything. I like when people have fun stark naked sober. (Mine is going to have something to do with eating cupcakes on a beach with the wind in my hair and the sun on my face.)
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So this weeks Street Talk is the gorgeous Kristen, barista at the Elephant Bean Cafe in Katoomba.
I walked in and ordered a skim latte and asked if I could please feature her in my blog and she said yes! I never know what to say when people say yes ... nothing is planned. Told her straight off the bat that her top is the most beautiful colour green. She thanked me, said she's trying to wean herself off black. Me too! She'd just been up to the Gold Coast where her family lives, said it's hard to wear all black in the Gold Coast.
I told her I've been trying to get off black since I went to India last year and was so impacted by the stunning colours.
Kristen asked if I knew about the Festival of Colours in India, held every March where people wear white and literally throw scented colour powder at each other. I said no, but it sounded bloody cool.
Somebody came in to get served so I stepped aside and looked around.
It's usually always packed but it was right at the end of the day. I said I reckon the Bean is the coolest cafe in Katoomba and Kristen agreed. It's like you walk into another realm when you come through the doors.
Kristen moved from Canada to Australia when she was twelve years old and it broke her heart which didn't mend for many years.
"Actually, it led to some pretty big depression as I grew older. It was just so hard, to be away from everything I'd ever known. I pined. I just wanted to go back ... and I did, years later. But after living back there for a while I realised that I had to come back to Australia. It's where my family is."
I told her about all the schools I went to and how important it is for me to send my kids to as few schools as possible.
There was a Cat Power song playing as Kristen and I talked to each other. Called "Real Life" ... it has some pretty provoking lyrics to it.
I met a doctor, he want to be a dancer
I met a mother, she want to be alone
I met a preacher, he want to be sinister
I met a kid, he want to be unknown
Real life is ordinary
Sometimes you don't want to live (Want to live)
Sometimes you gotta do what you don't want to do
To get away with an unordinary life.
The guy with the dreadlocks who also works at the Bean came in at that moment with industrial headphones on because he hated that song. It was hilarious.
All these themes and undercurrents, Hindu traditions, conversations .... could only happen in the Bean.
Realms, I tell you.
I wish I spoke to her more. About her belief systems, future plans, why she liked the mountains and isn't she worried that the skin won't grow back in her earlobe if she ever decides to take her tribal earring out? And how cool her necklace is. And glasses.
I thanked her profusely.
"Thank you for trusting me!"
Because that's the thing when people agree to talk to me ... they are giving me a little bit of themselves and it's up to me to not misquote or offend or insult. And then, they're part of a section of this blog alongside a whole host of other people I've spoken to. Kind of, entombed in here. What must they think? I keep waiting for someone to contact me to be taken out, but nobody has yet. I met Jo again in the supermarket and we stopped and chatted and I introduced her to Rocco. I loved meeting Jo. I love meeting everybody - a lot of people say no when I ask them which makes me feel like a fucking idiot but I keep asking anyway. I do most things in my life in spite of myself. It's how I stay alive.
::
Previous Street Talks:
The funny thing is, every month is Dry July for me. HA! The money I raise will go to the Nepean Cancer Clinic, where Dave was diagnosed and treated for his Non-Hodgkins lymphoma in 2008. I only mentioned it for the first time the other day on twitter and some wonderful people have already donated $586 - THANK YOU! (I'm crap at asking for things.)
My friend Shae said on twitter that "Nobody likes #sobertweetfriday." So we decided to make it a thing. Today on twitter, Insta, Facebook or your blog, we want you to think of something simple and beautiful and tag it #sobertweetfriday. A photo, an update, a tweet, anything. I like when people have fun stark naked sober. (Mine is going to have something to do with eating cupcakes on a beach with the wind in my hair and the sun on my face.)
::
So this weeks Street Talk is the gorgeous Kristen, barista at the Elephant Bean Cafe in Katoomba.
I told her I've been trying to get off black since I went to India last year and was so impacted by the stunning colours.
Kristen asked if I knew about the Festival of Colours in India, held every March where people wear white and literally throw scented colour powder at each other. I said no, but it sounded bloody cool.
Somebody came in to get served so I stepped aside and looked around.
It's usually always packed but it was right at the end of the day. I said I reckon the Bean is the coolest cafe in Katoomba and Kristen agreed. It's like you walk into another realm when you come through the doors.
Kristen moved from Canada to Australia when she was twelve years old and it broke her heart which didn't mend for many years.
"Actually, it led to some pretty big depression as I grew older. It was just so hard, to be away from everything I'd ever known. I pined. I just wanted to go back ... and I did, years later. But after living back there for a while I realised that I had to come back to Australia. It's where my family is."
I told her about all the schools I went to and how important it is for me to send my kids to as few schools as possible.
There was a Cat Power song playing as Kristen and I talked to each other. Called "Real Life" ... it has some pretty provoking lyrics to it.
I met a doctor, he want to be a dancer
I met a mother, she want to be alone
I met a preacher, he want to be sinister
I met a kid, he want to be unknown
Real life is ordinary
Sometimes you don't want to live (Want to live)
Sometimes you gotta do what you don't want to do
To get away with an unordinary life.
The guy with the dreadlocks who also works at the Bean came in at that moment with industrial headphones on because he hated that song. It was hilarious.
All these themes and undercurrents, Hindu traditions, conversations .... could only happen in the Bean.
Realms, I tell you.
I wish I spoke to her more. About her belief systems, future plans, why she liked the mountains and isn't she worried that the skin won't grow back in her earlobe if she ever decides to take her tribal earring out? And how cool her necklace is. And glasses.
I thanked her profusely.
"Thank you for trusting me!"
Because that's the thing when people agree to talk to me ... they are giving me a little bit of themselves and it's up to me to not misquote or offend or insult. And then, they're part of a section of this blog alongside a whole host of other people I've spoken to. Kind of, entombed in here. What must they think? I keep waiting for someone to contact me to be taken out, but nobody has yet. I met Jo again in the supermarket and we stopped and chatted and I introduced her to Rocco. I loved meeting Jo. I love meeting everybody - a lot of people say no when I ask them which makes me feel like a fucking idiot but I keep asking anyway. I do most things in my life in spite of myself. It's how I stay alive.
::
Previous Street Talks:
1. Noelene the Young
2. Megan the Mouse
3. Harpal the Australian
4. Darren the Artist
5. Jo the Interesting
6. John the Telstra Guy
7. Michael the Photographer
8. Peg the Lady
9. Jeff the Preacher Man
10. Andres the Cobbler
11. Honey the Prostitute
12. Mark the Masseur
13. You the Blog Reader
14. Jo the Podiatrist
15. Casey the Uni Student
16. Dream the Horse and Carriage Driver
17. Tamas the Hungarian Accordionist
18. The Dignified Trolley Ladies
19. Alex With The Studded Hot Pink Belt
20. Leaf The Fallen
21. Bel Of The Library
22. Jay And His Big Issue
23. Emma The Adult Shop Cashier
24. Teena, Saver Of Dogs
25. The Luna Park Face
26. Gary The Missing
