One of the reasons why it’s so difficult for me to leave the house is due to my sleeping pattern. By the time morning arises, sleep time is beckoning for me, and any thoughts of undertaking any sort of trip is a daunting thought to contemplate.
But these past few days, somehow my pattern had reconfigured itself, leaving myself facing the day to come fresh and wide eyed, and wondering what am I going to do on this day? And so I said to myself, it would be a waste if I just stayed at home all day, rather I should take the opportunity to go out and engage in some form of activity that is rare for me. And that activity, I had been wishing to see a film at the theater for some time now, so I decided to attend a screening at last.
The cinema I was going to, Cinema Nova, was screening a wide array of films, but there was one film I had a particular interest in – Barbara, which is about this woman exiled to East Germany after the Stasi discover she’d been attempting to flee to the West.
But you see, when I left the house, I wasn’t confident that I could make the screening on time – Cinema Nova were screening Barbara at 11:50am, and during my train ride to Flinders St. Station, whenever our carriage would stop off at each station, I’d look out of the window and you could see a clock indicating the time on the station platform. I’d glance at the time and wonder to myself, do I have enough time to catch the screening? Within myself, I knew I couldn’t make it, and it was sort of a slow torture, the way I tried to convince myself that there was still time…
Once getting off at Flinders, I approach the first available taxi, and I ask the driver if he could take me to Cinema Nova? But it’s no good, he doesn’t understand me, he thinks I say “cinnamon” not “cinema” and after I repeat myself, he still doesn’t understand, so I give up and slam his door in despair, and I wonder, now what do I do?
I lose my head a little, and walk around various streets, just trying to find another cab, so I traipse around this street and that street, and eventually I come across an unattended cab, and I ask the driver if he knows where Cinema Nova is? And just like the other guy, he repeats “Cinnamon”? But after a few more tries, he gets it. No, dude, you know, Cinema Nova? The movie theater? And he takes me there! Sort of…
He drops me off at Lygon St, and instructs me to head across to the other side of the road, and you’ll find it there. So, I head across and I keep walking, looking for signs of the Nova, but all I see are pizza and pasta joints, nothing that screams “MOVIE THEATER”.
After walking for bloody ages, I somehow end up in the back alleys of a nearby petrol station. I feel quite embarrassed, wondering if my cab driver is looking at me from across the street and wondering to himself, ‘what the hell is that guy doing?’
Of course, I found the cinema eventually, and it turned out to be part of a shopping complex.
So yeah, because I’d blundered around so much, I’d missed the 11:50am screening of Barbara by a long way. Instead I settled for the 1pm screening of The Life of Pi 3D, which was due to start in 10 minutes. The woman at the counter was nice and when I told her my selection, she told me she’d enjoyed it herself.
To my surprise, once I got into the theater, I realized I was the only person inside for a considerable period of time, and I was left contemplating, am I going to watch this in the cinema alone? How awesome would that be?
Alas, it was not to be, as there were a few latecomers, and some of these attendees were too loud during the screening of the film; in fact, they would stand up and switch seats, and I swear I saw some people exiting the theater and reappearing at later intervals. I couldn’t believe it and wondered if they’d seen it in the past, so they viewed it as an opportunity to clown around.
With the movie finished, I waited for the other cinemagoers to depart before packing up my own possessions and leaving myself. Disaster almost struck as there was a steep decline which I only just spotted in the dark theater; if I missed it I could’ve been in for a nasty fall. Now that I was out of the theater, it was time for my biggest nightmare yet.
The next step was to get back to the city center, and ideally, I wished to hail a taxi. So, initially I walked up and down Lygon St, looking for a taxi rank, but this search was to be in vain. Then I walked up the street to that petrol station and asked the guy at the counter if he’d phone for a cab to come here and pick me up. He said he couldn’t do that, anyway, it’d take too long. Sighing, I left the station. Next I kept walking up the street, glancing sideways in the hope that a cab would pull up besides me, but I got nothing.
I began to panic when I entered an unfamiliar section of Lygon St; university students were queuing up for the oncoming bus, and the sky had began to dim, so I sensed that it was getting later in the day. I knew I had to get home in time to take my medication. I chastised myself for not taking my meds with me in case such disasters arose as this.
Walking back to more familiar ground, I entered a 7-11 and asked the guy there if he’d call me a taxi, but again he said no, and he told me to wave for cabs, indicate to them. So I’m standing out there on the curb, bag in one hand, waving my arm about furiously, trying not to think about the spectacle I was making of myself, and every time a taxi roared into view, my heart would leap, and I flapped my hand frantically, but the cab drove on… and the procession repeated on, and on, and on… and with each passing dismissal, my hopes dimmed, and my despair grew.
Still no taxi, and I began to feel frantic. I worried that I was about to have a panic attack. I decided to give up on the taxis and so I walked inside a nearby bakery. The man at the counter was extremely helpful [at last] and said once I left his shop, I should turn right, walk straight up that street, pass the round-about, and once you reach the top, you’ll find the trams. The trams which are headed downwards will take you toward the city, choose those, he said. I thanked him and left.
It seems like I enjoy shooting myself in the foot, because once I found the trams, I felt a sense of indecision when I looked at the maps, irrationally worrying that they would take me to the wrong place. So as the students hopped on board the tram, I could only stand and watch indecisively.
The only good thing was that I now found myself on Swanston St, which connects with the rest of the city, but how far away was I from the center?
Anyway, I kept walking, and eventually I came upon another tram stop and I did what I should’ve done in the first place, and boarded the bloody thing. As you can probably tell, my mind was in disarray. What happened next didn’t help matters, either: the tram was packed to the gills. I had to stand and use one of the handrails for balance, but I was still unused to this, and was lurching all over the place. What’s more, I had to get my wallet out as you had to pay with your Myki card, but as it was so congested with people, this was difficult in itself, and while attempting to do this, I stumbled and dropped my card.
With a pathetic whine, I pleaded to someone nearby that my card had fallen to the ground, and could they please retrieve it? I should have remained on the tram longer as it would have carried me deeper into the heart of the city, but I felt shaken up and after the first stop I decided to jump off the tram. I felt somewhat relieved as I recognized where I was now, and once I landed upon Flinders St, I really felt I was safe.