Winter nights
Fremantle on a cold, gloomy day is the most romantic place in Western Australia. Florescent lights perform a shadow orchestra of figures walking along, hunched in from the biting wind, protecting themselves as if the dark sky above was to collapse at any given second. I love this place, especially at night, when the streets lights come on. It feels nostalgic, as if it is a place froze in time in the 1960’s and refused to participate in ideas like development or progress. Most of all it reminds me of the Woody Allen film, ‘Manhattan’. Abundant and beautiful shades of black and white imposed upon the senses, making the world into one big, beautiful black and white photograph. Incidently, that film is also Anouska’s favourite. As a house warming present, I have ordered the poster from the U.K. so we can hang it in our lounge room.
We walked around, hand in hand, feeling the cold, feeling each other, looking for something to do. The thought of a film came by and went as the showings didn’t suit us. We had coffee (yes I know), some wedges and cold rock ice cream and looked through the bookstore. I picked up the Annie Hall screenplay that I had ordered in and Anouska bought me a “O Brother Where Art Though” screenplay to add to my mounting collecting. Eventually we decided to go see a play and drove to Melville to see a one act season. The first two productions were quite poor, as was the free sherry given to us before them. The soup at intermission was superb and perfect for such a cold evening. The third production was locally written and quite good, being well directed and acted. The playwright who wrote this won the best original play in last year’s one act festival and will be up against myself this year. But I can say this with a great deal of certainty - mine is much better.
Back to Wednesday night. We awake at 12:30pm to the sound of the house alarm blaring its mournful wail. I wake up first in complete shock and shake Anouska awake. Not knowing who is touching her, being pitch black and the alarm muting my voice, she screams in sheer terror, as she believes I am an intruder. I am left a little shaken after I finally calm her down and then run out into the corridor, completely naked and oblivious to any danger I was putting myself in, to turn off the alarm. I return to the bedroom, to reassure Anouska that we are safe and after we both put on some clothes, we scout around the house to make sure it is secure, which it is. The event left us somewhat nervous, and we stayed up to watch mediocre late night television until sleep took control of us. We suspect, although we have no way of proving it, that somewhat attempted to break in, because the alarm never plays up, only going off once when the wind blew an umbrella against the window. Nothing fell in the house either, which could have set it off. It is a little alarming (mind the pun) to be in a situation like this, but it has forced us to set in place some safety checks in case something ever happens. I also have an axe handle under the bed, ready to strike with ferocity, singing an ancient Greek battle chant - a lelelelele.
We walked around, hand in hand, feeling the cold, feeling each other, looking for something to do. The thought of a film came by and went as the showings didn’t suit us. We had coffee (yes I know), some wedges and cold rock ice cream and looked through the bookstore. I picked up the Annie Hall screenplay that I had ordered in and Anouska bought me a “O Brother Where Art Though” screenplay to add to my mounting collecting. Eventually we decided to go see a play and drove to Melville to see a one act season. The first two productions were quite poor, as was the free sherry given to us before them. The soup at intermission was superb and perfect for such a cold evening. The third production was locally written and quite good, being well directed and acted. The playwright who wrote this won the best original play in last year’s one act festival and will be up against myself this year. But I can say this with a great deal of certainty - mine is much better.
Back to Wednesday night. We awake at 12:30pm to the sound of the house alarm blaring its mournful wail. I wake up first in complete shock and shake Anouska awake. Not knowing who is touching her, being pitch black and the alarm muting my voice, she screams in sheer terror, as she believes I am an intruder. I am left a little shaken after I finally calm her down and then run out into the corridor, completely naked and oblivious to any danger I was putting myself in, to turn off the alarm. I return to the bedroom, to reassure Anouska that we are safe and after we both put on some clothes, we scout around the house to make sure it is secure, which it is. The event left us somewhat nervous, and we stayed up to watch mediocre late night television until sleep took control of us. We suspect, although we have no way of proving it, that somewhat attempted to break in, because the alarm never plays up, only going off once when the wind blew an umbrella against the window. Nothing fell in the house either, which could have set it off. It is a little alarming (mind the pun) to be in a situation like this, but it has forced us to set in place some safety checks in case something ever happens. I also have an axe handle under the bed, ready to strike with ferocity, singing an ancient Greek battle chant - a lelelelele.