Cherry Cola

Sea Food and Eat It is not just a fish and chip shop. It's a fish and chip shop, a catering company and a very popular place on a Friday night. I was down there with Ria last night. We were picking up some burgers and chips. Ria had made the order and she headed into the shop to see if our food was ready. It wasn't but she waited inside.

I was standing outside, minding my own business and minding the six pack we'd just bought. I considered cracking one open, but decided against it. I didn't know how long the food would take, and I didn't want to have the beer in the car with me.

There was a guy standing next to me. He was smoking a cigarette. He was really sucking hard on it. And gripping the butt tight. He was an intense smoker. I looked at him and he looked at me. We started talking. At first we just conversed about the fish and chips from Sea Food and Eat It and how they were superior to most fish and chips. Then he asked me if I lived around the area. I said no, but Ria did. I asked him if he lived nearby. He said that he did. He said that it was a good place to live. There was the fish and chip shop here, and then there was another one in Stone's Corner.

He was an interesting guy. Often when he finished his sentences he would give a little chuckle. Just a little laugh. I wasn't sure if this was a nervous thing, as the sucking hard of the cigarette would suggest, or whether it was just he thought that everything he was saying was funny. It didn't worry me too much.

After we'd spoken about the merits of local purveyors of deep fried delicacies he started telling me about how his girlfriend was pregnant. She's about a month away. He's pretty excited. It's going to be a little boy. They're thinking either Joseph or Hayden. I didn't say this to him, but I'd choose Joseph. I don't really like the name Hayden. He was telling me about how it's quite expensive having a baby. There's a lot of costs involved and the little guy isn't here yet!

I asked whether his girlfriend was going to have a caesarean or a natural birth. He said a natural birth. It's easier for the mother to recover that way. He said that if they'd had private health care then a caesarean would have been more likely. He said that if you've got private health coverage, then 90% of the time the child will be delivered through a c section. I didn't know this, but it didn't really surprise me.

The chips were taking a while, so our conversation continued.

I asked him whether he was surprised when he found out that his girlfriend was having his baby. He said that he was floored. He said that as soon as he found out he sold his sports car. It was a Toyota MR2. He then said that he probably didn't need to sell it straight away and that he'd thought that just because he was having a kid he needed to become a responsible adult straight away. He was still doing that little chuckle at the end of most sentences.

I asked him what he'd bought to replace the MR2. A stationwagon? No, he said. He was a car salesman, so he could drive a different car every night.

He started to tell me about the night that he thinks that it all happened. He was down snowboarding in Mt Hotham. It was a last minute trip, some of his mates were down there and he and his girlfriend decided to join them. Apparently it was a massive night. He's still surprised that it was that night, but he's pretty sure. A huge night. Drinks, coke, pills. He couldn't believe that she ended up pregnant.

At this point Ria walked out of Sea Food and Eat It with her butcher's paper-wrapped parcels. I said good night to the guy, shook his hand and wished him good luck. Ria and I jumped in the car and headed back to her house to consume our delicious burgers.

It was an interesting conversation. Especially the end part when he was telling me all the different drugs he was on when he and his girlfriend conceived. We'd only been talking a few minutes and here he was telling all about how he likes having sex with his girlfriend when he's got several different illicit substances coursing through his bloodstream.

Oh well.

Today has been busy. I've been taking out a garden bed at the child care centre so that I can put in a new one next week. It took a few hours and my hands are fairly blistered now. It feels good to get the job done though.

I'm thinking of going and buying some books.