Walking on the Wild Side

 Today is Sunday.
I often suffer from. Sunday Ennui
Perhaps it's a relic from childhood when Sunday Sucked. Often on sundays my mother would make Roast Pork for lunch which I loathed. She & my father would then lie & tell me it wasn't really pork but meat from a different animal called 'Chickenpork'.
I desperately wanted to believe them. The same way I desperately wanted to believe them when they swore black & blue that I wasn't adopted.
But on both counts, they lied.

God, this is getting depressing.
Maybe because it's Still Sunday & maybe also because I took a walk in the Botanical Gardens today where I was totally creeped out by the tree above that had Frightening Purple Hued Hands growing from it.
No wonder many people don't like trees & want to chop them down, although I'm not like that & I wouldn't admit to it anyway..

As I was trotting along the Gardens, I came across a v. large kookaburra.
I am not a Bird Watcher.
But I do like Kookaburras & I've been desperate to photograph one for years but they always fly off just when I have my camera poised.
Today was different, though. This one just sat there & let me get closer & closer until I was standing just underneath. I couldn't believe how wide was its Girth & how many feathers it had.
At one stage, I thought it might be a Stuffed Kookaburra. But then I realised that that was impossible because it kept on moving.
Later, when I told my daughter by phone, she suggested that this kookaburra might be tame. 

 After I finished taking the photos, I thanked the kookaburra & moved away only to spy a little girl who looked eerily like my daughter Maeflower when she was about three. She is now twenty-four.
And, for a brief moment, I wondered if Time was Playing a Trick on me.
It wasn't.

When I'd had enough of Nature I ventured out to Circular Quay which is the gateway to Sydney Harbour. The place was crawling with what appeared to be tourists. I felt somewhat out of place.

As I was walking & desperately trying to fit in, I spied a man smiling & holding his arms outstretched with a sign saying 'Free Hugs'.
I immediately inwardly sneered.
Who the hell is going to want to be hugged by a stranger while they're on their way to join a queue to get on the Manly Ferry, or eat a bucket of Hot Chips, I wondered?

Turns out, a whole lot of people.

I was shocked.
Older Men, younger men.....

Middleaged women......
                                    and Young women.
But not me.
I did ask myself if I wanted a hug but it turned out I didn't.
Instead, I opted for a chat.
The Hugger is called Chris & he gives out Free Hugs when he thinks there could be a need. And it appears that there is a Big Need. He said that he rarely gets negative comments. A woman yelled out once that he was a depraved sinner & may God forgive him. But that was the only nasty thing he could remember. I bet if I did it, I'd remember every nasty sneer or sideways glance that I ever got.
But that's just me.