This Shhh Is

I woke up five minutes before my alarm this morning and immediately sprang out of bed. The God of Hospitality Etiquette had been kind to me over the weekend; a guest to our house had brought bananas with her over the weekend and obeyed the commandment 'Thou shalt not take home food with you when you visit friends.' I've gained (and lost) many beers and some Paddle Pops to this decree over the years, but this is the first time I'd ever scored something as lavish as bananas. As someone who felt a little nervous carrying a red capsicum through the streets of Hurstville after dark this week, I was truly able to appreciate this serendipity.

It has been so, so many months since I watched Cyclone Yasi hit the north-east coast and scatter my breakfast plans for the rest of the year kilometres into the air. I ate a banana, Weet Bix and honey smoothie for breakfast almost every day before that storm, and today I was coming back home. Even if it was going to be only five degrees when I drank it I was still excited. Spring was just over the horizon, and perhaps it was bananas that the ducks I saw last week were pregnant with. I was so atwitter that I struggled to recall the recipe for banana smoothie after I made it to the kitchen.

As usual, when I start feeling excited about tropical fruits in August, the days left of winter were not kind. Despite wearing cuff links to the office the events of today's working rapidly unravelled to the state where I didn't leave until 6pm, with the unfortunate knowledge that all the work I'd done today had led to only the conclusion that I should destroy it all first thing tomorrow and start again. It was not a sunny day, and if I had taken a break I probably would have been rained on by the ubiquitous rain clouds of hump day. Also I believe the new earphones I bought to use on the train were designed by whoever invented the grappling hook.

I was eventually walking from the train station to my door along the dark, sodden streets. The light pollution from the city's many towers made the clouds glow despite the kilometres between us, and the soft rain that still fell tasted dirty on my lips. At this junction I felt aggrieved, and gypped by those bananas that had promised me a nice day. I thought about duck pairs and photojournalism and ideal train seat selections and more about bananas and felt that at this point the journal words in my head were want for a drink to decode them or at least take them on a more entertaining, unrelated tangent. Then, in the bend that brought it all back, the song 'Banana Split' by Mochipet came on random, and its funstep beat guided me home. And when I realised that this song, which I downloaded at random only yesterday, was about bananas I silently mouthed 'Oh my God' to the empty streets as I realised the extent of the universe's invisible storytelling. To the God of Hospitality Etiquette I believe. From then, the only drink I needed was a banana smoothie.