Strangers

I like Melbourne. There are so many friendly, colourful characters. You can strike up a conversation with anyone. 

• The intercom repairman. He holds another job in a supermarket and works seven days a week to support his wife and two young daughters. I quite liked him. He was earnest. He also gave me some insight into why some people enjoy getting drunk. He said that it gives him the opportunity to be someone else for a night. I thought that it was an interesting observation.

• Anna, the administrator from the counselling company across from my office. I shared my umbrella with her one evening as we were making a run for the train station after work in the pouring rain. It turned out that we were catching the same train. She's been to China more times than I have. I've only seen her once since that day. I think she's the one that has been kind enough to leave our newspapers outside our office door before we arrive at work. 

• Whenever I go to work in the morning, I talk to the same man on the train. We happen to take the same train at the same time every day and we always make that mad dash to our connecting train together. I don't even know his name. We just talk. He is from Sri Lanka and he works as the CFO for a nearby educational institution. He had his car repaired over the weekend. Something about his car consuming more petrol than it should. He has a dragon for a boss.

• I spoke to a lady while volunteering for Daffodil Day last year. She had bought some daffodils from the stall I was manning and as she was leaving, I wished her a good day. She looked me in the eye, smiled and told me that she was a cancer survivor and that every day she lives cancer-free is a good day. What she said really affected me because its true. It was a poignant reminder of life's fragility and how we so often take health for granted.