A New Road

It was July 1990, the seventeenth to be exact; a Tuesday night. I wore a floor length faux-fur black coat purchased from a garage sale in the suburbs. Nick Cave was playing at The Charles Hotel. I propped myself up on a ledge near the cigarette machine and had a perfect view of Mr. Nick Cave behind his piano.

Later we headed into Northbridge and ate souvlaki. I ran into some university friends but by that stage I think I had dropped out. My days were spent working in a very pink café (dusty pink vinyl booths, laminate and aprons; a throwback from the late eighties) situated inside a very pink mall designed in the Art Deco style. I felt like the quintessential “Pink Lady”. Only a few years prior, my school friends and I had put on a “Grease” rendition (I think I wanted to be “Marty” but now I think I was more like quirky “Frenchy”).

The cafe owners sat in the booth closest to the coffee machine puffing away on Dunhill’s. The chef was a punk who used to spray his twelve-hole Doc Martens with bug spray to stop the roaches from crawling up his legs. (He ended up getting the sack after being accused of stealing the night’s takings stored in the fridge). What a delightful place it was.

Recalling these memories has given me a sinking feeling that I didn’t have the best imaginative role models at that time. I think I was trying to emulate Jami Gertz from “Less than Zero” or the uber-cool, but completely messed up, Anna, in “Dogs in Space”. 

Saskia Post as Anna (left) from "Dogs in Space"

I suffered from the romantic notion of the “world-weary-waitress” – picture Liv Tyler in “Heavy” (rather than Michelle Pfieffer in “Frankie and Johnny”). Now, twenty years on, something tells me I should have been looking up to Oprah, Maya Angelou or Mother Theresa!

Liv Tyler

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In Robert Frost’s poem “The Road Not Taken” I always imagined that “the road less travelled” was the road of adventure, creativity, passion and bravery – but my perspective was self-destructive, damaging and selfish. I thought that path was the difficult one. But the more I think about it, the road less travelled is the righteous road – it’s smooth and calm and cared for. There is overgrowth, I am sure of it, as it doesn't have many takers - but it’s smooth and mossy like a tumble dried blanket.

On this path the world is hazy and soft - a little like my first view each day before I pat around for my glasses.  Imagine the universe smeared with gloss like a viewing lens of a silent film.  

Cheers to this new road. I think I am going to try it...

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

Excerpt from Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken”

Dogs in Space image: Some Rights Reserved by come on with the rain, I have a smile on my face (flickr).

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