A busy day

At about 11.15am I ventured out to get to a meeting with a friend in Newtown because we had organised some time before to have lunch together today. I went out my building's back door and down past Channel Ten to Miller Street. At the lights were two men, one wearing a sleeveless fleeced top and the other, who was shorter than the first man, a leather jacket. My coat was buttoned up against the cold. They crossed when the light turned green and walked ahead of me, and before I stopped to cross the road outside the Fish Market I saw them kiss each other as they walked along.

When I got to the parking lot behind the restaurant area I could see the two men walking along Pyrmont Bridge Road toward Glebe and I followed, catching up with them where they stood waiting for the signal to change. We all crossed the road and went up Wattle Street past the racetrack and into Wentworth Park. They were moving faster than me so they arrived at the traffic lights first and by the time I got to the roadway they had already crossed into Bay Street, and I lost track of them.

I headed up to Broadway and crossed at the lights, going into Victoria Park and up along City Road. There was a woman on King Street walking a dog on a leash and she had headphones on and was singing to rap music. On Missenden Road a man on a motorcycle pulled up at the traffic lights. His helmet had "Batman" painted on the back in cartoon letters. I got to the pub and bought a beer, sitting down to wait at a table. I had arrived quite early and so I chatted with my friend on Facebook Messenger, then scrolled slowly through my Twitter feed, reading the posts there.

When my friend arrived she bought me another beer and we went out to the beer garden with our drinks. She smoked a cigarette while we talked and after a while we finished our drinks and headed out to a Thai restaurant. We ate our food and drank beer, then when we had finished we headed down King Street toward the train station. My friend's house is located behind the station and when we got there we went inside and greeted her two dogs.

My friend made coffee for us and we talked sitting on sofas in the living room with the heater on. When it was almost 4.30pm I said goodbye and headed out, walking up King Street. I stopped at a bus stop planning to get public transport part of the way home because another friend had messaged me asking if I could give her a lift from the shopping centre. I got on the bus with my Opal card and looked at the people, who were mostly young. At Broadway I got off the bus and walked down Mountain Street, then into Wattle Street, heading home.

At home I sent some more messages and then got into the car and drove down to the shopping centre. I parked the car and went up to K-Mart, where I took a seat near the entrance. There was a sudden commotion when a security guard with the shopping centre chased a teenager, catching her and walking her by the arms away from the store. A number of people were looking at what was happening and talking to each other. My friend came out and we went to a different store. I saw the security guard standing outside a shuttered restaurant talking with the girl he had caught. While I waited in the passageway they kept talking while the girl sat on a chair. Two of her friends stood nearby.

We left the shopping centre and headed to Ikea, where I parked the car. Inside, we went straight to the restaurant and ordered some fish and greens. A man with "Hilfiger" on his sweatshirt was carrying a tray full of food, heading for an empty table with his companions. After eating my friend and I went downstairs to the homewares section. I saw a woman wearing a padded jacket with a military-fatigue pattern and the word "Whatever" printed on it. There was a pink candle wrapped in plastic that had an embossed floral design and "Full God" printed on the label. I took my friend home then headed back to my place with the BBC on the radio because the ABC channels just had sport coverage.