(Samuel Beckett overhears multicultural pie patter in Bris-Vegas .)
Alighting from one of the 500 CNG powered buses in Brisbane at a stop opposite the Queen Alexandra Hospital , Woolloongabba , I went in search of a loaf of sourdough, to which my half- sister had taken a liking, and headed to a nearby Vietnamese bakery. Sitting outside the aromatic bakehouse was a possible outpatient from the hospital who, like so many mature- age Queenslanders, had a potbelly, freckles , wore a T-shirt , shorts , sandals ; a broadbrimmed hat rested on a table .There was a bright white bandage on a leg .
An Asian man , hand in pocket, approached , and was greeted as if an old friend by the bandaged bloke .There certainly was no indication of Queensland xenophobia , evident in many parts of the state, a growing problem for the Gillard government and a fire eagerly stoked by the Coalition, in the warmth of the greeting from the Australian .
The new arrival asked after a person called Jack. “He’s buggered , mate,” was the reply. “He has not got long to live - it’s his liver. He’s been on the (gesticulating as if swigging from a bottle ) from way back.”
When asked what he was doing , the Asian gent said he was going to buy a pie , but from a shop in a nearby supermarket , not the Vietnamese bakery. On hearing this , his friend was taken aback. . In a loud voice , which could be heard in the intensive care ward located across the road and up the hill, over the roar of the busy Ipswich Road traffic , he said the pies made in the supermarket venue were no good , and three days old. In a quaking voice, the intending pie eater pointed out that they were cheaper than the ones in the Vietnamese bakery.
Affronted, the pie expert continued his disparaging comments ," Three days old and shit, mate , don’t buy one from there . This is the best place, and they are fresh every day."
Even though I deliberately lingered about , I never did find out which shop provided the pie in the finish. I think the Asian man may have had some Scottish blood in him and was waiting for the Vietnamese bakery PR man to limp off and catch a bus so that he could make a thrifty buy , without being harangued.
Alighting from one of the 500 CNG powered buses in Brisbane at a stop opposite the Queen Alexandra Hospital , Woolloongabba , I went in search of a loaf of sourdough, to which my half- sister had taken a liking, and headed to a nearby Vietnamese bakery. Sitting outside the aromatic bakehouse was a possible outpatient from the hospital who, like so many mature- age Queenslanders, had a potbelly, freckles , wore a T-shirt , shorts , sandals ; a broadbrimmed hat rested on a table .There was a bright white bandage on a leg .
An Asian man , hand in pocket, approached , and was greeted as if an old friend by the bandaged bloke .There certainly was no indication of Queensland xenophobia , evident in many parts of the state, a growing problem for the Gillard government and a fire eagerly stoked by the Coalition, in the warmth of the greeting from the Australian .
The new arrival asked after a person called Jack. “He’s buggered , mate,” was the reply. “He has not got long to live - it’s his liver. He’s been on the (gesticulating as if swigging from a bottle ) from way back.”
When asked what he was doing , the Asian gent said he was going to buy a pie , but from a shop in a nearby supermarket , not the Vietnamese bakery. On hearing this , his friend was taken aback. . In a loud voice , which could be heard in the intensive care ward located across the road and up the hill, over the roar of the busy Ipswich Road traffic , he said the pies made in the supermarket venue were no good , and three days old. In a quaking voice, the intending pie eater pointed out that they were cheaper than the ones in the Vietnamese bakery.
Affronted, the pie expert continued his disparaging comments ," Three days old and shit, mate , don’t buy one from there . This is the best place, and they are fresh every day."
Even though I deliberately lingered about , I never did find out which shop provided the pie in the finish. I think the Asian man may have had some Scottish blood in him and was waiting for the Vietnamese bakery PR man to limp off and catch a bus so that he could make a thrifty buy , without being harangued.
