School Days
Ah, March and the first days of autumn. The light, the air: I hearken back to the first days of a new school year. Sure, all the kids here have been back for two months now (and taking up more than their fair share of space on the trains, especially with those gigantic daypack bookbags they all carry now – don’t they know about wagging off homework?), but my senses have been blunted from years of northern seasonal change. That would be “honed,” but everything’s backwards now, not to mention undeciduous, so I’m left without some cues. Luckily, Australian school children all wear uniforms, so they serve a similar purpose to that of migratory birds: sudden flocks appear and you know a new school year has begun, just as you know winter approaches when the sky is studded with V’s of geese, starlings, etc. Now the air clears as the heat abates and a week of rain washes out the humidity of the summer. It will get warm again, but not those high-30’s temperatures that afflict even the Harbour and Beach suburbs, let alone the Outer West, and before long it will be possible to wear a jacket when going out in the evening. Football has started up, too, both “footie,” i.e., AFL and rugby, although it’s still pre-season for the Swans, et al. Before I lost my job last year, I had considered signing up for membership at the club, but it appears I’ll have to wait a bit before I go down that path. It doesn’t come with much besides cheap tickets anyway. Perhaps I’ll just head to a Rabbitohs match and round out my sporting experience of Australia.