S1E8: SIDE CHAT (duck rescue)
SPEAKERS
LILY, JENNY
LILY 00:04
Do you want to explain the ducks?
JENNY 00:05
Yeah, we were in a park. And there were signs all about saying, keep your dogs on leads.
LILY 00:13
And we were actually down at the Gawler Foundation.
JENNY 00:15
Well it wasn't Gawler, it was the Buddhist, it was Tara in Brighton which is the Buddhist Centre
LILY 00:24
I remember being there with Gran
JENNY 00:25
Because we went there for a meal with Gran. I think we were meeting mum for a meal because they would you know, one night a week have a vegetarian meal that you pay 15 bucks for and go and eat. She was doing her healing meditation there every week. So I think we were early and just in the park. Killing time. And there was this mother duck leading her ducklings. And we're sort of like standing there going, Oh, how delightful. How gorgeous. And then out of nowhere comes this. It might have been two little dogs, but I think we were just dealing with one little dog that just started going and was off-lead, going for the and the mother duck was very defensive. So the mother duck and I worked very hard. And I remember, I didn't kick the dog. I remember I kind of lifted it with my foot and threw it away. So I tucked my foot under the dog and kind of pushed it, flung it away, but not not hugely violently. And the poor woman, I did feel sorry for her in that. She was very distraught by what her fucking dog was doing or trying to do. But stupid woman didn't have it on the lead. And my memory is that there were signs saying that because of ducks.
LILY 01:39
Yeah, I remember that as well. And it was this gorgeous idyllic, like with the pond.
JENNY 01:44
Yeah it was so beautiful. And then it just got destroyed by this this fucking dog.
LILY 01:48
That's a very early memory.
JENNY 01:50
Then but then do you remember what happened next? So the woman gets her dog and takes it away. They leave the scene. But meanwhile, mother duck and ducklings have kind of scattered and started going down the street. Not a busy street, not a main street. But they started going away from the park and went into a house, a garden just like a few houses down. And I'm like, Oh no, she's all disoriented. It's terrible. So we or I went into the garden, managed to herd them back to the park and then off they went where they were heading, the lake or something. So you know, helped that you know?
LILY 02:30
Yes, community minded for human and duck needs [laughter]
JENNY 02:35
And animal needs. I wonder whether other people just wouldn't bother? Or I do wonder whether the universe brings these things to me
LILY 02:43
Super interesting. Because yeah, I feel like growing up you, I feel like you engage with the world a lot more than people do. You like, I think it is that noticing everything and just, you know, obviously growing up around St Kilda and like Fitzroy Street, there was always a lot of people that were like homeless or drug addicts or whatever. And you, I remember would engage, like if we were ever on a tram or walking down the street and there was that you know, weird person, that would start speaking to someone, they'd start speaking to you
JENNY 03:14
Yeah,
LILY 03:14
they'd always pick you.
JENNY 03:15
Yeah they pick me. And they still do [laughter]
LILY 03:18
And I remember when I was younger, as a kid, it would stress me out.
JENNY 03:22
You didn't like it. You didn't like me talking, you didn't want me to help. There was one old man who dropped his shopping as he was crossing the road. And so I kind of, his shopping bag broke or something like that. And I remember helping him with that and you saying, Mum, let's go you know, like, it just made you feel unsafe to be around.
LILY 03:40
It was, I don't know what it was, because it wasn't necessarily that but maybe I don't know, maybe like a lot of kids just don't even interact with that. And it's not until you're older and you feel more capable to actually be like, okay, everyone's human. I'm going to help but it was just something, it wasn't even necessarily about the people, it was just I don't know. It stressed me out I don't know why. I think I do, maybe, just more naturally as a person as well have that real like, don't get involved thing. I feel like we're all socially conditioned to have that and I feel like you kind of have less of. You do get involved. Like we were in Italy with that man and his girlfriend and you go up [laughter]
JENNY 04:18
Oh that's right. Having a domestic and he was just like really going at her, really shouting at her, and she was just sitting there. But they had friends around, no one was doing anything, and there were- people were at the bus stop waiting to catch the bus somewhere, and no one; there were people around, no one got in. So yeah, I crossed over and the only Italian I had was 'basta' which is 'enough'. Enough! Basta! Basta! And he kind of like just let loose a stream of Italian back at me basically, probably 'Fuck off!' you know? I remember _______ came across with me as backup.
LILY 04:55
He just kind of stood there in his stripy shirt [laughter] like his hands in his pockets He. was like-
JENNY 05:00
[Laughter] Yeah, but that was- I was glad he did that Yeah, like he was, he just acted, I acted. But I thought, yeah, this and nobody stepped in and it was quite a young guy. 18, 19? They had scooters.
LILY 05:03
Yeah it was good Yeah, yeah, I remember them being young. Oh, obviously older than me so I couldn't really judge but not-
JENNY 05:18
Yeah, it just didn't stop like he was going and going and going. And it was so public. And she was just head down. Frozen in the moment.
LILY 05:31
And it's interesting, because, like, you know, so much of like say in that situation, obviously, it was an abusive one. And like, if that's what's happening in public, God knows what's happening in private kind of thing. But like, so much of that gets normalised that like having someone come across and be like, That's not okay. And that's not normal, even though you know, it's just for a brief moment, hopefully, like, well, maybe helps people a little bit kind of, yeah, snap out of that space they're in a bit and be like, okay, that's not on. But yeah, so I do think that the world gives these things to you. But I also think you interact with the world in a way that's different to the majority people who do just kind of do the head down, blinkers on, not my problem. Keep on moving.
JENNY 06:19
Yeah, I remember once driving along in St Kilda East and I saw this man just standing on the corner and he had a stripy t-shirt. And kind of tracksuit pants. And he was a really big man. And he was sort of just standing there and his hands were up. And he was just sort of like, he was either about to, you know, be in distress or was in distress. But he sort of just still that the way his hands were up. And he was just sort of like staring like as if he was having an episode or something. So I parked the car. You weren't with me. I went back. And as I got close to him, I could see had his hands were really dirty, with like meat pie, like the inside of a meat pie. And it was sort of all spilled down his front and he had crumbs, you know, pastry crumbs on his hands. And he was holding his hands up like that. And I went up to him and I kind of held my hands out and I said, are you okay? Are you okay? And he grabbed both my wrists with his meat pie, smeared hands, right? And I said to him, are you alright? Like, I didn't panic. I said Are you okay? And he didn't say anything. And then I kind of just moved my hands and broke his hold. But it kind of was a moment of like, Oh, okay, so this could go wrong. And maybe you were in the back of the car. And I just said, Oh, I've got to, I'm gonna go now and just went back to my car and drove on. I think maybe someone else came up and I just left him. There was also someone, an old man that fell over or someone who was drunk fell over in St. Kilda, and I helped him out. You didn't like that. So there were two that I remember.
LILY 08:06
I think it's like often. I don't really, it just triggered in me that like not be able to anticipate behaviour, if that makes sense. Coming into my environment. I think particularly at that time, I was probably quite a stressy kid because of all the stuff so just
JENNY 08:26
You never seemed like a stressy kid.
LILY 08:28
No, I don't know. I think it just was very internalised but just like be like, oh. We're in our own safe little bubble and then that gets broken by interacting with this external person. And yeah, I don't know what they're gonna do or how they're going to be or what's going to happen.