Being a father for an hour
I met up with Ele at lunch today to sign her new baby's passport application for her. We met at the department store next to me, and I wasn't sure if she just wanted me to sign and piss off or if she wanted to hang for a bit. We ended up going inside, and it was then that I had my first father experience.
The pram couldn't go up the stairs, so we had to wait for the disabled platform thing to lower and raise the pram up. This was like...so different to me just walking into a store and doing whatever the hell I wanted.
We went up to the children's toys level where she sat down and I signed the paper work on the pram, with her holding the baby Alyssa. We then went to a cafeteria a few floors down, and again the 'father' experience occurred. Because of the pram, we couldn't just take any lift. We needed one with enough room for the pram, which was difficult because almost every single one had a woman with a pram.
At the cafeteria, shortly after sitting down she had to go feed the baby, so I sat there for the next 15 minutes playing on my phone. When she returned, we talked about random stuff, but then she focused on property buying. I even took some photos with the baby.
She said she wanted to go to the post office and asked me where it was. She asked me if I had time to take her, and even though I didn't really, I said yes as I felt a bit sorry for her having to push a pram all by herself through the city. I seriously don't know how mothers do it.
I took her to the post office and thought about just dumping her there, but ended up staying. She thought she had to post the application but turned out she could just submit it there, which took a while. All this time I was swaying the pram back and forth for the baby and trying to entertain it by making funny faces. I wonder if people thought I was the father, or did I seem too distant?
The baby did a poo and then Ele said she had to take it to the bathroom to change the nappies, so walked her back to the shopping centre where we parted. So, that was my hour and a bit of being a father. I kinda liked it.
After work I went to the casino. Plan was to win $200 and go. I walked around not seeing the ideal table, and then chose one facing the entrance as there was one guy playing. The dealer was an Australian girl called Bella. I recall talking to her when she first started working there, but I wasn't in a mood to strike a conversation. Just when I started, I noticed Summer had left her table, and figured she would be at my table next. I was right.
She greeted me when she came back from her break. I joked with Bella for one more spin, and then said "nah I was joking" and they both laughed. I did talk with Summer for a bit, about the protests in HK, and she suggested I look for accommodation using the site BNB.
Also found out she was 30. We talked about going to the Hunter Valley before, so I told her I was going there later this month. She said she just came back from there. After asking her what was there to do up there, I decided to be a bit brave and find out if she had a boyfriend. Not that I was too interested in her, but we did seem to have a bit in common and I wondered if her laughing at all my jokes was a sign.
So I asked if she went with a group of friends. I detected a bit of hesitation, and she was like "actually I went with my boyfriend".
AHA!
Through my careful elicitation questions, I had found out. I never really had a crush on her, but she did seem to be the next most attractive one apart from Julie, so I barely reacted and acted like it was nothing and continued talking to her. After a bit, the floor supervisor came over and asked her "are you alright? You alright?" which I took to mean "stop talking and spin the fucking wheel". I asked if I was getting her into trouble and she said no, and genuinely didn't seem to mind. What an asshole.
In terms of gambling, I was slowly bleeding chips. I hung around for an extremely long time, going through her, a dealer called David, then the tall good looking guy called Conrad, and then a blonde lady I had never seen before. I was trying to see her name badge but I think she thought I was looking at her breasts. By now I had dwindled down to my last chips. I was only ever up $20 in my entire session.
With $400 left, I had resigned to the fact that today was not my day. I kept telling myself to cut my losses and leave. I thought about Julie. I ended up losing another $200 before leaving with $200. That was an improvement, right? Normally I would've lost it all.
When David was dealing, a guy who always plays tiers came over and tried to smash it. He said something about having lost $10,000 upstairs, after being up $5,000. He also said something like "if you hit my numbers, I know where you guys drink". I immediately pictured Julie going to a pub with her work mates, and wondered if anyone would try to hit on her. I wondered if she treated me as a customer or something more. Would her colleagues talk dismissively about gamblers? If so, would she think I was different?
The pram couldn't go up the stairs, so we had to wait for the disabled platform thing to lower and raise the pram up. This was like...so different to me just walking into a store and doing whatever the hell I wanted.
We went up to the children's toys level where she sat down and I signed the paper work on the pram, with her holding the baby Alyssa. We then went to a cafeteria a few floors down, and again the 'father' experience occurred. Because of the pram, we couldn't just take any lift. We needed one with enough room for the pram, which was difficult because almost every single one had a woman with a pram.
At the cafeteria, shortly after sitting down she had to go feed the baby, so I sat there for the next 15 minutes playing on my phone. When she returned, we talked about random stuff, but then she focused on property buying. I even took some photos with the baby.
She said she wanted to go to the post office and asked me where it was. She asked me if I had time to take her, and even though I didn't really, I said yes as I felt a bit sorry for her having to push a pram all by herself through the city. I seriously don't know how mothers do it.
I took her to the post office and thought about just dumping her there, but ended up staying. She thought she had to post the application but turned out she could just submit it there, which took a while. All this time I was swaying the pram back and forth for the baby and trying to entertain it by making funny faces. I wonder if people thought I was the father, or did I seem too distant?
The baby did a poo and then Ele said she had to take it to the bathroom to change the nappies, so walked her back to the shopping centre where we parted. So, that was my hour and a bit of being a father. I kinda liked it.
After work I went to the casino. Plan was to win $200 and go. I walked around not seeing the ideal table, and then chose one facing the entrance as there was one guy playing. The dealer was an Australian girl called Bella. I recall talking to her when she first started working there, but I wasn't in a mood to strike a conversation. Just when I started, I noticed Summer had left her table, and figured she would be at my table next. I was right.
She greeted me when she came back from her break. I joked with Bella for one more spin, and then said "nah I was joking" and they both laughed. I did talk with Summer for a bit, about the protests in HK, and she suggested I look for accommodation using the site BNB.
Also found out she was 30. We talked about going to the Hunter Valley before, so I told her I was going there later this month. She said she just came back from there. After asking her what was there to do up there, I decided to be a bit brave and find out if she had a boyfriend. Not that I was too interested in her, but we did seem to have a bit in common and I wondered if her laughing at all my jokes was a sign.
So I asked if she went with a group of friends. I detected a bit of hesitation, and she was like "actually I went with my boyfriend".
AHA!
Through my careful elicitation questions, I had found out. I never really had a crush on her, but she did seem to be the next most attractive one apart from Julie, so I barely reacted and acted like it was nothing and continued talking to her. After a bit, the floor supervisor came over and asked her "are you alright? You alright?" which I took to mean "stop talking and spin the fucking wheel". I asked if I was getting her into trouble and she said no, and genuinely didn't seem to mind. What an asshole.
In terms of gambling, I was slowly bleeding chips. I hung around for an extremely long time, going through her, a dealer called David, then the tall good looking guy called Conrad, and then a blonde lady I had never seen before. I was trying to see her name badge but I think she thought I was looking at her breasts. By now I had dwindled down to my last chips. I was only ever up $20 in my entire session.
With $400 left, I had resigned to the fact that today was not my day. I kept telling myself to cut my losses and leave. I thought about Julie. I ended up losing another $200 before leaving with $200. That was an improvement, right? Normally I would've lost it all.
When David was dealing, a guy who always plays tiers came over and tried to smash it. He said something about having lost $10,000 upstairs, after being up $5,000. He also said something like "if you hit my numbers, I know where you guys drink". I immediately pictured Julie going to a pub with her work mates, and wondered if anyone would try to hit on her. I wondered if she treated me as a customer or something more. Would her colleagues talk dismissively about gamblers? If so, would she think I was different?
posted by toey | 21:34
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