Almanac Life – #hourlydaily scenes of life: 3-9 July 2019

Towards the end of April I started a daily practice prompted by Ricky Gervais’ Netflix series “Afterlife.” It was also prompted by a great example of small talk with a supermarket check-out attendant one unremarkable Tuesday morning.

 

I wondered about daily minutiae. Wondered about the value of small daily interactions in a time of growing social isolation; interactions when collecting the milk, commuting to school, to work, walking in the park. Mis-steps in conversation I find fascinating, too. Communication such an enormous part of daily life. So, I decided to collect small snatches of overheard conversation and post one each day.

 

My aim was to record one piece of dialogue each day. And to post such a piece alongside an image. Yesterday (9 July) was Day 71-in-a-row. I have used the hashtag #hourlydaily, after the suburban ordinariness of the idea, after the suburban importance of the interactions and after the cracking “You Am I” Album of that name “Hourly Daily” from 1996; an album full of songs that shone a light on these very things.

 

Below are #hourlydaily conversations from the past seven days.

 

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Tu 9 July, 2019

 

Calling past; dinner time.
-How’s work?
-Oh mate. This school holiday program… Kids everywhere. I’m exhausted.
-I expect they’re all very well behaved…
-Ha! Angels, the lot of them.

 

190709

 

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Mo 8 July, 2019

 

Tradesmen arrive at construction site.
-Great. And where is the sealant?
-Don’t YOU have sealant?
-Ahh, mate. Your message… I thought YOU would bring the sealant.
(Both look at their watches).

 

 

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Su 7 July, 2019

 

Uni students meet unexpectedly.
-Hey man.
-Hey.
-Did you get your exam results?
-Yeah. For Maths.
(Silence)
-Not pretty.

 

 

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Sa 6 July, 2019

 

One end of a phone conversation.
-Yeah.
-Yeah that’s it.
-Oh yeah… where’s that?
-Oh ok.
-Yeah right.
-Yeeeaaahh.
-Of course.
-Yeah that makes sense.
-Yeah.
-Yeah that’s what I mean; yeah that’s the thing.
-Haha; that’s it!
-Now I know.

 

 

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Fr 5 July, 2019

 

Woman, public open space.
-…My dentist told me I’m in the top 10% for oral hygiene.

 

 

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Th 4 July, 2019

 

On the streets of the big city.
-They are beautiful flowers.
-Yes. I bought them for my wife. They are not much, really.

 

 

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We 3 July, 2019

 

Bookshop; two men.
-Here’s the self-help section.
-Look! 50% off!

 

 

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About David Wilson

David Wilson is a hydrologist, climate reporter and writer of fiction & observational stories. He writes under the name “E.regnans” at The Footy Almanac and has stories in several books. One of his stories was judged as a finalist in the Tasmanian Writers’ Prize 2021. He shares the care of two daughters and likes to walk around feeling generally amazed. Favourite tree: Eucalyptus regnans.

Comments

  1. Tuesday night, 7.30pm. Two blokes in high-vis gear still at the bar.

    “I had to have another one of those conversations with Numb Nuts today.”
    “Another one!”
    “The prick doesn’t know the difference between area and volume.”

  2. John Butler says

    Tuesday morning, around 11.30am. In a Ballarat bookshop.

    Customer at counter shares his big secret – a letter from Buckingham Palace (framed)

    “The secretary always signs any correspondence, so the fact there’s no signature here proves I’m related to the Queen”.

  3. My office. Conversation with Tax Office official, Tuesday 9th July:

    ATO person – “what you have to do is…………………”
    Me – “why don’t you help people anymore?”
    ATO person – “what?”
    Me – “Everything that you once did that was helpful, you’ve now stopped. Why?”
    ATO person – “Anyway what you have to do is……………….”

  4. I’m in Melbourne for a literacy conference and the workshop I’m most anticipating is on wonder in text. Reckon it might connect to your ongoing challenge Er. Great idea and I always enjoy each day’s found text that you share.

  5. Man on the phone
    “You don’t say”.
    “You don’t say”.
    “You don’t say”.
    Wife inquires, “Who was that”?
    “He didn’t say”.

  6. Dips.

    Bear.
    Poke?

    JTH

  7. In front bar of Fitzroy’s Napier Hotel two women are talking of travel and trees- “It was beautiful and under it was just like a room.”

  8. ER. Good topic. A writer must be an eavesdropper. Sadly, while increasing in acreage, my ears are losing their once sharp, intrusive edge. Best I’ve heard lately was a trio of teenagers walking past me on the beach at Lorne. One boldly announced, “Dude, if someone doesn’t like you because of your back hair they’re not worth it.”
    And they say youths are vacuous these days.

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