Non-photo #1

A common Canberra bus shelter is a cylinder for concrete with a large opening (about one third of the cylinder) as an entrance and a hole in one side as a window (so you can see oncoming buses). The roof is flat, solid and generally grimy and slimy with algae (I’m sure following a nuclear armageddon the only survivors would be algae and the cockroaches that eat it). The roof bus shelter has to be at lest 3 metres (9-10 feet) off the ground.

This particular bus shelter is on a well-trafficked road (Constitution Ave in Reid if anyone is local). It sits underneath a collection of dead-looking trees as it’s winter and all the leaves dropped months ago. It also sits outside a tech college.

One tree stands directly above the shelter, its lifeless branches forming a substantial fork about 2 metres or so (6-7 feet) above the roof of the shelter. Firmly nestled in the cold embrace of the barren fork rests a shopping trolley, empty and alone.

The sheer effort and ingenuity to haul a shopping trolley 3 metres off the ground, and then wedge it into fork of a tree that is at least another 2 metres off the ground, all the while standing on a filthy and dangerously slippery and slimy surface, simply astounds me. I hope it was worth it.

Unfortunately, I didn’t have a camera on me when I saw this slice of human endeavour while staring out the window during my morning bus commute. Some things just need to be acknowledged or recognised whichever way you can.