opinios

Balancing Things Out

Ok, here's a story to provide a bit of balance for any of our dear American readers who I might have offended with my previous post.

I've blogged before about our neighbours when we were living in Tokyo. By day they would smile and be friendly, but in the evening (usually if they were hitting the sake) they would get extremely loud and abusive. Those thin wooden walls aren't terribly sound-proof, and we were subjected to the more than a few domestic screaming matches.

Well, yesterday in our Melbourne apartment I was starting to wonder whether our volatile couple had been reincarnated as a couple of Aussie thugs living upstairs. It was around 3pm that a string of loud abuse carried down the stairs and through our walls. I was getting a bit worried, because this time it was in English and I could actually understand what they were saying.

And it wasn't pretty.

Oh my god you are a fucking joke! You are pathetic! Pathetic!!You useless prick! Get the fuck out of here!

The door slammed and I pricked my ears for a sign that the shouting might deteriorate into something worse. Feeling somewhat voyeuristic, I glued my eye to the security hole of our front door for a glimpse of the action. It was then that two tall men in colourful scarves hurried angrily past my door and headed outside, throwing their hands up in disgust. I only managed to catch one word from them, but it was enough to clear everything up.

"Bloody umpires!"

Yes, that's right. The two had been watching a game of Aussie Rules football on television. Didn't I feel stupid. I'd forgotten just how sports-obsessed this city is.