When Happiness Is Catchy...

I had another strange but not unpleasant experience this morning.

I had taken an earlier train in to the city because I wanted to go to Priceline in Hindley street before work. It's close by and they open at 8am...

I got there about 7.55am so I was waiting on the corner for them to open, when I noticed a kind of straggly looking woman, trying to take a photo of herself with the statue that's just outside the store.
The statue is of Roy "Mo" Rene... an Australian comedian from about 80 years ago.

She had a few teeth missing but she was happy enough and talked to whoever was walking by, even if they didn't talk back and just kept walking...

She took photo after photo but kept lamenting her failures out loud "oh it's too close", "I'm not on the picture", "that photo is all head!" etc etc.

I found her strangely endearing.
Maybe it was her happy demeaner.. I don't know.. but I inched closer and it wasn't long before she looked up and smiled at me.
I asked her if she wanted me to take the photo for her and she grinned like a little girl.

As I got closer I smelt a strong smell of alcohol and at 7.55am in the morning, that's a pretty good effort! But she was so happy you couldn't help but want some of that happiness too!

So I took her phone and snapped a picture of her kissing the statue. I almost asked if she could text it to me so I could remember the occassion too...

She hugged me and thanked me then told me she was sending the photo to her nan in Sydney. She was going to tell her nan that she met her ideal man and this just cracked her up. She also told me that she needed a man like this now as her husband was dead. It was just blurted out bluntly like that.

She hugged me again and gave me a kiss on the cheek, wished me a happy easter (for 2012?) and hugged me for a third time.

And then Priceline opened and she was off and suddenly the day didn't seem so bad after all...