An afternoon alone in a pub – but not too alone with you and the others – as we all hold ourselves together, holding in our soft middles to hide our soft feelings.
CECILIA AT THE KITCHENS GARDEN
AUG 02, 2026
This was posted across the way in my substack pages. Pop over for more!
So I lost my Myki card. On the train. Topped up, nearly forty dollars on it, gone. The Myki is the card that gets you on the buses and trains and stuff. It must have fallen out when I pulled my phone from my coat pocket; a little gift for whoever finds it. You’re welcome. I felt like a right twit, losing that much travel money.
But once you arrive at a station, State Library station in this case, you need to scan the card to get back out, so I had to confess to the guard that I’d lost mine, stupidly, en route and she raised her eyebrows ever so slightly, huffing under her breath like I was obviously lying through my teeth, and lifting the barrier, waved me through against her better judgement.
So that was a good start to the day right?
I am taking it well because I am on my city day. I’m not sure why a day in the city is so fortifying for me: as though I have reached back to a more evolved version of myself and held hands.
Earlier I went to the library to write for a few hours until it got too cold in there then I walked briskly through the Melbourne winter crowds down to this inner city pub to do the edits. It is an odd little sequence – library to pub – but I like it. I feel all grown up writing with a glass of wine in the pub. Alone again but that’s ok. I was never much good in groups.
The Kitchen's Garden 