I Hate Mirrors

And so it was about this time one year ago that I made plans to meet Aaron at Nike on Swanston Street. I was bestowed the task of delivering 2 gran of Aussie Dollars (from his mom) and some stationery (from his girlfriend's sister to his girlfriend). Aaron and Liz were both two weeks new to Melbourne University and were settling into Australian student life .

Aaron and I have coffee. I had a Muggachino (pronounced: "mahg-uh-chino" not "moo-gah-chino" I learnt from the person at the counter after my embarassing pronunciation).

Swanston Street is like the Bintang Walk of Melbourne - minus blue-VCD peddlars, pick-pockets, and massage parlours. Here's where you'd go to to get entertained. The baskers really have their stuff together. Outside Nike Melbourne, a bearded middle-aged man plays a mean set of drums made out of tin cans. The other can is used for money collection. He stares at me while I snap him in action. (I think he was waiting to see how much I'd flip into the can).

I don't think he was happy.

Further upstreet, an aboriginal man blew his didgeridoo which was amplified via a series of guitar enhancement pedals. The sounds were phenomenal. If you don't know what a didg sounds like, try flinging stones at a hornett's nest and listen patiently to the pissed off hornets buzzing in unison. That's the sound a didgeridoo produces. My dad used to say that the aboriginies played it to summon the spirits. The only spirit summoned on Swanston was mine.

Aaron and I met Liz at Nike later in the afternoon. Liz hadn't grown much since her first two weeks there. We walk around the streets and end up in a departmental store shopping for pillows. I think Australian pillows help you sleep better.

The shopping complex we went to had mirrors all over. I hate looking at myself in public mirrors. And so on the escalator I blurt out, "I really hate looking at myself in mirrors in public".We start exchanging opinions about it as we get off the escalator and enter the lift. Still on the same topic, a salesperson wheels in a life-sized mirror which occupies all of our space. And it just had to be facing me. "Sorry, mate" he says. The three of us burst into laughter as if it was all a well-planned prank on Candid Camera. What a coincidence! And I so remained plagued by my own reflection the whole elevator ride.

...

Mirrors are good to look at in private. In public areas, mirrors are installed to:

1. Create an optical illusion so that the place looks bigger, when it actually isn't.

2. Reduce frustration in customers awaiting service. Since people are concious of themselves, the mirror diverts their attention off the time factor. Also the same reason why TVs are installed in government offices, etc.

...

I still hate public mirrors.

Comments

Anonymous said…
know the kind that they put on the underside of escalators? Try riding an escalator while watching your reflection in the one above you. It's a fun challenge to try to step off at the end without looking down...if you don't fall off and die.

shi-hsia
mike said…
I don't like mirrors. AT ALL.

Popular Posts