As is my habit I went to the market yesterday. I go most Saturdays; it sort of makes the weekend different to every other day, now I'm retired. Lib came with me, she wanted to go to the chemist to get some medication, so I dropped her off in the main street and we agreed to meet later at the market. I had a few things to buy in Woolworths and the health food shop, so I parked in the Woolworth's car park, did my purchasing there, then walked across the road to the market.
It's a small market, not a lot of stalls, but each week I usually buy a bar of coffee chocolate from Kate the chocolate lady, a tub of eggplant dip and/or cheese and spinach rolls from the Greek ladies, and a jar of Kimchi when the Kimchi Club is there once a month. other times I might buy a jar of honey when he's there, or a plant or two, maybe a few vegies. It's fun. As a regular the people know me and greet me warmly.
I went straight to Kate as there were no other customers there. She saw me coming and picked up my coffee bar ready for me. We exchanged pleasantries. I said I was looking for Lib, we were to meet, she should have been there by then. "Have you seen her?"
"I have met your wife but I'm not sure I'd recognize her, what's she wearing?" she said, as she looked around.
"I can't remember, maybe red cardigan. I dropped her at the chemist in Ocean St. She tends to go walk about."
"Tell me about it," she said. "Marriage is like that. I've been married four times".
This surprised me. I've been buying chocolate from Kate at the market for over twelve months. I've met her husband Charlie and a daughter. It would never have occurred to me she'd had three previous marriages. There were no customers approaching, so I stood wondering where Lib got to and asked Kate was it her or the husband that made her marriages not last, tongue in cheek, adding that I didn't want to be intrusive. She laughed. I'd say she'd be in her forties, maybe near fifty.
She said she didn't mind talking about it and proceeded to give a rundown of her history, in the space of a couple of minutes. She bought an apartment when she was 18, after starting work young. Her parents wouldn't let her move into the apartment with her boyfriend as she wasn't married. So, she married him. Never should have, it didn't last one year, they were too young. A couple of years later she married again. He pulled a gun on a policeman and got six years jail, but the marriage was already falling apart. This was in England where she grew up. She migrated to Australia and married an Aussie. He turned out to be an alcoholic and violent. She had him locked up and divorced him. She has been married to Charlie only a couple of years and got into the chocolate making through him. I asked her what she worked in before chocolate and she said for most of her life she worked for oil companies, that's why she came to Australia. She was a business development officer for Exon Mobil after previously working for Total.
"That would have been a male dominated industry," was my comment.
"Was it ever. The last place I worked my boss was a Greek guy. He'd yell at me every day and just about bring me to tears. But I could take it. I was unmercifully bullied as a kid at school, so it was not something new to me. I knew I could take it. The boss did too, so he vented on me."
In answer to my question as to why she was bullied at school, she was telling me how her parents were much older than the other kids', and she was extremely shy and introverted, which made her a target, when Lib turned up saying I was a terrible chatterbox and apologized to Kate for me. We left Kate and went over to Minky who sells the Kimchi. Lib said she'd already explained to Minky that she'd the other day bought a big bottle of Kimchi at the supermarket, so we didn't need any. Minky is a lovely Korean lady I enjoy seeing when she comes once a month. With Lib in a hurry to get home and get the food ready for our grand final lunch we left quickly, I even forgot to go to the Greek ladies stall to get my eggplant and garlic dip. Oh well, looks like peanut butter or cheese on my Vitawheat biscuits this week.
The Cats were so good in the granny, a masterful performance. Can't say I'm sorry to see Lance Franklin get his arse kicked.
