Sunday Keeps On Rolling

With some exceptional timing I’ve been staying back at my old flat in Carlton. Early last week Georgie moved into the building next door, and with a few weeks left on the lease she has kindly allowed Amy and I to camp in her old flat (the flat I lived in up until July when I left the country). The flat is in the greatest location in the city; two blocks north of the city centre, and a skip though the Carlton Gardens to all the hip and happening hang-outs in Fitzroy. The only downside is that being accustomed to the area when Amy and I do find a place we will no doubt be slightly deflated by it not being as convenient.

Traditionally, Sunday is the day I go visit my parents. Having sold my Daewoo before leaving the country in July, I now make my way there via public transport. So it’s back on the old Glen Waverley Line. It’s been 6 years since I’ve had to catch this line, but I still know every detail of it intimately. The line runs along the public school belt and is usually packed with Scotch, St. Kevin’s and De La Salle boys, Korowa and Sacré Coeur girls, and co-eds from Wesley and Caulfield Grammar. During the week this would be a most fearful experience for me. Although I am now 27 years old, in the presence of school kids I revert back to my 15 year-old self. The year 12 boys are all taunts and fists to me, while being 19 and a half before I first spoke to a girl, the school girls are entirely and frightening alien. Luckily for me, being a Sunday, the school kids weren’t around. Another benefit of it being Sunday was the “Sunday Super-Saver”. It’s only been in the last two weeks that I’ve discovered this ticket. For only two and half coins you can purchase a ticket that is valid all day Sunday in any zone! It is wonderful. A daily Zone 1 and 2 ticket is a hefty nine coin seventy. 6 days of the week one would only require a Zone 1 and 2 ticket to get to my parents place, however on a Sunday things are slightly askew.
Usually there are three buses that I could potentially take after arriving at Glen Waverley; the 754, 753 or the 850. However, on Sundays there is no service on either the 754 or 753, which only leaves the 850. I would usually shy away form the 850 as it goes into Zone 3, whilst the 753 and 754 buses remain in Zone 2 up until where I need to depart. This is where the Sunday Super-Saver truly proves its worth as it enables me to travel on the 850 without having to purchase another ticket. Unfortunately, on a Sunday, the 850 only runs once every hour (on the hour), and on this day the train I caught arrived at the station just a couple of minutes past the hour. Now you’d think with missing the 850 that I would be stranded, but there was one more option available. The 888 runs straight along Springvale Road from Nunawading to Chelsea. The bus is a pillar of the south-eastern suburbs public transport network. While the route may not have the fancy twists and turns of some of the other routes, it has a certain stoic distinction to its mandate. Rain, hail or shine the 888 will always be ploughing back and forth along Springvale Road. It is one of those reassuring constants that remind you that the world is in balance.
So rather than wait another hour for the next 850, I jumped the 888 to the Brandon Park Shopping Centre. This is still some distance from my parents place so you have to slip on your walking shoes and follow Brandon Park Drive up to Cootamundra, jut around into Farnham, skip through Lum Reserve and you’re up the top of my parents street – Phoenix Drive. It’s a good forty minute walk, but a pleasant one.