SATURDAY BREAKFAST #16: HIGHETT ROAD, HIGHETT

Visited 14 January, 2012

At today’s destination, Highett Road, Highett, we saw at work the corrupting influence of power.  We chose a couple of bits at the OzChild opp shop and took them to the counter.   Our subsequent banter with the two volunteers was shaped by their freely-expressed complaints about “that Tuesday woman”.  One of the Tuesday volunteers had “taken charge”.  She had gradually increased prices; she had re-arranged the fittings, including switching back portable racks that had been re-located by other staff for customer safety; she had ditched perfectly good goods with the comment that “we don’t want to handle that stuff any more” – instance cutlery, all gone.  Bed linen now has to be wrapped in cellophane and sealed, meaning customers won’t buy because they can’t inspect.  She now works alone on Tuesdays because no other team member will work with her – and she has the ear of the absentee manager, who has been convinced that all her ideas are spot on.  The damage that the self-assumed power of one person has caused to the demeanour and enthusiasm of the two Saturday volunteers was palpable; and, by their account, the former harmony of the place has been quite destroyed. 

The story of the opp shop experience caused me to remember Lord Acton’s adage that “power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely”.  Not that the opp shop situation is quite that dire, but it’s certainly an example of power corrupting. 

Then I got to thinking about adages generally.  We call them adages, or maxims, or pithy sayings, or aphorisms, or proverbs – although “proverb”, because of its Biblical connotation, occupies more profound ground than the others.  Who, educated in the State of Victoria public schools system, has ever forgotten the three proverbs reproduced in the Victorian Readers Second Book?  Well I have, actually!  Reference to my boxed set has reminded me that there were three proverbs in the Second Book, and three proverbs in the Third Book.  There’s a curious doubling up though, with Waste not, want not and A stitch in time saves nine appearing in both the Second Book and the Third Book.  The third proverb in the set is different, respectively Set a stout heart to a steep hill and Little brooks make great rivers.  These latter two have me flummoxed.   I don’t recall them from schooldays – but I do remember A rolling stone gathers no moss.  The answer may be that the boxed set comprises facsimiles of the 1930 first editions, and that by the time I was at school in the 1940s the more obscure proverbs had been swapped for ones more attuned to the kids of the day.

I am not alone in my liking for maxims,  and somewhere I have a lifetime collection of clever sayings, buried no doubt under a pile of “to be sorted” post-retirement stuff.  When the moment of re-discovery comes I shall have the dilemma of what to do with them anyway.  Anybody with an interest in pithy sayings can access hundreds of them through Google, so my collection can at best be described as a personal compilation, albeit incomplete.

The thing about proverbs and such is that while they always sound clever and seem to be stating an obvious truth, their truth is rarely an invariable truth.   Closer examination shows that many proverbs are of dubious veracity.  Also, many are meant to be “clever” rather than a universal truth; but where’s the harm?

Most railway stations in metropolitan Melbourne have a cluster of shops nearby.  There’s a sort of either/or rule.  Either the shopping strip is in a street running parallel to the line, or – where a major thoroughfare crosses the railway line close to the station – the commercial focus is in the bisecting street.  Highett, where Highett Road runs at right angles near to the station, has a bit of both, although the shops running along the railway line are few in number, and doubtless find it hard to compete.  One cluttered bric-a-brac establishment deserves to succeed for its name alone: Buy it in Highett. 

In Highett Road there’s the usual assortment of businesses, and a small paved square featuring a free-standing public library, a branch of the City of Kingston municipal library.  It is set back from the street line, with architecture of indeterminate parentage.   Nine out of ten for convenience, but only two out of ten for charm.

 At one end of the shopping strip a huge re-development is under way.  The site is more than a hectare, and will be occupied by a Woolworths supermarket with parking for 460 vehicles, plus 125 residential units.  A major transformation is in progress, not only of Highett Road, but also of the surrounding region.  Some existing local businesses will thrive as a consequence; others will perish.  The two butchers are already competitive, with their Saturday sausages being barbecued in the street – thus far they have survived each other, but will they survive the attraction of one-stop shopping?   I must say the smell of cooking sausages, accompanied by the waft of fried onions, almost deflected us from our mission to find a sit-down breakfast venue.

I wonder whether the coffee shop cafes will survive.  Surely they can’t; or they all can’t - because there will be eating places in the Woolworths complex.  However, there’s hope for the main street businesses if enough of the new trade that Woolworths brings to the area spills into Highett Road.  What’s amazing is that there are already so many breakfast cafes.  The strip is no more than 200 metres, and there must be six or seven of them.  Sure you expect such density in Lygon Street Carlton, or Puckle Street Moonee Ponds, or Toorak Road South Yarra – but Highett Road Highett?  And they were busy!  And each one had its menu pasted in the window.  Brilliant!

We selected a café with Bircher muesli on offer, number 519.  It had no name on its frontage, instead signage about the free trade coffee to be found inside.  There were chalk-board notices promoting “5 senses coffee”.  It’s an attractive thought that their coffee appeals to your sight, hearing, and touch as well as to your taste and smell.  The house coffee is a blend of free trade coffee sourced through the “Rain Forest Alliance”, from Nicaragua, Columbia, Bali and Papua-New Guinea. 

We asked, and were told that the name of the business is F.I.G. tree Espresso-Café.  But the Asian lady, who seemed to be the proprietor (and whom I presumed to be Chinese), advised that a name change was in process, and that the place is soon to be named Monkey Can Fly.  Such an odd name; and my thoughts went to the fictional character, Monkey.  The ensuing conversation was lost on the lady, although the barista happily included himself as we tried to recall the characters:  Monkey, Pigsy, Sandy, Horse and Tripitaka – all fondly remembered from the 1978 Japanese television series.   Not well known to most watchers at the time is that the series was based on the 16^th century book by the Chinese writer Wu Ch’eng’en, the book named Journey to the West, the story of the pilgrimage to India of a Buddhist monk (Tripitaka).    The book was a great read during my university days, and my copy is of the Arthur Waley translation.   This is one of the few Penguins with a yellow cover, and its 50 years on my shelf has turned the pages yellow as well.  I see that it was given to me by my friend Colin Doxford (claimed in his fifties by the booze and various weeds), with the inscription: “If you have it, change it at Cheshires.  If not, a merry read along with the Chinese.”   It was a merry read, indeed.

I’m still wondering about the choice of the name Monkey Can Fly for the coffee shop.  The muesli was delicious, by the way, with lots of almonds and macadamias and topped with shredded green apple.  The oatmeal had been soaked in something other than the usual apple juice, not sure what.  And the free trade coffee was very smooth.

I have found my missing file (I hear groans), and I’m able to round out this piece with a list of some of my favourite modern-day proverbs.   I call these ones proverbs because most of them contain a somewhat serious message, they’re not just cute.  But there are so many from which to choose.  In the world of tennis, tournament organizers used to nominate the 10 top seeded players.  Now 10 is no longer enough, and in the Australian Open starting this week we are told there are 32 seeds, indeed 32 seeds in the women’s draw and 32 seeds in the men’s draw.  Given the tournament limit of 128 players this means that 25% are seeded.  Since the seedings are based on international rankings compiled elsewhere it wouldn’t be hard to limit the lists to 10 only as once was the case; but because of the random ballot for the remaining contestants this could result in too many of the unseeded but high-ranking players meeting each other in early rounds, thus rendering the tournament less climactic, and rendering the gate receipts less robust.

Taking my lead from the Australian Open, I give you 32:

·         You can get to the ends of the Earth on a lie, but you cannot return.

·         If you believe you can do something, you are probably right.  If you believe you can’t do something, you are probably right.

·         The cheerful loser is a winner.

·         We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children.

·         No one ever hurt their eyesight looking on the bright side of life.

·         You are young only once, but you can stay immature indefinitely.

·         It’s not the fairest face that has the sweetest disposition.

·         Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups.

·         Live every day as though it’s your last.  One day you’ll be right!

·         The secret of happiness is not in doing what one likes, but in liking what one does.

·         People forget how fast you did a job, but they remember how well you did it.

·         Do not look where you fell, but where you slipped.

·         Words that soar into the brain are not shouted, they are whispered.

·         Most of the stuff people worry about isn’t going to happen anyway.

·         If you find yourself in a hole, the first thing to do is stop digging.

·         The definition of insanity is doing the same thing and expecting a different result.

·         It is not enough to have an aim in life.  You have to pull the trigger.

·         You never get a second chance to make a first impression.

·         A closed mouth gathers no feet.

·         When you hire people who are smarter than you are you may well be smarter than they are.

·         Great minds discuss ideas.  Average minds discuss events.  Small minds discuss people.

·         The only time you realize you have a reputation is when you fail to live up to it.

·         A person without imagination is a person without wings.

·         The secret to success without hard work………is still a secret.

·         Life is simpler when you plough around the stump.

·         A “no” uttered from deepest conviction is greater than a “yes” merely uttered to please.

·         No-one tests the depth of a pool with both feet.

·         There is no natural defence – except stupidity – against the power of a new idea.

·         The best exercise is to lean over backwards for someone else.

·         We are continually faced with great opportunities brilliantly disguised as insoluble problems.

And on a lighter note –

·         If you come to a fork in the road, take it.

·         If you look like your passport photograph you probably need the trip.

Gary Andrews