The Kindness of Strangers

"We all leave footprints in the sand. The question is, will we be a big heal, or a great soul..."

































... or simply a great big pain in the gluteus maximus (the most politically correct term I could think of).

While on vacation last month, M and P dragged me out from the city and drove all the way to the countryside.














So o'er hill and dale we's went like a bunch o' wannabe hillbillies from Down South.

Let's see hure, my redneck name be Daisy (Duke), by golly!
(very lame attempt at Redneck Lingo)














Fish Creek- founded in 1884. Stopping at Fish Creek was more like a shot in the dark. We hadn't even planned to go there. Never even been there before.















One of Fish Creek's landmarks: a building with a gargantuan fake fish right smack on the rooftop. Jeepin' gillickers, wally!



















The Fish Creek Memorial Hall (1930)

I could almost imagine how this place would've looked like back in those days when people just started moving into this quiet little town...













Source



















Noticeboard outside the memorial hall with notices put up by the folks of Fish Creek- fundraisers, community meetings, the likes...















Ever wondered how benches in Malaysian towns such as Menggatal and Batang Benar would look like? Let's skip the Malay-English translation in today's entry.















We walked around a li'l bit and suddenly had this odd feeling that everyone's hiding from us.













A possible replication of the Fish Creek from long ago.



















M loves art. She's got a whole house full of artworks. So M decided to go to this place called "Stefani Hilltop Gallery" while I was thinking, "Nooooo!!!! I always flunked art back in school!!!!"















When we arrived at this place, a cute little Labrador Retriever that's about my size suddenly appeared from out of nowhere. Cute...















Bianca runs this place. Walking into this gallery was like walking directly into Anne Shirley's house. I felt like an eleven-year-old all over again.

























All of Bianca's paintings are displayed in different rooms in the house. Very affordable too.

























Bianca's impressive collection of salt-and-pepper shakers.



















Before we left, Bianca asked if we would like to stay back for tea. This took us by surprise as we were not exactly accustomed to having strangers asking us "would you like to have some tea?", especially when we had not even decided to buy anything from her. And especially when she had so kindly offered to give me one of her paintings...

My "Weird Asian Girl" mind was going, "WTH! She doesn't even know me and she's now giving me one of her paintings?! Does she have any idea what kinda psycho I can be like at times?"


Her friendly demeanour totally reminded me of someone I knew when I was a little kid...



Dear Mrs. Potts





















Bianca's Labrador Retriever. This was how Rusty looked like as we were about to leave.















Bianca's peacocks. There were three of them but only two wanted to be in the picture.















That's dear Bianca Stefani bidding us farewell. Someone worth writing about. Someone worth remembering.

The next time you end up at this place called Fish Creek (Victoria), here's one place you should visit. This was one of those places that had been spared from the Australian bushfire that happened earlier this year.

"I have always depended on the kindness of strangers" (the last line from Tennessee William's "A Streetcar Named Desire")- movie clip as shown below.

Not sure what you're thinking, but it’s probably a Generation-Y thing for most of us to get all grossed out over anything that happened before the 1980s.

Boy howdy, what a rootin', tootin', hootin', hollerin', grandma humpin' time that was! I can't wait til next time! Yeehaw!