I left home with no expectations and no destination. I started to randomly walk along Albion Street towards East, where the sunrises every time it does. While walking, I had the idea of drawing a square on the map along my trip.

^{It looks more like a rectangle, doesn’t it?}

I imagined my trip could consist of walking from West to East on Albion Street and East to West on Park Street. Then I thought I would catch either route 1 or 6 tram for my North to South track and route 19 for my South to North. I thought this while I kept walking until I got to the Northeast corner of my quadrilateral. The tram was waiting on that corner and I had to run to catch it. I thanked the driver for waiting a bit longer and for opening the doors for me. I decided to spend my time on the tram reading.  

^{Tram 1 or 6 waiting on NE corner of my travels}

“The Mayan twilight” was the name of the story I started reading on the Kindle app on my phone. I got so involved with the many characters and timelines that I lost track of my journey and missed my intended tram stop. Standing on the new South-East corner I started walking along Pigdon Street towards the West, where the sunsets every time it does. 

^{South-East corner of my travels}

The street was lovely, full of houses with front gardens that homed the colours that only early spring can bring. Colours that make you close your eyes longer than the usual blink to smell them. Being able to smell colours brings you hope. Pigdon street ends in Princes Park where heaps of dogs play with each other. You can’t hear it but you can tell they’re laughing out loud.

I was lucky enough to find tram 19 waiting at the exact time that  I arrived at the third corner of my square. After pressing the ‘open’ button several times I looked at the rearview mirror of my ride to catch the mask-less driver’s gaze while exclaiming “come on!”. A lady behind a flowered mask inside the tram was about to push the button from the inside when the doors opened just before she pushed it. I thanked her anyway, with a smile behind my mask and sat to continue to read my story.  I was more familiar with the South to North side of my journey to recognise every stop by looking sideways while continuing to read. 

^{Sydney Road from Tram 19}

Looking up I made eye contact with a girl whose forlorn smile behind the mask made me think about what my COVID hairstyle looked like. At one of our stops, a homeless guy with two Coles, three Woolies bags and a fishing rod, arrived slightly too late to get on the tram, he was just as disappointed as his tardiness. The woman sitting across the aisle from me had as many plastic bags but instead of a rod, she had a white feathered hat. She said something about or to the homeless guy, I couldn’t tell.

I kept reading my story and knew exactly where the Northwest and last corner of my trip was. The woman who was sitting across from me got off the tram at the same time as me, so did an old lady with white hair wearing an olive green coat, a white skirt and brown shoes. I crossed the street and walked back home along the west-to-east line of my square trip. I liked it. It was common, it was normal, it was lockdown.