Commuter of the Year

I have a new job! Starting next week, same type of thing but in the city, which means I'll be saving about 2 hours a day travelling time. I'm trying not to think about that too much until I finish at the old place - I'll probably collapse otherwise. And I'll be getting more money. As we used to say, many moons ago, thank you big mother.

But it will be goodbye too. Goodbye to the long rubbish and crow filled streets of Auburn and Silverwater, to green spaces wedged between factories, fibro cottages and three-lane highways and car repair workshops in backyards where they buy two write-offs and araldite the undamaged halves together. Ta ta to cars, semi-trailers, cars, motorbikes, cars, cars, cars. Chao to anti-dumping ads in four languages, none effective, and the press of schoolkids on the platform in the morning. Will they ever finish the station upgrade? No more cheap prawns, spices and condiments, or smiles from the shopowners. Farewell to the Auburn RSL and Melton hotel, where I never did have a drink. See you later fellow commuters who will go on without me - the man with the now lump-less forehead. Bye bye pedestrian overpasses that feel like exhaust pipes, playing chicken on Parramatta Road, outlet stores, industrial takeaways. Goodbye Western Sydney, it has been ... it has been ... it was.