Psychaesthetic Posted December 24, 2014 (edited) One of the things about spending a few days each fortnight in a backpackers, is you inadvertently end-up interacting with a rotating "populus". Every fortnight when I come up from the valley the faces have changed: like spamming the refresh button on people-you-live-with.com. This obviously has its pros and cons. An example of a 'pro' being that you always have fresh faces around, a 'con' would be the crazy woman in the room above yours that forgets she has meat cooking in a pan thus setting the smoke alarms off at midnight, causing an evacuation of the building, then returns to her room, where she spends the rest of the night giggling to herself like a psychiatric failure who won't take her meds. Yes indeed it takes all sorts, and they all pass through here. Most of the guests change from week-to-week because they're tourists who've come to the Blue Mountains to do touristy shit and go, but there are usually a small handful of residents who stay here for several weeks - sometimes months even - at a time. One such resident, a 75 year old Finnish man, has been here for around two months straight. He doesn't so much converse, as ramble. I'm sure we've all meet the kind: You'll start by asking them how their day went and within a few minutes they've got you wishing you had've just grunted at them and kept walking. Yes, listening to this old man dribble on aimlessly has taught me tolerance. Asking him a simple question will get you an hour of your time vampired away and a monolog about some mind-numbingly dull restaurant he visited in the seventies, how beer was 10c a glass in 1965, and once he starts talking about Gogh Whitlam you might as well just take a seat and let your mind drift off some place else for a while. Anyway, tonights story. There's this Possum I've been feeding the few days I'm here each time. I've spend a while blabbing with the old guy and am at the back door, about to step outside for a smoke when I see the aforementioned Marsupial perched on the railing just a few meters away. So I quietly take a step outside the door and this Possum runs over and sits at my feet like a cat who knows it's dinner-time, then grabs onto the bottom of my pants, sniffing around with his nose pointed up to see what I got for him. I turn to the old guy and press my finger to my lips, then ask him if there's any bread or crackers in on the fridge close by. He steps out to look at the Possum and the animal bolts: practically trips over itself to get away from him. I sigh. The same thing happened after he'd gone and brought back a slice of bread, which is the same thing that happened two weeks ago when I was here last: The Possum fucking hates him. A few weeks ago I took two German girls out to see said Possum and he was perfectly fine; they hand-fed him and he reached out to claw at their shirts - lucky Possum. Anyway this old man struck me as having a creepy "vibe" about him from the get-go - the first time I spoke to him. This passive-aggressive-angsty-albert-fish vibe, and although I don't mind killing time shooting the shit with anyone, the reaction he illicits from the Possum is very.. apparent. It's like the dog that gets along with everyone, who suddenly goes all-out ape-shit at one particular person when they enter room. So the question I suppose is, if you get a weird vibe from someone and an animal subsequently confirms it with such a bad reaction, is there any reason to further doubt that there's something suspicious about that persons character? Edited December 24, 2014 by Psychaesthetic Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Justin Credible Posted December 25, 2014 No doubt. In possums we trust! 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Psychaesthetic Posted December 25, 2014 Well it could be a dog, cat or Possum interchangeably of course, but mmmmm yes animals do haveva knack for that kinda thingm Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Rabelais Posted December 25, 2014 (edited) I think the fact that this guy is FInnish and that he won't shut up should have set off some alarm bells...their morose-like silence is why I love them. Not to generalise an entire nation...but you know what I'm say'n Edited December 25, 2014 by Rabelais 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Psychaesthetic Posted December 25, 2014 (edited) I didn't know they were a quiet lot. Certainly wouldn't think it talking to this old rambler. I've not known many Finnish folk though, so don't have much of a yardstick to go by. I just chalk the gabbing-on up to senility - him being 75 or so - and although I have to stop him sometimes, the old hand in the face, "Stop! Stop talking. I gotta go.", the dis-ease of the Possum pisses me off, since as soon as the animal gets sight of the old man, the Possum bolts and that's the end of that; he instantly scares the animal away. The first time if happened I just put it down to him being a noisy old fucker, but it's happened several times now. Every time he steps into the Possums view, the animal vanishes. Like I said the German chicks went out there with me; three people is a group, and we pretty much surrounded the Brushtail at only two feet away and he still reached out to grab at us, so it isn't like this creature is a jumpy animal. Hell, it's a 'town' Possum I'm sure is quite used to the sight of people. Yet this one old man just has to appear and the animal bolts. Edited December 25, 2014 by Psychaesthetic Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
incognito Posted December 27, 2014 Fins are mad! Well the ones I've lnown and worked with. Full of energy on the go all the time, up for anything, courageous kinda fold ime 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Psychaesthetic Posted December 28, 2014 (edited) I wondered if it might just be the senility that's often apparent that causes the Possum to react so badly. Most the human backpackers react in a similar manner of course; they'll stop to talk to him once, and thirty minutes layer you'll go back down and walk past and their faces look drained of color, as they don't get a chance to do anything but nod since the old man Never. Stops. Talking. They usually avoid him after this first introduction, but I learnt a while ago to just tell him to shuddup once he starts going into overtime. My tolerance is up to about a solid 20mins now though, and I figure I'll be that old one day, if I live that long; babbling to anyone about shit from the 1970s nobody gives two shits about, so I give him the courtesy of a daily chat most days I'm there. Edited December 28, 2014 by Psychaesthetic Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
