At tafe at the moment we’re doing Deaf History Studies. The topic was the Ottoman Empire, which I knew nothing about, so it was very interesting. It’s weird that in school I absolutely hated history, and stopped taking it as soon as I could, but now I find it really interesting. I have a memory like a sieve though - I forget dates and times etc (which is why I was so bad at school), so every time I watch history programs, even if I’m fairly familiar with the subject matter, there’s always something I’ve forgotten, so it’s as though I’m seeing it for the first time. I guess that’s good and bad. Anyway, one of the things that the teacher said was that the Sultan of the Empire chose which of his sons would become the next Sultan after his death. After this choice was made, his other sons were executed. Who says that life isn’t one big popularity contest?

After class, a friend and I went to our new regular place, Hungry Hippos. It’s actually called Hungry George, but I called it Hungry Hippos one day and that’s what it’s been ever since. Hungry Hippos is located on Hindley St, which has long had a reputation for being a pretty dodgy part of town, with lots of bums, beggars and drunkards. It’s also home to a fairly decent strip joint, but I digress. When we first started going there, we sat at a table close to the edge of the place, overlooking the street, where we were invariably asked for money. The last few times, though, we sat further inside, where they have some rather comfy lounges. I was thankful that we were sitting there last night and not on the edge, because two guys came in, with one of them looking quite scared, and the other being aggressive, yelling at the first guy. I couldn’t make out what he was saying, but the other guy was trying to placate him, although the other guy wouldn’t have any of it. He made a few lunges towards the scared guy, and threw a couple of punches. They did the cat and mouse thing for a bit, with Aggressive Guy walking out into the street every now and then, and Scared Guy walking inside HH, seeing what AG was doing. Meanwhile, my friend had got up and I called her back, worried that she was going to try to get between them. She was only going to the staff bit to ask if they were calling the police, which they had.

A little while later, SG left Hungry Hippos and walked up the street, and a few seconds later I saw AG running up the street after him. SG hightailed it to the other side of the street, and came back into Hungry Hippos, with AG walking down the street just as a police car was cruising by. I don’t know what the policeman said to him, but my friend overheard some people on the street jeering AG, saying “you’re not so tough now, are you” etc. AG really was a Class A Wanker.

Fortunately, times have changed since the Ottoman Empire, but I guess the moral of the story is still the same - don’t piss anyone off, especially if he’s a Sultan or your girlfriend’s ex.