Blasted again in the lane tonight by the advertising meteor on the side of the truck. There was a strip show on offer a few blocks away if you had nothing better to do. Truly made you wince and shield the eyes. How did others sit unflinching? (Other days it was the giant construction vehicles, with the worry of a disaffected driver at the wheel. Innumerable reasons for disaffection right now.) The Asian girls entering the cafe were far more alluring than whatever that dimly glimpsed image showed on the truck; even in the case of often fashionably dressed girls, whose inner beauty was sometimes masked. Later in the evening up Swanston one of the older female homeless had gathered a strange circle around her. Was it three pair of young Asians, lads with their girls? A Christian group perhaps.; there had been many examples of street missionary activity of that kind up on the Equator. The group sat in a semicircle around the woman, who had her back against the wall of the shop. The woman was addressing the circle, which sat quietly listening. Earlier on the lane at the usual outdoor table a long piece on ABC had reported the Pentagon propaganda against the Chinese during the roll out of the vax, which had resulted in an unknown number of deaths, in the Philippines in particular. That central stretch of Swanston from Victoria down to Bourke and even Collins Streets had in latter years become heavily Chinese; a recent feature were the buskers drawing an audience for Mandarin lounge numbers. It might become difficult now to co-opt significant numbers of the expats even with the most sophisticated disinformation.
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