大使疫情手记——坐在海湾的码头

前澳驻华大使 Dr Geoff Raby AO 与其捐赠给母校La Trobe大学的中国当代艺术收藏

作者：Geoff Raby

中文：罗曼

转自朱雀艺术

前澳驻华大使、艺术收藏家、经济学家、专栏作家 Dr Geoff Raby AO 原计划于二月底返回北京，后因疫情爆发滞留悉尼。即日起，我们将特别开设【号外】专栏，连载大使的疫情手记。

大使疫情手记

—— 坐在海湾的码头

奥蒂斯·雷丁（Ottis Redding）发布于1967年的热门歌曲《坐在海湾的码头》（Sitting on the Dock of the Bay）是我最喜欢的歌曲之一。该曲发布同年，甲壳虫乐队、奶油乐队、吉米·亨德里克斯（Jimi Hendrix）、滚石乐队在各大金曲榜单一路高歌猛进。作为一名听众，我为自己能够成为这个充满活力的伟大时代的一部分而深感雀跃。

昨天早晨，阵雨渐去，随着阳光开始从柔软低垂的灰色云层中倾泻而出，雷丁那清凉的灵魂韵律与歌词在我的脑海中响起。

我正准备出门去看望两位来自北京的老友。其中一个是北京人，另一个是澳洲人。今年一月，他们举家迁回澳洲，以便他们的儿子就读澳大利亚最负盛名的音乐学校。他们以前从未在悉尼生活过。他们计划在悉尼待一个学期，放假返回北京。而现在他们被困在了悉尼。我们都觉得需要好好聚一聚，不过考虑到当前许多重要的社交限制，我提议在Harry's Café de Wheels露天外卖见面。这是悉尼的著名餐饮品牌之一。自1948年以来，这家外卖店一直在伍卢穆卢码头（Woolloomooloo Wharf）供应他们的招牌菜——牛肉派配豌豆泥。

我们点了派，按社交距离规定排了几分钟的队，然后在码头边坐了下来，保持着更远的社交距离在南风中畅聊。

那些派很好吃，用纸杯装的咖啡味道竟然也不错。我们饶有兴致地观察周围，一只并不常见的白颈鸬鹚正在捕食小鱼，海军专用码头拴着的若干澳大利亚军舰（数目约占澳洲海军军舰总数八分之一）忙碌一如往常，还有一个摄像师先是着迷于那些船只，然后又被几个骑车经过的警察吸引了视线，而后者显然也对这名摄像师很感兴趣。

他们没有注意到我们在海湾的码头上举行了一个小小的愉快的聚会。而我也终于品尝到了大名鼎鼎的Harry's派。

Geoff Raby’s Pandemic Journal

Ottis Redding’s 1967 hit Sitting on the Dock of the Bay was one of my favourite songs in a year that saw the Beatles, Cream, Jimi Hendrix, Rolling Stones soaring up the charts.  A great time to be alive and extraordinary to be part of it, albeit as a passive consumer.

Redding’s cool soul repetitive rhythm and lyrics were playing in my head yesterday as the morning’s rain showers cleared and the sun started to break through the low soft grey clouds in ever wider shafts.

I was escaping my homestay to meet two old friends from Beijing.  One is a Beijinger and the other Australian.  In January, they moved their family back to Australia so that the boy could enrol in Australia’s most prestigious music school.  Neither have lived in Sydney before.  The plan had been to spend term in Sydney and then return to Beijing for the school holidays.  They’re now stuck in Sydney.

All of us feeling the need for a good catchup, but ever mindful of the weight of restrictions that are upon us, I suggested we meet in the open at Harry’s Café de Wheels takeaway.  This is one of Sydney’s famous institutions.  It has been serving its signature beef pie with mushy peas since 1948 at the Woolloomooloo Wharf. 

We ordered our pies, after standing in a correctly socially distanced queue for a few minutes, and then sat down at an even longer distance on the edge of the wharf and chatted as best we could into the southerly breeze. 

The pies were delicious and the coffee afterwards in paper cups excellent.  We were entertained by a not-so-common white neck cormorant feasting on small fish, the activities on and around one-eighth of Australia’s navy tied up as usual at the naval docks, and a lone TV camera-man who was intrigued by something  to do with the ships, and later by some police on bicycles who became very interested in the camera-man.

They were oblivious to our little but much welcomed rendezvous on the dock of the bay and I have finally tried one of Harry’s renowned pies.