The conversation you can’t avoid

This morning I was sitting at a cafe trying to do some work and not listen to the conversation unfolding next to me. It was hard; I am inquisitive and they were loud. And just maybe I was a little bored with what I was doing so the chance to listen to someone else’s conversation was quite welcome.

‘Oh hi,’ said the girl in the short sleeved shirt as she stood up to greet the girl who walked in with a tiny handbag and a huge coat.

I wondered why they weren’t at school. Then I remembered it’s school holidays. Then I realised I’m old and it’s just me who thinks that anyone under 30 is 12.

They weren’t actually girls. They were grown women meeting to discuss work, I should have known this before I eavesdropped on their conversation. The clues lay in the laptop strategically placed so both of them could see the screen, the way they dressed — not smart but also not casual and the way they greeted each other. Work colleagues. Two steps away from strangers, many steps away from friends.

The woman with the huge coat clearly felt uncomfortable in the back of a small cafe where there was very little space, hardly any air and all the warmth from the kitchen (and the planet melting) . I think it was dawning on her that she was dressed for a meeting at an ice-skating rink. Or a walk in fridge.

‘You never know what’s happening with the weather,’ she said as she adjusted her collar so she could actually breathe.

‘I know, it’s quite warm now, it didn’t look so hot this morning.’ The woman in the short sleeved shirt tried to pretend it was okay to be wearing a thick coat at the end of September in Sydney.

Coat Lady: ‘How hot was it last week? That was intense’

Short Sleeved Lady: ‘Yeah but that was a heat wave.’

Coat Lady: ‘I think it’s a sign of what’s to come.’

Me: *starts to prick up ears even higher because of continuing and debilitating fear of climate change*

Short Sleeved Lady: ‘It’s the beginning of Spring. Maybe it was just a one off’. You can almost hear her wishing she believed herself.

Or maybe it’s just me who can hear it. I am hyper aware of any conversation that includes talk of climate change.

Coat Lady: ‘No, everything is messed up now, it’s global warming.’

I think back to a time where talking about the weather was just a means of filling time, an easy conversion starter.

‘Isn’t it lovely/hot/cold/rainy/windy?’ we used to say.

Now any conversation about the weather is loaded with fear. For me at least.

I used to be afraid of things like the Bermuda Triangle and quick sand, scorpions and nuclear war. Now I am afraid of the weather. Also conversations about the weather, reading about the weather, listening to weather reporting and, as it turns out, listening to strangers talking about the weather.

I try and focus on my work, tune out of their conversation and breathe deeply. I open the browser on my own laptop. In amongst all the noise I can only see these headlines

Scientists found the most intense heat wave ever recorded — in Antarctica

The ominous signs pointing to extreme heat and fire in Australia this summer

‘Challenging’. Big weather changes set to hit

I wish I was still scared of quick sand, at least I knew how to avoid it.