美哉! 那些墨爾本人!  

                   田田 譯寫 

在遙遠的春秋時代,人們曾經有過美好的日子。那時,孔子任司空掌管魯國,魯人享受夜不閉戶,路不拾遺的安寧。今天,生活在墨爾本的人,也享有這樣的美好。偶而,我忘了把車房的門關上,夜不閉戶,長夜無事；而路不拾遺,更時有所聞。現在,且讓我與大家一起來分享一些美麗的墨爾本人,和他們所做的美麗的事。

手推車裏的手袋

去年10月1日下午我接到朋友Karman Lee 的電話,她說:「田田,你一定得把這件事寫出來,登在《同路人》雜誌上,我要讓大家都知道這個好人,這件好事!」以下便是她的親身經歷。

 因有急事要去香港,l日下午三點Karman 到Doncaster Westfield Shopping Centre 一間銀行取錢準備買機票。隨後便去超市購物,當她推著手推車到停車場時,身後有一輛車子跟著,她開車後那輛車子便泊了她的車位。當時她並不留意,僅隨意看了一眼,司機是個年青的亞裔女子,面貌娟好。車子將轉入Eastern Freeway時,她猛地發覺手袋不見了,醒悟是留在手推車裏了。她立即調頭回去,駛入剛才她泊的車位時,那個年青亞裔女子站在手推車旁。她一見Karman,便說:「我一直在等你,手袋已交往樓下詢問處。」Karman拿到手袋,打開一看,剛才從銀行提出來的五千澳元現鈔,原封不動一分不少,其他的信用卡等物,也無一遺失,心中甚為激動,除了連連道謝,甚麼也說不出來。事後才想起沒有詢問對方姓名,因此來電要我撰寫刊登,希望這名好心人能有機會讀到與她聯絡,她想正式隆重道謝。

 遺留在食肆的照相機

 今年一月因稿件照片事情我到《同路人》East Burwood的寫字樓找社長Raymond周偉文先生,當我將這件美事告訴《同路人》同仁時,副社長Caleb聶國瑞先生也禮尚往來地說了一件發生在他身上的美事。

 數年前的一個周末,聶氏兩大四小一家六口,齊齊赴Doncaster Westfield Shopping Centre購物遊逛。中午時分他們便擠在人頭湧湧的食肆用膳,好不容易祭了五臟廟,全家再次出發遊逛。Caleb忽然發覺背上輕飄飄的,基于多年記者的身份,他長時揹著背包,內裝照機。現在背包沒有掛在肩上,定是剛才購買午膳時,放在地上忘了拿。回到原地,不見背包,心想定是凶多吉少,姑且去〔詢問處〕問問吧。誰知一問,就問回兩個照相機------一個Sony Handy Digital Camera,一個Nikon Camera,共銀兩千澳元,當時Digital Camera在澳洲尚不普遍,故Caleb這個背包,價值不便宜。原來是Westfield商場的清潔工拾到交給上司的,無怪乎Caleb讚道:「Westfield Shopping Centre 或許是全墨爾本最安全的購物、用膳、遊樂商場了!」 

 那天我的銀包失而復得

                              Sam Portelli   田田譯              

去年11月23日星期五下午下班後約五點鐘,我和朋友Pat到公司附近位于Carlton的Clyde酒店喝酒。我把車子停在酒店旁的墨爾本大學停車場,這是個私人停車場,我老闆租了些車位。通常喝酒,我買第一輪,Pat則買第二輪。當我拿錢時,發現銀包不見了,Pat便替我付了。我想大概留在家裏了,不過我確實當天早上銀包是在我身上的。七時左右離開Clyde,取車時我仔細地檢查了座位和車子周圍,但一無所獲,心想準是留在家裏了。回家後找來找去,仍是找不到,一定是掉在Clyde了,於是打電話去酒店詢問,答案是沒有。我決定親自去酒店好好查一下。到達酒店,無人看到我的銀包,我非常失望。

回家途中接到妻子電話,說有人來電留言:拾到銀包,已送去停車場工餘寫字樓。我非常驚奇,大大鬆了口氣。到了寫字樓職員立即歸還銀包,我很好奇,一心想知道有無東西遺失。一打開,全都在------錢、多張信用卡、其他卡片、零碎東西。只不過有如有人將裏面東西倒出來,再胡亂地塞進去。憑心而論,我真的感到很幸運,很快樂。我很想親自謝謝路不拾遺的好心人,可惜他們行善不欲人知,並沒有留下姓名；我知道的僅僅是兩個墨爾本大學裏的人,在停車場撿到地上的銀包交去寫字樓的。 

遺失在Carnegie

                              Adrian Newton    田田 譯

 去年10月7日,我、Cathy和一些朋友去位于Carnegie的一間Armenian餐廳吃晚飯,我們喝了些餐酒和伏特加,氣氛良好,大家都很愉快。飯後我和Cathy步行去附近的Carnegie火車站。到達後始知剛錯過了一班火車,下班車要等卅分鐘。這是個寒冷大雨的晚上,我們便到不遠的Rosstown酒店喝酒取暖。坐在酒巴裏,喝著、聊著,舒服極了,幾乎在下班車抵達時間快將到了,我們才一口喝完杯中的酒,一手抓起外衣和雨傘,趕去車站。當火車緩緩進站時,Cathy始發覺她把手袋遺在酒巴。因此我們盡快趕回酒巴,走到原先坐的位置,手袋並不在那裏,你可以想像當時我們的那份焦慮。我於是去酒巴詢問可有人交來手袋,出于意料之外,手袋竟在那裏,而拾到手袋的那位先生就坐在酒巴旁,Cathy向他熱情地道謝,幾次三番的致謝,倒讓他有些尷尬。下班車又須等卅分鐘,我們便請他喝了一杯酒,我們也喝了以慶祝我們的好運。(也許僅是藉口吧) 最後我們終于搭上火車,這已經是離開餐廳一個鐘頭以後的事了。                                      

Those Beautiful Melbourians ! 

                                             Dee Dee

     About 3000 years ago, Chinese people lived peacefully in Lu State. At that time Confucius was the Minister of Lu. Due to the education of Confucianism, there were no burglars, people did not need to close the doors at night and things lost were returned. Nowadays people in Melbourne seem live peacefully too. Occasionally I forgot to close my garage door, nothing happened. And I always hear things lost were returned. Let me share with you the four beautiful things that those beautiful Melbourians had done.

The handbag in the trolley

On 1^st Oct last year I received a call from my friend Karman Lee, she said, “ Dee Dee, you must write this story for me and publish it in the Sameway magazine. I want everyone to know this nice woman and the nice thing she had done.”

This is her story. Something important happened in Hong Kong, so Karman had to leave Melbourne immediately. At 3:00 pm 1^st Oct she went to a bank in Doncaster Westfield Shopping Centre to take some money for purchasing the air ticket. Then she went shopping. While she was pushing the trolley to the car park, a car followed her and parked her car park after she left. She noticed the driver was a young Asian woman who was quite good looking. Before she turned into the Eastern Freeway, suddenly she realized that her handbag wasn’t inside her car, she must have left it in the trolley. She returned to the Westfield Shopping Centre at once. When she arrived at the car park, she saw the young woman stand by the trolley. She told Karman she was waiting for her and had given her handbag to the Information Centre. As Karman opened her handbag and found that everything was still there------the 5000 dollar cash, all the credit cards, other cards and items. Karman was so grateful and thanked her several times. Since she was so excited, she forgot to ask her name. She hoped the young woman would read this article and contact her and let her thank her once more.  

The cameras in the food court

One day in Jan last year I went to visit the publisher of Sameway magazine Mr. Raymond Chow in East Burwood. After we discussed the photos of my article, I told the staffs about Karman’s returned handbag. As a feedback, the vice-publisher Mr. Caleb Nip told me something beautiful happened to him.

A few years ago, one Saturday morning the Nip’s family-----2 adults and 4 children went shopping in Doncaster Westfield Shopping Centre. They had lunch in the food court and continued shopping after lunch. Later Caleb found that he lost his bag and thought it must have been left in the crowded food court. As a journalist for years, he always carried his cameras in his bag. So they went to the food court but it wasn’t there. Caleb went to the Information Centre to ask about it without much hope in mind. Surprisingly he was given his bag inside there were a Sony Handy Digital Camera and a Nikon Camera. At that time Digital cameras were not so popular in Melbourne, these two cameras were quite expensive, cost Caleb 2000 dollars. It was a cleaner who found the bag and handed to his/her senior staff. No wonder Caleb said,” Perhaps the Doncaster Westfield Shopping Centre is the most safe place to shop, to have food and fun in Melbourne !”

  The day I lost and found my wallet                               

Sam Portelli

It was Friday 23rd September after work when my friend Pat and I went down
to our local Hotel (the Clyde Hotel in Carlton) for a drink after work at
about 5pm.  I parked my car in the Melbourne University Car park next door
to the hotel and went in for a drink.  The car park is private but it is
also leased to my employer. 

I normally buy one round of beer and Pat buys the next.  When it came to my
turn to buy the beer, I couldn't find my wallet so Pat bought it anyway for
us.  At the time, I thought I might have left it home, but I was fairly
sure that I had it with me earlier that day. 

At about 7pm I left the hotel and went to my car, where I had a good look
around the seats and next to the car but there was nothing to be found.  I
thought, I must have left it home, so I drove home and looked around there
- still nothing.  Then I thought that perhaps I must have dropped it at the
hotel somewhere, so I called them and asked if they had found a wallet - they
hadn't.  So I decided to drive back and have a good look around at the
hotel, myself.

I got there and looked around but no one had found anything and disappointed,
I decided to head back home.  As I was driving home my wife rang and said
that someone had left a message on the answering machine that they had
found my wallet and had handed it in to the car park management's
after-hours office at a nearby location to the Hotel and car park.  I was
very surprised and relieved that they had my wallet, but I was unsure if
anything had been taken.  I started my return to the car park.  At the office,
I talked to the attendant and asked about the wallet, which he promptly returned
to me.

I was curious and looked through the wallet and I found that everything was still
there - the money and all the credit cards, and other cards and items.  The
things were a bit jumbled up as if someone had turned it upside down,
emptied the contents and then placed them back in a random order.

I could honestly say I was very lucky and happy to have the wallet back.  I
wanted to know who handed in the wallet so that I could thank them, but I
was not able to thank anyone since the people who found the wallet had not
left their names.  All I was able to find out was that two people from the
University had seen the wallet lying on the floor of the car park next to a
car and handed it in. 

Lost in Carnegie
                              Adrian Newton                             

On 7th October last year, Cathy and I went to an Armenian restaurant in Carnegie with some friends, and had a very pleasant dinner, drinking wine and vodka. After dinner we walked to the nearby Carnegie railway station, and realised we had just missed our train, with the next one due in 30 minutes. It was a cold night with heavy rain, so we went to the nearby Rosstown hotel to get warm, and had another drink while we waited for the train. We settled in too comfortably, and realising the next train was almost due we quickly finished our drinks, grabbed our coats and umbrellas and rushed to the station, only for Cathy to discover as the train pulled in that she had left her handbag behind in the pub. So, back to the pub as quickly as we could. When we got there Cathy's handbag wasn't where we had been sitting, which caused some anxiety as you can imagine. I went to the bar and asked if the bag had been handed in, and surprisingly it had been, and the guy who had found it was sitting at the bar. He became embarrassed by the profuse thanks Cathy heaped on him, and we bought him a drink, and another one for ourselves to celebrate our good fortune (or that was our excuse anyway), since the next train was 30 minutes away. And yes, we did manage to catch that one, only one hour after we had left the restaurant! 

19-2-2006