No Photos, No Chocolate Bars & No Asking, “How are your cows, Roger?”

After buying my books on Monday, we made our way back to the city. Before we headed home we dropped by Safeway @ QV to pick up some bread and a brush. While we were still browsing in the supermarket, M grabbed me, signalling me to check out some dude. I didn’t pay much attention because I was dying of thirst at the time. M insisted that the guy was a tennis player but later that night, he couldn’t pick out which player the guy was. We have seen a few tennis players when they have come to play in Melbourne and this year, I told M that I wanted to see Roger Federer.

On Thursday, I played goody-goody by returning the DVDs that M had borrowed from the library. After that I walked down to Clegs to see if they sold Burda Grid Tissue Paper, because I am in the middle of designing something and needed the tissue paper to help me draw my design accurately. Unfortunately Clegs looked like they didn’t have it, so I left and headed to Collins St. After I turned into the street, around the time that I was walking past this shoe shop that M and I have dubbed as the “Must Speak English Shoe Shop”, I made a decision to take a deep breath as I walked past the Lindt Café’s doorway. The shop always smells so delicious. I looked up to see what was ahead of me and saw a small crowd gathering outside of the Lindt Café. There were crowd controllers there too. Some guys who worked in jobs like crowd control are really not my cup of tea so I chose to walk on, like the footpath was all mine. As I walked past the people I saw a small group of energetic fans wearing red hats/caps and other clothing items in red. One particular hat stood out. It has SUISSE printed on it in bold and that was a tell tale sign. Remember those tennis fans who painted the Swedish flags on their faces? Who did they support? So when I added a word that means Swiss to Lindt a few days before Australian Open 2010, I get Roger Federer!

Before I left home, I told myself to bring the camera along but changed my mind at the last minute because of my own pure laziness. I could have dashed home quickly to pick it up but I wasn’t sure when he would arrive. It seemed like no one else knew when he would turn up either. I so regret not having my camera because when he arrived his chauffeur stopped briefly in front of me and there he was, Roger Federer, sitting in the back seat right in front of me. He had a big smile on his face. After the car was properly parked he was briefly mobbed by his fans. Some were singing. LOL. One of these teens took a very nice photo of him and I was tempted to give her my email address hoping that she would send me a copy but backed away because I didn’t want to scare her off. He was welcomed by some VIPs and Lindt’s chefs before entering the store.

I peeped through the display window to see what he was up to and caught glimpses of him. As I stood there waiting for him to come back out a man approached the group of devoted fans. They were invited to join the people inside the café but others, including me, were left waiting outside. Eventually a stretched limo turned up that was not the same car that dropped him off. I parked myself near its rear end so I could see him getting in but when the people emerged I soon learned that my plan had backfired. The stretched limo was here to pick up the VIPs as Roger Federer had already been whisked away via the back door. LOL. So yeah, I didn’t get to ask him about his cows. LOL. I also missed out on those mini chocolate bars that Lindt was giving away. The wrapper had Roger Federer’s photo printed on it. I did get to see him though and he isn’t as big as he is when seen on TV. I do hope he wins the Australian Open this year.