Narie scribbles

Let people enjoy things

When I was an Aupair in Australia, I accompanied my host mum and the little girl I was in charge of to Sydney for an veterinary conference that my host mum attended. So during the day, while she was there, my little girl and I visited various places around Sydney. It was great fun but also very exhausting because I had to do everything and find places all on my own (no smartphone back then) while making sure my girl got all her meals, was clean and took her naps. One particular day, we had been Downtown all day when my host mum called my in the afternoon asking to meet up with her in a restaurant in one of Sydney’s suburbs. So I got on the bus there but my host mum couldn’t tell me the name of the bus stop I had to get off because she forgot, so she just told me to get off after I saw “some park with a large lake in it.” Now, what I hadn’t realized until I actually sat in the bus was that it was around 5 pm, rushour, everyone was leaving work and wanted to get home. More and more people got on the bus. I was seated, my girl on my lap, the pram folded somewhere in front of my legs. My little baby girl was tired from an exciting day and started to get whiny. She started crying a few times and I tried to distract her with videos on my phone I had taken earlier. The bus got more and more crowded, I couldn’t really see out the windows anymore and locate a park or a lake. My legs hurt because they were uncomfortably tucked in that tiny space between my seat and the fron seat which they shared with the pram. I tried to keep the baby girl from crying and see if we passed any parks. After we drove by the third park that I only saw when the bus was driving off again, I got really stressed. I had no idea where we were, when we were supposed to get off, how to keep my girl from crying on a bus full of already stressed people - then my phone rang. My host mum called me but my phone didn’t work and I couldn’t take the call. She kept trying to call me which she normally never did so I knew she was stressed about something - probably because she saw us driving by the stop she was waiting for us. We had been on the bus for about half an hour and were quite outside of Sydney already. So finally I decided to get off the next stop and re-organise myself. When the bus stopped, I tried to get up, hit a pissed woman in the knee with the pram which must have really hurt and then - the bus started driving once again. I nearly cried. It was super awkward to because all the people around us saw me struggling to get off that bus. Thankfully, the woman I just hit with the pram, shouted to the driver to stop because someone (me) still wanted to get off. I was so embarrassed and thanked her but she was pretty pissed. I couldn’t carry my girl AND the pram and had to put her down, which only caused her to cry really loudly because she was so scared. I wanted to cry with her and just get off this damn bus and into my bed. Then, another nice woman offered to take the pram for me and I could lift my girl up again and finally, finally get off the bus. Poor girl was crying her eyes out and when I got off the bus and turned around to get the pram I heard a voice - my host mum! We actually had gotten off at the right station (although it was a close call) after all! I was so relieved to see her face and my girl was, too. All the tension and stress fell off me and had it been possible, I would have lied down right then and there to take a nap.

My first ever try to draw a proper face. I used normal copy paper, pencils, my finger and Q-tips and also experimented with coal. I had great difficulties with the chin, jawline and lips and changed it a couple of times. While it does not look like the original at all I’m still pretty happy with it (lost patience with the hair though) - after all, it was my first try.