Had to dodge packs of people on the way down to the dole office today. I saw three different groups. The first was a bunch of workers in flouro vests carrying tools and staking out the top of Julia Street for some kind of maintinence. They didn't pay me any attention but I skirted them anyway. There was a large group of what looked like unemployed men around my age. Didn't want to run into them so I went down a side street. On the way back from the office there was a busload of kids pulling faces at me near the supermarket. On the way back I didn't have enough money for a magazine and I couldn't find the sci fi anthology I'd seen in the Salvation Army store. I bought a square meat pie and a bottle of ginger beer at the milk bar. The ginger beer tasted different than the ones I buy from the supermarket, even though they were the same brand.