ERROL PARKER | Editor-at-large | Contact
A local man, who recently completed a six-week rehabilitation course for an addiction to alcohol, accidentally bought a new pair of boots this morning that don’t have the required boot straps in which to pull himself up with.
Something inside Mark Vodell’s brain snapped around 10am today as he walked the four kilometres from the O’Reilly Street Men’s Hostel to the Clippity Clop Boot Factory Outlet on Green Street.
The 34-year-old our reporter that he needed some work boots for a new job he’d landed with JobRight, our town’s most predatory labour-hire company.
Despite being on NewStart for nearly three months and having a freshly-minted criminal record for driving intoxicated while being poor, Vodell explained that he’d got the money together to find a pair of boots that wouldn’t fall apart after 20 minutes.
“With the benefit of hindsight, it would’ve been better to buy some boots with some bootstraps. Maybe my next pair of boots will have straps on them,” he said.
“I don’t want to have to work in this warehouse forever. I’m having a go, trying to get myself out of debt, get my own place that some fat, old, thigh-necked magistrate will find suitable for my kids to visit me in. It’ll take time but I’ve got a fair bit of it,”
“I’m looking at a pair of Redbacks next. They’ve got straps on the front and back of them. Or some Ariats? They’re pretty dear but they last. One day, I hope I can get a pair of Redwings or Thorogoods. Then I’d be on easy street,”
“You live and you learn.”
The Advocate reached out to the Minister for Go’s And Promises Of Australia for comment but have yet to receive a reply.
More to come.
