Last week was a wretched week for many, here in Melbourne. It was extremely hot through the week, with 3 days of over 40 deg temperatures. The fourth was just a shade below 40.
On Thursday night the church Board felt it needed to meet so there we were in a non-air conditioned meeting room, sweating it out. I had driven in to work that day, partly to ensure I would be able to attend this meeting in time. Connex, the venerable provider of commuter train service in Melbourne, stepped up its core competencies by ensuring the service fell into utter chaos. Thousands of trips were cancelled and many would just hang around on the platforms not knowing when their train was going to show up. I thought if I was going to make that Board meeting I had to drive in. It also ensured our poor car stayed out of that scorching heat, even if it was just for the day.
I went back to braving the train on Friday. Getting in to work wasn’t a problem. While the journey back home was more problematic, God nevertheless gave me a break – my train left Flinders at about 6.40pm and a few minutes later, power failure in large parts of Melbourne meant no trains could leave Flinders and it stayed that way for the next couple of hours. I escaped the sweltering chaos of Melbourne by the skin of my teeth and I would have been very poorly had I got caught in the mayhem.
We went to Sofia’s that night to cool off with a couple of salad dishes, before heading home to catch the tennis. It was the semi finals between the 2 Spaniards and what a match it turned out to be. Kiddo stayed up to the end but Tress and I went to sleep before the end of the third set.
There was just one more day of very hot weather.
On Sat we did the usual things. I sent my work clothes to the dry cleaner’s and then Tress and I went to get some groceries. There was to be follow-up Board meeting that afternoon, followed with a dinner for Board members at Alex’s home. I didn’t think the dinner was a good idea as Alex had just returned from Malaysia after a long holiday. He came back on Wed and arrived smack in the middle of the heat wave and would probably take a while to recover. To host a dinner so soon after was a big ask so I couldn’t understand why it was planned that way.
Anyway, the dinner went ahead and Tress and I got the stuff we wanted to cook (a roasted rack of pork ribs). We got home and marinated the meat, and I did my usual house cleaning. We got a new Dyson vacuum cleaner recently and I gave it a good go. It turned out to be cleaner than our older unit (a Nilfisk) but it took some getting used to. I went to the Board meet in the arvo (at Lynda’s, God bless her… great air conditioning in her home) and that finished just after 5.30. We left Alex’s just after 10pm.
Back home, “Misery” (with Kathy Bates and James Caan) was just coming on so we all settled and watched it. I didn’t finish the movie though – wanted to get up early to catch the United – Everton game. Kiddo enjoyed it, and I was pleased, because it isn’t always possible to get her to enjoy anything of my vintage.
I was up just after 4.30am the Sunday morning. United won courtesy of a Ronaldo penalty and held off Everton through a somewhat boring 2nd half. We now lead, for a while, by 5 points. Very nice.
After the game – just after 6am – I went out to give the garden a good soak. The heat and drought had been really damaging. Our plants seemed lethargic, wilting and near their end. After an hour battling with our very old garden hose to try and keep our plants alive, I went back in to start cooking. There was to be a Chinese New Year lunch in church.
After lunch we got home, and headed out again shortly after, to get new garden hose, along with some other items. Back home, I put up the hose rack, pottered around a little bit (including dragging Kiddo and Tress out into the heat to watch some outrageously colourful rosellas in our backyard) before cooking, again.
Auntie Swee Har, U Shu, David and Charmayne came to dinner on Sunday night. They made some “yee sang” and we did a couple of dishes. It was good to have a meal and talk again. After dinner we sat down to enjoy the Nadal-Federer final. They left after the second set and after the third set, we all went to bed. Kiddo has started Year 10.
Ante 