It has been a hazy sort of fortnight. We were in Sydney and on the NSW coast this time 2 weeks ago, ready to say goodbye to kiddo and make our way back to Melbourne through the coast. We got home a couple of days later to a searing hot few days. I got sick the next day and so didn’t get in to work and on Friday “laboured” through yet another very hot day.
That weekend Tress and I got ready for our guest (OG), who arrived early on Sunday morning. She came here for the tennis and went back (to KL) a couple of days ago. While here, our days were focused on making her stay as pleasant and smooth as possible. Perhaps in some ways, I had subconsciously subscribed to a belief in karma and so thought if we were hospitable to our guest who is a single lady living with her parents as the only child, someone would in turn return the favour at the other side of this sometimes inhospitable world.
OG has made a number of facebook entries which suggest she had a really good time here and the tennis has been very entertaining so although the tickets cost a small fortune in terms of Malaysian ringgit, it looked like money well spent and any pain in that department would have been further abated by a homely surrounding throughout her stay.
We brought her along to a couple of home dinner parties. I think she liked our hosts in those parties and Tress noticed that she had made facebook friends with them. I’m glad she enjoyed those encounters although for a short while I was a little bit concerned when she used a bit of language in one of those parties. She was sitting next to me and it wasn’t uttered too loudly so hopefully I was the only one who heard it and thought it was surprising. Or maybe I’m just a prude.
Unfortunately I find myself swearing more often that I like. I accept responsibility and think I should really be more restrained but I also think this is a partly a product of our times and environment.
The 5 lawyers and 1 EA in the team all swear. Certainly not gratuitously but more habitually than I’d like. Still, the context is within a team who work and share physical space together for up to 10 hours a day. Utopia would be where there is either an absence of stress and challenges, or when these are met with steely resolute that excludes all forms of swearing. Utopia is as far away as it has always been. And so we swear. More than I like.
At home, now that there is no one other than Tress and LBJ, I am also less restrained. Again, it is rare and I am conscious of letting this become a pattern or habit but I do swear. More than I like.
Socially however, I am far more circumspect and far more restrained. It is not a question of putting on a façade. It is a question of respecting the host and upholding good standards of behaviour in a public or social context. It is also respecting the hosts’ other guests. Any swearing is more than I like. Most would probably say this is all subjective and it is up to individuals to adopt standards of behaviour most suited to an individual or which that individual is comfortable with.
It really was only a tiny aberration. I’m confident OG had a good time and I trust her experience would be something she’d like to replicate for others. Anyway, she left late Sunday night, just as the men’s final match was coming to an end. We heard the match finish up on the radio on the way to the airport. We dropped her off, and got back home just before midnight.
On Monday Tress and I went to the fruit and vege market early, got stuff to make loads of juice to keep in the fridge for the coming very warm days this week and had wanted to go watch “Saving Mr Banks” but surprisingly, the cinema in Forest Hill Chase was quite full for that screening and no good seats were available so we wandered through the shopping centre, went for lunch and then went home.
Late in the evening – after 8pm – I decided to go water the plants with some nutrients mixed in. Lately, watering the garden/plants has become a serene late afternoon activity for me. I have found it soothing and therapeutic to just go to each plant with either a watering can or the hose, and give each a good soaking. It is a great 30-45/45-60 minutes to make that “very full” feeling after dinner go away, before getting ready for bed and psychologically setting myself up for the next day. Usually that means some tv and a few drinks. I have been thinking the past couple of days, that the tv’s got to be reduced substantially so that I get to read more. I hope I do that…
Ante 