The “fish bowl” I work in is a section cordoned off by floor to ceiling glass panes. It houses procurement, client services, strategy and legal. It has maybe up to 25 people.
Last Friday someone organised for everyone in the fish bowl to have a drink after work. It was the first time the fish bowl inhabitants did this. I was there for just under an hour, and then left for home. Tress picked me up from the station, having gone home early on one of those monthly early Fridays at her workplace.
Later that night we had Jason and Mel over for some wine and chit chat. They left relatively early and we went to bed shortly after.
Saturday morning after a quick dry cleaning run we went to Cranbourne to visit the royal botanical gardens. Auntie Hooi have been raving about the place for a while so we organised for a few families to meet there. The Hipos’ had one of their 2 little angels down sick with food poisoning so they skipped it last minute and Alex’s family was swamped with their usual sporting activities so it was just Jason and Mel, Hooi and Marloney and Tress and I.
Tress and I arrived earliest and we picked a spot for lunch. Tress has been mastering and refining a salad which was great for the day. Later the other 2 couples arrived and there was even more to eat and after lunch we wandered through the gardens, which were faithful representations of native flora. We only left the place close to 5, made our way home, walked LBJ and then just hung around and watched tele, ending with a match between United and WBA, which United won comfortably (for a change). I had donned the “”Pure Genius” t shirt the whole day (produced after the 1999 treble) so it was a fitting end to the day.
Sunday after church we met up with the Hipos, Chews and Jackie for a farewell lunch to Madam Hipo senior – Jessie. She would be leaving to return to Singapore in a couple of weeks. We met up at Glen Waverley. Strange how after months of not coming to Glen Waverley, Tress and I found ourselves there 2 days in a row. We had stopped there on our way home from Cranbourne the day before for some groceries.
After lunch we adjourned to The Glen for some coffee, where we caught up with Mark, Jackie’s boy who’s now in Monash studying medicine. We stayed for about an hour then Tress and I left to go to Eltham to pick up an ear wash for LBJ. We stopped at Montsalvat for a glimpse of the famous building, then went home, to veg out the remainder of the day.\
Monday was a public holiday so Tress and I spent the better part of the day cleaning up the garden. It was a warm day and after a few hours I was soaked in sweat and caked up with the dust thrown up by the mower on a hot and dry day. We finished up close to 2pm, then watched “The Butler” off iTunes, before meeting up with the same group from the day before, for dinner and also at the same place! We finished just after 8.30, went home, and started preparing for the new working week. We had been exchanging FB messages with Kiddo the afternoon and it was good to hear the work she was hoping to complete had been completed.
So we had a terrific long weekend, with loads of time with friends, lots of food and visiting parts of greater Melbourne we hadn’t been to before.
Ante 