We’ve been either very cheap or lazy. It could be both. This practice of walking into Coles or Safeway to pick up a cooked chook and some salad, has become an easy and cheap option for Tress and I, especially on Friday nights when we’re emitting low battery warning signals and don’t want to go out. The couch, the tv and the coffee table look perfectly acceptable, indeed quite inviting.

So last Friday we again picked up a cooked chook, except this time it was from a chook shop (as was last Friday). But we picked up the salad and some cheese from the supermarket and then headed home. It was good to just be home, put up our feet and look forward to the long weekend – the last one for a few months. There would be no more public holidays until Cup Day.

The next morning I woke early and went to a men’s breakfast meeting in church. Someone from Destiny Rescue spoke. DR rescues sex slaves from brothels and bars in Chiang Rai, Thailand and they do great work. I came home thinking if I should re-direct some giving to them instead. Later that morning the little fellow got his haircut, then we did some errands, including dropping into a local branch of our bank, and then we went into the city. We had wanted to get to the South Melbourne Market for lunch but while in the city we decided instead to go to this place known as the Little Ramen Bar. Gerry had raved about this place for a while now and he was right. That place had delicious ramen and we were very happy we went there. After lunch we headed to the market and spent a few hours there, picking up cheeses, coffee beans, a bottle of port, some deli stuff and ate some oyster au naturale. We got home late in the arvo, took the little fellow out for a walk, and then vegged out on the couch again, with a copy of “The Company You Keep” from AppleTV.

Earlier on that Sat afternoon I took a call from Gus, an ex-colleague and friend I had not heard from or met for a while. It was good of him to call and keep in touch and after chatting briefly we agreed to meet up again. He sent a text the next day and we tentatively teed up a catch up a couple of weeks from now.

We visited Uncle Jin at his home again on Sunday, and had dinner with him. He and Auntie Pin had asked me for help with their Wills and those Wills got signed on Sunday night, with Tress and David her cousin who’s a doctor in Geelong, as witnesses. Auntie Hooi and Uncle Marloney also had their Wills witnessed so four Wills got signed that night, before we started on a very nice steamboat dinner. Uncle Jin also wanted help with some bank account dealings he and Auntie Pin had. I feel uneasy with these as they are clearly designed to circumvent welfare entitlement rules. I didn’t mind helping them with their Wills but this other matter is a different kettle of fish. That Uncle Jin is now sick should not have any bearing on this. I had nevertheless prepared draft documents which needed some tidying up but at this moment, I am inclined to leave those documents without any further work. I wonder though, how Uncle Jin would feel about this.

We left Point Cook just after 9.30, and went to bed late after watching MasterChef on the AppleTV. Monday morning we slept in, had a leisurely breakfast, and then went out to look at some blender/soup makers at Myer in Eastland. There was nothing – Myer’s “pop-up” sale appeared half hearted, so we would probably wait till their stock take sale (proper sale) later. We then went for a late lunch at Studfield (Golden Chilli Nasi Kandar) before heading home for another quiet night before the working week starts again. This restaurant was next to the one we had intended to visit, but was closed on a Monday. It was a good outcome as the food was delicious and very satisfying. We had a brief chat with the owner too, which was nice. He had been running a little Indian restaurant in the city but decided to move his business out to the suburbs when his little baby boy arrived a couple of years earlier. Good for us too…

It’s now a little over 3 weeks before we visit Kiddo in Singapore. I’m just starting to get used to the crisp cool mornings of early winter in Melbourne so the thought of a 35deg day – highly humid one – scares me, but everything else about the visit made me look forward very keenly. Especially catching up with Kiddo again.