Kiddo came back on Sunday morning. We had a busy day. Had I flown back from Asia overnight, I would have been too tired to be traipsing around during the day, the way we did for most of Sunday. We went for coffee and breakfast in Hawthorn, then home to unpack and refresh before heading out to a shopping centre to get her phone teed up and do some shopping on the side. Our coffee machine (the capsule on) had broken down after about a couple of years and we got a replacement. Once home, she set up all her stuff on the new phone and I made the soups for the week, and barbied some fish for dinner, made some our lunches and breakfast smoothies.
We went to the Whitehorse Carols in time for the combined churches choir performance, at 8pm. Tress correctly predicted many families may have chosen to leave by then (the event started around 4.30pm) so we got a park and ground spot (to lay out the ground sheet) fairly easily. We stayed for about an hour before coming back once it got dark and a bit cool. At home, we settled down for the night. We had been adjusting to an empty nest but it feels far easier to adjust to the ex-fledgling coming home, albeit for just a few weeks. It was a great way to end the weekend.
The weekend had started early. The legal team left just before 1pm, and headed to the Stokehouse City joint for the team Christmas lunch. The boss shouted a bottle of champers to start proceedings and after lunch we meandered along Bourke to look for a place to have a sit down over a few beers. We settled down at the Mess Hall and later the boss’ wife who works around the corner up the street, came and joined us. The conversations were interesting, as they mark what is probably, the end of the road, for some or all of us as lawyers for this company. The sale of the company, scheduled to be signed by the end of this week, hasn’t been cause for optimism for the boss and the team.
Maybe it is just a case of whistling past the cemetery but the way the team joked and laughed about the “end days” of our tenure had a ring of resignation around it. Or maybe it genuinely is a case of not being able to do anything about it. I have been looking for another job but as usual, this is a long process fraught with ebbs and flows of opportunities and emotions. I’m just trying to let past experiences of not successfully turning to God and leaving things in His hands, be lessons learned. It is hard in some ways. I spoke to the HR department of a potential lead earlier last week, who said he would revert by the end of the week. Not surprisingly, that did not happen and though I harbour deep hopes that would change soon, a part of me still calls for me to really just wait and see what God has in store. I guess in some ways I have learned a little bit, as the level of anxiety is probably a notch below what was in the past. I just hope I find something soon, or this place offers continuing employment. Knowing God provides – would a father give his son a snake when he asked for a fish – is one thing but asking God to make it possible for me to have something better than a fish, is quite another I suppose.
We left Mess Hall and I got home maybe 6.30pm, and Tress picked me up and we went to get some sauces to marinade some ribs she had bought, for the dinner at Alex’s the next day. The ribs done and kept in the fridge, we settled down to watch a movie on iTunes. “The Intouchables” is a French movie with a story about an unemployed Senegalese finding work as a carer for rich aristocrat who was a quadriplegic – it was very a cute, funny and heart-warming film and it only cost us $0.99. Kiddo watched it last night too…
Sat was very warm. We went to church for a wedding of a home group couple’s son. We helped out with bits and pieces, sat through the wedding, and quickly went home late morning to change into shorts and t-shirts for the rest of the day. After lunch at Madam K’s we went home and I worked on the garden while Tress vacuumed and cleaned the inside of the house, and got Kiddo’s room ready. We finished just after 4, I roasted the ribs for the dinner party and then went to Alex’s to catch up with them. They’re going to Malaysia tomorrow for their annual visit/holidays. It was good to catch up with them – haven’t done this for a while now.
As I write this over lunch, Sydney CBD (Martin Place) is witnessing a dramatic event. A gunman is holding some people hostage in a café, and some of those hostages have been asked to hold up an Islamic looking flag against the shop window. Police are everywhere and everyone’s emailing and texting and face booking everyone else about it.
Kiddo’s back, Employer’s cracked and Sydney’s jacked.
Ante 