Often, the Lent season starts me thinking about the Holy Week and what I might do for the season, particularly on what I might consider giving up that week, so that Good Friday and Easter sort of gets better traction and it can be more meaningful for me.

This year however, for a range of reasons possibly, Lent, Holy Week and the Good Friday/Easter sort of just came and went without me giving it much thought. Those reasons probably centre on work and the fact that I have become more absorbed in my work than I care to admit. So, the long weekend has become more a rest from work than a time for me to reflect on what Jesus experienced as man under siege. Maybe things have cooled a bit, but I’m hanging in there, and waiting, and reading, and praying and, as much as I can, acting.

After work on Thursday, we went to do a bit of shopping as I wanted to do a curry dish the next day for Saturday’s lunch with Ruth and Jonathan. Kiddo and Mic came down from Canberra early Friday arvo. After a quick breakfast, I cooked the curry. When that was done, Tress and I drove up to Tullamarine and all four of us then headed to Port Melbourne where we had lunch in an Indian restaurant. The banana leaf rice menu has been on our radar for a while so Tress thought it’d be a good opportunity to have a sticky beak. We wouldn’t – I particularly – think of trekking across town, traversing Melbourne, for a meal so a return drive from Tullamarine gave us a reason to make that trip.

After lunch we headed home and for the rest of the day, we simply caught up and spent a bit of time planning our trip to Malaysia. We also went to a local Asian grocery store – only these shops are open on a Good Friday – to pick up some stuff for me to cook for the lunch on Saturday.

The next day, I spent the morning cooking while Kiddo, Mic and Tress went to the shops. Ruth, Jonathan and little Micah then came around 1pm and we spent the rest of the day catching up over lunch. It was wonderful to also spend some time at the oval and the adjoining playground, as it was a sunny and cool day.
On Sunday after St Alf’s we came home and had leftovers for lunch, before heading into the city just for a walkabout and catching nibbles. We had an early dinner in a popular dumpling place in the Emporium and then headed home. We had been playing cards each of the past 2 nights, so we continued with that very enjoyable activity.

On Monday, Kiddo went to get a hairy, then we had lunch at Westfield before heading out to Tulla again, for the Canberrans to return to the capital city. We got back in time for a quick walk for the little guy before the Cats v Hawks game. I was glued to the tele for the next 3 hours, captivated by the battle royale that has come to define Easter Monday footy. The cats had an assembly of midfield stars dubbed the holy trinity – the combative Selwood, the explosive Dangerfield and the mercurial Ablett – which the Hawks had to contain. Contain them we did, as Mitchell and McEvoy lead a very effective team to a pulsating 1-point victory, the only second time in recent years, where the Cats didn’t have the better of us.

We had been watching a series on Netflix, called “Wild Wild Country”, which chronicled the bizarre exploits of the orange people in Oregon in the early 80’s. It was an interesting series, but I wondered why it became such a hit on Netflix. I do recall however, the funnier guys in school who used the Bhagwan as a joke and in a recent tv show a few years ago, the Sheela line of “tough titties” on the Australian 60 Minutes got some airplay. Other than that the whole orange people episode was no more than a forgettable flash for most people. Maybe the Americans are different.

This morning as I got off the tram and walked towards the office, I noticed daylight was already upon us. Soon the days will end earlier, and it will get dark earlier as the warm days fade into memory. I hope winter will be kind on us this year.