Tress left last night. This is her 6th trip this year. It has been that kind of year, perhaps expectedly as our parents are at that age where ailments and illnesses creep towards centre stage.
Her dad was taken ill last Thursday, and they got him into the ICU. His cardio-respiratory illnesses have not improved, and this year has been quite poor for him.
For the whole of Saturday, she and I had both been at the Salvos fete in Manningham. We’ve volunteered there for a number of years now, so it has become easier and yet at the end of the day, we were both tired. Tired but happy, probably.
We had left home around 6.30am, picked up the mini-bus from Doncaster, and headed to Camberwell Station to pick up a bunch of volunteers from Melbourne University. We would have picked them up from Blackburn Station but it so happened there bus replacements on so we thought the students could start earlier with the set up if we picked them up from Camberwell instead.
Tress helped with the kitchen and I just did whatever needed doing. Towards 10am, I headed out and picked up some residents of an aged care facility. Some of them recognised me as the driver who’s been picking them up in recent years and so I felt I have a bit more of their confidence this time around. A few of them had wheelchairs/mobility units so other than helping very immobile and elderly bodies up into a mini-bus, I also had to fold and stow those wheelies at the back of the bus. I have acquired a new set of skills in folding, locking and unlocking and unfolding these increasingly complicated wheelies.
It was a gloriously sunny day and so the event was very good. Fete may feel like an outdated fundraising avenue but it helped tell the community the Salvos are still around, and it is still doing great work in and for the community.
Back home later that night, Tress kept the communication channels with her family busy and ended up getting tickets to travel the next day. I had preferred she travelled in the morning but leaving at night meant I got another day with her which was really good.
So Sunday, after St Alf’s we had lunch and did our usual rounds of grocery shopping and coffee, where we bumped into and had coffee with Jason and Mel. It remained a sunny and warm day so when we got home before 3pm, I sent straight into mowing the lawns and snipped a bit more of the back hedges and then swept up, cleaned and tidied and generally soaked up the warmth of the day. I finished with hosing the plants while Tress walked the little fellow. Later, we went over to Fay’s to drop our keys off with her. Fay was going to walk the little fellow so I don’t have to worry about him too much.
We pushed off a bit after 8.30pm, to Tullamarine and this time, I only dropped her off and headed straight back. It was just after 10pm when I got home, to start another week with only the Little Black Jedi for company.
This morning as I got into the office, I saw on my private email, a GC role with an NFP. It turned out to be the Salvos. I couldn’t let this opportunity pass so I think I will tip my hat into the ring. Just a little punt, or perhaps (hopefully) a response to a nudge from He Who Must Be Obeyed.
Ante 