Alex and Li Har have been building their new home for a while and on Saturday night, a bunch of us visited them there for a dinner party of sorts. Tress and I had been there a few weeks earlier, and a bit more work was still going on then. Things looked far more settled on Saturday night and the hosts appeared far happier too, although Alex confided with Jason and I, of his financial concerns. I guess we all have that same – albeit varying degrees of – concern and having completed the building of his very large and beautiful home, those concerns are not unreasonable.
Earlier that morning, I had been in a planning meeting at Steer. It was to do with the investment strategy/policy and I continued to soak up the wisdom of the collective. The day had been very warm and Tress had done a heap of work at home to clean and change sheets etc and when I got home, I felt the onset of a lethargic weekend. Tress and I walked down our street for an auction, which got passed in, confirming for us that the housing market in Melbourne really has gone off the boil. We then grabbed a quick lunch and bought some groceries for the night’s party at Alex and Li Har’s, which didn’t help with my lethargy, as there were copious wines swirling around.
So on Sunday, I struggled through St Alf’s and the cloudy, cooler conditions were more pleasant but didn’t help me much.
We got home early arvo and I got stuck into the garden – doing the hedges and lawns, quickly filling up the green wheelie bin with overdue clippings of our very tall side James Sterling’s. We then cooked the week’s lunches, before settling down to rest up, in readiness for the new working week.
A stream of emails had been ringing away on my mobile throughout the weekend so the ramping up of the busy pre-Christmas period continues unabated. It’s 3 weeks out to Christmas and I had been looking forward to spending time with my siblings and their families but another part of me – the part that dread or loath international travels- made me look forward to a different trip a little further down the track.
Tress and I had met up with Jason and Mel for dinner on Friday night and I had said to them, that somehow, I am looking forward to the Australia Day weekend more than the coming Christmas break, simply because the latter involves international travel. I had said the same thing to Tress the day before. Maybe I’m just becoming closer to a grumpy old man.
I hope the new year will see me better equipped to play a better role in Steer. Maybe also be a better friend to mates. Maybe I can be less grumpy that way.
Ante 