It often feels like this in Victoria now:

“Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience. They may be more likely to go to Heaven yet at the same time likelier to make a Hell of earth. This very kindness stings with intolerable insult. To be “cured” against one’s will and cured of states which we may not regard as disease is to be put on a level of those who have not yet reached the age of reason or those who never will; to be classed with infants, imbeciles, and domestic animals.”

― C.S. Lewis, God in the Dock: Essays on Theology (Making of Modern Theology)

“Spring” and “cleaning” often appear together, and for good reasons. Spring cleaning ruled my Saturday just passed.

On Friday night however, we caught up again for “drink” on zoom, with the Lim’s, Chew’s and Hippos. It was good as always. I guess it gets us ready and warmed for when we can meet in person again.

Spring cleaning Saturday was a warm and humid (only mildly) day. I cleaned all the internal windows and glass surfaces, removed fly screens from every room and washed them, and cleaned the internal window frames. The glass panes in the toilet in the laundry got a good clean too, as did the back laundry doors. Tress got busy with weeding and laundry and when we finally settled down for lunch close to 2pm, we were both tired but I had wanted to push on with giving the deck a bit of a “scrub” too. My plan was to re-oil it in a week or so. So, I pushed on but had to stop just before 4pm – we had a online viewing booked. We were to view a new litter of pups but when we logged on, every pup in that litter had been taken up so it was a very short viewing.

Later, we took the little fellow for a walk and it was very pleasant to be able to walk him decked out in shorts and sandals.

On Sunday, after St Alf’s online service, I ducked out to get some stuff for the week’s cook, came back to do the cook, and then spent the rest of the day basking in love and attention. It was my birthday and I felt spoilt. Tress got me a couple of very good looking bottles of red, Kiddo got me a beautiful watch band and just as we were preparing to get some takeouts for lunch, the Lim’s texted Tress to say lunch was on the way. We had a delicious briyani and butter chicken… yum… delicious fares, washed down with numerous wishes that came in on social media,,,

Later that arvo, we walked to the Chase to get some chicken to cook for the little fellow’s dinners, and finally, after cooking his dinners, settled down to put our feet up. Rest for the weekend at last…

We then saw that there were only 14 new cases of COVID for the day – the lowest number since June. It is starting to look promising and I guess like many Melburnians, I started to be optimistic. It was a wonderful birthday present. Thank you, Lord…

It was a weekend of 2 halves. The weather folks said, on Friday, that it was going to rain from about Sat arvo. It came much earlier, and Sat was a washout.

After Tress’ usual weekend delish brekky, I decided to clear out some old clothes. I emptied a couple of drawers and sorted out stuff. I think I threw out about half. When that was done, I cooked lunch for us. Tress loves fried rice and we haven’t had that for a while, so she cooked some rice earlier on, stuck it in the fridge to dry it out, and when I was done with my mini Kondo-ing, I did that fried rice. I had to make sure I made Uncle Roger proud. Nigel Ng has become synonymous with all sorts of fried rice memes and send up’s so I decided to take a picture of my end product for the customary social media contribution. We all need a laugh at these times. It’s also a soft landing to this wet Saturday.

Later that arvo I went out for grocery shopping, and came back to prep the chooks for the next day’s cook. Later, we watched Captain America et al battle Thanos, to no avail. I had wanted to catch the late Chadwick Boseman’s portrayal of the Black Panther again, but did not want the whole serve. It was tough seeing Thanos prevailing but we all know what happened in the End Game. I’ll keep that in the back pocket for the next wet Saturday night.

Weather wise, Sunday was the complete opposite of the previous day. So, after the St Alf’s online service, we planned to make the most of it. The service though, was interesting as it focused on Peter MacPherson’s 20 years of service as t he Senior Minister. He is much loved. To me, he is almost always the clear thinking, feet planted firmly on the ground, godly and deliberate leader.

After the online service, I did the week’s cook – 5 substantial serves of a chicken and mushroom plus red cabbage combo that are all stuck away in the freezer. With the cook done, I headed out to get some fuel for the mower, and came back to make the most of the sunny weather. I pruned back the milkwort outside our bedroom, that had grown to cover most of the window. It was a pity the bright flowers had to be cut back but it was much needed pruning. With the heavy pruning, the cob webbed windows showed all of its dust and crusts so I cleaned that and the other windows too, as well as the sliding door on the deck. That meant most of the outward facing glass surfaces got some much needed cleaning. Tress too, had been busy weeding, cleaning and generally tidying stuff out. She then went out to get “lunch” and did some more grocery shopping as I finished up with a quick mowing.

When we were done, it was well past 4pm… St Alf’s service was done by 10.30am., which meant we had spent nearly 6 hours of housekeeping stuff… After cleaning up and the very late “lunch” we walked the little fellow, soaking up the rest of the very pleasant sunny arvo.

As we wound up the day (and weekend), we caught up with the news and saw that there has been much discontent with how the State has managed this second wave of this awful virus. Protests at the Victoria Market in the city brought heavy police presence that created scenes that were once more associated with parts of Europe or lately, parts of the US. I had earlier responded to a few emails that talked about widely felt discontent with how the Premier Daniel Andrews has been handling this second wave, and said I hoped the decisions would be reviewed. I felt that the community that those emails circulated in, were a bit defensive of what Dan Andrews had done. I believe there was a bit of tribalism going on there, but that is only my personal opinion I guess.

I hope with the weather warming up, we’d see better days before too long. This weekend has been one of two halves, weather wise at least. I hope we are entering a better second half, in more ways than one.

It was a beautiful day yesterday. It was warm and sunny, and the scent of spring was thick in the air. Every time I sat down and looked out the windows, I wanted to go out into the sunbathed garden again. I did that several times, once even sitting down on the front lawn, with a glass of chardonnay in hand, Tress pottering nearby and the little fellow sitting next to me. I felt like those were perfect moments that just had to be savored with every fibre of my being.

I was especially and deliberately drinking all that in, to not be distracted, momentarily at least, by the doom and gloom that continues to build up here in Melbourne. The Premier had just announced a continuation of our journey along this tunnel that doesn’t promise any end, let alone any light.

The lock down continues. Many businesses aren’t allowed to resume trading and many will go to the wall. The quagmire from the bungled hotel quarantine plans continue to plague Melburnians, particularly small businesses with retail clienteles. On a personal side, all that meant our lives continue to be confined to our home. Tress and I wouldn’t be able to go out shopping together. We can’t go further than 5km to get a takeaway meal or do anything else. We can’t see our friends and we certainly cannot think about Christmas with Kiddo and Mic. We have to continue working from home. That is probably a blessing in many ways, not least in the form of still being employed. Many Melburnians have lost, and will continue to lose, their jobs.

Soaking in the afternoon sun with a glass of chardonnay in hand weren’t the only blessings I was endowed with over the weekend.

We had a good time catching up for zoom drinks again on Friday night. Everyone (Alex&LiHar, Gerry&Jesslyn and Jason&Mel) looked and sounded upbeat. Sheryl (G&J’s younger daughter) and Jason were having their birthdays so we ticked those off as well.

Tress and I did a bit of work around the house on Saturday. I gave every plant a feed, applied a weed and feed on the lawns, gave the cars a wash (badly needed after a dust storm last week), swept up the surrounds and tidied stuff up generally. Tress gave the house a thorough vacuuming and cleaned the toilets too. When we settled down to put our feet up late in the day, it felt like we were going to sleep well that night, and we did.

Sunday was Father’s Day and I had surprises galore. Tress and Kiddo both got me some very nice tipples. I didn’t get that DB5 on the driveway but the bottles of Shiraz were pretty good alternatives. Especially the Baby Grange Kiddo got me. St Alf’s online had Mark Simon deliver the main talk, which is about God the Father of all comfort. That was another blessing that had accumulated, and that had started from Friday night over the zoom drinks. The perfect weather that arvo saw us take in walks with the little fellow and it felt like we weren’t the only ones enjoying the warmer weather. The parklands, ovals, pavements, saw many families out and about. I guess we all want to forget the travails that threaten to steal out joys.

The long tunnel ahead, here in Melbourne, will hopefully continue to serve up little respites like what I was blessed with this past weekend. As I type this at my desk, my work day has just started and I am looking out at another day with very clear blue skies. Maybe these little respites will continue to soften the blows that this virus has rained on Melbourne in recent months.