At long last, it has begun feeling a lot more like summer. It was warm on Friday, and stayed that way all through the weekend.

On Saturday, we caught up for dinner with a few of my La Salle old boys. Four of us (with 3 of us along with our spouses) met up in AP’s home, out in Berwick. It was a beautiful home and we had a wonderful time of just talking, over a very delicious dinner AP’s wife had cooked. We brought along some barbequed ribs, which I had slow cooked pretty much all arvo. Alex C and his wife C live in Bayswater with their youngest child, now nearly 20, and Alex’s parents. Alex works nearhome, with a large local retailer. SH lives in Toorak and works in the city. AP and I have caught up and talked regularly as he provides consulting services to my company. That was how we reconnected, some 5 years ago now. The WhatsApp and FB messages we shared afterwards, were heart warming as well.

The next day, we were at St Alf’s again. I had logged in to the home page late Sat arvo and noticed there were still places available for the 80 people capacity that was set. Peter took the service (Mike did last week), and again, it was really good to be able to be there in person again, together with Tress of course.

Later that arvo, I did the same cook as the day before. This time however, it was for a catch up with Alex and Li Har, along with the Hipos and Jason and Mel. As always, it was wonderful to meet up with these dear friends again, in person. We had a good time of chatting, singalong even (carols, etc.) and over good food. Alex looked a bit quiet and subdued however, and I wonder if he has worries he hasn’t articulated, possibly financial ones.

We left a bit after 9pm, and I had to be in the office the next day, to get some documents signed. I’ve just done that a short while ago, but being back in office to work feels a bit good, strangely enough. It’s now just a few days before we catch up with Kiddo and Micaiah. It’d be a busy few days but I suspect they will go past relatively quickly.

On Saturday, Tress had an AGM for the community group assistance organisation she volunteers for. I spent the most part of the morning cleaning up the gardens, and trimming the hedges closest to the deck. High levels of rains in recent weeks have resulted in luscious boughs of these hedges and the trimmings filled up the green bin pretty quickly.

The highlight of the weekend however, was a return to St Alf’s. The numbers were still limited, and the Sunday morning session we attended only allowed 50 people in. We had to book in ahead of time, and it was really good to be attending the meeting in person again. It had been close to 9 months since we were last in the auditorium, and a few people welled up a little.

Later in the arvo after St Alf’s, when I’ve done the week’s cook, I wandered off to the oval across the road, and watched a few overs of the local cricket game. It had been raining intermittently throughout the whole day, and the front lawn always looked great when it had just been mowed and then the rains came pretty much immediately thereafter. Standing just outside the parameter of the oval and taking in the actions of the batsmen, bowlers and fielders, I thought how good it was that people can now come together again.

It was a memorable, and really wonderful weekend.