It was a very wet Saturday morning, again. I tried walking the younger fella and we didn’t get very far. Back home, I did some quick vacuuming as Tress organised the laundry. When that was “done”, we took it out to the local laundromat to use the drying machine. As we waited, we walked into an op-shop and wandered around. I then walked further up the street to a Sri Lankan food shop but it was only half-opened, with some renovation works going on. The other shops were all shut and although it was late in the morning (just after 11am) it felt deserted and lifeless. When the dryer stopped spinning and we headed home, I finished up the vacuuming, got cleaned up and we headed out. Tress had fulfilled the shopping lists of a couple of people so we were to drop off the second shopping harvest at A Hooi’s who had covid and was house bound. We just left the stuff at the front door and Tress messaged Ray, who was going to drop in to bring food for the family (Hooi, Marloney and Justin all had the bug).

The night before, we delivered the first of the two lists. Jason and Mel met us at the Mekong place and we caught up. Jason told us he was offered a severance package, that he accepted. He had been talking about retiring anyway so I guess the package was timely. He looked like he was still processing it but on balance, looked at peace. We were happy for them. It made me think of what I wanted to do, but I still have some ways to go before I’m at where Jason is now. The boss rang on Thursday anyway, and said they were revising my pay, as part of a financial year end adjustment. I wasn’t expecting it as my full year only comes up in about 3 months. My employer has been fair that way – seeing that inflation is the word most thrown around at this point in time, and the adjustment they gave me was a bit over the official inflation rate. I can’t possibly be thinking of retirement at this time, restful as it may sound.

On Sunday at St Alf’s it was a “Going Bananas” Sunday – the Sunday after the end of the winter school holidays program that run every year. Many kid were visibly excited and the atmosphere had a distinct “family” feel about it. So it was a bit of a strange Sunday for one of our old acquaintance to visit. Wilson is 85 years old (he told/reminded us over coffee after the service), and we had known him from our days at ICC (International Christian Community) Church. We bumped into each other a couple of weekends ago and he told me he was looking for a church. It was good to catch up with him.

Later that arvo, we did our usual Sunday things. We did our grocery shopping, I cooked, Tress did some weeding and we then took the little fellow out to the oval. It had turned sunny so it was a good end to the day/weekend. Made even better by a Hawks’ win at the Marvel Stadium, over the Crows. Mitch Lewis kicked 5 inside the first half, so it was quite the performance.

The press had been going on about the Wimbledon Men’s final, but like many Australians, I turned off and couldn’t be less interested, given the distasteful ways a certain Australian finalist had behaved. I told Tress two of the least liked players were involved (the Australian much more than the Serb, yes) so we just didn’t bother following that match. It turned out the usual implosion happened and the Serb went on to win. Next, please.

All that shows how life has returned to normal. It was always going to be great with Tress back.