Last Friday, we caught up with the Hii’s and Chew’s for dinner. We ventured a bit further and drove down to Clayton for some old-fashioned Malaysian goodness. We had to start later than our usual time (of 6/6.30) as the Hii’s needed to drop their older one off at church.

Jason had announced that he was accepting a separation package – sort of a retirement – so the dinner was to celebrate the occasion. At that dinner, Gerry also made an announcement of sorts – that he too was moving on. Hopefully he finds the new role more to his liking. The Hii’s have had a rough few weeks, as they’ve had visitors staying with them for an extended period and things got a bit hairy. I guess as long as we remain narcissistic, we’d think woe is us – when we focus on others, what little woes we thought we have, take on different shades.

There was another event on Saturday night – we went to the Victorian CMS branch dinner, which had an aboriginal theme. Titled “Deep Roots”, the focus was on the journey of CMS at the top end, and how the aboriginal community accepted CMS and its work. Wei-Han, the Victorian CEO relayed stories about aboriginal people being killed by stock men who were expanding their cattle stations. These aboriginal people found refuge with Christians. These accounts were both shocking and uplifting. The menu for the dinner was also aboriginal – we ate bush food. It was quite an educational event for Tress and I, and we ended up staying the whole night, which ended just after 10pm.

The next day was to be a final MCG home game for the Hawks but we had loads to do and we had been planning how to squeeze a few things in when we drove past Blackburn station and saw that bus replacements were on, so we promptly decided to ditch the game. I came to regret it as it was a better game for the Hawks, who got up well against West Coast Eagles. United did well too – beating Liverpool, Melbourne Victory and Crystal Palace – so on the sporting front, things went well. Yes, those United games were only pre-season friendlies but with United being where they are, it felt good to see a string of wins.

Yesterday, Alex dropped by (I was working from home) to have his son’s passport renewal signed. He had just dropped Li Har at the airport earlier – she’d be in Malaysia for a couple of weeks. We chatted a little bit and I was very happy to hear he’s started a role with an Australian operation of a large Malaysian property group. It’s strange that a friend is finishing a work journey while another is just starting his.