When I first landed in Sydney back in early 1985, I had some help from the folks at OCF (Overseas Christian Fellowship). I remained in contact with OCF’ers and their activities right through my stay in Sydney. When I left in 1990 however, I stopped having any contact with most people from that cohort. We re-established contact when we returned to Melbourne in 2004. Ing Tung and Chin Moi were very helpful to us then. We had attended their wedding in Kuching, Sarawak in 1993 (I think).
Last Friday night, a bunch of us from OCF days in Sydney got together at Patsy’s. Andy and Lisa, who live in Sydney, were visiting Melbourne. Andy’s sister has a daughter living in Melbourne, who has given birth to their second child so the sister left Malaysia to be with her daughter. Tress and I bought a dish from Flavours of Mekong and drove to Patsy’s, and we had a wonderful time of catching up with all the wonderful people we had known so long ago. Patsy’s facebook post later confirmed that was some 35 years ago.
Some time on Saturday morning, I got a ping on my phone. Graeme, who was to lead the corporate prayers at St Alf’s the next day, said he had come down with a cold and asked if I could fill in. We were just heading out for a walk with the little fellow so I thought I’d think about it when we walked. Not long into the walk, I thought I couldn’t turn down a request for help simply because I may feel uncomfortable doing the task, so when we got home, I responded to Graeme. A short while later, I retrieved a copy of the last one I did – some 3-4 year ago now – and worked on it. I told Tress the good thing about this was I only had less than 24 hours to be anxious and nervous, compared to when I last did it, when I was anxious and nervous for weeks!
Later that arvo we headed out for our usual grocery shopping and some lunch, before coming back to take those two out for another walk. It had been a warmer and sunnier day and we wanted to make the most of it, before a busy Sunday comes around.
We were also on communion duty on Sunday, and we were going to head out west to Point Cook for a kiddy’s birthday party. Tress’ cousins’ kids were turning 1 and 12 and both were going to have their birthday parties at their grandparents’ home, which was where we would be heading after St Alf’s, but not before picking up some “ang kuh” near the Glen as our contribution. We had also bought gifts for the kiddies and the drive out west was going to be costly too – the toll alone was about $20 – so this kiddies party was going to give our wallets a bit of a thump.
I read from my prepared/scripted prayer, and after the communion, we headed out to pick up the “ang kuhs” and then headed out west. It was great catching up with family again. Alden, the 12 year old has grown, as has April his sister, who is 10. We also met Alana (5?) and Remy (2?), David and Jessica’s 2 little girls, for the first time. Everyone who were there looked well. Chris, Nat’s partner, teaches in Blackburn High and Nat is working with Marsh, the insurance company. Adam continues to work on his durian business, and treated us to durian ice cream which was really nice.
We came back in time to give the two furry fellows another walk, before settling down to finally put our feet up, for the first time, for the weekend. I rang my mum and had a good chat. She told us Nic has landed a position as an intern. I later messaged Nic and she said it would be a role in a NSW hospital up in Northern NSW. That’s a wonderful piece of news. We then messaged Kiddo and Mic to let them know the good news. The chat with my mum, along with this piece of news, was a wonderful way to finish the weekend. A busy weekend. Busy but good? I guess…
Ante 