I’d been noticing spots of grime and dust here and there around the house so on Sat morning, after sleeping in and walking the little guy, Tress and I got stuck into house cleaning. We vacuumed, brushed, wiped and after a few hours, tired ourselves out but the house felt clean and fresh. It always feels great when that happens. With the previous weekend being kept busy working on the outside with the hedges, lawns and all and the house cleaning this weekend, it felt like a familiar routine has crept back in.

The night before, we caught up with Jason and Mel at a local favourite in Donvale. Laksa Village has become our friendly go to place and it was buzzing on Friday night, which was great to see. Sammi, Jason and Mel’s daughter had left for Hong Kong earlier in the week. She and Brendan her husband will live and work there from hereon in, and Jason and Mel had already booked airtix to visit them in October. Life cycles always throw up surprises and it is always interesting to anticipate what lies around the bend.

After the house cleaning, we dropped into The Glen – we hadn’t been there for a little while and I wasn’t sure what I wanted for lunch so I thought we’d go to the food court and then do some grocery shopping as well. Later that arvo, we walked the boys again, before coming home to get ready to watch the Matilda’s 3rd place playoff. Sweden was very good, as was England earlier in the week, so the Matildas ended up being the 4th placed team in the 2023 World Cup. The women’s game is still an “acquired taste” but the sense of occasion and cheering the national team on made up for the gap and made it interesting all the same.

St Alf’s the next day had a “Life on the Frontline” series starting. Well it’s only for a couple of weeks so a short series it is. We then went to another Malaysian place in Syndal for lunch, before going home for me to do the week’s cook. When that was done, we headed to the local Dan Murphy’s to replenish my empty wine rack, before settling down to watch the Hawks game against the Dees. We went down fighting and I had to remind myself this was the 16th placed team against the 4th placed, so the loss wasn’t so hard to take. The harder loss was that of Man United earlier on Sunday morning. Spurs, under Postecoglu, apparently now play a more exciting brand of football and United has been branded (by Keano) as the “new Spurs”. Disparaging, especially for Spurs for sure, but with the Matildas. Hawks and United all losing, it wasn’t a weekend of sporting happiness. We watched a little bit of the Spain v England final last night. Football is still not “coming home” for England. Spain is the spanking new world champions of women’s football. That feels about as fresh as our clean home.