Winter sees all of our greens around house, slow down. That means less work for yours truly on weekends so Tress and I have been getting out more.

On Saturday, after a leisurely walk with the little fellow and a quick pottering around t he house, we went to Springvale again. A couple of Malaysian Malay food joints have come up in recent years and we’d only been there once before this winter. This time, we went to a Malay joint with lontong (a type of wrapped rice staple) that is served in a rich creamy coconut broth with lots of vege. It’s called Lontong Sayur Lodeh. They also had a classic nasi lemak, which Tress had. They were both very good. We also packed some food to go with us, seeing we weren’t going to do any cooking that weekend.

Later that arvo, we did our usual oval walk with the little fellow again before putting up our legs for the night. The “dream time” game between the Bombers and the Tigers were on but we caught a movie on Netflix instead, to start the evening. We did eventually switch to that game which was a bit of a fizzer. The Tigers have been undergoing an attrition and with loads of players unavailable through injury, they have been pretty ordinary. There was also the A League soccer “grand final” on and since Melbourne Victory was playing, we watched that for a bit too.

When both games were over, I saw that it would be another hour and a half before the FA Cup final came on. Such is the woe of living so far from where the best soccer is played, I hardly watch any game anymore, even when a match like the FA Cup final (with Man Utd playing Man City) will be on Paramount Plus, which we have. We went to bed, thinking the very dominant City team will surely prevail. United, with all its recent woes, would be lucky to lose by a respectable margin. So I thought.

When we woke up on Sunday morning, I was very pleasantly surprised – United won, with two young goalscorers carrying the day. Garnacho and Mainoo will surely represent the future of any resurgence that United fans have any hope for.

At St Alf’s later that day, the atmosphere was a bit subdue. It was a first Sunday post Peter MacPherson. Mark Simon was to be the stand in vicar, until a permanent replacement can be found. As soon as the service was over, we went home, attended to the little fellow, then ducked out to catch the train to Marvel Stadium. There, we soaked in a wonderful win by the Hawks, which gave yours truly a second reason to be grinning from ear to ear. A weekend with both my teams chalking up wonderful wins has been as rare as hen’s teeth and so I savoured it.

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We caught up with Jason and Mel on Friday night at the Rogues’ Squire at Wheelers Hill. Jason had teed it up, and he had been saying, for a few weeks now, that he wanted to catch up. We finally did, and found out why he had wanted to. It made me smile – another reason to be grinning – so it has been a wonderful weekend.

Towards the middle of last week, we received a message from Edwina, a member of a support group that we joined not too long ago. The support group was to do some background/logistics kind of support for university work a couple of ministry folks were doing with the AFES. Amy and Lauren work at Monash and Swinburne campuses respectively and Tress and I have been supporters of Lauren’s work for a little while, so when we were asked if we’d like to join the support group. it didn’t take long for us to say yes. I’d been praying for opportunities to serve so I saw that as an answer to my prayers.

The message reminded us of a meeting that had been scheduled for Saturday morning and we were tasked with teeing up the details of that meeting. We’re very grateful for that message as we had forgotten about it…

So on Saturday morning, after walking the little fellow, we went to that meeting at Edwina and Doug’s home in Box Hill. Several others were there (other than Amy and Lauren) so it was good to just catch up, and we talked about how Amy and Lauren had been doing and what were coming up. Ravi (the “chair”) suggested we prayed for them which was really good.

After a couple of hours, we went back, pottered around the house, then headed out to Knox for lunch at the Gateway place. Tress loves the “Kueh Kak” and I really enjoyed the assam laksa the last time we were there (more than a month or so ago) so I had that again. After lunch, we did some grocery shopping and then went home and I quickly did the mowing (and the edging) of our lawns, swept and tidied up around the house, and Tress took the fellow to the oval and I marinated the pork we picked up, for the cook the next day. Then we got cleaned up and got ready to head out to St Alf’s.

We went for a couple of seconds – our second lovely dinner of the weekend, and our second meeting up with St Alf’s folks on that same day. Peter MacPherson, the senior vicar, was to leave after Sunday and Saturday night was a farewell dinner to him and Ginney his wife. The function was at St Alf’s, where a bunch of folks had put in a ton of work to doll up the place and put on a grand sending off dinner party for Peter and Ginney.

Peter had been at St Alf’s since 1992, and had been the senior vicar for 24 years. At the dinner, a reel of his years of service was shown. That was repeated the next say at the morning service and I found myself dabbing a trace of tears in my eye. I think what started that flow of emotions was Michael Petering’s speech. Doug his father, and the Peterings are the grand old pillars in St Alf’s (maybe a touch like how my grandfather and his clan had been at the church in Klang). Helen, Michael’s sister, is a music minister and she goes to the same home group as Tress and I.

Tress and I left our old church in Glen Waverley because I thought the teaching was always an issue that played in my mind. So when we decided to leave (after nearly 9 years) good teaching was a core criterion. Kiddo mentioned St Alf’s to us and we then visited it back in early 2013. It didn’t take long for the good teaching box to be ticked and we’ve remained with St Alf’s since.

I have always found Peter to be the solid, calm and assured teacher. He taught faithfully and without fear – in the sense that he didn’t avoid the hard bits of Christianity or the difficult books in the Bible. He always approached it from a solid understanding of what God’s plans for creation – humanity – had been from the beginning, the fulfilment of those plans in Jesus and the continuing work of the Spirit in the present church. That assured stance, the confidence, meant he didn’t react or try to reign in the varying reins of thoughts and opinions that were everywhere. St Alf’s is a fertile ground for numerous and varying opinions. It is made up of many learned minds with rich experience in ministry. That is a great blessing but the obvious reverse side of that coin brings with it challenges that needed a confident senior vicar to bat away the constant and endless quick and googly. Peter played that role like a champion batsman and what an innings he’s had. That calm assured persona did not just show in the teaching. It also showed in his leadership. He allowed a “thousand flowers to bloom”. He empowered his staff and members in a way that only a confident servant could.

Peter will be missed.

In his last sermon on Sunday, he provided a clue for the source of the assurance that he has always exuded. He pointed to Jesus as the Son of God who came to serve. He preached on Luke 4 (titled “A New Order”), the same sermon he preached on the first service of the S@6 congregation at St Alf’s that he started over 20 years ago. He has been a wonderful servant because he knew his master well. The chorus that says Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever, came into the fore. Hebrews 13 was also cited at the end by Ben Clements, the new(ish) minister of the 10am congregation. It was another example of what good teaching can do. Grounding his parting sermon on the unchanging nature of Jesus, was to assure folks that after his tenure, Jesus will remain Lord and Master and so providence of good teaching and good leadership will continue.

Tress and i have been blessed to be part of St Alf’s. Last night as we prepare for bed, we talked about getting some folks from St Alf’s over to our home for dinner. I hope that works out. It’d be good to have fellowship and community to soak in the good teaching together.

I have been feeling the cooler conditions, more so than in previous years. We’re heading towards the end of autumn now, so the temperatures have dropped, particularly in the morning. I suspect however, that I’m also feeling the cold more now, because of the age factor. I am getting older, and colder.

The silver lining of the dark cold clouds however, is that the lawns, shrubs, hedges and all that greenery around the house, slow to a grinding halt when the thermometer drops in its readings. I have less work to do around the house in these months. So for the second consecutive weekend, Tress and I indulged ourselves.

After a sleep in (or sorts) and walking the young fellow, we trekked southwards and headed for Springvale. We hadn’t been there for a while and the idea of feasting on either Vietnamese Pho or Malay curries, was very inviting. We ended up in a Pho place and thoroughly enjoyed the steaming bowls of rich beefy broth and the silky noodles that came with that. The beef was a touch overcooked but in a bowl of delicious soupy noodles, that mattered less.

We walked along the busy paths, with bustling shops doing their trades. A couple of shops with Pho and Banh Mi, had lines that snaked out of its front door. We also stopped by a Malaysian joint for a bowl of cendol as well as did our grocery shopping of fruits and vege.

Later that arvo, as we walked the little fellow again, I followed the Hawks game in Tassie against the Saints, and was please to see the team chalking up its second consecutive win. It was a low scoring game but a win is… a win. Later that night, we watched a movie and then Tress suggested we should head out to look at the skies. The Aurora Australis phenomenon was keeping the locals busy so Tress and I headed out around 9.30pm, and walked along the sidewalks to look at the skies. We didn’t see much and on the way home, we decided to stop at the oval. We could see hues of pink and a faint touch of green and when I took some pictures, the colours looked far more pronounced. Tress in particular got excited and we started to take more pictures and shared them on socials. That night turned out to be a busy one. The Tigers’ misery at the hand of the Doggies got second billing as we looked at social media postings by Melburnians, all sharing their experience of the light shows.

On Sunday at St Alf’s we were on communion duty so we made an attempt to be there on time. David Williams spoke and after the service, we went to our local shopping centre for lunch. It was Mother’s Day so we avoided the usual Donvale outing, as it was likely to be crowded. Later, we indulged further, this time in Nic’s gifts of a delicious cake that she had given Tress the night before. I’m guessing she was reciprocating in some ways, as we had taken her out to dinner on Friday. Actually that dinner was to catch up with Bernard, a cousin who was visiting from Perth. He is a successful architect and was out here for a conference. It was really nice of him to reach out for a catch up and I appreciated that very much. We went to an Italian joint at The Glen, and then walked along Kingsway after dinner to take in the busy Friday night atmosphere, as we hadn’t been there for a little while too.

Last night, we thought we might catch a repeat of the light show but there was nothing on show. So we headed for bed early-ish, grateful for a weekend of food, spectacular show of God’s creation wonders and time with folks who are also relos.

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Through the weekend, we followed and were concerned with little Abigail’s woes. She was down with conjunctivitis and her pics looked subdued. The little trooper that she is, appeared to have made very little fuss and just got on with it however. I can’t wait to see her again…

Note to self: Lemon and Cracked Pepper Tuna does not go with this quick noodle…

It was the first week back for Tress and we had both been at work the whole time, so when Friday arrived, we did our usual thing to just go into a quiet little spot for a “TGIF” feed. We went to Yaring Thai, the little hole-in-the-wall joint as the crow flies, and ate our hearts out, gorging on the delicious whole fried barra, massaman beef curry and a somtham salad.

On Saturday, we walked the little fellow, and then trekked into the city for a bit of a wander. We hadn’t been into the city (other than for the football at the MCG) for a little while now and when Tress said we should do something fun for that day, we decided to do lunch downtown. The trains at Blackburn were being replaced by buses so we detoured and headed to Syndal for the Glen line instead, and trekked into Flinders Street.

We ended up at the Roti Bar joint on LIttle Collins street. When we got there, a short queue had built up and while waiting to get a table, we saw how the place was just buzzing. The special of the day was a banana leaf spread. Back when we were in KL, my colleagues and I would do a weekly banana leaf lunch at Jalan Ampang (or it could have been Leboh Ampang). We’d feed ourselves crazy and it was known as “pukul mati” – loosely translated to say food coma I guess.

I had the banana leaf at Roti Bar, with a spiced yoghurt drink that was a bit out there. Tress had a roti and a teh tarik – safer options. The roti and the banana leaf were delicious. They were very generous with the curries and veges and we particularly enjoyed the fried bitter gourd. A minor case of food coma followed, and we then walked through various laneways in the city, including the always popular Degraves. It was good to see the city buzzing again. The beautiful autumn day must have helped. We walked towards the Alexandria Garden, past the Fed Square where a Buddhist celebration event was on. We then went into the NGV, before heading back to Flinders Station to get home.

We stopped at The Glen to pick up something from the butcher and the Asian grocer, before heading back to again walk the fellow at the oval. Later that night, we put our feet up and watched the Demons v Cats game. That trickled goal by Fritsch at the dead won it for the Demons, by just a goal. The two relative sitters that were missed by the usually brilliant and dependable Cameron, the champion Cats goal kicker, didn’t help…

At St Alf’s on Sunday, it was Peter’s closing chapter. Helen Petering presented him with the “seat of honour” and there were enthusiastic applause. He’d be missed when he leaves in a couple of weeks. After the service we headed to our usual lunch place at Donvale, and I felt it was a bit underwhelming. Maybe it was time to try a different place…

Back home, we walked the little fellow, did the usual Sunday cook (a pork rib congee) and then walked him again as I followed the Doggies v Hawks game on the footy app. The Doggies started in a blitz, kicking 3 quick goals and I thought “here we go again” but my dear Hawks showed fight. We ended up leading the Doggies for much of the game, ending with a 7 point win. What a win. Hard fought but so very satisfying. It was a Doggies home game at the Marvel at Docklands and I had said to Tress earlier, that we hadn’t been informed if it was a “replacement game” so we could watch it, but following it on the AFL app was nearly as good, given the win. It was great to hear the team song again.

The news on the domestic front has been bleak, with reports of fights, stabbings, and the likes. I have been on an escapade mode for a little while now, preferring to either not read or watch such news, or letting them quickly wash over me. It doesn’t take away the depressing effect. We live in ever messier times, with depravity mounting around us. My reading is through the Gospels now, with Luke telling us how Jesus went about righting wrongs around him. We said the Lord’s Prayer as always, at St Alf’s and as we did, I wondered if and how His will can be done on earth as in heaven again. How we need Jesus to right the mounting wrongs around us. Even as I live my little (cloistered, head in the sand?) life.