Last week, I only worked “half” a week (Wed – Fri) as Mon was the King’s Birthday public holiday and Tress and I had taken Tuesday off with Kiddo, Mic and Abby in town. A “half week” didn’t make much difference to the way my energy level normally ebbs on Thursday night/Friday. We were at a connect group meeting on Thursday night and someone said, at the end of that meeting and we were about to leave, that I looked tired. I said I felt that way. So when Friday arvo came around and it was about 4.30pm, I decided to head out to the oval to be with Tress and the little fellow, who had been there earlier. Walking the dog has become an outlet of sorts for me, and being at the ovals (Mahoney reserve generally) has become a source of peaceful unwinding for me. It will be something I will miss dearly when we leave Melbourne. While I am sure we can find another spot in Canberra, it will take some getting used to and it will be a while before I find my new Mahoney’s reserve.
We went to our favourite local Thai place at Mitcham for a “TGIF” dinner. It was very busy as usual, with hoardes of takeaway customers making a non-stop and never ending queue from the counter. On Saturday morning, it was very cold so we slept in, then take that fellow for a long walk, before coming home for some chores. Tress vacuumed the house and I swept up the leaves – from the beautiful pear tress on our neighbour’s front garden – that had covered our driveway, front yard and everywhere else. Interestingly, our Japonica shed less this year so cleaning up the leaves from the backyard took much quicker. I then swept the deck and then transplanted some baby agave plants that had sprouted around the main mother plant. I left one of the babies at the driveway of a neighbour that Tress said would be interested in planting one and when not long after I headed to a nearby house which had “free lemons” at the front, that baby agave had disappeared… hopefully the neighbours had taken it in for replanting later.
We got cleaned up later that arvo, and headed out to Knox for a late lunch, and then to the Glen for some grocery shopping. We wanted to do a chicken curry for the week’s cook – we hadn’t done chicken curry for a little while – and The Glen always provides the fresher ingredients. When that was done and we came home, we headed to the oval again for the little fellow to have yet another walk, and for yours truly to again enjoy a tranquil end to the day. It had been a beautifully sunny day and as the sun set against the top of the trees around the oval, I was again filled with gratitude that a beautiful spot of open area was right at our doorstep. I again wondered if we will be similarly blessed when we move.
Dusty Martin – the AFL superstar that shot the Tigers to the premiership a few years ago, played his 300th game on late Saturday arvo. It was against the Hawks. Being an away game at the G, we were offered “replacement game” tickets but all I could get were L4 ones (way up yonder in the highest upper tier) that would also cost me some money so Tress and I agreed we’d not go, the occasion notwithstanding. Over 92,000 fans turned up to see Hawks rain on Dusty’s parade and we chalked up another win to assure ourselves the rebuild is well and truly underway. I wonder if we can progress to the later stages of the finals next season, before we up sticks.
On Sunday after St Alf’s we wanted to go to our usual place at Donvale but when Tress rang, they sounded very busy so we headed to another place in Nunawading instead. The food there was very good and when we came back after lunch, we felt we needed another walk so off we went to Mahoney’s reserve again. It would be another hour or so before we returned and I did the week’s cook. When that was done, Tress had taken the little fellow back to the oval so I headed there again. We walked on the oval till it started to get dark. As we headed back through our side door towards our backyard, I wondered again, what sort of home we’d settle into, once we move. I felt, for the umpteenth time, gratitude for having had Mahoney’s reserve all these years.
Ante 