A little Italian joint opened up in our new local shopping centre. It bears the same name as the company that employs me. We first encountered this restaurant by walking past it soon after little Abby, our first granddaughter was born. It was in a suburb on the other side of this bush capital. Now, with a new “branch” opened up, it’s a 3-min drive away. So we decided to do a takeaway for our “TGIF” dinner on, well, Friday night. We got just a pizza and a risotto as there were lots of leftovers in both fridges (ours and Kiddo’s). Little Abby loved the pizza (a margherita) so it must have been good. The risotto was also, apparently, very good. It was a bit pricey but by all account, well worth it.

We went back home and for a Friday night treat, I looked up the streaming services and landed on a film about Freud and CS Lewis. Anything with Anthony Hopkins is almost always a treat. The film was surprisingly gripping, albeit in its own way. I cannot remember the last time I enjoyed a film that is mainly conversational – since Adam Driver and Scarlett Johansson in Marriage Story maybe? The last scene had Freud slipping a book into Lewis’ coat pocket as the latter was about to leave Freud’s home to catch the last train home. When Lewis fished out the book while on the train on the way home, we were showed that the book was his own “Pilgrim’s Regress”. On the front/title page, Freud had scribbled “From error to error, one discovers the entire truth.” It was left to the audience if that was intended to show Freud held his ground or gave in to Lewis, on whether God is real.

On Saturday, we took Milo and our little fellow for a walk from Kiddo’s home and headed for the Kambah ovals, just across the road from the “Kambah Village”. We had been doing that for a couple of Saturdays, and enjoyed the walk that was punctuated with a stop at “L’epi”, an artisan bakery that has beautiful breads, pastries and the likes. We then went to a local market at a school off Kambah Pool Road, before heading home to get dinner ready. When we delivered dinner, Kiddo, who had been unwell, remained unwell so we (I) took her to the hospital and I stayed with her while she was being treated, while Tress stayed with Mic and the girls. That turned out to be an all night-er (sort of). Kiddo stayed overnight for observations and Tress stayed at their home to back Mic up with the girls. As I drove to their home on Namatjira Drive, a mob of roos hopped past and I had to stop as I witnessed the surreal scene played out before my eyes. I had had the windows wound down to keep myself refreshed so the soft thuds as those pads hit the road, were clearly audible as they hopped slowly and assuredly across the road, from Cooleman Ridge Reserve to the parklands across the usually busy road. I was truly in the bush now. I got home late and by the time I was ready to turn in, it was almost 1am.

Just before 7am the next day, Kiddo pinged to say she could leave the hospital so I hurriedly left home and picked her up. We spent the rest of the day just ghosting about, Tress busy with food preps and minding the girls while I took Milo for a walk. We missed SBC and in the arvo, Tress and I took Abby to the shops at Woden. It was to break up the day, and give the little girl and her tired and weary parents a break of sorts.

Last night as Tress and I drove home, I asked Tress if she was happy. It wasn’t a question. I know she is. Has been. I am too, both because she is and because I no longer live for myself. Not sure if it was another error through my error ladened paths to date but not living for myself is a truth a great man once showed as the embodiment of real love. That is probably less equivocal than what Freud apparently wrote on Lewis’ book. I think I’m entitled to think I have fared better than Pontius Pilate. I care/cared, more than he appeared to, about “…and what is truth”. I wasn’t going to wash my hands off this one. I may still be stepping “from error to error” but that is ok.