Last Friday night was the office Christmas party. I had never been to the office party but given the possibility of the company changing dramatically after this year, the legal team decided to all go this year. So on Friday arvo the team left early (4pm) to The Imperial down Spring Street. I joined them a little later and my boss made it a full legal team and later remarked this was the first year the legal team has a 100% turn up for the office Christmas party.

I’m still not totally au fait with this pre party drinks thing. The party was meant to start at 6pm but from 4pm, many groups of employees have started to have a few beers and by the time we rocked up to the venue (Immigration Museum) we’ve all had a few beers.

I was soon reminded why I don’t like such events. Standing around chatting under a tent with several hundred people, many of whom have been generously plied with alcohol it was hard to hear everything your conversation partner was saying. It was near impossible when the music amped up and the alcohol consumption followed in tandem.

So after a couple of hours I started to get ready to leave. I was glad when I got to Flinders St station and sat on a seat in my train home just after 9pm, as I started texting Tress.

When we got home she showed me the many pieces of men’s clothing she had bought me – all great looking and highly functional. We then sat down to watch an old Angelina Jolie movie (Taking Lives) before going to bed. Or we could have watched the movie on Sat night – I forget now L

On Sat we left home early and visited a Korean grocery store. I had wanted to experiment with a Korean dish so we picked up some stuff to help me have fun. We then went to a butcher and picked up some ribs, then went home to attend to LBJ’s groomer who was scheduled to visit later that morning. When she (Amber) came and the little fellow was safely in the grooming shuttle, Tress and I went out to Madam K’s. We then got home and I did some quick gardening, before firing up the barbie to roast my Korean styled pork ribs, served with kimchi on the side.

That dish went down a treat at Jason’s. Also there were the Hipos. Gerry’s mum was visiting them from Kuching and was also there at the dinner. Joyce an old acquaintance later dropped by but Jason had left her to talk to Tress, Gerry and I. He had told me earlier he had been fending off requests to assist with some government grants for her ventures. I guess he didn’t want to compromise himself and left us as his shield of propriety… when Gerry had to leave just before 10 (his young kids’ bed time) we followed suit and Jason said we’ve had no chance to chat. I thought we did before Joyce came along but maybe he had things he wanted to talk about more in depth.

Sunday after church we had lunch with a new couple who were migrating to Melbourne next year. Mr Chooi had introduced them to us and we caught up to be supportive for this new and big move. They’re highly skilled and talented very friendly and extremely well connected people so for them to leave KL and the networks they have there, must be a big uprooting exercise. As we were driving home later, I said to Tress it’s amazing how after more than 10 years since we moved here, Malaysians – highly skilled, talented and equipped Malaysians – continue to leave Malaysia. It just continues to be sad.

We finally got to go about with our usual chores – did some grocery shopping for the week, went home and cooked our soups, made salad and smoothies before settling down to skype kiddo. It has been raining for nearly 2 days now so we had the excuse not to walk the little fellow and chatted instead with Kiddo, whose Singapore adventure is nearing its end. She would be back in Melbourne soon but only a little while before she heads off to Canberra late Jan next year. Like many say these days, the more things change the more they remain the same.

The very warm weekend was almost like a big intro to the summer. Officially that starts today. On Sat though, it was in the high twenties for much of the day. That gave Tress and I the perfect excuse to take it easy, which we did. For the first time in perhaps many months, we took a nap in the afternoon.

We had woken up early that day, had a quick toast with coffee, and went to vote in the State election. The ALP won and Victoria according to many experts would be on its way to financial quagmire again. We were at the voting station just on 8am but there was already a queue of about 10 or so persons. LBJ was with us and we had to tie him to a fence as dogs aren’t allowed inside the compound of the station. He was safe and well looked after though as voters and candidates’ workers were all taken by him.

The election staff was slow and fiddly and I said to Tress I am surprised everything is still done manually. The electoral roll is a thick printed register and the staff couldn’t even work out alphabetical orders so the identification process took a long time. I would have expected an electronic register, even if just for checking and verifying the roll.

It took about 30 minutes for us to work our way up the que we got back and after Tress put the laundry out we went to Simon the hairdresser. It’s a nice feeling to now just take my seat without him asking or me telling him what I’d like done. I’m a regular now. I said to him my coffee place at work does the same thing. I simply walk up the counter and pay. They know my coffee. With Tress it’s a bit more tricky – she had to tell him what she liked done…

After Simon’s we did some grocery shopping and then to Madam K’s for lunch. We the got home and walked LBJ some more. Then we meant to do some gardening but the warm weather gave me a perfect excuse simply to laze around. We both took a nap on the sofas – which was very nice.

That night there was a celebration in church – to celebrate clearing the building debt. Dinner was followed by a bush dance and then Peter took us through the history of the church building. A 3.5m development was funded by a 500k grant from the Federal Govt and a 900K loan from the Anglican Dev Fund. So the 600+ members funded a 3m project inside 10 years. The members we have come to know don’t appear rich so the giving must have been really generous and sacrificial.

Sunday continued to be very warm. Alland Remond from NewHope Baptist preached in a 3-way pulpit exchange. It’s the 10th year the 3 senior ministers have done this. Last year David Ratten from One Community in Blackburn preached.

After church and lunch we went to a shopping centre to cool off the 33 degree arvo, before going home. I picked up a new pair of sandals for the summer. I had looked at these new sandals for a while now, and when in Malaysia last month, checked them out only to find they cost the same or even more there. I then did the usual weekend cooking, before taking LBJ for a walk later in the evening.

Right through the weekend I was decked out in shorts and sandals. Other than the long hours of daylight, that’s the best thing about summer…

I had thought by sticking to cooking shows and sporting events, I could avoid the overwhelming volumes of bad news flooding the media. Who would have thought a love key Sheffield Shield cricket match has now resulted in death that has saddened the whole country. Phillip Hughes was struck on the head by a bouncer in a South Australia v NSW match on Tuesday afternoon. He was unconscious, operated on, comatose and yesterday afternoon, passed away. He was 25 years old. He was better known as Phil Hughes but since the accident, his mum had asked that he be called by his full name, which has been honoured.

A healthy, strong and good man building up towards his prime, can be fatally felled by a 160g leather ball. That sounds so disproportionately devastating. But it happened. Life, one is constantly reminded, is fleeting.

That is cause for despair.

So I am very grateful that last night at the home group at the Maurys’ home, Matthew Maury chose to lead a discussion on hope. Hope in the Lord, who He is and what He does. Hope that acknowledges Him. I hope the Phillip Hughes’ passing would cause people to ask the perennial question about the meaning of life, and be pointed towards the creator of life.

In the past couple of days there has been a fair bit of news coverage about a baby who had been left in a drain and abandoned. I’ve tried staying away from this. It has been too depressing lately. I was saying to Tress I’d rather watch cooking, sports and nature programs than news on television these days. I said to her the stories on that baby – while there are positive elements – are just the sort to confirm I’m on the right path. I know it can be clichéd to say media has too much bad news but looking at the abandoned babies, problems in Ferguson, bombings etc in middle east, election fiascos in Victoria (responsible and performing government on track to lose), and a whole range of other negative news, tells me it is more than mere cliche. It is a lot of bad news out there which get reported and it’s bad for consumers of such news.

In the gym each morning, I no longer plug my headphones into the news channels. If there are no sporting events or good cooking shows on, it’d be the music on my phone – Les Miserable has been getting a good run.

So the wedding dinner on Sat was something nice to attend as it is a sort of an antidote which was refreshing. JM and V are old friends from our hometown and their daughter got married. We only went to the dinner (at the Manningham Centre in Doncaster) however. I wasn’t keen on a wedding that was held in a chapel in Scotch College, for no apparent reason other than perhaps the aesthetics or optics of such a location. Also, going to that wedding would have meant having half the day on Saturday ruled out for anything.

So to make better use of the day, Tress and I took a drive up King Lake country. We stopped at a small town called St Andrews, and walked amongst the teeming crowds through a street market. It was a hippie town and smells of funny cigarettes wafted through. No surprise therefore to find the town pub open at 11am – which I promptly responded by having a very nice ale. We then continued driving towards King Lake which was largely national park country. We stopped by a reserve, chatted a little bit with a ham radio enthusiast who had all sorts of cables hoisted up around a big tree before driving home again. Back in Blackburn we did our grocery shopping and then went home to walk the little fellow.

At the dinner, we were at a table with Ronald, Cat and their two boys, who have both grown into very decent adults. Also with us were Li Lin and Kok Eng, Alex and someone else whom we didn’t know. Alex was by himself presumably because Li Har had to be with their boys.

We caught up with many old Klang friends, almost all of whom used to be at the Klang church. The only ones I totally ignored and refused to have any interaction with were David Chiang and his wife. Tress later tried to chastise me over it but I said nothing has changed as far as what David had done was concerned. Any attempt to exercise social niceties would have been in the face of those events which so badly affected many, and for which I still hold David and his colleagues responsible.

We got home late, I woke early the next morning to watch the United v Arsenal game (which we won 1-2) before heading to church later that morning. The rest of Sunday was pretty normal – lunch at Madam K, back home to do gardening (mowing, cleaning etc) and cooking (more soups) before settling down for a busy week at work. I had a long meeting scheduled with KPMG on Monday morning, which ostensibly was going to be unpleasant and which I had been charged with protecting our people. So I went to bed relatively early…getting ready to face a world full of negativity.

I’m sort of kicking myself for not reversing some of that but my hands are quick to go up in acceptance of my weakness and folly.

I continue to give in to my thoughts about how some behaviour should be responded by wilful ignoring. Like I would avoid bad news in the media, I’d avoid any interaction with bad behaviour which persisted.

Tress went out with her colleagues last Friday night. There was cricket on tv so on the way home, I dropped into the local Coles and picked up a salad and a handful of cooked prawns. A glass of chilled white washed it all down very nicely as I watched the game at home with LBJ but could not replenish the glass as I was meant to drive to the station to pick Tress up later and I didn’t know what time that would be.

So I decided to watch a movie – and chose the Battle of the Bulge starring Henry Fonda and Robert Shaw as the German Colonel charged with commanding a battalion of Panzer tanks as a final resistance to the Allies’ march to defeat Hitler’s Germany.

I had cherished the Band of Brothers’ interpretation of the Battle of the Bulge instead, which had such intimate details of the soldiers’ travails as they battle the cold in the episode known as Bastogne. It had none of the tanks which blazed through in Ken Annakin’s direction. The Panzer Tiger was featured in all its agility, strength and power, defeated only by a fortuitous bombing of a fuel depot which deprived Robert Shaw of much needed fuel.

The cous cous salad was great for my battle with my bulge and as soon as I picked Tress up from the station and got home, I got rid of a bad under fueled problem and promptly topped up my glass with a full glass of red, which on a Friday night in front of a satisfying classic, tasted magnificent.

Saturday morning we decided to go to Maling Road in Canterbury, for a proper breakfast. The plan was to then skip lunch and then go to the dedication service for the Hipo Girls, in Cross Roads at 4pm, to be followed by dinner and then adjourn to the Hipos’ home for coffee. As we walked up to Maling Room, I saw my boss sitting outside, decked out in his Lycra. A bit awkward but after introductions (Tress to him and his mate and his mate to us) and handshakes we went insider for our breakfast while he stayed outside. He was a gentleman (as always).

After breakfast we went to the Acorn Nursery on Canterbury Road, and then to the Strawberry Point grocer – also on Canterbury Road. I said to Tress it was a day everything we did was on Canterbury Road.

Later that night as it poured (there was about 40mm of rain between Sat night and Sunday morning) and as we had coffee at home on Sunday morning, I said to Tress it was 10 years ago around the same time when it rained just as much on Canterbury Road and Uncle Seng’s house (where I was temporarily staying) flooded and I was awaken in the middle of the night as the family attempted to dry the place out. After church and lunch we went home and as we were resting in the arvo Kiddo messaged us to say Ban and family were going to catch up with her for lunch. They had gone down to Johore Bahru for a wedding and decided to make a detour to Singapore to catch up with Kiddo – really nice of them.

We finished the day with Tress helping me with the ironing while I did some cooking, and rested up before going to bed. It was a quiet weekend – spent mostly along Canterbury Road.

We got back from Klang early Thursday morning. It had been really good spending time with family there, sharing meals and conversations and just participating in their activities – lives – over the few days we were there.

Ban Long has assumed main or important responsibilities in the local church as well as the family business, Chin Kheen has stepped up to look after the ageing folks, Victor has bought a new home in a beautiful green location in Shah Alam and life is generally chugging along rather well for everyone at home.

My mum too, appears to be well and happy generally and my brother behaved in the most sprightly fashion. We had a couple of nights sipping tea in a mamak stall and he was chirpy and positive and did a lot more talking than I remember him to have done in the past. In fact on the second of those nights when a few other family members (uncles, cousins) came along, I was perhaps the most subdued one (other than a cousin’s fiancée). But that was good to see. In spite of everything everyone looked, sounded and behaved as though life is really good.

I guess for me, the best part of the trip was that this was the first time in many years, when all 3 of us – Tress, Kiddo and I – were there together with everyone else. Kiddo missed a flight but made it later on Sat arvo and left a day earlier than us but still had 3 days with us, which was great.

On our last couple of days there, we started to form the idea of a return visit before too long, possibly in early Jan. I guess the satisfaction and pleasure of spending time with family, as much as wanting to make the most of what remaining time there is with elderly folks, made the idea compelling. Yet like many things these days, the vicissitudes of life requires caveats. Early Jan is a peak period for air travel so costs and availability of tickets may require closer consideration. We’ll see.

Land travel on the other hand may cost less money, but it is often a hair-raising experience. I drove a fair bit and after a couple of initial trips, I adopted the when-in-Rome mentality and fared better. It was ok for a short term burst only however and if we lived there I’d freak out every time. Drivers would drive as they please and my mantra that there are only 2 rules continues to hold. The 2-rule principle is simple: don’t hit and don’t get hit. Stick to this principle and you can run a red-light, weave in and out without prior indication/warning, drive into/past intersections without waiting/looking, turn right/left in a left/right turn only lane, drift along the dividing line of two lanes, and pretty much anything you feel like doing. There by the grace of God go I and we survived the adventure.

The family time has been great, the feeds have been good and the break has been fab.

Tress woke me up some time last night to say LBJ was hiding under our bed. Well she didn’t really wake me up, because I had been awake, looking out through our window at the spectacular display of light and sound in the skies. Electrical storms are rare, especially in Melbourne. I don’t recall another one in the 10 years we’ve been here. We got LBJ to come up onto the bed and he snuggled so close to me I had to stroke him and scratch him to calm him down.

The storms were electrifying. They went on for a while and with great intensity. This morning my usual train stopped just after Richmond and after a few minutes idling on the tracks, it headed towards Flinders Street instead of Parliament. Switching trains at Flinders, I managed to get into Parliament some 30 minutes past my usual time. The lady at the front desk commented I was late and we talked about the storms before I went about my shortened workout, trying to avoid aggravating the little blood blister on my left palm.

I’d like to think I’m reasonably healthy but on morning like today I get the sense that years of desk bound work has really deteriorated our physical strength. I had worked a bow saw and an axe to continue the long standing project of ridding the old lemon tree at the western corner of our backyard. The bow saw took off three of the core trunks which now stand about a couple of feet off the ground. The axe then broke those trunks down to 1-2 foot lengths. When the trunks had been so cut, I was drenched and my right hand was shaking. Mowing, edging and sweeping allowed the sweat to dry out and the shaking to abate. Tress helped with some edge trimming. Applying some weedkillers to “round up” the work left me quite spent and I headed in for a break before doing some cooking on the Webber – not for dinner but for our lunches today and tomorrow.

It has been another long week at work. The team has spent the better part of the week reviewing documents in the course of supporting a due diligence exercise to facilitate its own sale to a new owner. On completion of that sale an option eminently open and likely to be adopted by the new owner is to skinny down the workforce, getting rid of people like the legal team. So why on earth have we spent the better part of the week on some form of self-harm – stiff neck and red eyes at the end of each working day – remains one of the stupidity of modern day corporate Australia.

Professional and getting the job done yes, but neither smart nor wise. Increasingly, white collar work entails getting the job done but being really foolish at the end of the process.

Redacting is a term I got used to in my early days of practice, as part of legal teams locked up in data rooms poring over wads of legal documents in due diligence exercises.

This week, I got through a box of black permanent markers, reliving those bad old days of living in data rooms.

As I typed this now on a Friday arvo about 10 minutes before the week is out, there is talk of more redaction with a chance of a wrecked weekend. Knowing my boss, he would palm that off skilfully but who knows. Stupid forces are at work…

I have for some time now, appreciated why the more “mature” generation turn to gardening. It can be very therapeutic. On Saturday Tress and I went to a café in Hawthorn, just before 8am, for breakfast. It was one of those deals she picked up and it was a wonderful deal because the food, coffee and staff were all very good. After brekky we went to the local Bunnings store, picked up a couple of small items and a compost bin, and went home for some gardening. We were at it from around 9.00am and didn’t stop till just after 2pm. The big breakfast provided plenty of fuel and we just kept going. Tress did a lot of work vacuuming and tidying up inside the house. We finally wound up the work, washed up and left home close around 2.30pm, went to Doncaster to get fulfil some Malaysian orders. We picked up a Bose ipod dock and some other items, then shopped for groceries and came back, walked the little fellow and did a barbie of leather jackets for dinner. Later that evening we watched Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholson in The Bucket List which was a surprising tear jerker. For Tress…

On tears, I caused some on Friday night. Little Sheryl is a bucket of fun these days. Tress and I caught up with her parents, Jason and Mel at Sheryl’s home. Jason, Mel and us had planned to have dinner in a pizzeria up Mitcham Road but I thought we could do takeaway pizzas and catch up with Sheryl and her family instead. I don’t think Gerry and Jess are the pizza types. I’m pretty sure Jessie, Jess’s mum (yes that’s right) isn’t one. But they were gracious enough to go along, and supplemented the meal with chicken wings and salad. We were in the sitting lounge after dinner and Sheryl and I were playing. A little 1 year old is hard work for me so I was very proud of myself when I made her laugh and she was having a ball tipping over little towers of building blocks I set up on the floor. A little 1 year old also walks with a funny gait and as she tumbled forward towards me, she knocked her head on my knee… Other than that it was a great time catching up with these families.

Sunday was near total free and easy – once our half-sofa donee picked up the piece and left our lounge room less cluttered. We watched Ben Affleck and Rosamund Pike play it out in front of tabloid media in “Gone Girl” later that arvo before getting ready for the week again…