We’re into 2012 now. I had wanted to stay at home and do a barbie or something like that for new year’s eve, or just organise a dinner with some friends – at home.
I really did not want to be in a restaurant on that day, least of all a restaurant anywhere in the city. Tress’ cousin has a restaurant in Docklands, which they just opened a few months ago. Naturally the lives of that cousin, his family and his parents would revolve around that business so Tress’ parents’ visit sort of has that restaurant as a hub of sorts, around which their activities revolve. Including the New Year’s Eve event.
That there will be more than 500,000 people flocking into the city that night was something the cousin was going to have to deal with regardless, albeit happily so. I think my refusal to drive into the city on that night with septuagenarian passengers and wards was not very well received. Anyway, mark that down as another of my regrets, which are slowly mounting anyway. Perhaps my new year resolution should be to minimise regrets.
We ended up going to a restaurant – a Chinese one – and had an ordinary dinner, came home for a couple of hours, before driving to the airport to drop off Tress’ sister who was heading back to Malaysia ahead of the rest. I was a bit non-plus why we had to wait there – I was at the Macca’s parking lot for about an hour, getting in and out of ¼ hour parking spaces – I cannot remember the last time we had to wait at the airport for a drop off, when an adult able bodied passenger was travelling.
The heat and the waiting at the parking lot on a New Year’s Eve sort of got to me and I just got real quiet on the drive back home. Yet another regret, I guess.
New Year’s Day was Sunday so we trooped to church. It was a hot day, and the Dockland revellers of the night before weren’t going to be there. My father in law was the only one staying with us – he was uncomfortable staying with Tress’ uncle in Point Cook for a number of reasons – so he was in church with us.
Yesterday Tress drove her dad to Point Cook again. The mob was going to play mahjong at home all day, so Kiddo and I decided to just stay home. It was going to be a 40 degree day so we decided to go for a movie. Spielberg’s “Warhorse” was thoroughly enjoyable. The cycles of adversity and triumph and all the emotional in-filling through different countries and phases of the First World War could have been a cheesy tear-jerker but movie buff critiques notwithstanding, it was sheer pleasure for 2+ hours for me and Kiddo. Kiddo made the observation that it was an equine Forest Gump equivalent and I couldn’t agree more.
It has been a choppy and unsettling holiday period. The arrangement of Tress’ parents’ holiday is sort of messy and I have not handled it well. Sometimes episodes like this sort of reveal fault lines in relationships – give things a bit of a shake up to reveal the state of play. I’m not sure how this year will unfold.
Ante 