We took in the reclaimed freedom on Saturday, and took a drive out to Warburton. We were hoping to get to the Redwoods, but it remained close. Warburton on its own is lovely anyway, and we had stopped at Boronia to pick up a couple of pies and so when we got to Warburton, we sat next to the wonderful river and had a bit of lunch, before just strolling along the riverside, with dozens of others.

We had earlier in the morning, did some vacuuming so when we returned, the cleaned house felt fresher. We took the little fellow for a walk, before doing a quick barbie of salmon and asparagus. It was a wonderful day.

On Sunday, Tress had one of those ethereal events so I cooked the week’s lunches, before just idling and winding down for another really restful day. I wandered across to the oval, and sat down on the grass with a beer in hand, as I watched two local teams bowling and batting away. The guys with the leather appeared to be doing better than those wielding the willow, and the half dozen or so overs I was there, saw 5 wickets tumbled.

Later in the day, we messaged the Canberrans about the Christmas plans. I’m hopeful of a wonderful time then.

Having had a really lovely weekend, it is with despair as I read that the virus is expanding its grip in the US and Europe. The US has seen close to 180,000 new daily infections as of last Friday, and I wonder what drastic measures the health regulators there need to be recommending. I can only imagine the despair Americans would experience. The hopeful news of viable vaccines seem so much more significant now. As we head towards warmer months here down under, and move away from the grip of the virus, I hope folks elsewhere find respite in some ways.

United State of Victoria, we have finally become. No longer bound and hemmed in by the “ring of steel”, or the 25km radius restriction that has kept Melburnians separated from the rest of Victoria for such a long time.

The air has cleared and the mood has palpably changed for the better. I feel better now. I’m in a better space – far better than I have been in recent months. It feels like the grip of the virus has loosened and we can, at long last, shake off its hold on us. It still hovers however, so we continue to don our masks, wash our hands, carry sanitizers with us, and be wary in public indoor places with lots of people.

I guess the best of all, is the fact that Tress and I can now put together a plan to be with Kiddo and Mic over the Christmas period. That is certainly something to look forward to.

Over the weekend, we did stuff that somehow, reflected that better mood. The lawns look very tidy now, and the spot on the edge of the front lawn that was cleared of a dying shrub in recent weeks, is now planted with a couple of new flowering shrubs. We went to Bunnings yesterday and picked up those plants, along with a couple of other gardening stuff. I also did some cooking, and dropped off a few meals for the a couple we know, who recently went on the “Meal Train” program that we’re on.

Tress and I have also been to a local Malaysian cafe over the weekend, and for two consecutive days. The food was good, but even better was the fact that we could go out and have our meals in situ at the cafe.

A remaining major milestone I look forward to now, is to be at St Alfred’s again, seeing other members and singing, and participating in the service together again. For now however, I am ever so grateful for what that has been restored to us.

Yesterday, the Premier said Victorians can now travel beyond the 5km radius limit, a restriction that has been in place for about 3 months now. It felt a little liberating at first but pretty quickly, it started to feel like being fed crumbs by a regime that has locked us up for the better part of the last 4 months. It is they – the Premier and his people – who stuffed up, but we who continue to pay the price for their mistakes.

The grand final will be on this Saturday. It will however, be in Brisbane, at the Gabba, and it will be a night game. All firsts. It had always been at the MCG, arvo game, on the last Saturday of September. And you can watch it in a pub or with friends over a barbie. Not this year. This year, one watches a night game grand final, at home, alone. A game played up north in Queensland, the heartland of rugby league. It is they – the Premier and his people – who stuffed up and we who continue to pay the price for their mistakes.

Soon after the announcements yesterday arvo, a local restaurant put up a face book message to say they would be making arrangements to take bookings, in a couple of days. It felt a little liberating at first, but pretty quickly, it started to feel like being fed crumbs by a regime that has locked up businesses for the better part of the last 4 months. Cafes, restaurants, pubs, clubs – they’ve all been bleeding and suffering. Their owners, families, employees, suppliers and customers have had their lives turned upside down, and pushed off a cliff, into a downward spiral towards a hopeless stupor. It is they – the Premier and his people – who stuffed up but we who continue to pay the price for their mistakes.

Moral hazard much?

A sense of weariness is starting to weigh me down. It has been 7 months since we were told to work from home, and some 13-14 weeks since we’re not allowed to venture more than 5km from our homes.

Over the weekend, Tress and I did the usual. We cleaned and shopped, which have been our break activities for what feels like the longest time. The warmer and sunnier days that show up a bit more now however, gave me a little lift. One of the things we cleaned was the barbeque, and we cooked a chunk of skate on it last night. That was nice.

As I was cooking the skate, a relo sent, via WhatsApp, some black and white pics. They were pics of a number of us when we were very young. I later told Tress those pics are about 5o years old. That was amazing.

Tress and I have been watching the Breaking Bad series in recent days. Desperate circumstances make people do desperate things. I wonder what many Melburnians would do, under our increasingly wearisome and frustrating circumstances.

It often feels like this in Victoria now:

“Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience. They may be more likely to go to Heaven yet at the same time likelier to make a Hell of earth. This very kindness stings with intolerable insult. To be “cured” against one’s will and cured of states which we may not regard as disease is to be put on a level of those who have not yet reached the age of reason or those who never will; to be classed with infants, imbeciles, and domestic animals.”

― C.S. Lewis, God in the Dock: Essays on Theology (Making of Modern Theology)

“Spring” and “cleaning” often appear together, and for good reasons. Spring cleaning ruled my Saturday just passed.

On Friday night however, we caught up again for “drink” on zoom, with the Lim’s, Chew’s and Hippos. It was good as always. I guess it gets us ready and warmed for when we can meet in person again.

Spring cleaning Saturday was a warm and humid (only mildly) day. I cleaned all the internal windows and glass surfaces, removed fly screens from every room and washed them, and cleaned the internal window frames. The glass panes in the toilet in the laundry got a good clean too, as did the back laundry doors. Tress got busy with weeding and laundry and when we finally settled down for lunch close to 2pm, we were both tired but I had wanted to push on with giving the deck a bit of a “scrub” too. My plan was to re-oil it in a week or so. So, I pushed on but had to stop just before 4pm – we had a online viewing booked. We were to view a new litter of pups but when we logged on, every pup in that litter had been taken up so it was a very short viewing.

Later, we took the little fellow for a walk and it was very pleasant to be able to walk him decked out in shorts and sandals.

On Sunday, after St Alf’s online service, I ducked out to get some stuff for the week’s cook, came back to do the cook, and then spent the rest of the day basking in love and attention. It was my birthday and I felt spoilt. Tress got me a couple of very good looking bottles of red, Kiddo got me a beautiful watch band and just as we were preparing to get some takeouts for lunch, the Lim’s texted Tress to say lunch was on the way. We had a delicious briyani and butter chicken… yum… delicious fares, washed down with numerous wishes that came in on social media,,,

Later that arvo, we walked to the Chase to get some chicken to cook for the little fellow’s dinners, and finally, after cooking his dinners, settled down to put our feet up. Rest for the weekend at last…

We then saw that there were only 14 new cases of COVID for the day – the lowest number since June. It is starting to look promising and I guess like many Melburnians, I started to be optimistic. It was a wonderful birthday present. Thank you, Lord…

It was a weekend of 2 halves. The weather folks said, on Friday, that it was going to rain from about Sat arvo. It came much earlier, and Sat was a washout.

After Tress’ usual weekend delish brekky, I decided to clear out some old clothes. I emptied a couple of drawers and sorted out stuff. I think I threw out about half. When that was done, I cooked lunch for us. Tress loves fried rice and we haven’t had that for a while, so she cooked some rice earlier on, stuck it in the fridge to dry it out, and when I was done with my mini Kondo-ing, I did that fried rice. I had to make sure I made Uncle Roger proud. Nigel Ng has become synonymous with all sorts of fried rice memes and send up’s so I decided to take a picture of my end product for the customary social media contribution. We all need a laugh at these times. It’s also a soft landing to this wet Saturday.

Later that arvo I went out for grocery shopping, and came back to prep the chooks for the next day’s cook. Later, we watched Captain America et al battle Thanos, to no avail. I had wanted to catch the late Chadwick Boseman’s portrayal of the Black Panther again, but did not want the whole serve. It was tough seeing Thanos prevailing but we all know what happened in the End Game. I’ll keep that in the back pocket for the next wet Saturday night.

Weather wise, Sunday was the complete opposite of the previous day. So, after the St Alf’s online service, we planned to make the most of it. The service though, was interesting as it focused on Peter MacPherson’s 20 years of service as t he Senior Minister. He is much loved. To me, he is almost always the clear thinking, feet planted firmly on the ground, godly and deliberate leader.

After the online service, I did the week’s cook – 5 substantial serves of a chicken and mushroom plus red cabbage combo that are all stuck away in the freezer. With the cook done, I headed out to get some fuel for the mower, and came back to make the most of the sunny weather. I pruned back the milkwort outside our bedroom, that had grown to cover most of the window. It was a pity the bright flowers had to be cut back but it was much needed pruning. With the heavy pruning, the cob webbed windows showed all of its dust and crusts so I cleaned that and the other windows too, as well as the sliding door on the deck. That meant most of the outward facing glass surfaces got some much needed cleaning. Tress too, had been busy weeding, cleaning and generally tidying stuff out. She then went out to get “lunch” and did some more grocery shopping as I finished up with a quick mowing.

When we were done, it was well past 4pm… St Alf’s service was done by 10.30am., which meant we had spent nearly 6 hours of housekeeping stuff… After cleaning up and the very late “lunch” we walked the little fellow, soaking up the rest of the very pleasant sunny arvo.

As we wound up the day (and weekend), we caught up with the news and saw that there has been much discontent with how the State has managed this second wave of this awful virus. Protests at the Victoria Market in the city brought heavy police presence that created scenes that were once more associated with parts of Europe or lately, parts of the US. I had earlier responded to a few emails that talked about widely felt discontent with how the Premier Daniel Andrews has been handling this second wave, and said I hoped the decisions would be reviewed. I felt that the community that those emails circulated in, were a bit defensive of what Dan Andrews had done. I believe there was a bit of tribalism going on there, but that is only my personal opinion I guess.

I hope with the weather warming up, we’d see better days before too long. This weekend has been one of two halves, weather wise at least. I hope we are entering a better second half, in more ways than one.

It was a beautiful day yesterday. It was warm and sunny, and the scent of spring was thick in the air. Every time I sat down and looked out the windows, I wanted to go out into the sunbathed garden again. I did that several times, once even sitting down on the front lawn, with a glass of chardonnay in hand, Tress pottering nearby and the little fellow sitting next to me. I felt like those were perfect moments that just had to be savored with every fibre of my being.

I was especially and deliberately drinking all that in, to not be distracted, momentarily at least, by the doom and gloom that continues to build up here in Melbourne. The Premier had just announced a continuation of our journey along this tunnel that doesn’t promise any end, let alone any light.

The lock down continues. Many businesses aren’t allowed to resume trading and many will go to the wall. The quagmire from the bungled hotel quarantine plans continue to plague Melburnians, particularly small businesses with retail clienteles. On a personal side, all that meant our lives continue to be confined to our home. Tress and I wouldn’t be able to go out shopping together. We can’t go further than 5km to get a takeaway meal or do anything else. We can’t see our friends and we certainly cannot think about Christmas with Kiddo and Mic. We have to continue working from home. That is probably a blessing in many ways, not least in the form of still being employed. Many Melburnians have lost, and will continue to lose, their jobs.

Soaking in the afternoon sun with a glass of chardonnay in hand weren’t the only blessings I was endowed with over the weekend.

We had a good time catching up for zoom drinks again on Friday night. Everyone (Alex&LiHar, Gerry&Jesslyn and Jason&Mel) looked and sounded upbeat. Sheryl (G&J’s younger daughter) and Jason were having their birthdays so we ticked those off as well.

Tress and I did a bit of work around the house on Saturday. I gave every plant a feed, applied a weed and feed on the lawns, gave the cars a wash (badly needed after a dust storm last week), swept up the surrounds and tidied stuff up generally. Tress gave the house a thorough vacuuming and cleaned the toilets too. When we settled down to put our feet up late in the day, it felt like we were going to sleep well that night, and we did.

Sunday was Father’s Day and I had surprises galore. Tress and Kiddo both got me some very nice tipples. I didn’t get that DB5 on the driveway but the bottles of Shiraz were pretty good alternatives. Especially the Baby Grange Kiddo got me. St Alf’s online had Mark Simon deliver the main talk, which is about God the Father of all comfort. That was another blessing that had accumulated, and that had started from Friday night over the zoom drinks. The perfect weather that arvo saw us take in walks with the little fellow and it felt like we weren’t the only ones enjoying the warmer weather. The parklands, ovals, pavements, saw many families out and about. I guess we all want to forget the travails that threaten to steal out joys.

The long tunnel ahead, here in Melbourne, will hopefully continue to serve up little respites like what I was blessed with this past weekend. As I type this at my desk, my work day has just started and I am looking out at another day with very clear blue skies. Maybe these little respites will continue to soften the blows that this virus has rained on Melbourne in recent months.

It warmed up on Saturday. The night before, we had a truncated “Friday night drinks” on Zoom, and it was nice to catch up with Alex and LiHar as well as Jason and Mel, albeit online only.

The sun stayed pretty much the whole day on Saturday, so not long after a very nice brekky, we stepped outside and started work on the gardens and lawns. There had been terrifying winds a couple of nights before, with a little 4-year old killed by a falling tree. That family lived not too far from where we are. I don’t know how long or what it will take before that family find any peace again.

The winds had wreaked havoc for us only in terms the mess they brought to our gardens. So there was tidying work – raking, sweeping and picking up branches preceded the usual tasks. The weather was so nice however, so I didn’t mind all the extra work. In fact, I looked for more tasks – more reasons – to stay out in the sun, and cycled through various tools in the process. The rake, garden hands, shears, axe, edger, mower, broom, blower… I wanted to clean the deck with the high pressure cleaner too but I was pooped after nearly 4 hours, and Tress had gone out to get lunch, so that last tool (toy) stayed in the shed. Next time.

Later that arvo, I did some grocery shopping, mainly for stuff to cook the week’s lunches. I had also asked Tracy, from St Alfs’, to let me know if there was anyone needing help with meals so I shopped a little extra.

On Sunday, after St Alf’s online service, I decided to do the cook straight away, instead of waiting until later in the day (usually around 3pm). That turned out to be a good decision, as I got to drop off a few extra meals for a family Tracy suggested. That was after a takeway lunch which Tress had got for us from The Chase, after which we took the little fellow for a walk. When Tracy emailed with the suggested drop, I came back to cook some rice to go with the meals, to bring along for the family.

It’s now a couple of weeks before the present scheduled Stage 4 restrictions are meant to end. The numbers have ebbed, although yesterday it crept back up to 3 digit level, having fallen to double digits for the first time in weeks. Winter officially ends after today. I hope it won’t be just the weather that gets better after today.

It is the season for filing tax returns, and with current circumstances, Tress had booked in an online/remote meeting with our tax agents. She got the timing perfectly right, as it turned out to be a cold, wet and very drab weekend. The temperatures stayed pretty much in single digit territory, struggling to get past 4-5 deg for most of the day. The rains were incessant and little puddles began building up in both our front lawn and backyard. It was so miserable even the little guy refused to go out for his walk.

The tax returns were done, and I cleaned the house a little. The rest of the weekend was just us pottering around.

Technically, winter has just another week to go. Sometimes however, it feels like this winter would never end.