It was the Australia Day Public Holiday yesterday. Australia Day is January 26th and when it falls on a weekend, the following Monday is taken as the national holiday. It marks the end of the summer holidays in the same way that, in the UK, the August Bank Holiday weekend does. The kids go back to school this week. Teachers who haven't already gone back do so today. People who have taken a summer break will return to work today.
The Australia Day weekend is, of course, not a holiday for people who work in retail or in hospitality. It was a nice day yesterday and people were out in pubs and wine bars and coffee shops. Other people were out shopping or window shopping. The city was bustling in a pleasantly relaxed kind of way. And my ankle, which is substantially better, was up to a slow stroll into town, although we took the tram back.
When we are in Melbourne on Monday evenings, which happens fairly regularly, if infrequently, we join in with anyone who happens to be eating steak and roast potatoes and salad. Emily joins in too, when she is in town (perhaps not as regular in her attendance, but much more frequent). Last night many steak eaters were otherwise engaged, it being a national holiday and everything. However, a whole new group of steak eaters was available. Ant and Jess have been in town for the weekend. They head back to Perth after attending a family funeral this afternoon. So they came, and Jess's sisters came, and a fiance came, and Jess's cousin who also lives in Perth and happened to be around also came. We've met him before, last trip, when we too were in Perth. There was lots of food - steak, of course, and Lindsey' famous roast potatoes. I made the salad, and a fruit salad for afters. There was wine and beer and chat and more merriment. It was all good.
So this morning Lindsey and Ian got up and got ready for work. I unloaded the dishwasher and reloaded it. Emily came down from the rented holiday flat and pottered about. I emptied the dishwasher and reloaded it. Ian and Lindsey went to their respective places of work. Emily went back upstairs. I emptied the dishwasher and did not reload it, the dishes now being done.
The Builder was sat in the lounge room with his iPad. I was just considering whether I could be bothered getting out the vacuum cleaner and sorting the carpet out --------- when there was an almighty bang behind me, followed by a crashing noise that was so loud that I'm not sure quite how to describe it. The Builder and I looked at each other. What the hell????? Then we looked into the kitchen to find that the shelves on which the crockery sits had fallen off the wall and they and the (cleaned) crockery were now disported all over the floor, the crockery in bits :-S
I am not, normally, an easily frightened or terrified person - but that did figure quite highly on the Very Alarming scale. It was a very, very loud crashing noise!
Actually, it was probably just as well that it had happened when there was someone here. It would have been seriously disconcerting to have come home to find it like that. I think your first thought would have been that you had been ransacked. As it was, I sent Lindsey a message telling her about it. I alerted Emily and Jess who were due back down at any minute. And then we set about clearing it all up.
Lindsey says it's all my fault for having made sure that all the dishes were done and put away. The Builder says it was her fault - she said when we first arrived that she didn't really have anything much for him to do, other than to make some fly screens for the kitchen in Ballarat. Now he's pondering how to fix the wall and get some (secure) shelves up in the kitchen in East Melbourne :-D
Hot and very windy in Melbourne today. The Builder and I will probably have a fairly lazy day. But there will most definitely be lunch.
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