A big chunk of the Wollongong crew were here from Easter Monday for a week. Katie stayed with me, Langdon with his parents, while the others opted for child-friendly apartments in the city. It was a huge blessing for me to have them all here. Since they've gone I've felt more settled, which is probably the opposite consequence than what I expected. But now my lives feel integrated and I don't feel as separate from them.
Work-wise it worked out really well for me because down here academics get Easter Tuesday off, and I had a day in lieu which I took on Wednesday, so I only had to work 2 days while they were all here. We covered so much ground in a few days...we ate at some fantastic places, went to some fun little bars, wandered markets and went for walks. A highlight for me was girls day - where I took the girls to places that I love that have become part of my Melbourne life. It was kind of a 'day in the life' experience. Another highlight was having Katie stay here and the little bits and pieces we could do together like dance late at night, and lie awake talking in the dark. Also, I found out while they were here that my PhD has been accepted (with minor revisions) so it was great to be able to celebrate that with people who have really walked that journey with me. Finally, the girls all came to my new church on Sunday night which felt so right. I think that did us all a lot of good. It was a bit like a handing over ritual.
This weekend just gone was also really special because Beth and Shannon came down to stay. Once again, it was just really special to have people who know me so well so close for a few days. When they arrived at my place with just a little bit of light left, so we grabbed a drink and took it up on the roof and watched the last of the sunset, and watched St Kilda light up for the night. We chatted until we were so hungry we couldn't stand it anymore, so we went downstairs and organised ourselves for dinner and drinks. We stayed local on Friday night, and then on Saturday we went out to Fitzroy to go to the Rose St Artist Markets and shopped a little more along Brunswick Street where the main drawcard was the Alannah Hill outlet. We all managed to find Alannah Hill dresses for $50 each.
Saturday night we were out in the city, and consequently we slept our way through our plans to go to Brighton on Sunday morning. We went into the city around midday instead, went to Pellegrini's for lunch, and then once again I had to embrace my new goodbye lifestyle as Beth and Shan got on the airport bus. I think it was a real healing weekend for us all. I don't mean for our friendships - they didn't require healing. But each of us has walked a fairly rocky path recently, and to have so much time to invest in one another over the weekend was, I think, just what the doctor ordered.
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