The end of the long weekend

After a relaxing Easter long weekend, it’s really hard to think that I will need to get into the routine again on Monday. Even though my life as a student is less of a routine compared to when I still worked full time, I do actually treat it as my current ‘job’. I go to my ‘office’ (a shared room with three other postgraduate students) around 9.00 – 10.00am, and leave home at about 5.00 – 5.30pm. I thought I was going to do some reading this weekend but ended up doing some housework instead. On Good Friday, I had my driving lesson in the morning and then Yani and I went to church for our Good Friday service. A group of us then went to the Edge Church in Old Reynella to see the Easter production called I See Love at 5.00pm. The hall was really packed with people as three congregations from the City Campus, South Campus and the West Campus joined together. I thought we wouldn’t get any seat as all of the seats were already taken or booked – thank God they added more chairs at the back. The production was slick and impactful – the team told the story of Easter through songs, monologues and dialogues. We were really blessed – afterwards the church also fed us with some salt and pepper calamari, pizza, hot cross buns and chocolate Easter eggs. Whoa! 🙂

On Easter Saturday, we had our Youth Night at our church – and because there were a lot of the youth who were either back home in Indonesia for the mid-semester break or travelling interstate, the turnout wasn’t that good. It was a good, friendly, intimate evening of praise and worship – the interactions between the performers and the audience were really refreshing and funny as well. One of the girls from the congregation, Rehany, even played the traditional instrument from her province in Indonesia, called sasando. It’s a tubular version of the harp and it does sound like harp or zither. Her sasando doesn’t look the picture though as it is already modernised by an engineer in Indonesia. So it’s an electric sasando, with the main tube painted metallic red. 🙂 I compered for the night as well performed ‘In Christ Alone’ with two of my friends from the youth. At the end of the night, the Pastor’s wife also cooked us some chicken congee – such a perfect accompaniment to a cool Autumn evening!

Then came Easter Sunday – the Indonesian church went to Belair National Park for the annual outdoor Easter Service. We took the train from the city to the National Park – and although it was as if we travelled to another town, the park itself is not that far from the city centre! We had the service by the lake and had a game or two as well to keep us occupied, before and after the main service. We also had some Indonesian yellow rice for lunch, which was much appreciated by the ravenous members of the  congregation. Haha. The ducks at the lake kept us company as well – it was a beautiful afternoon indeed. By the time we headed back to the city, it was already late afternoon, so a group of us went to one of the youth’s apartment in the city, just to hang around before dinner. We sang, we joked, we laughed, while some others played with Play Station 3.  I usually don’t join this type of gathering – I feel that I’m too old for this kind of activities *grin*. However, since one of the students was also leaving Adelaide for good and that it was his last evening in the city, I thought I should join in and just enjoy the evening. We then went to Hog’s Breath for dinner afterwards, followed by some coffee and cake at Bocelli. It was really sad to say goodbye to Vito – the student who was leaving – as he is like my new younger brother. I miss him already and I’m sure I will miss him a lot in the coming weeks. He was always helpful in giving Yani and I a ride in his car, as well as being helpful and dependable at church. He was also my bestman at my wedding. Saying goodbye is the norm here, living in Adelaide. You see students coming and going – after a while, the pain dulls down, but the scars remain everytime you have to say goodbye to a friend who you know very well in his or her three years with you.

So, after such three activity-filled days, today I was just plain tired and  lazy – Yani and I got up at 9am, and after that I spent my time on Facebook while Yani did the same. Haha. She then did some house-cleaning and I followed suit by cleaning the fishtank and washing the dishes. I also spent some time filling the cracks on the wall in the second bedroom – that’s the consequence of living in Adelaide with such reactive soil! I then went to Bunning’s to get some more filler and then also bought a new crepemyrtle tree to replace the departed smokebush tree in the backyard that didn’t survive the summer heat when I returned to Adelaide from my trip to Indonesia earlier this year. I hope the crepemyrtle will grow and adorn the backyard with its flower and Autumn display!

It’s too bad that I have to say goodbye to the long weekend and prepare myself for the week ahead. At least it will be another short week! 🙂