Melbourne October 2023 “Button that rain please”
02/10/23 20:10
Three of us are staying at the lodgings we chose for our son's wedding. Myself , my wife and one of our friend’s from KL who we were pleased to host for that occasion. Following that "big day" we have two weeks to relax and explore the city before heading back home to KL. Now I am a self confessed expert regarding Melbourne trams, in so far as I have travelled on over 400 different ones and only need a few of the latest ones to have ridden on them all. (Well, all of those that are left in service anyway). So when our friend asked the question “Is there a button shop in Melbourne?” I figured that I would be able to google that and then guide my wife and friend to it using my tram knowledge. So a bit of research shows the best chance we have of getting the specific type of button rests on visiting one shop in the district of Malvern. I plot the route from where we are staying and our visit is set for the next day. Just one problem, rain is forecast.
This would be the first tram journey on this visit for my accomplices but, of course, I know it all, they just have to listen to me. We arrive at the tram stop just as the tram we need to be on is arriving and I hurry to the end of the platform where it will stop. I turn expecting to see them behind me but to my horror they are standing at the other end, still looking at the tram route map! I told them what we would be doing, they should just do that and now it's their fault we have missed our tram! I do what I do far too often and expressed my opinion and it was not well received! I was being impatient, selfish and not thinking of others needs at that time.
It was a ten minute before the next tram on our route arrives and we get on. I sit down in a hurry and get a thump in my back that really hurts. I have just hit one of the payment machines located by the entrance doors and it is lot harder than my back. I sit in pain and a mini-sulk until that quiet voice in the back of my head said, “Stop it! That’s a reminder to behave yourself”. I know that voice, I’ve heard it before. It is a less angry, more peaceful version of thought expressing a sentiment completely different to what I am actually thinking of at that time. I’ll summarise what I was being told. “I am behaving like this day is all about me. 'I found the shop, I chose the route and you should be grateful to me'. It’s all I, I and me when you should have been focusing on their needs and behaving more like a servant than the master”. By the time we changed trams to get on the one to Malvern I had resolved to pay far more attention to them and changed my behaviour accordingly.
Now did I mention the rain? Well, it had been light drizzle most of the morning but now, as we headed towards Malvern, it became a downpour and we had no umbrella. There would be a ten minute walk from our final tram stop to the Button shop and we faced getting soaked so I prayed for it to stop. Readers of my blog will know that many times our Lord has heard me ask for a break in the rain and that has been granted. It mattered again today that the rain hold off just long enough for us to see if the shop had what was required. Just a few minutes before we were planning to get off the rain ceased, completely. I had also prayed for the Button shop to have the button our friend was looking for and I know she was doing likewise. It was wonderful to see she found exactly what was being looked for at that shop and then it didn’t rain on us for the rest of the day.
This would be the first tram journey on this visit for my accomplices but, of course, I know it all, they just have to listen to me. We arrive at the tram stop just as the tram we need to be on is arriving and I hurry to the end of the platform where it will stop. I turn expecting to see them behind me but to my horror they are standing at the other end, still looking at the tram route map! I told them what we would be doing, they should just do that and now it's their fault we have missed our tram! I do what I do far too often and expressed my opinion and it was not well received! I was being impatient, selfish and not thinking of others needs at that time.
It was a ten minute before the next tram on our route arrives and we get on. I sit down in a hurry and get a thump in my back that really hurts. I have just hit one of the payment machines located by the entrance doors and it is lot harder than my back. I sit in pain and a mini-sulk until that quiet voice in the back of my head said, “Stop it! That’s a reminder to behave yourself”. I know that voice, I’ve heard it before. It is a less angry, more peaceful version of thought expressing a sentiment completely different to what I am actually thinking of at that time. I’ll summarise what I was being told. “I am behaving like this day is all about me. 'I found the shop, I chose the route and you should be grateful to me'. It’s all I, I and me when you should have been focusing on their needs and behaving more like a servant than the master”. By the time we changed trams to get on the one to Malvern I had resolved to pay far more attention to them and changed my behaviour accordingly.
Now did I mention the rain? Well, it had been light drizzle most of the morning but now, as we headed towards Malvern, it became a downpour and we had no umbrella. There would be a ten minute walk from our final tram stop to the Button shop and we faced getting soaked so I prayed for it to stop. Readers of my blog will know that many times our Lord has heard me ask for a break in the rain and that has been granted. It mattered again today that the rain hold off just long enough for us to see if the shop had what was required. Just a few minutes before we were planning to get off the rain ceased, completely. I had also prayed for the Button shop to have the button our friend was looking for and I know she was doing likewise. It was wonderful to see she found exactly what was being looked for at that shop and then it didn’t rain on us for the rest of the day.