/karen/

November, 2007

• I am pro crastination
• Seeds
• God and the family
• One down, two to go
• The ladies who lunch
• Blinks
• Out on the lawn
• Six card revision
• Sleep to dream
• Mental health day
• Set
• A Christian writes

I am pro crastination

Wednesday, 28 November, 2007

Monday 19/11/07

Back at work but still steadfastly ignoring January Briefing editing. Instead, the achievement for the day was finally finishing the transfer and clean-up of all the old web extras into the new Briefing website. (You can view them all in the fulltext archive.) I was going to celebrate by going out for Easy Way bubble tea (it's a pretty significant milestone!) but by the time 4 pm rolled around, I was just keen to go home.

At home, I worked on my talk for Petersham Evening Church (PEC) Women's fellowship but also tried to take it easy.

Tuesday 20/11/07

At work, January Briefing editing began somewhat in earnest (in that I cleaned up all the files and go them ready) but other things kept happening.

I left at 4 and went home to work on my talk some more, then went off to dinner and Bible study at church.

Wednesday 21/11/07

Normally I don't work Wednesdays but I was switching my days around this week because Friday was Seamus and Little Rachel's wedding. So I worked and got stuck into Briefing editing, spending most of the day on the one article (it was four pages, though! And it was the centrepiece of the isue.)

In evening, the MM board were meeting and they invited us for drinks and nibblies at 4 before their meeting began. I stayed 'til 6:30 (yes, 7:30 to 6:30 day; dreadful, I know) and then drove south to St Luke's Miranda. It didn't take as long as I thought it would, so I spent 15 minutes sitting in my car, talking to Ben who had just finished his second-last exam.

The rest of Ynping and Andrew's bridal party soon turned up, along with Ynping and Andrew themselves, and we got stuck into the wedding rehearsal. (I wasn't in the bridal party but they had very kindly invited me to read the Bible for them: 1 Corinthians 13:4-13.) It was very exciting to think that soon Ynping and Andrew would be walking down that aisle!

Afterwards we went out for dinner. It was about 9 pm at that stage, and we didn't realise that Arizona's shuts that early. So we went to GPK (Gourmet Pizza Kitchen) and split five pizzas between the six of us.

After dinner, I said goodbye and headed off to my mum's place. She gave me some old photos of herself, her siblings and her mum which I want to use for women's fellowship. She also had a picture of my grandfather in a locket. It's the first time I've ever seen pictures of him because he died before my mother was born. Then I drove home and went to bed.

Thursday 22/11/07

Back at work I attacked more Briefing editing. Ben sat his final exam (Doctrine) in the afternoon. I left at 4 to come home and do some more work on my talk but I really was unmotivated to do it so when Ben said to come to Newtown earlier, I did. We had dinner together at Hikaru (so yummy!) to celebrate the end of exams and the end of third year for Ben (woohoo!), then went home and watched Law & Order.

Friday 23/11/07

Day off! We slept in a little, then walked to college with our neighbours. It had been a while since I had attended community chapel at college; I don't think I've ever seen so many babies in the one room. I sat next to Honoria (who reads this blog—Hi Honoria!) John Woodhouse preached on Philippians 2 and then the entire college had lunch. I got to catch up with a bunch of people I hadn't seen in a while—including a girl from my old prayer triplet in first year, Cathy P, Katie J, and Leah, Roger's wife, gave me a some yarn she had spun and dyed herself (wow!) but didn't think she'd ever use.

We stayed around for the staff-student debate (the highlight of which was George Athas singing his own version of Abba's “S.O.S.”), then caught a lift home with the Kuswadis (well, Jo, anyway; Josh got a lift with someone else), went home, got changed, hopped in the car and went to Petersham Bowling Club where the rest of Ben's year was playing lawn bowls. They looked at us weirdly because we were all dolled up in our wedding gear (well, probably me more so than Ben!) so I had to keep explaining.

We didn't stay long—certainly not long enough to play bowls—but it was still nice to catch up with Faith, Anita G and Jayne (who, I discovered, is organising the Moore Women Bible study groups next year. She told me that mostly workers go to the Tuesday night one and that you can get dinner at college every week if you go, so it's looking more and more like an attractive option). We left at about 4 pm and drove to Chatswood, then parked in Chatswood Bowling Club and walked up to St Paul's Anglican Church for Little and Seamus's wedding. Larissa and Matt were both there, along with a whole stack of Wollongong and college people. I almost felt like the universe would implode because normally you don't expect to see those two groups in the same room!

It was a lovely wedding. Little Rachel walked down the aisle to some anime soundtrack (which sounded awesome!) and Seamus wore a kilt. I chuckled to see her dancing up the front while the singing took place. Afterwards, they had photos on the church steps so I was able to get some good pictures. The bridal party walked down to the bowling club but Larissa gave us all a lift for it was rather cold and we were ill-equipped for the weather.

The reception was at Chatswood Bowling Club in a very nice cosy room. At first we just stood around but later in the evening we commandeered some chairs. This proved to be a very cunning plan because we were in the direct path of the kitchen where the waiters emerged bearing food and also for the speeches and bridal waltz later.

Rachel and Seamus took their leave at around 11 and then we drove home.

Saturday 24/11/07

I was up fairly early to work on my speech for Ynping and Andrew's wedding. (I wasn't in the bridal party but it was very nice of them to ask me to give a speech!) Ben went off to church because our church was being used as a polling booth for the federal election and they needed people to help with the sausage sizzle. This was my first speech/talk for the month (two more to follow) and, just like the rest of them, the problem wasn't so much content as putting it together. I'd had the content and the basic structure ages ago, and I'd even canvassed Facebook for some good drummer and violinist jokes (Ynping's a violinist; Andrew's a drummer). Here's my pick of the best:

• How can you tell when there's a drummer at the door? The knocking gets faster but he never knows when to come in.
• How do you know if the stage is level? The drummer drools from both sides of his mouth.
• Why do bands have bass players? To translate for the drummer.
• How do you get a drummer to play quieter? Put sheet music in front of him.
• What do you call someone who hangs out with musicians? A drummer.

and

• What's the difference between a dog and a violinist? You can stop a dog from scratching.
• Why are violins like lawsuits? Everyone is relieved when the case is closed.
• Why do violinists keep a cloth between their chins and their violins? Violins don't have spit valves
• What's the difference between a violin and a trampoline? You take your shoes off before you jump on a trampoline.
• Why are violinist jokes so short? So drummers can remember them.

I finished the speech before we had to leave but there almost wasn't enough time to change and get ready to leave (and I had a very basic lunch—beaten eggs cooked in the microwave). Traffic was absolutely ridiculous near our house for some reason so it took us close to 20 minutes to even get to the Princes Highway. Good thing we allowed for an hour's travel time for we arrived at the church right on 2 and even managed to find a parking spot there (unlike poor Ramya who had to park on the other side of the train line and walk in extremely un-sensible shoes).

The string octet were playing some beautiful stuff for all the guests as we waited. (Musicians seems to be very good at getting other musicians to come play at their weddings. On the other hand, it means that most standard wedding fare by way of processionals usually has bad memories attached so Ynping had a bit of trouble choosing hers.) For some reason, we ended up being the only ones sitting in our pew (with the ladies behind us giving a running commentary throughout the entire thing). But it meant we got a very decent view of the aisle.

And the bridal party looked magnificent! They had the cutest flower girl, and it was lovely to see Melinda and Liwen all dressed up in their bridesmaid finery. Ynping also looked radiant in white (come to think of it, I can't remember the last time I saw Ynping in a dress!) I got a bit teary during the vows (I got a bit teary during Rachel and Seamus's vows too! I'm such a softie!) My Bible reading went off fine (and a number of people afterwards came up and told me how good it was which surprised me because, hey, it's a Bible reading) and Stephen Gibson preached a corker of a sermon which, even though it only went for 10 minutes, really drove home the point that we know what love is because of Jesus' sacrifice on our behalf, that being the model for how we ought to love one another.

Afterwards we had a group photo on the steps, and then afternoon tea in the hall (yummy Asian cookies!) I was hoping to blow bubbles all over the wedding party but the wind was blowing the wrong way. (That strikes me as being a rather fun way to spend the afternoon: blowing bubbles off my verandah!)

There wasn't much point in Ramya going home before the reception so we invited her to our place and we spent the afternoon chatting and eating vegie chips. She drove us in to the city. The reception was at the Marigold on the fifth floor, and it sounded like there were two weddings going on at the same time, separated only by a red curtain. We were on Table 11 but the different lists didn't match up so there was a little confusion for a while. Plus we kept telling the waiters that we needed 12 table settings, not 11 (they were counting the baby as the twelfth person) and they kept ignoring us until more of the guests started showing up. We were on a table with mostly school people like Ramya and Pauline, and then, wonders of wonders, Chau, who I'm sure I haven't seen since my wedding, showed up a bit later and totally surprised me (especially as she'd changed her name to “Kathlyn” and she had gotten married so I had no idea who her name tag referred to).

There must have been around 150 guests there. A jazz band were playing standards up the front and we were served a 10-course banquet (complete with shark's fin soup [my favourite] and just about every sort of meat: duck, chicken, beef, pork, lobster, fish, prawns, scallops, etc.) The speeches started at around 8:45 and I knew it would be a tough gig because we could hear barking Cantonese and karaoke from the other side of the red curtain, and it was a large distance to project. Plus the sound system was a bit funny. But I got up and did my speech (and remembered to speak slowly!) and actually managed to hold the attention of the room (go drummer and violinist jokes!) and afterwards the photographer came up and told me what a good speech it was.

The other speeches were much harder to hear (especially with the rude waiters talking nearby; I had to tell them to shut up twice!) And then they had Chinese games. Ynping, now dressed in a red cheong sam, and Andrew, now dressed in Chinese shirt and pants, had to get up on the stage. She was given a raw egg and she had to move it up one of Andrew's trouser legs and down the other without breaking it. (I said to Ben, “Aren't you glad we didn't make you do that?”) That was the first game. During the second, Andrew was blindfolded a bunch of people stood in a line near him. One by one they placed their right hand into his and he had to guess which one was his wife. (Unfortunately for Andrew he got it wrong twice!)

Around 11 pm Pauline and Zhen were keen to leave. They were giving us a lift, so we went with them and they dropped us home.

Sunday 25/11/07

By Sunday, throughout the whole of November, I had been to three hen's nights and three weddings, given one speech and had two talks to go. Ben and I slept in until 11 (we needed it!) and then drove off to Casula to visit Francis and Erin. We were returning their Playstation and Singstar games (which they had very kindly lent to us for Ben's birthday party). Erin was very heavily pregnant and not coping with the heat. Francis made us some very yummy chicken on the barbecue with a very yummy Caesar-like salad accompanying it. So we had a very lovely afternoon hanging out with them, looking over the progress of their vegie garden, and playing with their cat and guinea pigs.

We had to leave at about 3:45 because I was on band. It took about 45 min to get home and I had only half an hour to do some tidying and other stuff before I had to leave for band practice. (Poor neglected house! I think the last time I actually ate a meal in it was a week ago!) Band practice was a lot of fun because we kept trying different things with the songs. (Though I still think I played rather badly.) Cameron preached an excellent sermon on Deuteronomy 27-28. (I'm really enjoying his series; he's very good at helping us understanding what the passage is about and how it should apply to us.) I didn't get a chance to write him a comment card so I told him verbally afterwards. He said he was sad he wouldn't get a comment card from me this week; he likes getting my little essays on them because it means at least one person was listening! For some reason, supper afterwards and pack-up went really quick, and we ended up being among the last to leave.

Monday 26/11/07

Unfortunately life goes on, and I was back at work again. The coffee machine was broken so the coffee-drinkers in our office were a little cranky at not being suitably caffeinated. I edited the Bible Brief and the last feature article. I left right on four because Ben told me that his study group end-of-year dinner started at 4:30. The unusual time meant that most people forgot, so we were one of the first to turn up at the Riley's.

Phil made a lamb spit roast and other people brought salads, and we had a very nice dinner out in the backyard. I knitted until there was no more light left, then chatted with the other wives about how their year went. At about 9:30 I signalled to Ben that we should leave as I had to have a shower and I really really really needed to sleep.

Tuesday 27/11/07

Unfortunately I didn't sleep well. Ben couldn't sleep so he started listening to sermons (it took four hours' worth to send him to sleep!) So I woke up at around 1 in the morning to Don Carson, complained bitterly so that Ben switched from speakers to headphones, then went back to sleep and missed my alarm. This meant I set out for work rather late and didn't get there until around 9:30. The dregs of Briefing editing were waiting for me, and I struggled to get through it while whinging to Guan and Bec on IM (Did you know that they, along with Ben and Fish, are both INFPs? I seem to be building up quite a collection!). Then I started on the stuff for the December Briefing—preparing the e-Briefing, preparing the text for the website and online store, preparing text for e-news, and so on. I left at 6 and went straight to church for dinner and Bible study.

It was Steve's last Bible study with us before he and Cathy move back to Canberra. We ended up talking a lot about the law, and then praying for each other seemed to take forever so we didn't finish until 10 pm.

Wednesday 28/11/07

Thankfully today's my day off and I got to sleep in a little. So far, I've done the laundry, Ben and I had bacon and eggs and fried mushrooms for breakfast (quite an achievement, given my past track record with fried eggs!) and procrastinated appropriately on my two talks.

Right. Time to get stuck into it.

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