/karen/

China blinks

Sunday, 25 May, 2008

Following on from my insensitive post about the earthquake in China and pandas, The New York Times's coverage is really quite informative and poignant (and, of course, miles better than The Sydney Morning Herald:

• ‘A Rescue in China, Uncensored’ had this to say:

  Chinese Web sites remain heavily censored, and a brief flirtation with openness and responsiveness does not mean that China is headed toward Western-style democracy. On the contrary, if China manages to handle a big natural disaster better than the United States handled Hurricane Katrina, the achievement may underscore Beijing's contention that its largely nonideological brand of authoritarianism can deliver good government as well as fast growth.

• ‘Tiny Bodies in a Morgue, and Grief in China’ highlighted parents' grief (particularly in this country which has a strict one child policy) and anger at the authorities' lack of aid;
• ‘In Rubble, Couple Clung to Each Other, and to Life’ tells the story of one couple who survived only because they clung together;
• ‘Many Hands, Not Held by China, Aid in Quake’ talks about the hundreds of volunteers who streamed into the quake area—most acting against the government's orders to stay away;
• ‘Rescue Ends One Ordeal for Young Chinese Pupils’ focuses on one of the schools where all but three students survived the quake. Unfortunately most of their parents did not;
• ‘Chinese Are Left to Ask Why Schools Crumbled’: A look at what happened to Xinjian Primary School (why it collapsed while the buildings around it didn't), shoddy construction methods, corruption and class differences. Interestingly, the collapse of the schools is also symbolic in some way: “School represents hope in China. The parents do not express it exactly like that, but they saw education as their children's only chance.”

I wonder what the aftermath of it all will be—and what impact it will have on the nation.

A cold heart will burst

Thursday, 22 May, 2008

Monday 12/5/08

Now, before you chide me for working on a Sunday, consider what Monday involved. Not only was it Briefing thinking day, it was also Briefing cuts and fills day for June. And Tony was in early.

Having spent the last couple of weeks getting in by 8 and not getting around to reading my Bible (not really), I thought the best way to amend the problem was to start bringing Carson's For the Love of God (Volume 2) and my prayer cards in with me, and read the Bible off the internet and pray while in the office eating breakfast. So I would be in by 7:30 but would not start work until 8. And that way I would still get my daily diet of Scripture instead of nothing at all.

I dealt with Briefing thinking first, then did some article assessing while I waited for Joy to email me the first draft of the layout. That came in mid-morning, so I got into doing cuts and fills. It was pretty straightforward, though I kept having to add to my list things to look for. My duties are shifting: more Briefing stuff will be falling to me so that, instead of looking after it up until it goes to layout, I'll be looking after it up until it goes to print (except the ads). I went back and forth with Joy once or twice, and then it was ready for proofreading by the end of the day.

Both Bec and Guan were in. We had afternoon tea together (Bec brought chocolate) and I read to them from Love Me by Garrison Keillor (I think they laughed more at me than at the bit I was reading them—which was, by the way, the part where the main character, Larry Wyler, who has had writers' block for two years, is on a train returning from Canada where he had gone to get inspired and then, once inspired, had written an “anti-Canadian harangue” and then accidentally left it in the urinal when the train made a stop in Portland. He gets back on the train:

“Something wrong? You look terrible,” the bartender said. So I told him. “It was the first good thing I wrote in a year and it's gone,” I said.

“Well, that's a shame,” he said, as if I'd lost an embroidered hankie instead of a literary creation. A woman with red hair was sitting at the bar. She said, “Just sit down and write the story again. That's what Fitzgerald did when Zelda left the manuscript of The Great Gatsby on a train in Zurich. He sat down in a hotel room and wrote it again—and it turned out even better! And he got the idea of Nick Carraway as the narrator instead of Gatsby's cleaning lady, Jean.”

I hate people who give you inspirational advice like that. I loathe them.

A man in a wrinkled brown corduroy suit said, “I heard that Faulkner's As I Lay Dying was pitched into the fireplace by an illiterate field hand, and Faulkner proceeded to get drunk and write the whole thing from memory in two days straight.”

“Easier said than done,” I said.

“The power of memory,” said the woman. “T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land fell into a hot bath and the ink washed off and he had to rewrite it and he made April the cruelest month, instead of the ‘coolest’, which it had been. Robert Frost once wrote a poem that was eaten by a dog who ran off into the woods, chased by the poet, and only then did he decide to change the poem to ‘Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening’ instead of ‘Stopping at the Dew Drop Inn on a Wednesday Night in January,’ which is what it was when the dog ate it.”

(Garrison Keillor, Love Me, Viking, 2003, pp. 103-4.)

That book also has a great passage about editors that Tony once read to me. I thought we should frame it and hang it on the wall in the office.)

In the afternoon, Tony and I met about Briefing stuff but it wasn't really a proper meeting. I ended up leaving slightly late at 4:30 and couldn't be bothered doing grocery shopping, so I went home and tried to have a relaxing evening.

Tuesday 13/5/08

Back at work, the June Briefing was at proofreading. I was trying to do various bits and pieces but kept feeling like I was fighting foo and not getting much done. I transcribed an MTS AIM day talk (I forget whether they're actually called AIM days any more), dealt with the rest of the Briefing article assessing, went to lunch with Elsie at the Tea Inn (we pushed on with Ezekiel, and I ate crab and sweet corn soup with an almond milk tea), and Tony gave me the layout for the July/August Briefing, and I stopped panicking.

I came home and made dinner for Ben who was sick and so wasn't going to go to Bible study.

Wednesday 14/5/08

Day off. I slept in—I slept really badly the night before and couldn't drop off until 1. I read in bed and finished Love Me, then got up, showered, breakfasted, read Bible and prayed. I went for a walk down to Reverse Garbage because I wanted to see if they had any old bits of cloth I could use to line my bag and also to drop in our old mobile phones (Mobile Muster said you can do that there. Ever wanted to know what happens to old mobile phones? Read The New York Times.) It was a sunny day and I knew vaguely where I was headed but I still took a wrong turn. I got there in the end, and I found some fabric and some zippers for various craft projects. Then I came home, read email and my RSS feeds, and had lunch. I was all set to get down to putting together the conference booklet for C.S. Lewis Today and then learned that the conference was cancelled due to not enough registrations. I felt pretty sad about that—I had it when you work really hard and then all your efforts are just for nothing in one instance. *Sigh*. So I updated the website and Facebook and emailed people and pulled advertising off various sites. Then I had dinner, did some blogging and went to be too late.

Thursday 15/5/08

I woke up at 6:45 and was in the car by 7. I ate breakfast and did my quiet time at work, then started working at 8. Everything was all over the place for the first couple of hours: email, Sola Panel, various bits and pieces, The Briefing came back from proofreading and had to be made ready for the printers which was uncharted territory for me. We had staff lunch (pizza!) and then prayed. I sat down with Liza to look at Zoho Creator and discovered that if you had more than two users sharing an application, it was no longer free (grr). I also found a free online mind mapping site called MindMeister which looks pretty good so I thought we'd use it a bit and see how it goes. I spent the afternoon trying to shift stuff off my desk (and finding out that certain jobs that I had to do were already done and nobody told me!)

I left at 4, went home, edited two more Sola Panel entries and fiddled with the blog. I made stir fried mince with vegetables for dinner and then we watched Numb3rs. The rest of the evening was comprised of shower, blogging and sleep.

Friday 16/5/08

Unfortunately the following morning, I woke up at 6:30 with the beginnings of a sore throat. I'd only had six hours of sleep so thought I shouldn't push it: I went back to sleep. And woke up about three or four hours later and thought, “Hmm, well, I could go in today, but I think I am just about to get sick and I'll infect everyone in the office.” So even though it wasn't a full-blown sore throat/flu/cold thing, I decided to stay home—even though that was the day I was supposed to start editing the July/August Briefing (and I was hugely nervous about it, given that there was almost twice the content and yet we only had the same amount of time to edit it in).

Ben was also sick so we we stayed home together. I made eggs for breakfast with our egg rings which I've only used once before. (I don't understand why they sell egg rings in packs of three: that's just stupid. Why not packs of four or six???) I think I'm getting the hang of it, though eggs still aren't my forte. I spent the day taking it easy (though I also dealt with computer things and checked my work email from home, and tried to see how much I could annoy Emma by looking at work things because she kept telling me not to). Ben was too sick to go to counselling so I went by myself, stopping at Target in Macquarie Centre to see if I could find some more thermals (I did but they were pricey. Then again, they're 100% wool so I think they'll be good.) Counselling was okay.

Then I drove back home and had leftovers for dinner. Ben went to see Cog at the Enmore theatre with Luke and then dropped him home. I watched some TV and prepare for Word by Word which, irritatingly, took longer than expected.

Saturday 17/5/08

Word by Word: it only comes seven times a year, and yet every time I seem to be rushing and forgetting things. We got up a little later than I wanted to and left a little later than I wanted to, and made it in by 9:15. I had forgotten about the food but I had food stashed about (just no healthy stuff like grapes or dried fruit; must remember that next time). There was plenty of milk in the fridge. The dishrack was, unfortunately, stacked high and I broke a bowl because, as I went to put all the crockery away, it fell off and landed in the little sink on top of a dirty plate and cup and knife that someone had left there on Friday (ewww ...) So I was annoyed about that because it was a bowl that a Word by Word member brought in (not that she wanted it back, but still ...)

Bec did coffees for me. Haoran did the devotion, and it was interesting to see the penny drop as we thought about what he was trying to get us to look at in Ephesians 1. I got everyone to do a writing exercise on what makes you anxious as a writer (reading a bit from Mark Tredinnick's The Little Red Writing Book). And Guan ran a training seminar on writing reviews.

We had lunch at Gourmet Pizza Kitchen (sitting in an exceedingly sunny part of the restaurant). Then we had 45 minutes of writing time in which I actually worked on my graphic novel (shock horror!) Workshopping took place in the afternoon (but only Bec workshopped). So we finished early. I had a bit of a headache and was feeling rather feral, but had been looking forward to going to the Hope Street Markets all week. I asked Ben if he would take me and he, being a very lovely husband, bore with me and drove us to Paddington. We wandered around trying to find a park and then I just asked him to drop me at the Paddington Town Hall and go off and park somewhere.

I wandered around the markets for all of half an hour to 45 minutes. It was bigger than the summer markets—more stalls, more people, more interesting stuff to look at. The people who ran the Tamptation stall remembered me and told me they had more bags in. Unfortunately I wasn't really looking for bags. A lot of what was being sold was very beautiful (but, of course, incredibly expensive). Nevertheless, I did pick up a present for someone, as well as some hair elastics and a journal for myself (I finished the one I'd been writing in since January 2007 that afternoon). When I was done, I called Ben who came to pick me up and take us home.

We had a short rest for an hour or so and then drove out west to Elwin and Felicity's. Ben is being the Best Man at their wedding. We thought it was some sort of wedding party/people involved sort of get-together but no, it was just dinner with us and them, and it was really quite nice. They made us a lovely meal and we hung out and talked and watched Sleepy Hollow (my choice because it was Tim Burton and I'd never seen it, and Ben acquiesced, even though he dislikes Johnny Depp). That finished around 10:30/11:00 pm, upon which we said our goodbyes and headed home.

Sunday 18/5/08

Andrew Cameron had invited us along to his church but we weren't sure where it was, exactly, and which service he would be at. I managed to figure it out, though, and I set the alarm so we'd be up in time to go. Ben wasn't heaps keen—especially as he wasn't feeling that well—but then he got some text messages from Andrew saying sorry and here was the details, and there was a bit of to and fro-ing where we thought we might be able to give them a lift, but it didn't work out so we just went by ourselves and got there a little late (parking in Rozelle is crazy).

We slipped in behind some other latecomers. The minister was just giving his introduction so I don't think we missed much. It was an old church but it had been carpeted on the inside, and the front pews had been ripped out and chairs put in their place (though there were still pews up the back part of the church). The minister—Barry—used to be an actor, I think, and it showed in his delivery. I quite enjoyed his sermon. It was structured very differently and he approached the material a bit unconventionally, but he still preached the word of God and helped us think about how to apply it to our lives.

Afterwards we hung around for morning tea and I met some of the people in the congregation. Our time was nearly up on the parking meter so we had to go, and the Camerons came with us because they were getting a lift. In the car, Mary-Anne asked me what my hobbies and interests were. I said, “Reading, knitting, music, writing ...” and somehow I ended up telling her, Andrew and Thomas about my graphic novel, and felt really flattered when they said, “I want to read it.”

We dropped them home and then continued on to our home. I had to do the laundry but I procrastinated by playing the piano for an hour or two. Then I got the laundry started as well as lunch (grilled ling on bok choy) but it was late by this stage—about 3 pm. I was so sick of housework by the afernoon but I think I was also just tired of going and going and going without stopping. I did some computer things for an hour or so and then we went to band practice and had church.

And I made a decision about church.

Monday 19/5/08

I was up at 6:15 and even did my quiet time at home. At work, it was all systems go for Briefing editing, and I dealt with my dread by making a To Do list and working through it. I went to the dentist at 11:15 and returned half an hour later. I had leftovers for lunch, then kept working on Briefing editing (I managed to finish two pieces and send them off to their respective authors).

I left at four and was on the computer doing various things—email, RSS feeds, etc. We had leftovers for dinner and watched an episode of The Sopranos. Blogging followed dinner, then bed.

Tuesday 20/5/08

Up at 6:15 and quiet time at home. At work, I worked on more Briefing stuff (*sigh*). Em and I had lunch together at the dumpling house, then I visited the pharmacy and the post office. I left at 4, came home, put away the laundry, did computer things for a while, then made risoni for dinner and tackled the sewing I always procrastinate about doing: putting that button back on the doona cover (it fell off in the washing machine), fixing up the hem of that pair of pants, sewing that new button and the old button back onto my duffle coat (and then discovered to my horror that mould was growing on it, so I then had to pull out all my coats and check them all), sewing those new shiny brassy buttons on the red velvet coat I bought from Vinnie's at Jess G's recommendation (this is after I lost that button on the bus. I think the new buttons make the coat look really nice—somehow they give it a lift).

Ben got a call from his Bible study group saying they were having a social which included dinner and, oops, we forgot to tell you. He decided to go out for that. I ate dinner and watched In Her Shoes which I had borrowed off George (and actually really enjoyed—very good writing). I also watched the special features. And then I read in bed for a while (A Knot in the Grain by Robin McKinley) and didn't get to sleep until 1.

Wednesday 21/5/08

No day off today; I was going to be working at home in order to meet Briefing deadlines. I woke late, had breakfast, walked to the drycleaners to put my mouldy coats in to be cleaned (as well as my scarlet velvet robe thing from Tree of Life which I was worried I had ruined by handwashing it in the sink), and then I got stuck into work but it took ages to get there. I don't think I really started working until 12, and then a lot of the work was fighting foo again. Ben got me leftovers for lunch and I ate at my desk. I edited half a Bible brief (which was very hard-going) and then half of another Bible brief (double issue = two Bible briefs = twice the pain). We stopped working for dinner (more leftovers) and watched two episodes of NCIS. Then it was back to the grind where I edited the other half of the first Bible brief and dealt with Faithful Writer stuff. Then went to bed, finished off A Knot in the Grain and slept.

World send

Tuesday, 20 May, 2008

Monday 5/5/08

Back at work, I got in at 10 (since I had worked a bit the day before). I still had the Bible Brief to go for The Briefing. It was painful but I did it in a rush at the end of the day while continuing my epistolatory soliloquy to Bec and Guan. I worked until 6:30, then came home to eat leftovers with Ben and watch TV.

Tuesday 6/5/08

Once again, this was to be a week of not-quite-getting-in-by-7:30. I arrived at the office at 8 and sent most of the June Briefing off to Joy for layout. Then I spent the rest of the day helping Tony finish the rest of it. I ended up writing the “In this issue” (hardest 300 words in The Briefing) and by the end of the day, the entire thing was done. I sent it off to Joy, then went home at 3:30. On the way home, I stalled my mum's car three times at the intersection of Canal Road and the Princes Highway, and the woman behind me rolled her eyes, and a truck overtook me in the turning lane turning right.

I got home and it was a short turnaround to catch the train to Town Hall and walk to Kinokuniya. I wore my dress coat, boots and scarf—the latter I nearly lost at the intersection near Town Hall because some guy grabbed it (I think he was aiming for my bag). So I was quite flustered when I got to the Kinokuniya café where Bec and Guan were waiting. I bought Stardust and Odd and the Frost Giants for Tina, then joined them. They offered me some brownie but I said Bec needed it more. I contemplated getting a hot chocolate or chai latte but decided what I really needed was water.

It was 4:45 and there were already people queuing. The area set up near the magazines had been organised with belt barriers in a zig zag fashion reminiscent of the entrance to rides at Disneyland. The front two rows were already filled so we settled into the third, sat on the floor and talked and I knitted. The place quickly filled up (500 people were coming, I was told). Fish SMS-ed me to say he was on his way, and then called when he got there. He slithered his way in between shelves and barriers to join us and no one seemed to mind that he was jumping in ahead. Despite having been told the day before that the signing limit was three items, there were now prominent signs saying that the signing limit was two and that Neil would only personalise one item. A woman came around with heart-shaped Post-it notes and wrote names on them to speed up the signing process. Another woman had slips of paper on which we could write questions whic were then placed in an empty fishbowl. Bec, Guan and I tried to do a writing exercise about Neil Gaiman books.

Then finally the proceedings got started. Neil came out and was enthusiastically cheered. He as introduced by a lady who was so nervous, the piece of paper she was holding shook. She reiterated the rules, but when he got up to speak, he said he would break the rules and personalise everything (everyone cheered at that). And then, even though he was out to promote M is for Magic (these are Gaiman short stories suitable for kids, and most of them can be found in Smoke and Mirrors and Fragile Things) and The Dangerous Alphabet, he read to us from The Graveyard Book (yay!) He read two excerpts and then answered questions from the fishbowl (saying he rather liked the fishbowl idea [which was rather Gaimanesque anyway]. Unfortunately, even though I put in two questions, he didn't answer either of them).

Then at the end of it, the signing began. He seemed resigned to the fact that he'd be there all night (shows you what dedication he has to his fans!) but the Kinokuniya staff were very professional and moved things along. They passed around an A5 Moleskine for us to sign (Fish and Guan declined; Bec and I wrote gibberish in it ... okay, I wrote gibberish in it). Later it would be given to Neil. Next to the signing table Neil had left page proofs of The Graveyard Book and we got to flip through them and gawk at David McKean's beautiful artwork.

Next to the signing table, the lady who had done the introduction acted as his assistant, making sure that everyone had the appropriate Post-it notes and that things were opened to the right place. He signed the copy of Stardust I bought for Tina and my DVD of Mirrormask (and I managed to get the third item in with Fish because Fish was only getting his journal signed. Unfortunately, as Neil was personalising everything, the cat on the front of my audio CDs of Coraline now says “Dan!”).

While he was signing for me, I asked him if he got to talk to Jack Zipes at the Children's Book Council of Australia 9th national conference and expo in Victoria. He said that they were going to have dinner together but the dinner got cancelled because Zipes and his wife fell sick. I said to him that I thought that his views on fairy tales were fairly similar to Zipes, and did he think so too? He said yes, they were similar, but he liked arguing with Zipes. And then I had to move on so there was no time to ask him what he liked arguing with Zipes about.

Afterwards, we headed to Sakura for dumplings. Bec couldn't face ordering, so Fish, Guan and I took care of it. (The soft shell crab rolls are excellent there, by the way!) Then we parted ways and I caught the train back home with Fish.

Wednesday 7/5/08

Day off—hurray! We woke up fairly early and walked to Newtown to see Paris at the Dendy. (I won free tickets courtesy of the Sydney Symphony.) It was an okay film.

Afterwards we had lunch at Guzman y Gomez (yummier than I expected). Ben went home to do work but I walked around to do shopping errands. I was trying to find something small to give as a wedding present along with lai see as a wedding present for Pauline and Zhen. I looked in Holy Sheet, then Opus and finally wound up in Eastern Flair (crazy shop, that one), where I picked up some kitchen-y items (peeler, beater, nut cracker, etc.) I also went to Tree of Life and found a white cotton dress on sale for $15. Then I walked to the button shop to get a replacement button for my duffle coat, walked to Enmore and stopped at Amazing Paper on a whim and bought ribbons for my hair for Lizz's 21st party.

When I got home, Ben was rather down. He hadn't done much. I suggested he take a break so we watched some TV together. Then I did stuff on the computer and started cleaning the house because Lizz was coming over for dinner and would stay the night. She ended up arriving later than expected and it turned out she was not staying the night.

She and Ben went and practised for the evening's performance while I got dinner together. We ate and they went back to practising and getting ready while I did the dishes. At quarter to 8 we hopped in the car and went to the Petersham Bowling Club for the gig. It had been organised by a friend of Lizz's and it was to raise money for the club. Unfortunately nobody showed up for it. It was just us and my in-laws.

When we walked in, Lizz's guitar teacher was playing. He was quite good. He played for a bit longer because he had an audience, and even did one of his original compositions (which I very much enjoyed). Then Lizz and Ben were on. I played roadie and helped them set up. Hans had brought the amp but we didn't need it in the end (annoying!!! That thing is heavy). She sang some jazz standards and then some pop songs—including “1234” by Feist which she dedicated to me (!).

Then it was over, so we helped Lizz's friend pack up and load his car, Hans and Cathy dropped the amp off at our place (and helped us carry it up the stairs) and then they went home.

And then Ben and I had a fight and didn't sleep too well.

Thursday 8/5/08

Back at work (got in by 8), I was cranky and irritated with everything, and was IM-ing to Bec and Guan about it. We had a cake for David's birthday and I got into conversation with Alison about church. Bec came by for lunch, bearing gifts: a plush Chibi Totoro for me and a black dust bunny for Guan. We ate lunch together, and I broke out the white tea Buddha balls that Fish had given me from World Par-Tea. The ball unfurled like a Cthulhu and I wanted to photograph it but had no camera.

I left at 4:30 and Ben and I made up. We caught the train to St James and went to the Sheraton on the Park to meet my dad and Helena for dinner. We were early, but then so were they. (If I'm even a minute late, my dad will always call me, so this time I thought we'd get there early and they still beat us.)

We ate in the Botanica Brasserie which had a buffet spread like something out of every Asian's dream—particularly the seafood part: sushi, oysters, mussels, smoked salmon, tuna, etc. We ate three full courses, and in between getting up and helping ourselves (it was all-you-can-eat), we talked property, my dad giving us all sorts of advance on borrowing and buying.

Afterwards we said goodbye and caught the train home. And then I stayed up too late again on the computer.

Friday 9/5/08

At work (in at 8!), I tried to be focused: I wrote a To Do list and stuck to it. I prepared for The Faithful Writer committee meeting that was going to take place that afternoon, I transcribed a talk by Phillip Jensen from last year's Gospel Growth vs. Church Growth conference and almost finished it. And I ate a proper lunch instead of munching at my desk.

I needed to make a quick getaway following the meeting, so Tony and I drove up to New College in my mum's car. I rang Bec to see if she wanted a lift but it turns out she was at home and had forgotten. She went out and promptly caught a bus. The meeting went well—we were very productive (but now I have to do the minutes!)—and we wrapped up around 4:30. I dropped Tony back at the office and then drove home.

Once again, I had a very quick turnaround. I caught the train into the city. Ben was running late; traffic from North Ryde was insane. I went and got movie tickets and was shocked at the transformation of Greater Union George St. (It's so much classier though!) Fish met me there. We waited for Ben near the box office but he SMS-ed to say he'd be on the next train, so we went down to World Square to find somewhere to eat. We ended up at Renato and I SMS-ed Ben directions. Ben wasn't heaps hungry so he just had a salad, but Fish and I split pizza and herb bread. Bec joined us as we were finishing up (Guan and Liwen unfortunately couldn't make it). Renato's didn't have very interesting dessert so we ended up at Jet Caffe Bar (spelt the Italian way, says Bec) and I got a coconut gelato and a chai latte (too much! Good thing Ben finished it off for me).

We were almost late for the movie but fortunately Fish was keeping an eye on the time so we made it just as the lights were going down. There were people in our seats but we evicted them. And then we sat back in those comfy G-Max cinema chairs and watched Iron Man which I think I enjoyed a little too much.

Afterwards we parted ways: Bec went to catch a bus/cab, and Fish, Ben and I caught the train back to the inner west.

Saturday 10/5/08

EQUIP Women day, but I was not going this year. Ben and I slept in, then spent the remaining hours preparing for the wedding: looking up the location, getting directions, making sure our clothes were all nice and ironed, dressing, doing my hair, doing my make-up (using liquid eyeliner for the first time). We set off in the car 15 minutes later than I'd like and there was bad traffic on the way to the zoo, and we did a wrong turn and had to double back, but we arrived just as the bride and her entourage pulled up in their limousine. And I got to say hi to her briefly before heading inside and into the covered area where everyone else was sitting with a gorgeous view of the harbour and city skyline.

I chatted briefly with my school friends. I thought we were going to have to stand because there were no more chairs, but then they put out some more. We waited. And then finally Pauline came down the aisle, and she and Zhen got married. It was all over very quickly (I keep forgetting that non-Christian weddings are shorter, there being no singing and no sermon). The bridal party were whisked away for photos. I caught up with some of my school friends (except Ynping who was playing in the string quartet and was therefore otherwise occupied). We took some photos. Then Ben and I had to scoot.

We headed home again and changed. I touched up my make-up and put ribbons in my hair. Then we got into the two cars. I drove my mother's car back to her house. I went to put it in the garage, but then realised Peter's car was too close to the door, and then realised he was home. So I knocked on the door and said hi and gave him the keys.

Then Ben and I drove in our car to our old old church at Gymea. The place had been transformed, and all the stuff they had talked about doing—all the building, etc.—had now been done so there were decent facilities around the back of the church.

Lizz's 21st was in full swing but people still kept arriving after we did (and we were late). The theme was “music” which was a little tricky. Some people were pretty obvious (e.g. my brother-in-law was Alice Cooper, complete with eye make-up, and Ben was Mozart:)

But with some, you really had to ask. I mean, you can't tell that I'm supposed to be Amy Lee from Evanescence now, can you?

(I figure that the key to any costume party is to have an elaborate and impressive costume, and since I own a fair amount of goth gear, this was easiest, even if my garb is nowhere near the gorgeousness of some of Amy Lee's clothes.)

I caught up with some of Ben's relatives and the music teacher from high school (she was never “my” music teacher because I never studied music in high school, but I was part of the senior vocal ensemble, which she led). Tim MC-ed and gave a speech, as did Ben and Ange (who had Björk's swan dress on; I was so impressed—she made it herself!) and finally Lizz. Then we had SingStar and then the party wrapped and we helped clean up.

And then Ben and I drove home and collapsed.

Sunday 11/5/08

We had a much-needed sleep in. I spent the day catching up on blog reading, New York Times-reading and Salon.com-reading. I also did the laundry, finished transcribing the talk by Phillip Jensen, started pulling together the material for the July/August issue of The Briefing and then started panicking because it didn't look like we had enough.

I didn't want to go to church but I did. Ben didn't (he was also rather sick). I was on Bible reading. I felt really depressed at church and sermon, which was on Christ alone, didn't help. I came home straight away and made Ben a stir fry with fish tofu and canned vegetables (as we were all out of fresh stuff and the IGA was shut).

And once again I stayed up too late.

Every time we lose our voices

Monday, 19 May, 2008

Monday 28/4/08

After our lovely Kosciuszko weekend, it was back to work. I drove my mum's car and got in around 8 am. I was determined not to be sick but I still sniffled my way through a tissue box throughout the day as I edited the June Briefing (smaller articles first). This was also the day we launched The Sola Panel blog so I also had my hands full editing posts and managing some of the hiccups.

I ended up leaving work around 6 (long day; I decided grocery shopping could wait for one day), then came home, ate leftovers and probably watched TV.

Tuesday 29/4/08

Back at work, there was more Briefing stuff and Sola Panel stuff. Ben and I went back and forth throughout the day trying to deal with the problems. I left at 4 and went and did the grocery shopping, then came home to cook dinner. I can't remember what I did in the evening.

Wednesday 30/4/08

Instead of having a day off, I worked this Wednesday to make up for the previous week when I had an extra day at the camp. There was Briefing stuff to do but it was all stuff to do with the May issue: adding links to the e-Briefing, putting the issue in the online store, putting it on the website, adding articles to the library, compiling and sending e-news, etc.

Elsie and I met up to read the Bible and pray together. I left half an hour early from work because I got sick of my stupid work computer, and did some of the work at home.

In the evening, I finished my Percy/Lace Ribbon prototype bag and blocked it:

Thursday 1/5/08

Back at work, it was Briefing, Briefing, Briefing. And Sola Panel stuff (which was starting to get annoying). I got into work at 9:30 and we had a Briefing meeting pretty much immediately. I scrambled to prepare for that but then the things I prepared for weren't agenda items so we didn't deal with them.

I worked until 6 and then went straight to Anna's. She'd invited all the girls from work over to watch Northanger Abbey (DVD provided by Jess G). Anna made us poached ginger chicken (according to Francis's recipe!) She brushed aside offers of help so Jess and I chilled out on the couch, watching Veronica Mars Season 2 (my DVDs are doing the rounds of the office). Then Caro and finally Em turned up, we ate our dinner and settled back to enjoy Northanger. It was a little racy in sections but it was certainly done well (Andrew Davies, who did Pride & Prejudice, wrote the script, and the divine JJ Feild, who will appear in the live action adaptation of the anime Blood: The Last Vampire is just perfect as Mr Tilney). We hung around chatting for a bit afterwards, and then I thought I should really leave as it would take me half an hour to get home.

Friday 2/5/08

I was in at 8 again (I never made it in by 7:30 at all this week, which is saying something). According to Bec's Bookface update, she was back in the country safe and sound and jetlagged (hurray!) Ben came in with me to work. And boy, was my head not up for it. We were sharing the office and he had to put up with all my whinging and whinging and editorial complaints. But I ploughed on and I edited the entire Pastor's brief while writing an email to Guan and Bec.

At 3:00 pm, we left to go to counselling. I think I fell asleep in the car. It was a productive session, if not a little sad. We went home, finished packing and then went to Gourmet Pizza Kitchen Miranda to have dinner. We didn't get there until about 8 and service was really slow because they were so busy. But we split a Morrocan (which was quite nice) and had one of their dessert pizzas, then continued on our way to Jamberoo, getting in at about 10 or 10:30 pm.

Saturday 3/5/08

Free Comic Book Day, but I was not in Sydney and could not celebrate. As Peter and my mum were overseas, Peter had asked us to go down to Jamberoo one weekend to check on how things were going at his house. So even though a million things were happening on that day—Free Comic Book Day, Hive Mind Writing Day, school friend's hen's night—I remained committed to Jamberoo because I said I would go and I don't like being one of those people who just changes plans willy nilly because something better comes along. Limiting your choices is good sometimes.

We slept in a bit but I woke relatively early (for me on a weekend), showered and walked into Jamberoo village to get supplies. We'd arranged to have morning tea with Tim, Liz and their little girls who were coming up from Nowra. It ended up being more like brunch for us. We had croissants, toast, muffins, fruit, hot chocolate and I even remembered how to do filtered coffee for Liz (the only one among us who drinks coffee). Then we had a walk around outside and played with the leaves before we had to say goodbye to them.

It was a beautiful sunny day so Ben and I took a drive up to the Jamberoo lookout. Peter always keeps telling us about it but we had never been. I wasn't quite sure where it was on the roadmap either so we played it by ear. Then Ben said we were running out of petrol and I started to worry whether we'd make it back down the escarpment. But it was okay—we got to the lookout and enjoyed the lovely view.

We also felt like a bit of exercise (being such sedentary people, or maybe it was carryover from Kosciuszko). I had noticed a little bushwalking trail a bit further up the road, so we stopped there and took a walk. It was supposed to take half an hour and it was one of those ones where they have little plaques along the way to tell you what the plants were. The trail was also fairly muddy but we navigated it fine and emerged out the other side unscathed by nature.

Back at the house, Ben got to work (busy job, being a freelancer) while I curled up on the couch with my lap quilt and read Dragonhaven, Robin McKinley's latest. (I ordered it from Amazon because it was significantly cheaper than if I'd bought it from a bookstore in Australia. [Yes, that's just nutty!])

Later in the afternoon, I got sick of reading so put on another one of George's DVDs: The Perfect Catch (it's called Fever Pitch overseas to make it inline with Hornby's book, but of course Hornby was writing about football, and they just changed the setting to the US and made it baseball). I had very low expectations but it was actually done quite well and I enjoyed it. I watched the special features, then realised it was getting late and that I'd better start dinner. I made grilled ling on bok choy with crispy onions, garlic and ginger. Oh, with noodles.

We spent the evening watching The Sopranos Season 1 (which we're still not sure if we like) and then, surprisingly, The Holiday (which Ben agreed to see because of Jack Black). My expectations of that movie were pretty low as well, and it was certainly very pretty, and Kate Winslet elevated it a little so it wasn't purely trash, but I got to the end and thought, “That's it?”

Sunday 4/5/08

We slept in a little, packed up and cleaned the house, then drove to Wollongong and had breakfast at Mudcat. (We were keen on Diggies but Diggies is always really popular and we knew we'd have to wait ages for a table.) It was still a very nice breakfast. Unfortunately Ben was not feeling well. So I took the wheel and drove us back to Sydney, and he played me recent acquisitions on his iPod (which included Thao).

At home, I got the laundry started and jumped on the computer to deal with the ever-present influx of email and more Sola Panel madness. I dreaded church and really didn't want to go. Ben said he wasn't going; he was working instead. I went on instant messenger with Guan and Bec and gave them my options:

• Force myself to go to PEC;
• Go to Wild St instead;
• Stay home and listen to Paul Grimmond on CD.

They thought I should get out of the house. Guan also invited me to go to his church (he was leading that night) but in the end I decided on Wild St, so jumped in the car and went. George and Bec arrived not long after I did, so I got to sit with them. Bec gave me presents from her trip, which included a 204-piece Hello Kitty puzzle (thus answering the puzzling question of how much Hello Kitty weighs), a tiny Hello Kitty sticker book, and a pack of two Moleskine blank volant notebooks. (The following day, she also left me postcards from Blackwells on my desk!)

Rod preached a very excellent sermon on Acts and mission which left me feeling like I'd really been fed from the word of God. I hung around a bit afterwards to talk to people. They were going out for Thai for dinner. I would have liked to join them but I had to go home and cook dinner for Ben. Then I stayed up too late.

The view from the top

Thursday, 15 May, 2008

Thursday 24/4/08

Back at work—the only full day I would do this week. I was very busy with You things (just when you think you're done with a project, it comes back to bite you), Briefing things for June (compile and clean) and the usually stuff I will now refer to as “foo” for want of a better term—dealing with emails, fixing little coding things, little editing jobs, etc. etc.

After work, I drove into the University of New South Wales and actually found some metered parking. I met Elsie at the UNSW Bookfair. We wandered for about an hour or so, and I managed to bag some great finds, including:

• Possession by A.S. Byatt in hardcover. (“Don't you already own this book?” I hear you ask. Yes, I do, but it's always a good idea to have multiple copies of your favourite books in case you lose one and in case your friends lose yours [this actually happened to my original copy of Possession but the friend in question managed to obtain another with the same cover]. Plus it means you now have a lending copy. And besides, the hardcover edition of Possession has that gorgeous painting of Merlin and Nimue on the front—the one by Edward Burne-Jones. Who can resist Pre-Raphaelite art?) And it was $7 which is pretty good for a secondhand hardcover book;
• Poems by Robert Frost;
• My Brilliant Career and My Career Goes Bung by Miles Franklin (which I feel obligated to read);
• The Children's Bach by Helen Garner (Tony's recommendation);
• The Riders by Tim Winton (I've never read any Tim Winton);
• A stack of very cheap Tanith Lee paperbacks.

All up, it was about $40 for a box of books (the box being the size that they use for wine bottles).

I drove home. I can't remember if Ben or myself made dinner. I finished off my master packing list and finished as much of the packing as I could do, then procrastinated about going to bed. We ended up going to bed at 1 which was way too late.

Friday 25/4/08

We were up at 7:30 which was way too early. We had breakfast and finished the packing, and were ready when Fish turned up. He helped us load his swanky new car, and we drove to Kensington to pick up Jess G. She and I shared the backseat while Ben rode shotgun. I navigated us to the M5 and then we were on our way south.

We were listening to some of Fish's music—REM, I think?—and then he said he felt like banjo music so he put on the Avett Brothers (I think it was them). Ben then started to make a banjo playlist (with my input)—including the bluegrass version of Green Day's American Idiot (I should have used that for MM Spicks & Specks!), Sufjan Stevens, The White Stripes (though, technically, I think Jack White uses a mandolin on “Little Ghost”), Travis and Okkervil River.

Once we had exhausted the banjo playlist, he moved onto cows (as we were half-heartedly playing “Hey cow!” when we saw cows which wasn't often on the Federal Highway). I berated him for including cowboy songs in the cow playlist and he said it still counted because cowboys are called cowboys becuse of cows.

On our approach to Canberra, I asked if we could stop at Lake George because I've always wanted to stop there—ever since Year 7 when we went to Canberra for an excursion and the lake was full. Now it is quite empty, and there are grasslands for miles with the occasional sheep.

It's really more of a floodplain than a lake. But I still found it lovely, and it reminded me of Holes by Louis Sachar which reads like an old American yarn: “Holes is the story of Stanley Yelnats who, like his male predecessors, is called ‘Stanley’ because ‘Stanley’ is ‘Yelnats’ backwards. Anyway, Stanley Yelnats came from a poor family and his father was trying to find a cure for foot odour, so kept stinking up their flat with old running shoes. One day, when Stanley was walking home from school, this pair of shoes came from nowhere—they fell out of the sky—and hit him on the head, and he thought it must be a sign and so started running home with them to show his dad. Unfortunately then he got pulled over by the cops who arrested him for stealing the shoes as they belonged to ‘Sweet Feet’ Johnson, this famous basketball player, who had donated them to a local orphanage to be auctioned off to raise money for charity. Before the judge, Stanley was given a choice: he could go to jail, or he could go to Camp Green Lake, which is not green and there is no lake, and every day the boys there have to get up at four in the morning, take a shovel and go out and dig a hole five feet deep and five feet in diameter ...”

With Stanley Yelnats in my head, I got back in the car and we drove on to Canberra. We parked in Canberra Central and remembered it was ANZAC Day so all the shops were shut. They would open halfway through the day though, so we wandered around, taking careful note of Koko Black's location—

—and stopping in the shopping centre to do essential things like withdraw money and visit the amenities.

(These were hanging from the ceiling in the shopping centre.)

Outside it's quite a lovely day.

The shops started to open but we still needed to kill time and wait for Gary so we poked in around the shops. There was a discount bookstore, a fairly decent music store called Landspeed Records which had a pretty decent indie collection, and a very good comic book store called Impact Comics where there was a yellow beanie which looked like the back of Homer Simpsons head, and where I picked up another copy of Fray for Bec (only to find out later that she got herself another in Oxford. Oh well).

While we were in Impact Comics, Ben found a figurine of Mr Eko from Lost on sale and decided to buy it. I said to him, “You are now officially a nerd.”

Then Gary turned up and we went to lunch (and Mr Eko came out of the box and glowered at us on the table. The waitress must have thought we were all a bit nutty).

(NB: There are no photos of Fish, Gary or Jess in this lot because I can't be bothered emailing them and asking their permission, and of course I won't put them online without their permission.)

The service was pretty bad but the food was all right (I had the risotto; the others had club sandwiches). Then we went to Koko Black for dessert.

I bought some chocolate for Emma T (who was at a stage in her life when she really needed it!). We managed to get ourselves a table inside and ordered ourselves hot chocolate/ice chocolate.

Ben got a chili chocolate which he found a little overpowering.

I got a light hot chocolate which wasn't as good as the full cow but still pretty good for low fat.

Then we went our separate ways—Gary to his car, us to Fish's—nearly getting lost in the maze that is Canberra Central in the process. But we did stumble across one of those face cream and lotion shops that had free samples outside (which we all took advantage of so the car smelled of vanilla and citrus when we got back into it).

We resumed the drive south. I was failing rapidly then and so I fell asleep which was probably pretty rude but I was so exhausted by then. I woke up as we hit Jindabyne (which made me think of that dreadful Abbie Cornish film Somersault). We stopped at the visitor's centre, got out and walked around while waiting for Gary.

It was very cold and I felt somewhat ill-equipped for this kind of weather. I certainly wasn't sporting the latest gear that we saw hanging in the ski shop. I wondered that if I had been better equipped, would I like the great outdoors more? At least there are no flies and mosquitoes in the cold.

Gary showed up and we went to the supermarket and I bought tissues (because I was worried about getting sick. Again) and some junk food, including a packet of Burger Rings which had been pumped full of air and sealed.

We resumed the drive into the national park, and as the car climbed the road to higher altitudes, all of a sudden the packet of Burger Rings popped open because of the difference in air pressure, so I passed them around and we ate some.

We passed the booths at the entrance to the national park. The sun had set well and truly by then, so it was very dark. We noted with interest that the cat's eyes were located on poles on either side of the road—probably so that they could still be seen in heavy snow.

We drove to Charlotte's Pass and into the little village there, but then Fish realised that that wasn't where we needed to go. So we headed back to Perisher—which felt like a ghost town because there was no one to be soon—and soon found our accommodation: The Stables. We let ourselves in for the key was in our door. We had the space of a little town house: three bedrooms (one double, two twins), two bathrooms and a lounge/dining area with television, DVD player and a fairly decent sound system. Linen and towels were provided. (Bother! If I had known, I wouldn't have brought them and our luggage wouldn't have been so heavy.)

We brought everything in and put stuff away, then Gary started cooking. He made us spaghetti bolognaise for dinner, then Jess, Ben and I washed up, and we spent the evening playing a card game called Backpacker.

Ben also worked out how to open the battery compartment of Mr Eko's island, and Fish just happened to have some batteries, so we managed to make Mr Eko talk.

Fish told us to be up early so we all went to bed at around 11.

Saturday 26/4/08

We were up reasonably early but Fish and Gary had beat us and were organising the food for the day's walk: trail mix, cookies, fruit cake, teabags, soup mix, muesli bars, lollipops all in ziplock plastic bags. I was glad they were taking care of it; I had no idea what to bring on a walk like the one we were going to attempt. We had Crunchy Nut cereal and crumpets with jam for breakfast, then went to get ready. At one point Fish called down the stairs, “Are you guys going to make sandwiches?” which was a bit weird because he hadn't told us anything about the lunch arrangements, so we came back upstairs to the kitchen to make sandwiches.

Here's the view from our window:

We set off a bit later than planned. I've never climbed a mountain before and had no idea what to expect. I was wearing thermals, a T-shirt, a jumper, a duffle coat, my hat and gloves. Oh, and Ben's raincoat. I'd also brought extra gloves for Ben and Jess. Ben had forgotten to bring his hat, but he was wearing Drizabone with a polar fleece lining.

This is the village at Charlotte's Pass:

We got there at 10 and a ranger met us to find out our plans. We said we were going to do the ridge walk (which would take around 9 hours), but he cautioned us against it because there was a 3-4 day storm on the horizon and we needed to be sensible. So we decided to stick to the normal track (which would take around 7 hours but I didn't know that at the time).

The trail was really a dirt road so the ranger could drive his car along it. We started walking through the barren countryside which I actually found to be quite beautiful in its own way:

The track wound around the hills and then down onto the plain.

We paused at the Snowy River (more of a trickle than a river) to take a photo.

Ben had, of course, brought Mr Eko along.

We were going to continue but then Fish broke away from the road towards the banks of the river. Ben put his knapsack on the ground and followed him. We didn't know what they were doing. Gary told us to keep going so Jess and I did.

The track wasn't especially steep but then I wasn't especially fit either and had a bit of a trouble. I would think, “I'm going to walk to the next rise and then I'm going to have a rest” and I would pause for a few seconds and breathe, then keep going. Halfway up, Ben and Fish caught up with us.

“Where's your knapsack?” I said, horrified.

“Oh,” he said, and raced back down the hill to get it where he'd left it by the side of the road.

I was kicking myself for not taking it with me. The others said things like, “He's a big boy; he can take care of himself” but I'm his wife and that's what being a helper is about. Fish said there was no point in waiting for him in the cold, so I kept climbing, shielding my face against the sleet (which was falling sharply and stinging our faces at that stage) and worried about Ben.

We reached Seamans Hut at the top of the hill and went inside. It was built by the family of Laurie Seaman after Laurie got lost in a blizzard and died from exposure.

It was nice to get out of the wind and the sleet, and we sat down on the benches around the inner room and ate some morning tea. There was a guy there (we later found out his name was Kasper). He was hanging out in the hut all day, and he started telling us about how he was hauling up food on his sled and stashing in various food caches around the place to prepare for a two to three-week trip he was going to make into the mountains once it snowed. Gary and Fish questioned him about it; Jess and I just listened. Eventually Ben stumbled in with his knapsack and took a breather, and then we continued.

(As we were leaving, Kasper said to me, “Nice hat” but in that way that Australians have where you're not sure they're complimenting you or taking the mickey out of you. It was probably the latter.)

The next stop was at the highest toilet in the world.

Lots of people stopped there not just to go to the loo but to get out of the cold. Because it was continually filled with people, it always looked like there was a queue but there really wasn't; people were just taking a breather before heading on their way.

But we did use the amenities (which were waterless) and they had some of that hygienic gel that you rub all over your hands to clean them—but you don't wash it off, you just wait for it to dry.

Moving on from there, we found ourselves at Mount Kosciuszko, the highest mountain in Australia (which isn't saying much; it's 2,228m above sea level whereas Everest is 8,848m).

The others powered on ahead but I was struggling a bit with the uphill trek. Ben stayed with me and I kept doing the thing where I would go for a little while and then stop and breathe, and then keep going. I had to keep my head down because of the wind and the sleet so I couldn't see much. And then eventually we reached the top.

We sat for a while at the summit, nibbling away at some of our food. And then we started the descent which, of course, was way easier than the ascent (but it was still raining sleet).

Once again we stopped at the toilets, and then at the Seamans Hut which was where we ate our lunch. Gary had brought a portable cookstove, and he boiled water so we could have soup and tea. Kasper was still there and told us stories about his time in Sweden and trekking out in the wilderness, and the aurora borealis he saw and how everything else faded into insignificance once faced with the realities of survival in the middle of nowhere (aided by some very friendly Swedes—complete strangers). We showed him the Mr Eko doll and he showed us his Swedish Chef doll. He tried to guess where we were all from, based on our accents (I was impossible, of course). And then we said goodbye to him and continued on our merry way.

This reminded me of The Lord of the Rings:

And the Snow River was so blue coming from this angle:

On the last leg we were all so tired and sore (and in need of a bathroom!) but we all kept going to the very end and finally made it back to Charlotte's Pass. It was about 4 or 5 by this stage. We piled back into Gary's car and drove back to Perisher, and took turns having showers, then rested in the lounge room. Gary made us burritos for dinner and we played some more Backpacker. Then Fish and Gary headed out for a bit. The rest of us were too lazy to do anything so we switched on the TV and watched Fawlty Towers and The Vicar of Dibley and bits of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (with me complaining about Emma Watson's acting) until the ballroom scene when we decided it was time to turn in for the night.

Sunday 27/4/08

I slept really badly but I think that's because I turned the thermostat up too high. I felt absolutely feral in the morning. Gary had outdone himself by making us a lovely cooked breakfast with all the leftovers. We cleaned up and packed, took out the garbage and loaded all the gear into the car. And then we set off.

We stopped in Jindabyne for petrol and I bought Butter Menthol and more tissues, thinking I was well and truly sick and worrying that I would infect everyone in the car. I think I fell asleep again because the next thing I knew, we were in Canberra.

Once again we parked in Canberra Central and wandered around in the open air mall to wait for Gary. Ben went into Impact Comics and found a Jin doll on sale so bought that to accompany his Mr Eko doll. He also bought two CDs in Landspeed records: the new one by Crowded House and Vespertine by Björk.

We met up with Gary and decided to go for lunch at Gus's Café. We sat in the covered outdoor area which was quite pleasant. I wasn't hugely hungry so just ordered toasted sandwiches. Gary and Fish's meals were really quite something though:

After lunch, we said goodbye to Gary for good, hopped in the car and continued north. We made a toilet stop at Sutton Forrest where Ben snapped this pic of Jin on the dashboard (he looks like he's running screaming with terror from Burger King):

Once we hit Sydney, I navigated Fish to my mum's house where I picked up the keys to her car. She was in Europe and requested that I drive her car around for a while. So we parted ways—I took Jess home to Kensington in my mum's car, and Fish dropped Ben and the rest of the luggage off at home.

I felt too sick to go to church so I stayed home, but Ben went and played piano for me.

This body will never be safe from harm

Wednesday, 14 May, 2008

Wednesday 16/4/08

I rose ... when? Late, I think. It was a much-needed day off. I dealt with the accounts, cleaned up my desk and put things away, and was generally quite productive at home.

In the afternoon, Ben and I caught the train into the city to see U23D at the IMAX. We aren't U2 fans but my mum likes them (well, their old stuff anyway) and she wanted to see it. So we went with her and treated her because it was her birthday.

We grabbed dinner from Subway, picked up the tickets and started queueing and eating (since, with the IMAX, you always have to queue early to get a good seat). My mum joined us a bit later, having been accosted by a stranger on the stairs with a bad U2 joke (“What are you going here to see?” “U23D.” “U2?” *Sigh*. Obviously a dad.) She went and got herself some sushi for dinner. The line started moving and we were inside, and we managed to get in the very back row right smack bang in the middle.

As for the movie, I thought it was done very well: it certainly made you feel like you were there, except you got to sit, you weren't getting your ears blown off and you didn't have to put up with some sweaty person singing off-key next to you. Oh, and you weren't craning your neck for a glimpse of the band because the camera went right up close. The roar of the crowd was just amazing and it gave the whole thing such atmosphere. Like I said, I'm not really into U2 (though I'm familiar with their more popular songs—I didn't “study” up on their back catalogue before coming) but I still enjoyed it. I never noticed how upbeat their songs are (yet so conventional, says Guan) and yet so politically charged.

Afterwards, we accompanied my mum back to her car in the Darling Harbour carpark, and she dropped us home. Then I got on the computer and to bed ... you guessed it: way too late.

Thursday 17/4/08

Back at work. I worked on You. We had staff lunch (make it yourself sandwiches, I think), and then I spent the afternoon refining The Briefing database and doing Sola Panel stuff. We were also told the exciting news that Paul Grimmond is coming on board.

I worked a long day to make up for Monday, and asked Ben to cook so I'd have dinner when I got home. (There's nothing more deflating than walking through the door after you've worked late and realising that you still have to cook your evening meal.) I came home, we ate together and watched TV, then I had a shower and went to bed. Early.

Friday 18/4/08

Ben came to work with me and we got in around 8. Tony was in early too, trying to get stuff done before he went away. I dealt with my email, did Sola Panel things, finished the changes to You to send to Michael, did Briefing thinking day reports for Tony (since he wasn't going to be here for thinking day), ate a very rushed lunch and then we went to counselling (which was okay).

We drove home again and had a rest in the evening. I wondered if I was getting sick (Ben had been sick that week). We had a relaxing evening: knitting and watching three episodes of The Sopranos Season 1 (which we're still not sure if we like).

Saturday 19/4/08

I deliberately left this weekend free so that we'd get a bit of a break. I slept for 12 hours which did wonders for getting over the I-think-I'm-getting-sick-ness. I spent the day resting; Ben spent the day working. But I also did the laundry and did some computer things (like blogging!). We watched the rest of the week's TV and ate leftovers for dinner, then went to bed.

Sunday 20/4/08

Another 12 hours of sleep. I meant to wake earlier but couldn't. The internet wasn't working so I couldn't get the address I needed. No matter; I knew approximately where it was, so I jumped in the car and drove to Allawah, forgetting I couldn't turn right at that major intersection which meant I had to double back via Carss Park.

I arrived at Little Italy just in time. Melinda was already there and I followed Ynping in, and Belinda, who I don't think I've seen since her 18th birthday party, showed up. We reconnected via Facebook, and since she was in the country, she suggested we do lunch. So we talked for ages and annoyed the staff at how long we were taking.

After we said goodbye, Melinda gave me all the gossip regarding the So You Think You Can Dance? contestants as we walked to our cars. Then I drove to Spotlight in Rockdale to see if I could find yarn suitable for a bag (I want it to be something like this but modified so that it has the lace ribbon pattern). I wasn't quite sure what I was looking for—some sort of mercurized cotton or something—but I couldn't find anything. I need a new bag because the $8 black one I've had since 2005 finally died the other day (though I suppose I could repair the zipper). It was a faithful little thing: I kept repairing the strap and repairing the strap, and repairing tears in the lining, and it certainly copped a lot of abuse from me, but now no more. So I thought I'd make something more suitable for my needs—a little bigger (i.e. with room for an A6 notebook) with a little more reinforcement. But as I'm making up thte pattern myself (based on a cross between Percy and Lace Ribbon), I thought I'd make a prototype first out of the cheap, white acrylic yarn that Mary gave me. (People are always giving me yarn. The problem is, I then need to find a pattern to match the amount I've been given. It's hard because often the amount of yarn I get given isn't much—like, one ball's worth—and it's a little tricky finding one ball projects. Usually it's the other way 'round: you pick your pattern first and then you buy your yarn—enough to complete it. Oh well.)

In the afternoon, I had band rehearsal and then church. And then we came home and packed for going away. We went to bed but I couldn't sleep.

Monday 21/4/08

Despite not being able to sleep, I was up and in to work by 7:30. Michael had replied about You so I fixed it up and pronounced it ready to go to layout. He also said that Bec had arrived in England with the coffee I got him (Campos of course!) It was Bec's birthday so I went on Instant Messenger and she happened to be online (it was around midnight in England) so I was able to wish her a Happy Birthday. Then she signed off to go to sleep and I got stuck into work.

The chief task was to transcribe the interview that Tony did with Peter Bolt the Friday before so I did that and it was really interesting (you'll read about it in the June Briefing). I also rang Tony (who was on holidays) about You bits and pieces, and then I left at 11:30 and went home.

I went and had a shower. Ben made us some lunch. Then we dealt with last minute stuff and finished packing, and left the house half an hour later than intended (oh well). We drove to Crusaders at Galston Gorge, and the afternoon and evening was spent catching up with people from Ben's year in college. (Technically it's also my year too.) Yes, Ben has graduated, but usually college year groups try to catch up once a year during and after college to encourage each other in ministry. I'm not sure if other college do it but the students at Moore are certainly encouraged to do so. So when we were in first year, the first one was organised by the first year committee and senior students, and the subsequent years were organised by people in our year. I don't know what to call it; college year “reunion” doesn't seem right (since some of the people who were there are still studying—they're doing their fourth year—while others have graduated). They have taken to calling it KTTA: Keeping the Team Alive.

It was nice to see people again. A lot of the wives were there, along with their children. Many of the wives I had studied with were pregnant again—onto their second or third child, and all around me kids were growing up.

For once Ben and I were able to share a room together, so we went to bed around 11 and I slept really well (though I woke up to the sound of the rain on the roof).

Tuesday 22/4/08

The alarm went off but we turned it off and then slept some more. We missed breakfast (so did the only other couple in Ben's year who were there and who don't have kids). We still managed to snag ourselves a hash brown each. Ben Underwood from St Mark's Darling Point spoke to us, giving three of his talks on the seven deadly sins. So we were treated to greed, envy and sloth over the course of the two days, the second sermon coming after morning tea.

Then came lunch, and then free time, which involved lots of sitting around and talking to people and knitting (I was working on the prototype Percy/Lace ribbon bag). In the late afternoon, there was a time for wives with Michelle, Ben's wife, and she spoke about belonging (which I've blogged about elsewhere).

Dinner followed, and then mass exodus of parents going off to bathe and prepare their kids for bed. We helped out with the cleaning up, then went and sat by the fire with some of the others. The parents soon returned, and there was more hanging out and socialising before bed.

Wednesday 23/4/08

I woke up but Ben wanted to sleep, so I went to breakfast by myself. I helped with the cleaning up, and then went back to the room to do the packing. At the least the sun came out after all that rain! I woke Ben and we packed, and then put our bags on the luggage trolley to take back to the car park. Then I went to the third talk (which was on sloth and it was really good), we had morning tea and then lunch. I talked to some people about my children of divorce article and how to pitch it. Then we said goodbye to people and drove home.

At home, I did the laundry, dealt with my email and did some work stuff. I felt really irritated but wasn't sure why. I then realised I was out of time, so I started dinner while Ben finished it off. I had a shower and then ate very fast, then caught the train to St. James and walked to the Art Gallery of NSW. Liwen and Ramya met me there promptly at 7; the other women that comprise church women's fellowship were a little slower to turn up. We waited in the foyer for about 15 minutes, then one of them rang the others and found out that they were going to be about half an hour late and that we should go in to the exhibition. So we did.

We were there to see the Archibald Prize, one of the most important Australian art prizes for portraiture. It was a little hard going as a group with the tour groups around us, but Liwen, Ramya and I wandered around together looking at everything, and then at the Wynne (prize for lanscape painting) and the Sulman (prize subject painting, genre painting or mural painting). We were told to meet in the café at 8 because it shuts at 8:30, so we hurried through and emerged promptly at 8. I looked around the café and couldn't see anybody I knew (i.e. no one else from women's fellowship), so we found a table and sat down, and then Ramya and Liwen went up to order. While they were waiting in the queue, I saw the rest of the women from women's fellowship trickle out and snag some tables near the escalators. They hadn't seen us, of course. So I sighed and cursed the tardiness of people in my church and thought, “Well, there's nothing I can do about this” for Ramya and Liwen were returning, bearing food and drinks.

We had a lovely time talking—well, yelling, because the jazz band was rather loud. We talked about cultural difference and belonging, and whether anything good can come out of Australia. Then we were were told the café was closing and so rose to leave. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed church people leaving too and they went on ahead of us—so far ahead there was really no point in trying to catch up with them because they had clearly forgotten about us. So I walked with Liwen and Ramya under our umbrellas to St. James, and I caught the train home feeling rather angry.

Blinks

Tuesday, 13 May, 2008

• Ten Tasty Tips for Photographing Your Food (via Photojojo): must bear these mind when offering up tasty digital morsels for Michael;
• And speaking of photographing your food, I saw this book in BerkelouW the other day: Face Food: The Visual Creativity of Japanese Bento Boxes. Where do these mums get the time???
• Speaking of food, have you seen cuisine.com.au? Name three ingredients in your fridge and it will endeavour to come up with a recipe for you;

• Speaking of photos, you can now use Photoshop online—for free! (Unfortunately you can't use layers);
• If you know nothing about Photoshop, you should probably view these tutorials: You suck at Photoshop (via Photojojo): They crack me up. Not only are they instructive and practical, they also tell a story. (Warning: contains unsavoury language);
• And still speaking of photos, now you can engrave your Moleskine with an image of your own design (via Guan);
• Rooms (via Philip): A beautifully designed and very simple puzzle game with sliding rooms and doors and other cool (Matrix-y like things). Warning: highly addictive;
• Ysolda interviews Emily Johnson about her Family Trunk project (she is designing and making knitted garments that correspond to members of her family). The etymology of “yarn” is particularly interesting;
• Worldwide Knit In Public (KIP) day: 14 June (Matt and Larissa's wedding ... not sure if they'd like it if I came and Knitted in Public there ...);
• Knitty delights for Spring:
  • Lace ribbon scarf (made this for Bec)
  • Laminaria
  • Spirogyra
• Knitty's instructions on felting (FYI for me later);
• Calcifer as amigurumi (from Howl's Moving Castle);
• Buffy the Concept Slayer: What the slayer has to tell us about philosophy;
• Cookie Monster: A Sweet, Sensual Id, Unfiltered: C is for Cookie, that's good enough for me ...;
• What it really means to be healthy (via Robin McKinley): Guardian article about myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME) which is also known as chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS). I love this bit:

  Increasingly, I've been thinking: what would it be like if I recovered tomorrow? Having faced years of teasing (some good-natured, some less so) for my supposed laziness, I would doubtlessly seize the opportunity to dive into a full-time job. With it would come status, security and a better salary, but also long hours, long commutes and pressure. Today I can work on my own terms, at my own pace, and I can be home when my son returns from school. Don't misunderstand me. Although I have a far better life—thanks to a supportive family—than many people with ME, I do want to get better. The problem is that the society that “healthy” people live in is just not that healthy. I am caught between the desire to be a “normal” member of society and a recognition that normality has its downsides ...

  ME has forced me to embrace a healthy lifestyle: yet this should be possible for everyone, not just those with a chronic illness. But how many “healthy” people feel obliged to come into work when sick? How many “productive” people feel exhausted much of the time and are dissatisfied with the maelstrom of modern life? Is “pushing yourself” whether you are sick or well always laudable? It is unsurprising that there is disenchantment among many well people at the pressures of daily life.

  Good point.
• And finally, I finished reading Memoirs of an Ordinary Pastor by D.A. Carson. It's a biography of his dad, Tom Carson, but it's also a reflection on life in ministry, the spread of the gospel in French-speaking Canada and what it takes to be faithful. Two quotable quotes stood out for me:

  He [that is, Tom Carson, Don's father] complained to Old Mr. Blair that “there just isn't enough time.” Always suspicious of lame excuses and of anything that even hinted at the suggestion that God could have arranged the disposition of time a little better, old Mr. Blair smiled, put his arm around Tom's shoulders, looked directly at him, and quietly said, “Tom, you have all the time there is.” That was all. (p. 28)

  Must remind myself of this whenever I wish for more time.

  Mum used to tell us kids, “Work hard, and play hard, but never confuse the two.” By this she wanted us to know that while we were working, we should not fritter away the hours by squeezing in distractions and various kinds of play. The result would be poor work combined with guilt feelings for a job poorly done. Similarly, when we were playing we were not supposed to be thinking about work because that would dilute some of the regenerative value of downtime. But Dad never learned Mum's simple maxim. The total number of hours he put into his calling each week was excessively high, but occasionally—as much out of fatigue as discouragement—he would permit something else to intrude, and then feel guilty about it. Mum's maxim should be posted on the mirros of most ministers. (p. 93)

Panda!

Tuesday, 13 May, 2008

I heard about the earthquake in China this morning, discovered it affected Chengdu and immediately thought, “Are the pandas okay???” (Never mind the people; what about the pandas? What's wrong with you, Karen??? *Sigh!* I apologise for not caring as much about the state of humanity—even that part of humanity I am more closely related to—as pandas ...)

Neil fans, however, will remember that Neil went to Chengdu last year and got to actually hold a panda (view photos). And this is what he wrote:

Let's see. Pandas. I knew about the Chengdu Panda reserve because I had a friend who worked there for a summer. Really, it was all I knew about Chengdu. It's lovely. And it's a wonderful thing being an honoured foreign guest somewhere like that—you get shown all the cool stuff, get to see Pandas, red ones and giant ones, and then find yourself put in a blue disposable smock and gloves (to protect the pandas from you, and not the other way around) and you get a year-old Panda placed on your lap. Utter, utter happiness. Better than any number of awards. Makes being a writer completely worthwhile. I suspect that world peace and harmony would come about in weeks if people just got to put pandas on their laps every few months. Honest. (Source)

A couple of weeks after I read that post, Ben and I were in Hong Kong for my grandmother's funeral. On the last day of the trip, we went to Ocean Park, a funpark built into the side of a mountain range which has pandas—two adults (who have a blog) and two babies (oh, I never blogged about that ... oh well ...). We saw Le Le, the male, tucking into some quality bamboo, and then pace around his enclosure and go to the loo on the back wall, and then the two babies—An An and Jia Jia—sleeping on a raised platform. (Hmm, just found a webcam.)

After we saw them, I thought of Neil's post—about people putting pandas on their laps—about world peace and harmony—and thought that perhaps he may be onto something.

(I did a bit of Googling and the LA Times reports the Chengdu pandas are fine.)

The answer isn't for our eyes

Wednesday, 7 May, 2008

Two weeks. Huh. I'm starting to get emails saying, “Where-are-you-are-you-okay-are-people-DYING???” All right, I exaggerate. I'm rather irritated this evening, and perhaps one should not blog when one is irritated. But there you go.

Anyway, I haven't been blogging because I've been up to my ears in Things To Do—

• The Keeping the Team Alive Conference (KTTA)—that's when Ben's year at college get together for an annual reunion;
• A PEC Women's Fellowship excursion to see the Archibald Prize;
• The UNSW Bookfair;
• Going to the Snow Mountains with friends and climbing Mount Kosciuszko (which I can now spell). For non-Australian readers, Mount Kosciuszko is the highest mountain in Australia (and even that's not saying much);
• Visiting Koko Black in Canberra;
• Getting sick;
• Working on the June Briefing (I wrote the “In this issue” for this one! I rock!);
• Editing and maintaining The Sola Panel, Matthias Media's new blog;
• Watching Northanger Abbey with the girls from work;
• Going to Jamberoo for the weekend, and catching up Tim and Liz and their little girls;
• Missing Free Comic Book Day (and the Children's Book Council of Australia 9th national conference and expo which featured such awesome special guests as Emily Rodda (who wrote some of my most favourite books as a child), Shaun Tan (awesome Australian illustrator and writer of graphic novels and picture books), Neil Gaiman (of course) and the wonderful wonderful Jack Zipes (who I read almost religiously during my Honours year).
• Seeing (and hearing and getting stuff signed by) Neil Gaiman at Kinokuniya (which at least three people, being under the impression that I had no clue as to Neil's whereabouts, contacted me specially to tell me because I hadn't blogged about it);
• Listening to Ben and Lizz play at Petersham Bowling Club (to an audience of around five but it was lovely nonetheless, and I loved Lizz's cover of “You're Not the Girl You Think Your Are” and “1234”);
• Doing various bits and pieces for the C.S. Lewis Today conference (don't forget to register! It looks like it's going to be a fun day on the Saturday);
• Doing various bits and pieces for The Faithful Writer (which is a lot easier than last year because of my super cool totally awesome online database which I created with Zoho Creator (and whose existence confirms my total awesomeness);
• Reading Eva by Peter Dickinson (Robin Mckinley's husband);
• Reading Dragonhaven by Robin McKinley (and really enjoying it);
• Catching up on an awful lot of online reading of various bits and pieces—RSS feeds, Salon.com, The New York Times, Sam the Piron Man;
• Watching free movies and DVDs;
• Looking after sad husband;
• Trying not to get overwhelmed by everything.

Current:

read: The Complete Polysyllabic Spree (Nick Hornby) {27/02/2008}

Bible: Matthew (ESV) {26/02/2008}

Bible: Joshua (ESV) {25/02/2008}

seen: The Jane Austen Book Club {22/02/2008}

seen: August Rush {20/02/2008}

Bible: Psalms (ESV) {18/02/2008}

seen: Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season 5 {17/02/2008}

seen: Whisper of the Heart {08/02/2008}

seen: Kung Fu Hustle {08/02/2008}

seen: Extras: Season 2 {06/02/2008}

read: Whatever You Think Think the Opposite (Paul Arden) {05/02/2008}

seen: Sweeney Todd {03/02/2008}

seen: Howl's Moving Castle {01/02/2008}

Bible: Isaiah (ESV) {31/01/2008}

seen: Juno {29/01/2008}

seen: 27 Dresses {26/01/2008}

seen: Serenity {23/01/2008}

Bible: Deuteronomy (ESV) {22/01/2008}

listening: Trigun: The First Donuts (Tsuneo Imahori) {22/01/2008}

listening: Cowboy Bebop OST 1 (Yoko Kanno) {22/01/2008}

seen: Firefly {19/01/2008}

seen: Enchanted {16/01/2008}

seen: Amazing Grace {15/01/2008}

seen: Whisper of the Heart {11/01/2008}

seen: Extras: Season 1 {10/01/2008}

read: Boy Meets Girl (Meg Cabot) {09/01/2008}

Bible: Revelation (ESV) {07/01/2008}

seen: Sex and the City: Season 1 {05/01/2008}

read: The Dreaming (1-3) (Queenie Chan) {01/01/2008}

read: The Devil Wears Prada (Lauren Weisberger) {01/01/2008}

seen: The Golden Compass {30/12/2007}

seen: Pride & Prejudice {28/12/2007}

seen: I'm Not There {27/12/2007}

seen: Elizabethtown {27/12/2007}

seen: Atonement {26/12/2007}

seen: Mirrormask (director and writer's commentary) {22/12/2007}

read: Civil War: Front Line (Book 1) (Paul Jenkins, Ramon Bachs, Steve Lieber et al) {15/12/2007}

seen: Finding Neverland {15/12/2007}

seen: Suddenly 30 {15/12/2007}

seen: The Muppets Take Manhattan {14/12/2007}

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