/karen/

Companionable excursions

Saturday, 10 January, 2004

Sometimes I think I become too much of a hermit—I spend all my time indoors, lounging around, reading things or watching things or doing things on my computer—and I get lazy and not want to leave the house, see people or do anything active. So it was good that my friend Louise, who is back from England for a month, came down on Thursday. I made her a quiche and we chatted and then I suggested going down to the beach for a walk around. It was a lovely sunny day (really, this weather is quite wasted on me!) and we walked up and down the sand amid the sunbakers and swimmers before choosing a nice shady spot to sit down and chat some more. Then I suggested we go to a cafe for a drink, so she had an ice chocolate and I had a fruit frappe which was simply delicious in the heat, before it was time for us to head back. Yesterday I headed south down to Kanahooka to visit my friend Hannah from church. We were going to watch The Age of Innocence and baptise my new popcorn machine into functional existence, but somehow we ended up chatting in Hannah's room about the Bible, looking at photos, going out for fish and chips and walking by the side of Lake Illawarra (wow, this is rare for me—going out two days in a row and actually doing some physical exercise!), playing Shrink Words and watching Peter Pan which was up there with The Age of Innocence (and, for that matter, The Lord of the Rings) in terms of successfully translating a novel to screen. Movies are a completely different monsters to books; something always has to be sacrificed and you can never be 100% faithful in detail. Rather, it is better to be faithful to the spirit of the original—translating meaning and purpose instead of language, if you know what I mean. But I digress. Following the movie, we headed back to our place and ate fresh Vietnamese spring rolls with Chinese barbecue pork, rice noodles, sliced capsicum, grated carrots and a sprinkling of peanuts. Then Hannah's parents came to take her home. This morning Ben and I played and sang at a wedding (congregational songs, not an item). The church was full of dressed-up people and the pews were decorated with pink, orange and yellow gerberas. The bride came down the aisle to “For the beauty of the earth” and looked as though she was going to cry. Her attendants were dressed in green and their hair had been done in ringlets. The men were very smart in their tails. I had a shock to see our assistant minister wearing robes for the first time. He preached well from Ephesians 5 and wasn't afraid to use the word “submit” in the face of all the non-Christians who were there. Tomorrow Ben is preaching at Towradgi Congregational Church. He is currently tearing his hair out over his sermon ...
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My son got married January 3rd, and the processional for the bridesmaids was “For the Beauty of the Earth”!  It was the Chris Rice version, from his “Living Room Sessions” CD.  Beautiful!



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