/karen/

Conference debrief

Friday, 12 May, 2006

Kathleen asked how the conference went. I hoped to create a photo gallery on the site so you could see nice little pics of the conference but then I found that login and password were incorrect when I tried to FTP, so then I tried to do it with Textpattern and discovered how annoying it is (there is a reason it's not called Imagepattern).

But I wanted to blog about the conference anyway—at least to download all that stuff from my brain and store it here for posterity. You'll just have to look at the pictures later. Feel free to skip this post.

Monday

I get to work thinking it's going to be an easy day. I have a couple of things that are currently in progress—fixing up an interview with Richard Coekin for publication in The Briefing, transcribing some lady's story about how she and her husband coped with the news that their son was autistic, working on Michael Hill's first chapter, finishing up some Briefing editing, compiling the additional material for DBK III—and then I find it's Briefing week and halfway through the day I get emailed all this stuff for #333 that needs to be back by Thursday for layout.

I think, “Typical! It never rains but it pours!” I almost panic. Especially about the 3,000-word Baddeley article which is the feature piece and which no one else can do. I meet up with Elsie at 4:30 and whinge to her, then do what I can on the other stuff and go home, intending to work on Issue #10 (but of course that didn't happen). Dinner is, of course, leftover chicken soup from cooking at church on Sunday.

Tuesday

Greg tells me that 40 regos have come in since the deadline for registrations. I get into the office at 8:30 and find that most of these are people submitting twice because they got the details wrong the first time. The numbers are looking okay for Friday and Saturday but not for Thursday—even with the student discount we offered. I'm pretty stressed, trying to process the registrations, but by the time Greg gets into the office, I'm more together and we go through the program for the three days. I spend the rest of the day racing around like a mad thing trying to get stuff done before leaving at 3:45, picking up Ben and going to counselling.

I think we're going to be late but we aren't. It's more of a get-to-know-you sessions as my counsellor hasn't had both of us in the room before. We agree to meet up again in a couple of weeks. On the way home, I get a text message from Lizz asking if we can pick her up now. She's coming to stay the night. We drive out to get her, then I put together a hodge podge dinner comprised of more leftover chicken soup, steamed Asian bread rolls, steamed pork buns and leftover chicken wings that I pulled off the BBQ chickens when I was making the soup on Sunday. Ben also has a meat pie.

Lizz makes herself comfortable. We have to leave. I worry we're going to be late to get to Burwood but we're not. We meet up with Arnjali and Mo at the cinemas and they have already got the tickets so we can avoid the queue (Arnjali went earlier to pick them up). We see V for Vendetta which is visually brilliant but so ideologically flawed and even somewhat simplistic in the way it tied together certain elements. But moving and powerful nonetheless. We get home at around midnight.

Wednesday

Lizz is up at 7, leaving early for college. I'm in the MM office by 7:30. When Guan comes in, I tell about V for Vendetta and he is puzzled about the all the anomalies in the film as opposed to the graphic novel. No wonder Alan Moore didn't want his name in the credits. Emma is sick but Tony is in and tells me just to try and get the Baddeley piece done by the end of the day and that will suffice. I do it but I stay back until 5:30 in order to do it.

At home I make a stir fry for dinner and vow to have a rest before the Big Day—the start of the conference. But there are all these things I am trying to get done during the evening and it ends up taking longer than I think. I don't go to bed until 11:30.

Thursday: Lewis for Educators

I am in at the Wesley Centre by 8 am. I go down to the rooms. No one is here yet so I get out all my stuff and try to set up the rego desk. I'm waiting on Greg to bring in the books and the cashbox though; without them, I can't really do much. A guy comes down and waits in the same area as me. I finally work out that he's the older brother of one of Ben's school friends. It's nice catching up.

Mamie from Moore Books arrives and I help her set up—more so I can take a squiz at all the lovely things she's brought. I wish I had more money to buy books. Ian Keast from Youthworks (who has organised the day) arrives and he's brought Andrew Lansdown. They're carrying several bags' worth of Andrew's books. It dawns on me that Scholastic aren't going to show to give him some support for the launch of The Red Dragon (stupid publishers!)

Finally Greg is here and he's brought Chris Mitchell. Unfortunately the conference centre could only give us one parking spot (which went to Mamie) so Greg has to go move his car. Before he does, though, he and Chris bring down the books and the cashbox. I start registering people and keep seeing people I know. At 9:30 Ian opens the conference and then Andrew gets up to give his address. I stay out at the registration desk for half an hour to tick off newcomers and then I come inside.

Fantasy and its place in Christian Imagination

Andrew is giving a ripping talk on “Fantasy and its place in Christian Imagination”. He is answering the charge that some Christians make that you shouldn't waste time reading fantasy because it's not true. I wish I could have heard the beginning of it but at least it's being recorded on Greg's iPod. I start scribbling notes furiously.

He says that fiction and fantasy are often linked by Christians with falsehood but this is a false distinction. They are not about falsehood but rather about the imagination. A little boy sitting in his high chair, pretending that his cup is a car (and making Vroom! vroom! noises) or that a piece of spaghetti is a worm is not lying; he is imagining. The ability to imagine is unique to human beings and represents an aspect of God's image in us.

He says that something does not have to be true to be truthful or to serve truth. For example, the parables: the Good Samaritan wasn't an actual person. Instead, fictions reveal truth.

He says that fantasy is not reality. Jesus' fictions are rooted in everyday realities (e.g. farmers and kings) but they are not reality. Fantasy is also rooted in the every day and the olden day (knights, castles, princess, etc.) Fantasy is also unreal: it has dragons, talking beasts, magical objects, other realms, etc. However, these things also appear in the Bible:

• dragons (Rev 12:3);
• evil creatures (Rev 13:11);
• seraphim (Is 6:2-3);
• talking beasts (Num 22:26-31);
• helpful ravens (1 Kings 17:6);
• shape-changing objects (Ex 4:2-4);
• extraordinary miracles (Acts 19:11-12);
• suspension of the laws of nature (Josh 10:13);
• nature being controlled (Matt 8:23-27);
• people appearing/disappearing (Luke 24:31);
• heroes (Judges 15:15);
• giants (2 Sam 21:20-2);
• magicians and sorcerors (Ex 7:20);
• visions and dreams (Gen 38);
• other realms (Gen 28:12);

and in the Bible they're presented as reality, not fantasy.

Andrew says two things follow if the Bible records as fact many fantastic things:

1. Fantasy writing may not be as far removed from reality as supposed. It's not to say it's real and true for fantasy is intentionally and openly fictional and imaginary; it's not trying to present things that are real. Yet it's not so far far-fetched to speak about talking animals;
2. Fantasy writers have a warrant from Scripture to speak of extraordinary things—dragons, shape-changers, visions, dreams and heroes.

He says that fantasy expresses the in-born longings of the human heart that have existed since the fall when our race experienced spiritual death, and separation from God and from other parts of his creation like the angels. We long for the restoration of the original harmony of all things. Fantasy touches on the ultimate reality. What is more real: the disharmony between humans and animals or the harmony that will exist between man and beast at the end of the age? What is more real: the acceptance of the separation between us and the angels or the longing for friendship between us when we will worship God together? These things are not unreal but ultra-real.

He says that fantasy has been accused of confusing its readers' sense of reality for such things do not normally happen. Could it be that fantasy deludes readers (especially young readers) as to the way things are? At this point, Andrew quoted C.S. Lewis who says that realistic stories for children are more likely to deceive than fantasies. Fantasies are not expected to be real whereas school stories raise false expectations of what school will be like. The most dangerous fantasies are superficially realistic, e.g. millions of dollars, posh hotels, bedroom scenes—the things that might happen to you and which you think ought to happen to you.

He says that fantasy writing does not work by confusing or deceiving the reader. Its charm is that the reader recognises that it is not real beyond the pages of the book. The reader knows that toads do not drive cars, like in The Wind in the Willows and yet he delights in what cannot happen normally. Reading Tales at Pooh Corner may make a child talk to his own teddy but that does not necessarily mean that he expects that the teddy will talk back. He is delighted, not deluded—delighted by how much fun it is to pretend. Fantasy simply engages its readers in a certain kind of make-believe.

He says that fantasy has been accused of being escapist. In “On Fairy Stories”, J.R.R. Tolkien writes that escape is one of the main functions of fantasy stories and that it's sensible that we should want to escape on occasion, much like the man in prison who seeks to go home or think on topics other than prison. We live sad corrupted lives; each of us is imprisoned by trials, temptations, suffering and tedium. However, with fantasy, we tend to confuse the escape of a prisoner with the flight of a deserter. We shouldn't be. We commend the wartime prisoner who escapes; we condemn the deserter who defects. That, as prisoners in a fallen world, we should want to escape is only right. (At this point Andrew quotes a poem by Peter Kocin which praises fantasy's function of offering escape to the prisoner.)

He further elaborates on the distinction between the deserter and the prisoner—one escaping illicitly from duty and the other escaping innocently from reality. Is fantasy for Christians defection? By spending time writing and reading fantasy, are we really deserters? The emphasis should be on how much time is spent doing these things and the balance will differ on the basis of calling and occupation. You may spend too much time reading fantasy (or amassing wealth) when you ought to be serving the kingdom and then you are a deserter. But every soldier is allowed R&R time as long as he is mindful of the Lord and does not bring disgrace on the uniform.

He says that in heaven he is glad he will not have to write any more essays against immorality but he is hoping that he will be able to write more fantasties. Then he sums up and concludes.

I'm not sure if I agree with everything he said (e.g. that the fantastic elements of the Bible are all presented as being real) but it was certainly thought-provoking. Part of me really wants to accept his arguments as valid because I love fantasy but I think I really should do some more thinking about it.

It's morning tea and the people from ABC Radio National are here to discuss arrangements for interviewing Chris Mitchell. I ask Chris what he wants for lunch and am relieved to find out he has no food allergies. I have set up a display of CASE materials and Andrew's books on the rego table—some books of poetry, a book of short stories and, of course, his children's fantasy trilogy, The Chronicles of Klarin: With My Knife, Dragonfox and The Red Dragon (NB Andrew was writing about knives that could cut into other worlds long before Phillip Pullman). I offer to sell them to him as Andrew is besieged with people who want to talk to him. He is grateful and gives me a float of money that I can use as change. He signs books next to me. Someone very graciously gets him a cup of tea.

After morning tea, we're back for Chris Mitchell's keynote address on “The Gospel and Narnia”. I won't type up my notes from that one though it was very good and talked about Lewis's desire to see England won for Christ and how everything he did was geared towards to creating a climate in which the claims of Christianity could be considered objectively. It certainly related back to Andrew's talk very well.

It's lunchtime and Chris goes off to be interviewed by the ABC. I go out and buy lunch for both Greg and Chris. It's a little nerve-wracking—catering for other people is not one of my strong points. And I am unable to find any fruit for Greg. But thankfully there is a chance to just sit and relax for a bit. Greg plugs his iPod into his computer and we find to our immense disappointment that Chris's lecture didn't record because a bit of the microphone plug is broken. Chris comes out of his interview and then Greg and Chris go into one of the rooms so Chris can eat. I'm invited to join them but instead I sort out all the receipts in the cashbox and figure out what's what. It's difficult juggling two different sets of money.

The afternoon sessions begin. Chris is taken back to New College by Bruce so he can rest and prepare for the following day. I decide not to go to the first workshop. Andrew is quite tired too and he comes and sits with me at the rego table, and we talk. He tells me that he has a job writing and editing four days a week, and they pay him for four but he actually works five and then takes the rest of the time off in a large chunk of 8-9 weeks which he then spends writing. He says that the first week is always a write-off because you're recovering from doing all the other stuff. The second week is when it really gets going. He says that he can't write creatively while he's working on all the other stuff. If I ever get a four-day working/one-day writing week happening, I wonder if I will have the same problem.

I have bought his trilogy as a little reward for myself and I ask him to sign it, which he is very happy to do. I get a real kick out of getting my books signed. It's proof that I've met them face to face (though I suppose that is somewhat artificial since I may not have exchanged more than two words with them). Only the author is allowed to write on my books, no one else. And the best inscription I've ever got is from Tony who signed our copy of Islam in Our Backyard for us.

The second session starts and the conference participants change rooms. A lot of them have already left—they couldn't stay for the afternoon. I remember that I'm supposed to be taking photos and go snap a few shots, then sit back down at the rego table and twiddle my thumbs.

Amelia, Greg's lovely wife, arrives. She's launching The Red Dragon, the third book in the Chronicles of Klarin trilogy. Andrew goes off to talk to her.

We have a bit more afternoon tea (at which I sell some more of Andrew's books) and then it's time for the launch. I take some photos of Andrew and Amelia and the books, Amelia gives her speech in a very Amelia-like way, Mamie plugs Linda and Robert Banks's Bible study guide called The Wonderful World of C.S. Lewis's Narnia, a guy from Youthworks talks about their resources, and then it's over.

I pack up everything and then, along with Ian and Andrew, help Greg carry stuff to his car. Then I say goodbye to everyone and head off towards the Town Hall.

I make a stop at Kinokuniya to see if I can find The Blue Castle for George who loves it as much as I do but unfortunately they're out of stock. I try not to get distracted by everything else and go to catch the train home. With My Knife certainly makes for good company waiting on the platform and then all the way to my stop.

Of course tonight is the first night for our Bible study group. We order takeaway Thai for dinner and then spend the evening looking at part of one of the gospels and getting to know one another a bit better. Ben takes two of our members home because they can't drive/don't own a car. I do the dishes and watch Samurai Champloo. I mean to go to bed after that but instead I stay up watching American Dad and The Family Guy with Ben because he likes those shows. Another late night.

Friday: Lewis for Scholars

I'm in the office by 8 am which is cutting it fine because registration starts at 8:30. Greg says in hindsight he's packed a little too much into his day. I'm expecting registration to be a little more difficult today because we're expecting at least 75 people to come. It helps that we're at New College today—it means I can dump my stuff and leave the cashbox in Greg's office without having to worry about security. And Mark, the promotions coordinator, has found me a student to help with registrations.

I'm more stressed than I have to be because registration goes fairly smoothly, even though me and my student helper have to keep getting up to open the doors for people (they're only automatic if you're going out). Greg is worried because the guy who is giving the opening address hasn't turned up yet: Stuart Barton Babbage. He's a nonagenarian and apparently he met Lewis during World War II. Stuart arrives in good time and Greg opens the conference. I dismiss my student helper and sit at the rego desk for half an hour until I deem it fit to pack everything up and go inside.

Chris is giving his keynote lecture, “Faith and Learning in a Post-Christian World: The Christian Impulse of C.S. Lewis”. I sneak down the front to take photos. Much of the material in his lecture overlaps with his address the day before. One thing that really stuck out for me, though, was the way that Lewis used his position as an academic and then a well-known public figure to create a climate for pre-evangelism.

It's morning tea and there is a long line of people trying to get tea and coffee. The UNSW bookstall have just started setting up because they couldn't get the books there on time. They only have three copies of Jack's Life (by Douglas Gresham) which I think is a shame but then they did have to import it from the US and it is a little expensive.

My job is to make sure that Christine Alexander meets up with Chris. She and her husband would have really liked to come to the conference but they had already registered for this Jane Austen conference. They come for the morning anyway—to hear Chris and so Christine can chat up with him. She's deep in conversation with another academic and I don't want to disturb them but Greg manages to steal her away while at the same time being very polite about it. It just shows I need to be more assertive.

I go back to the office to sort out a few more of the late regos (people who have registered on the day) and to make sure that the signs are out for the first round of papers. The Apologetics stream (Ivan Head on miracles, Nathan Brown on grief and Greg Clarke on Screwtape) will be in the main hall and the Science stream (Bruce Mewjork on The Cosmic Trilogy, Byron Smith on “Hope and the Future of Lewis” and Paul Tankard on emotions in Narnia) will be in the smaller meeting room. I go back and forth between the two of them as they start and finish in order to get photos of the speakers. Unfortunately this means I don't hear any of the papers in their entirety—except perhaps Greg's. He talks about the medieval practice of mocking the devil, U2's Zoo TV tour, Lewis on the cover of Time magazine with a devil figure in the background, the pros and cons of being a devil's advocate and then, just as the Greshams walk in, he gives his 3-minute pitch on The Screwtape Letters the film. Most enjoyable.

It's lunchtime. Greg tells everyone to go through the dining room in groups of 20 but of course they all go at once. We are sharing it with the poor longsuffering New College students. Robert Banks wants numbers as well as a print out of the registration list for Saturday (that's his day). I also need to get more books for people who have just arrived. It's all chaos—I am worried that there are people who here who have not paid but then I can't monitor both doors and I have my hands full doing other things (like opening and shutting the doors because the room is getting rather stuffy. People cannot see the doors when they are closed because they blend in with the walls). Because it's Friday and we're in an Anglican college, there's fish for lunch. The dining room is pretty full so I go and eat in Greg's office. I'm still sorting out regos and updating our database all the way through lunch, and even taking phone calls from crazy people ringing up to ask, “How much does tomorrow cost?” and “Can I come just for the afternoon sessions?”

After lunch, Greg interviews Douglas Gresham, C.S. Lewis's stepson about Lewis the man and what it was like to grow up with him. He is a very entertaining speaker and he tells us about how he had read all these fantasy books as a kid before meeting Lewis—Narnia and other things—that when he went to England for the first time, he expected it to be this almost magical astounding place, and that Lewis would be like this medieval knight in shining armour. He was disappointed to find that Lewis was a balding Oxford don who liked to smoke (apparently he and Warnie were raised to believe that ash kept the moths away so they just used to flick the dregs of their pipes all over the carpet). But after half an hour of making his acquaintance, Lewis had won him over. He said that when they had first moved into The Kilns (Lewis's home), they had put him in the “haunted” bedroom. He thought that it was haunted by a ghost because late at night or early in the morning he could hear this awful racket that seemed to be coming from behind the walls—bang, bang, bang! He would cower in his bed and pull the covers up over his head. But he never told anyone about it because he thought that was the price he had to pay to be there. Years later he found out that it was actually the pipes, for Lewis would get up at 4 in the morning and start his daily ablutions.

He said that when he thought of “Jack” now (Lewis preferred to be called “Jack” because he wasn't too fond of “Clive Staples”), he thought of him as always laughing, making a joke or having a smile on his face. He said that that was one of the things that Shadowlands completely failed to capture—Lewis's irrepressible sense of humour. He talked about Lewis's experiences in the trenches of World War I—how he turned out to be quite a good commander (even during one of the raids they did on a house full of Germans) and how he learned that all men are the same under extreme conditions, regardless of the class they were drawn from. He said that even though the war was really terrible for Lewis, it gave him great respect for the common man which carried over later in life. As Lewis toured through England on speaking engagements, if they happened to stop at a pub for lunch, it wouldn't be long before he would be regaling the locals with stories and jokes and keeping them laughing uproariously for hours.

Greg asked him why he wrote Jack's Life, given there were so many biographies of Lewis out there. Douglas said that he had read them all but they failed to capture the man he knew—the man he had lived with. So he decided to write the sort of biography that he would want to read about Lewis. I didn't buy a copy that day or the following but I do want to get one some day ...

Douglas also took some questions from the floor. Then it was Robert Banks's keynote lecture on “Why was C.S. Lewis such an Influential Communicator?”. Unfortunately I fell asleep and I was in the front row! I apologised to Robert afterwards at afternoon tea. And I went back to the office and did some more rego stuff.

At 4 pm the afternoon lot of papers begins—again with two streams. The Ethics stream (Rod Benson on the Pullman controversy, Gordon Preece on Lewis's narrative ethics and Andrew Cameron on “The Inner Ring”) is in the main hall and the Literature stream (Diane Speed on allegory, Ian Keast on Lewis's poetry and Anna Blanch on “Myth, Typology and Hermeneutics in Narnia”) is in the meeting room. I decide to stay to hear what Rod has to say on Phillip Pullman (Pullman, as some of you might know, despises The Chronicles of Narnia and he's been very vocal about it. Plus Rod used to be my pastor at Blakehurst Baptist Church). But then part-way through the paper, Mark comes in and tells me that Anna Blanch has just arrived and could I come out and meet her.

Poor Anna had been added to our program at the last minute because one of the other speakers had been unable to organise funding to cover his registration and travel expenses. She had just completed her honours on Lewis and was wanting to start a PhD. However, last week she rang up to say that she had this law exam she couldn't get out of on the day of the conference. She worked out that the exam would finish in time for her to drive up from Canberra to present but it would be a bit of a mad dash. So I was very pleased to see her. I got her settled in the dining room so she could take some time to prepare and I took her PowerPoint slideshow off her to connect it to Greg's computer and the data projector. Then I went back into the office to do some more work. I came back just in time to photograph the rest of the speakers and to set up for Anna's presentation. Unfortunately the data projector didn't have the right cable to connect to Greg's computer. I checked the main hall and Andrew Cameron was using the other one. Of course by this stage the maintenance staff had gone home and Mark couldn't help me. I asked him to get me a whiteboard marker and I drew Anna's diagrams on the whiteboard behind her as she was speaking. It was awfully distracting but at least it did the trick. And the audience didn't mind the interruptions too much because they were so engaged with what she was saying (and what she was saying was awfully interesting but I don't think I could reproduce it for you here).

Then it was dinner time. I packed up the data projector and tried to finish all the rego stuff (mailing out receipts, etc.) before going to eat. Greg told me to come join him and Chris as they were having a discussion about Neil Gaiman. But unfortunately by the time I get there, there is no salad to go with my taco mince (and then later there is no ice cream for dessert so I have an apple instead) and Chris is busy chatting to someone else so I get introduced to Peter Stiles (principal of Trinity Grammar) and Gordon Preece (director of the Macquarie Christian Studies Institute) and I talk to Gordon about his research (which is about the casualisation of work and the subsequent casualisation of sex).

After dinner, I help with the pack up because everyone else is too comfortable to move, but the staff really need to get the dishes done. I touch base with Greg about what he needs for the evening. I go and sit at the CASE table and occasionally someone comes to buy a magazine from me. Andrew's books are also there and apparently he has managed to sell a few. When people trickle back into the hall, it's evident we've lost a few which isn't really surprising; it's been a long day. Greg puts up slides on the projector of negative quotes about Lewis and gets Chris to respond to them. Poor Chris is a bit jet-lagged but he does the best he can, and the audience is quite vocal in Lewis's defence. At one point Greg signals to me to switch on the air conditioning (I didn't know the hall had air conditioning!!) They don't make it to the end of the slides (which were the two Gaiman quotes from “The Problem of Susan”—a short story which Gaiman wrote about “the nature of, and relationship that adults have with, children's fiction”. I'm debating whether or not to read it because apparently it ends with Aslan and the White Witch fornicating). Greg says later that he was quite keen to keep going with the dialogue because it was getting quite interesting (and Byron certainly had some good points to make which went completely over my head because I was so stuffed) but it's getting late.

I start packing up the CASE table and Andrew's books. People start saying goodbye and leaving, though some stay around to talk to Chris and Greg. I go and pick up garbage and put all the cups back onto the table for the kitchen staff. I turn off the air conditioning and wait patiently for the conversations to finish. I can't get back into the office without Greg anyway because he has the key.

Finally the last of the conference participants is gone. Chris very graciously helps us carry boxes into the office. We start up one of the computers for him so he can check his email. Then Greg and I go over what has to be done for the following day. Chris says goodnight. Greg and I cart boxes out to his car and then drive down to mine so we can load the boxes into my boot. I drive home and don't get there until 11 pm.

Saturday: Lewis for everyone

WhereIs.com gives me an absolutely ridiculous set of directions for how to get from my place to Macquarie University (it suggests going through the city). I throw them out and work it out myself from the map. I leave at 8:15 and get there in half an hour with plenty of time to spare. There is plenty of parking available. Mamie has arrived with all the books, Trinity Chapel has been decorated with lots of posters from The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe movie (as well as some banners of things like the lamppost), and the Bankses are already working hard.

“Did you hear the news?” said Linda, as I go up to greet them. “Douglas is sick!” He has a virus and it doesn't look like he's going to make it. It's good that the Bankses were always the ones on the committee making back-up plans if anything like this should happen. What they're going to do, I don't know, but anyway ...

I go set up the rego table with all the boxes from my boot) and meet Jan from MCSI. She's scarily organised and has made some very nice colour printed badges for everyone who is involved with the day with images downloaded from the promotional materials page. She also has a whole bunch of other helpers who come and put things on seats, tick off names and so on. One of them helps me with registrations so that I only have to look after the new ones. One lady tells me quite irately that she was not sent the program along with her confirmation letter, that the program was not on the internet when she went to look for it (which I find strange since I put it there myself and it's linked from the front page) and if it hadn't been for her friend who was also coming, she would not have known what time it started. [Later when I tell the story to Ben, he snorts and says, “Well, how did everyone else know what time to get there?” Good point; why didn't I think of that?]

Rego starts at 10 but there are people who are here early. We're expecting 115 today and we get 126. There are even a couple of kids—keen LWW fans, I suspect. Rego goes pretty smoothly, apart from the obnoxious lady who just waltzes in without paying and then I have to go chase her. The other staff tell me that she's problematic and there's a history. Oh joy.

I miss most of the first session which I really would have liked to have seen because it was a panel discussing the movie. Don McAlpine (Director of Photography; he also did Peter Pan), Tracey Reebey (who was part of the hair and make-up team) and Linda Banks (who is stepping in for Douglas and speaking on behalf of Narnia readers) talk about The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, the difficulties of shooting, what the cast was like, what Douglas was like—

Ms Reebey revealed that Mr Gresham was the first member of a production leadership team she had ever seen personally thank the junior crew—those who brought the drinks and cleaned the toilets. “His heart of gold shows through in his input and the whole experience of the film,” she said. (Source)

—and a little bit about Prince Caspian and whether or not they'll make the rest of the Chronicles.

While this is going on, Greg is coming in and out, looking a bit harried which is quite unusual for Greg; when he is stressed, you usually can't tell and he never takes it out on anyone). He's worried about Chris who was going to take a cab from New College to come here. Perhaps they're lost? Perhaps the directions weren't passed on correctly? Has Chris ended up in whoop whoop in Sydney's west?

After looking after the rest of the latecomers, I set up the rego table with CASE products and Andrew's books. I am hoping that we will sell more of them today because he will be speaking. Unfortunately he has less copies of With My Knife and Dragonfox than The Red Dragon and as most people haven't read the first two in the trilogy, they are more likely to want the whole set.

Chris finally arrives and Greg visibly relaxes. Chris is keen to go for a walk and enjoy the fresh air for a change so he goes off. Jan leaves to go get some lunch so she can tag team on the rego table with me. When the session finishes, everyone goes off to get a bite to eat. Most of the big-wigs at this conference, however, are having a special lunch which was supposed to be in honour, so they go off with Chris in tow.

When Jan comes back, I try to explain the complicated situation with the two different sets of money and the sale of the different products. I don't think I do a very good job. I walk over to the Macquarie Centre which is just across the road. Most of our participants have gone there. I get sushi for lunch, even though I had sushi for lunch on Thursday and don't particularly feel like anything else; I've discovered I don't have that much money and I have no idea where there's an ATM. I also go to Borders and find The Blue Castle for George. Then I hurry back because it's almost time for the afternoon session.

I have definitely confused Jan with the money because she's recorded something in the wrong place. But there's no time to fix it because people are coming wanting to buy CASE magazines, Convinced by Da Vinci? DVDs, Church and State New College lectures and, of course, Andrew's books. He completely sells out of the first two books of the trilogy. In addition, Mamie's gone to lunch and there is a queue at the bookstall wanting to buy things. Jan tries to see what she can do but thankfully she doesn't have to hold her own for very long because Mamie's back. And of course the problematic woman is wanting her registration back because of Douglas's absence. “If you got a concert and the orchestra doesn't perform, you're entitled to a refund!” she states. I knew that there were such uncompassionate people in the world but I had never met one until now. I tell her to take it up with Greg or Robert (who are both more likely to be more firm and polite about being firm than I am) and she leaves somewhat mollified.

The afternoon session has to be completely rearranged because of Douglas's absence. The book signing is, unfortunately, scrapped (though I think Douglas's son signs some copies for people in his stead). Instead, it begins with a screening of the DVD that accompanies Jack's Life—it's got Douglas talking about Lewis on it. I don't watch—I am busy adding up the numbers so I can give them to Nadja. And talking to Chris and Andrew. Andrew reads me quotes he's pulled from Lewis's Letters to Children—particularly a gem about writing.

After the DVD, Chris gets up and gives a talk he's just put together from a paper he wrote on Lewis's sermon, “Transposition”. He says that the beginning, where he sets it up, is quite difficult but then it comes together at the end, when he starts talking about The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, and it does (but I don't think I could articulate it for you here, sorry). He takes some questions from the floor. At this point, Amelia and the kids arrive and I shuffle over to make room for them. They soon get bored and go off to play with Peter Wesley's multimedia display.

Then it's afternoon tea and people come out to buy more things. I'm very grateful to Jan who goes off to get me a cup of tea. Then everyone goes back in again for the final session. Andrew talks about Lewis's influence on his life and work. He is followed by Jill Ireland and then Chris Mitchell again who do likewise. Robert Banks chairs the session. I'm not attending too well to any of it—I'm too busy going around taking photos—of the kids on the multimedia display (I look closely and realise that one of them has The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe Playstation game, one has a documentary about Lewis, one has extra features of the movie and I forget what the other one had), the audience listening to the speakers, the speakers, the film crew who are going to make a DVD of the day and so on.

And finally it's the end of the day. I open the doors and put out the boxes for the feedback forms. Robert and Linda are thanking various people for their participation. Greg is also making similar thank yous and even says very nice things about my administrative work. I get clapped by the whole room. Then everyone leaves (some stop to buy things, including the principal of Innaburra school). I start packing up and moving things out. I say goodbye to Andrew who is leaving with Ian and also Chris who I hope I will meet again (he wants to see more of Australia and is a bit sad his stay this time is so short). We put things in Greg's car (Amelia's gone to drop Tracey at the airport and Greg has two of the kids to look after). Greg thanks me again for all my help and tells me I really ought to be writing instead of doing administration, even though I'm very good at it. (It's nice that other people think I should be writing!) There are goodbyes all 'round.

Just as I go to start my car, I realise I still have the key to the cashbox. I run out to see whether Greg's left yet. He hasn't and his car (which is rented) won't start. I go back to my car for jumper cables. Luckily Chris knows how to use them (I have no idea). And Peter Wesley has a portable battery. But he can't get the cables to connect properly with the battery because he can't unscrew this particular bit. Gordon Preece saves the day with a pair of pliers from his boot. We get the car started and soon everyone is on their way. I even manage to get home without an incident (and normally I am so nervous about driving to and from strange places!)

It's 6 pm and Ben is not home. I have forgotten that he has gone to a wedding that day. He's still at the reception when I call. I had hoped to spend the evening with him but oh well; I crash on the couch by myself, eat leftovers and watch television all evening.

Sunday

I forget it's the first day of Moore College mission week and Ben has to be at 8:30 church. He goes, I sleep in. I'm so stuffed, I sleep in until 3 pm and then finish reading With My Knife which was excellent. I watch Charlie's Angels for fun and then go to church.

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