Create Fest
Wednesday, 24 May, 2006
Wow, I just realised I never blogged about Create Fest. I think I was waiting until I could get the photos online.
Create Fest happened over the Easter long weekend. We had thought initially we'd go down on the Thursday night but I'm glad we didn't because I was pretty wasted and it took me ages to get organised the following morning. We left at about 10 am and the traffic south was just crawling (especially around Albion Park where three lanes merge into one). We had pies for lunch at Berry and ended up in Nowra in the early afternoon.
For the weekend, we had the privilege of using a house belonging to one of our link missionary families. It was an old rambling homestead with various other buildings (granny flat for the girls, loft for the boys), plenty of lawn for tents and wide open spaces so the dogs could run around. In total, we had 30 adults, around 16 kids, four dogs and one bird.
Everyone was just lazing around when we got down there (I think they were supposed to be working on projects). Simon showed us our room (which wasn't really a bedroom—more like a dining room or something). It had three doors leading into it and linoleum floors. Plus it was right next to the dining room. This caused a few problems for the next couple of days as Ben and I are the go-to-bed-late-get-up-late-type (like a lot of FEVA people, really) and the kids were the go-to-bed-early, get-up-really-early-type. The house had fairly high ceilings and the sound just bounced off them. Plus the double doors to the dining room just made this loud banging noise every time someone went in and out ...
It was a rather funny conference/weekend away experience because just about everything in the house had been packed away. So if you wanted to eat or cook something, you had to bring all the utensils and crockery yourself. So we had a bookshelf with everyone's cutlery and plastic picnic plates and there were all these procedures about washing up (which we did in tubs, in true FEVA style).
Various people took turns to cook the various meals and all in all we had a very good spread, even if mealtimes were a little chaotic at times.
I can't remember the exact chronology of what happened but it was basically all pretty relaxed—there were times when Luke would teach us from the Bible about humility, there were times when we broke up into smaller groups to do studies on humility, there were times when we'd go off and work on our projects, there were times which we had to just do whatever, and there were times when we got together and talked about the stuff we were working on.
This photo was taken on the Saturday just before lunch. We set up the tables from the dining room outside and some of us were sitting there working (or not working) and some of us were collaborating to come up with T-shirt designs for Nancy.
Two of the four dogs were whippets and it was fun to watch them run.
This hammock broke on the third or fourth day which was a bit sad.
On the Saturday afternoon, Malcolm went to pick up the roast and the spit equipment. The dogs were just drooling over it.
This guy came all the way from Dubbo to come to Create Fest. He an artist and he drew really cool comic book-type figures:
The bird belongs to the Williamses and occasionally he talks to himself.
The disadvantage of having him sit on your shoulder is that sometimes he'd poop down your back.
An example of the yummy cuisine we ate:
And of course I spent a good portion of the weekend knitting because I was making my mum a scarf/shawl for her birthday:
(The black fingernails are carry-over from when I dressed up like a goth.)
In the evening the roast was ready and it smelled (and tasted!) absolutely delicious.
This is Ben on Sunday morning:
Bron said looking at him made her feel happy.
I think the roast attracted the flies because on Sunday morning there were flies everywhere. Or maybe it was the fact that we were having pancakes with maple syrup (not the real Canadian stuff though) and jam. In any case, by Sunday afternoon, there were flies all over the ceiling of the dining room. It was quite gross if you stopped and looked up at them.
I learned that Nancy's guitar had been signed by all three members of You Am I except most of their signatures had rubbed off (this is from when she used to work in a music store). She played a bit of Something For Kate and I sang along.
On Sunday night we had a sharing session to show what we'd been working on. I read bits of Bridget James's Diary. The girls seemed to like it and several of them asked to read the whole thing. The boys just looked bemused.
It was very cool to hear about what other people had been up to. There were a couple of guys who'd been working on posters and they showed some of their ideas through the data projector—very talented.
And I finished the scarf/shawl and got Lucy to model it for me:
Because I was so grumpy about being woken up by the kids, Simon and Naomi offered to swap rooms with us for the last night. I think I slept so much better.
Monday we were all pretty wasted and completely uninspired. I think the problem is when you start working on creative projects, it takes a week or so to get going and then you need to be fed regularly and get enough sleep regularly. I think that when I'm in a writing zone (and it's been a while since I've been in one), I operate on a completely different time zone—I stay up late and do most of the work in the early hours of the morning, then I sleep half the day away and do it all again.
I was rather tired so spent a bit of time that morning dozing in the sun instead of writing stuff.
Anyway, on Monday a bunch of us were going out to see the cows so we drove out there with the daughter of the missionary family whose house we were staying in and she showed us around the dairy farm. The younger calves were in these little plastic shelters, attached with chains. Some of them were quite skittish as we came near (especially when the Williams's dog, Ruby, was about), but some of them warmed a bit when they saw you weren't that threatening and even allowed you to pet them.
The older ones were allowed to run around in a confined area.
After that it was lunch and pack up. There was too much rubbish for the poor little red bin. I swept the floors of the hallway, the kitchen and the dining room and I had to put chairs and tables against the doors so people would stop coming in and tracking grass all over them.
We decided to leave at around 4 o'clock. I had been thinking earlier but Judith said that the traffic would have just been horrendous. As it was, we made good time and got back into Sydney by about 6 pm—enough time to go home, dump our stuff and drive back south again to have dinner with my mum, Peter and brother for my mother's birthday.
Blinks:
A way of funding writing in the future: pitch and idea and get people to support it.
Place where you can hire play equipment for parties, etc.
How to recalibrate the home button on your iPhone.
Unsolicited manuscripts accepted by Pan Macmillan with certain conditions.
Thought Balloon is a group blog in which the writers tackle a new theme every week? month? with one-page scripts. This URL is for their Phonogram ones.
How to sew a zipper on a knitted garment.
Issues organised by tale.
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I like the black and white pic of you, the black nails, and that spit roast looks so good! How cool would it be to do something like that in winter!!