/karen/

Happy Free Comic Day

Sunday, 06 May, 2007

Once again, real life gets in the way of blogging. My week has been very fully but manageable, and it went something like this:

• Friday: Ben went out to see Luke and church people. I didn't want to go out so I stayed home and watched Sweet Home Alabama which was lent to me by George. I enjoyed it more than I thought I would, though it annoys me how people in romantic comedies act so irresponsibly, running out on their fiancés at the very last minute;
• Saturday: I went to play piano in the morning for the Healing Ministry's Inner Healing and Wholeness weekend. I had 12 songs to play and I only knew one of them, and I hadn't seen the sheet music before for the 11 I didn't know. Fortunately it wasn't so much of a disaster as I thought it would be: I turned up half an hour early, did a little practice and then listened carefully to the congregation while I played. Christian songs are usually fairly easy anyway. Then I went home and parked myself on the couch—had what my counsellor likes to call a “Mental Health Day” and watched four movies: The Perfect Score (not too bad), Little Voice (very sad but Jane Horrocks is superb), Step Up (not as good as I had hoped it would be—the dancing's a little wooden which was the most disappointing thing of all. Maybe if I was into hip hop I'd like it more) and Fantastic Four (enjoyed this one more than I thought I would). I went to bed fairly early because I wasn't feeling well. Ben was still writing his sermon so he came later.
• Sunday: This was the first day of Moore College mission. College has been good to us; every single year for the past three years, Ben's had a non-residential mission. Last year he was even doing mission at our church. This year it was at St Andrew's Cathedral and he had to preach at the 8:30 1662 Prayer Book Service. It was a tough crowd—apart from the mission team and ministry staff, it was half seniors and half tourists, plus it's daunting anyway, preaching on Phillip Jensen's turf. But he did really well—preached faithfully and clearly from Luke 3 on John the Baptist—and everyone I spoke to had nice things to say about it. He had to go on to do mission things for the rest of the day so I left him to it (I also left him the car—we were going to catch public transport but then there was trackwork so we drove). I went home and did laundry and watched more television, made massuman curry, then went to church for band practice. Malcolm preached a really great sermon on Acts 6 which raised all sorts of questions about what you should do with your time. Then Emma drove me home.
• Monday: I started editing The Briefing at MM. I also went to the dentist. In the evening, Ben was home for dinner. I was supposed to do all these things but I was feeling extremely lethargic and just ended up watching more TV.
• Tuesday: I worked for Greg in the morning but didn't realise there was a CASE lecture on in the evening. I had to go at 2:30, and I walked up to top campus to sell George a Societas, running into Carol and Elsie on the way. I drove home, then sat in the waiting room at the doctor's for two hours. She gave me a prescription for antibiotics to get rid of the cough. Ben was home again and he said he'd come to Bible Study so we went together and he ended up leading our group because Steve was also off on Moore College mission (but his was billeted).
• Wednesday: More Briefing editing at MM. I was feeling rather overwhelmed because I realised that May was going to be a disaster month and I didn't think I'd be able to cope with my workload. Tony was very reassuring though and told me not to worry about it; just do what I could. I left at 3 and went to counselling. We talked about housework and my counsellor was horrified when I told her that we only vacuum once a month at our place—if that. (Great, now no one is going to want to come over ...) She said she thought perhaps the dust was responsible for us getting sick all the time. Traffic was good coming back from counselling so I arrived home in good time to make a stir fry for dinner and then go off to Pilates. Naomi had an essay due so we just sat in my car and talked for a bit and prayed.
• Thursday: At MM, I finished off the bulk of the Briefing editing (and it looks like it's going to be a terrific issue). I was a bit cranky that day because I was tired (despite getting lots and lots of sleep) and because I knew that once I got home, I'd have to do some CASE work as well. Which I did and it wasn't that bad and I didn't have to cook because Ben said he wouldn't be home so I just polished off the leftovers. Unfortunately my computer refused to connect to the internet in the later hours of the evening, so I gave up and went to bed. Ben came home about that time. It must be so exhausting doing mission from 8 am to 10 pm.
• Friday: I finished off the last bits and pieces of Briefing editing and organising. I also went through and cleaned up the review of The God Delusion so it would be ready for Tony to edit. Unfortunately I then realised that the reviewer hadn't quoted some passages properly which meant I had to check them all. The internet was being extremely slow so I spent a lot of time wrestling with Google Books. Elsie came to meet with me at 1 and we read the Bible and prayed together. I did article assessment and commision chasing in the afternoon, then drove home, caught a train into the city, and Ben and I rehearsed for the evening women's supper at the Cathedral. It didn't take too long. We decided to do three songs: “The Greatest Love” (by David Farah and Craig), and “What It Took” and “What am I To Do?” (by Ruth Buchanan). The guys came and set up the sound, so there wasn't much left to do but sit and knit with Di who showed me all her lovely purchases from Tapestry Craft, including a Stitch 'n Bitch crochet book. I left at 6:30 to meet Liwen (who was wearing the scarf I made her) and we went to Sakae for dinner, then to the women's supper. We were on a table with Alison, a Japanese lady, a girl from Germany and two Asian students. We made apricot and coconut truffles together which was a lot less stressful than I thought it would be. Then Naomi gave her talk from John 6, Ben and I did our songs and we hung around for ages afterwards chatting with various people (like Ali and Jess from work).
• Saturday (yesterday): Yesterday was Free Comic Book Day. I got up and left at 9 to go into the city. I made the mistake of stopping at JB Hi Fi who were having another DVD sale (oh dear!) I got Breakfast at Tiffany's and Singin' in the Rain for $13 each, and Notorious for $5. It amazes me how many people of my generation have not seen Singin' in the Rain. The “Make 'Em Laugh” song always used to crack me up when I was a kid. At 10 I headed over to The Tea Centre and found a table in the back corner. I ordered an Autumn Fruits tea which was interesting and which I don't think I'll order again. I sat and wrote for about an hour and a half and it was great—I worked on my graphic novel (still plotting, not thinking too hard about panels) as well as some pieces I've promised to do for Salt. Guan came and joined me at 10:30 and also had quite a productive time. I've decided The Tea Centre is one of the best places in Sydney to write (not that I've tried many). Then we walked down to King's Comics where I bought Gaiman's Books of Magic (because it was 20% off storewide) and we both got our free comic (I got The Umbrella Academy [“You only got that 'cause it looks goth,” said Guan. “Umm, yeah,” said I] and Guan got the last copy of Owly). We went and got sushi from the place near the Town Hall and scoffed it down because the first panel at Kinokuniya was due to begin—Nicola Scott and David Yardin. Fish met us there, and the Trappells also happened to be in the store, along with Little and Marto. The place was crawling with Jedi knights and Stormtroopers, plus there were shop attendants dressed up like The Incredibles and The Riddler. Nicola and David were interesting, though it was sometimes hard to hear them because we were standing right at the back and they kept forgetting to speak into the mikes. Because I'm not like that, I find it interesting meeting people who are happy to take direction from others and do things like illustrate other people's stories. Sure, they have their own creative input but they aren't the “directors”, so to speak. In the interval between the first and second panel, Guan and I went to get our second free comic (I got Hellboy because Guan recommended it). Guan said goodbye at this point and I went and found a seat before the next panel started. The second panel featured Mark Sexton (who had done production design and storyboarding on Happy Feet, among other things) and Craig Phillips (who illustrates book covers for Simon & Schuster and who looked awfully familiar—maybe because he studied at Wollongong University). They were really intersting to hear from as well. The panels were running late and Fish skipped the last one because he still hadn't had lunch. There was a smaller crowd for Queenie Chan and there wasn't as many questions for her—maybe because she hasn't done very much yet and she's still very young, or maybe people were tired—but anyway I enjoyed hearing her speak about her experiences and she signed my copy of The Dreaming at the end. Also W. Chew Chan, who had been MC-ing, had a little quiz at the end to give away some prizes. I got one of them for answering a question about how many volumes there were in The Dreaming but I am kicking myself because I knew the answer to the last question but wasn't sure so didn't put up my hand so I missed out on a statue of The Sandman. (I know it would have sat there and gotten dusty but it was a Sandman statue!!!) Fish came back at this point and we went for coffee (i.e. hot chocolate and chai tea) at this place called Elixir Espresso in The Strand. He let me use him as a sounding board for my graphic novel and made some suggestions—some of which I took on board, others of which I rejected outright. We caught the train and I went home, made spaghetti and spent the evening watching TV and knitting. Ben came home at around 10.
• Sunday (today): Ben left early for services at The Cathedral. I slept in, then got up and did four loads of washing. Thinking about what my counsellor had said about the dust, I went and dusted everything in the bedroom—bedside tables, piano, my desk, the skirting boards—changed the sheets and vacuumed the floor. I also sorted out about six months' worth of stuff that had somehow piled up around my desk and the piano. Then I went off to band practice at church. (I realised then I'd been on band six weeks in a row.) Jarred was singing with me which was great because he has a very strong voice and we complement each other well. Cameron preached a really great sermon on Deuteronomy 9-10. (I think I'm giving you the impression that all the sermons at my church are fantastic. It's just that a lot of them have been lately.) I really appreciated the way he took the time to reacquaint us with Deuteronomy and where it fit in with the rest of the Bible, how chapters 9-10 fit in with the rest of the Book of Deuteronomy, how that bit of the Bible is fulfilled in Jesus and therefore how it applies to us. Ben was home when I got home and I was able to spend a couple of hours sorting out the rest of the junk on my desk.

Twitter

Blinks:

Feeds

• Full posts
• Full posts and del.icio.us feed
• Excerpts only
• del.icio.us feed only
• All comments

Social media

• Flickr
• Goodreads
• Last FM
• LibraryThing
• Listal
• Pinterest
• Ravelry
• This Is My Jam
• Twitter