He’s come and gone again
Sunday, 11 December, 2005
This morning Ben left for Narrabri. Weeks ago he asked me if he should stay home but I thought it was important for him to go since he hasn't seen his best man in years. (Perversely his best man will be in Sydney the following week so he could have seen him then. But we didn't know that.) He and Brendan are going to do their compulsory Calvin reading (Ford Lewis Battles) on the train (they have 7 hours to kill).
My lovely husband returned late on Wednesday with a new second hand car and, consequently, a much depleted bank account. After spending most of Thursday sleeping and then leafleting the blocks around my area with fliers for church mission, I realised on Friday that I would have to drive this new curiosity to work. It's navy blue (a colour I like!). It's a Toyota Conquest (or is it a Toyota Seca?) and it's the first car we've ever owned that has had central locking. (Normally when we give people lifts, they are so accustomed to having central locking they forget to lock the passenger doors but I guess poor Shamgar was too old and too unattractive to be worth stealing.) It is also the first car we've ever owned that has a tape player and a CD player (found out where the CDs go in yesterday) and cup holders. My God!
I've left it to Ben to name the car since he is always so dissatisfied with any names I suggest (for anything, including children) but secretly in the interim I'm calling it “Hush Puppy” in my head (Hush was the name of the man who sold it to us). I think perhaps that Ben has the opposite ability to Mr. Nancy in Anansi Boys; the names he gives things usually will not stick. For example, he has never been able to come up with a term of endearment for me besides the generic term, “girl”.
Since I never really got a chance to say goodbye to our old car, here is
An Obituary to Shamgar
He was the car of our P's and he was given to us for free by a guy named Sam so we called him “Shamgar” after the judge in Judges 3:31 who killed 600 Philistines with an oxgoad. We got him after I crashed OUL into a bollard. The air conditioning started miraculously working after we took it in for a service and Shamgar bore us faithfully to Wollongong, to Jamberoo, to Canberra, to Melbourne and even to Port Macquarie once. The Soul Revival bumper sticker was one of the few tangible links we had to our old old church, Gymea Anglican. Sydney Anglicans would see it and say, “Do you guys go to that church?” making us rogue Sydney evangelicals from the start.
Friends borrowed him to go camping. With the seats down, his boot was big enough to fit Ben's keyboard and amp, or lounge suite, or our dining table and chairs (in pieces). Sure, he gave us trouble and it was no fun having to replace the engine (because we were too stupid to check the oil), and then we had to go on to replace the tyres, replace the suspension, replace the alternator, replace the tyres, etc. etc. but he was old ('91) and I guess it's to be expected and besides, we did get him for free ...
'Bye 'bye, Shamgar, I hope wherever you end up, it's a good place to be ...
Hush Puppy's keys come with one of those thingummies with a button that you press to unlock the doors and turn off the immobiliser (name please?) It makes me feel like a real yuppie using it. On the other hand, it's nice not to have to fumble through my purse whenever Ben and I are getting the car to go somewhere—now he automatically unlocks the passenger door for me and it feels almost like chivalry. Hush Puppy also has really good acceleration, though changing gears makes me feel like I'm driving a slightly plastic-ey car, like a Hyundai Excel (apologies to Excel drivers; it's my closest analogy. I haven't driven that many cars but once I borrowed Amanda's Excel and it really did feel like that). It didn't take long to get used to and I arrived at work and managed to reverse parallel park without incident (it helps that Hush Puppy is slightly shorter than Shamgar. It also helps that I've gotten more experienced at reverse parallel parking since starting at Bible college).
Work on Friday was fine and I finished The Daily Reading Bible 5 ahead of schedule (whatever the schedule was) thanks to my incredibly fast formatting skills (and Microsoft Word's extended features in Search and Replace). I think Emma worries about me and what I do all day but she still manages to pile on the work. I was really losing it by 5 pm—I think there is only so much proof-reading one can do in a day—but I still managed to have a talk with Tony about the shape of what I'll be doing next year. They still don't know where to put me, space-wise, but at least I'll be getting a new computer! Yay!
In the evening I watched A Very Long Engagement because it was due back at the video store on Saturday. It was still quintessentially a Jeunet film, even if it wasn't as lighthearted and quirky as Amélie, as charming as The City of Lost Children and as darkly humorous as Delicatessen. (NB: I am pointedly ignoring Alien 4; such a waste of his talent and efforts.) I enjoyed it though—I enjoyed the detective search for Mathilde's soldier fiancée—I enjoyed the golden wash of colour that suffused most of the scenes (some of which looked just like Pissarro paintings!)—I enjoyed the beautiful fin-de-siècle feel—I enjoyed the props and gorgeous costumes (kept admiring all the lovely hats ... why aren't we a society who wears elegant clothes and lovely hats?)—and I also enjoyed Jodie Foster looking oh so French as Elodie Gordes.
On Saturday the Good Life Festival was on at church as part of FEVA mission but we had promised Marto we'd be at his BBQ so we headed south. This is the very same Marto who once attended Radiohead concerts four days in a row. It now takes an hour to get to Heathcote from where we live. Marto, who had only gotten home from the previous evening's festivities at 11 am that morning, was feeling rather sick, but after a bit of a snooze, he got up and was a courteous host. Ben spent a bit of time before the rest of the guests arrived putting together a BBQ playlist, running from Alien Ant Farm's cover of “Smooth Criminal” to You Am I's “Jewels and Bullets” (see, I looked that up just for you. Don't you feel privileged? I don't normally remember the names of songs). I find it slightly disconcerting that so many of our friends—most of whom do not know each other—like the same music as Ben. Okay, U2, Radiohead and Pearl Jam are slightly more universal in appeal but what about Stone Temple Pilots, Counting Crows and Ben Folds Five? Perhaps I am wrong.
Crystal and I were the only girls there but normally I don't mind that sort of thing until somebody points it out to me and then I start to wonder what the boys would be saying if she and I weren't there at all. Marto made us Tandoori sausages for lunch which was quite yummy, though I wonder whether they have disagreed with me as I feel a little ill this morning. It was nice to see some of the old crowd that Ben went to school with, along with one extra whom I didn't know. At times during the afternoon I got a little bored so I brought out my knitting and Wiggam asked me what I was making (it's this, except I'm attempting to turn it into a poncho, and I can't remember if I told you but I've had to pull it out four times because I kept stuffing up the lace pattern. Now I've got stitch markers to help). Wiggam told me that he met a girl who had been knitting a uterus. The rumour was so good Fell had to ring up and confirm its veracity and it is indeed true: she was making a uterus and the reason was because she works with hysterectonomy patients and she wanted to give one of them a uterus as a gift. I suppose that pattern on Knitty is no weirder than the fake breast one.
FEVA mission were screening Robots as part of their Moonlight Cinema but I was conscious of the fact that Ben was going away the next day and didn't want to share him with anyone so we stayed home, played The New Tetris (I beat him most of the time) and watched The Incredibles which Ben hadn't seen before and thought was okay (Ben thinks all animated films are okay because they are just a little childish and silly. If we had gone to see Robots, he would have thought much the same thing.) Because it was so hot, we had a shower and went to bed early. He wasn't in a very communicative mood and I think he would have liked to stay home and do nothing but he had already arranged to go with Brendan. He is like me—we both think going away is quite stressful and we'd much rather stay home and do nothing but the problem is, if people know you're home, then they want to come over and see you or get you to do things so it's not really a holiday at all. I think I need to work out what a holiday really looks like for me. It's not sight-seeing and touring. It's not transplanting yourself somewhere with a beach where you still have to cook and wash and do all the things you would at home except there's a beach there. It's not quite doing things and it's not quite not doing things either. I don't know what it looks like.
My post-exams To Do list has all sorts of boring things on it like, “Clean house”, “Go for license test” (which comes shortly after “Work out where my nearest RTA is”) and “Organise next year” which I don't really feel like doing because I feel like I haven't really had a holiday. I am working extra days at MM next week because they need me more then and if I do it now, I won't have to come in for the week of Christmas (oh joy!) I also need to start applying for jobs pronto. If you have a silly job you'd think it would be amusing for me to apply for and look embarassed about the fact that I only really need work for December, please send it my way and I will endeavour to sound polite but absurd in my application.
I also need more Fun Things to Do that Don't Involve Money so I can actually feel like I'm resting and not working all the time. Unfortunately it is too hot to walk to Leichhardt and explore (and find the place with the divine hot chocolate and besides it is too hot for hot chocolate) but I'm open to other ideas.
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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A new second-hand car!! Yay! I thank God for your new car!
I’m learning on a Toyota Corolla Conquest
How is changing gears making you feel like you drive a plastic-ey car?
I’m not very good at changing from third to second gear - the car always jerks…
But I drove my 20th hour on Friday and I only stalled once! Although my instructor thinks my bad habit is turning too early on corners…
I thought it was called a keyless entry remote.
KCC has some jobs going that you might like to apply for…
Nearest RTA will be on this list of RTA locations; maybe burwood?
Ah! Keyless entry remote!
Thanks for the tip about the KCC jobs.
Looks like my nearest RTA is Marrickville in Marrickville Metro ... sweet ... (*cross that off the To Do list ...*) You’re so helpful, Dave.