Jamberoo jamboree
Tuesday, 11 January, 2005
I'm sorry. Every time I think about going to the country for the weekend, A Little Night Music invariably pops into my head:
A weekend in the country.
How amusing!
How delightfully droll!
A weekend in the country
While we're losing our control
Anyway, after minimal organisation but a great deal of forward planning on my part (I proposed this weekend away close to six months ago), me and four other friends from school headed south down to Jamberoo where my parents have a little holiday house. I've never ever been on holidays with friends before (apart from Ben) and was wondering how it would all work out but we got along fine, even though, for some, we hadn't seen each other in more than a year. It never ceases to amaze me how we still manage to keep up our friendship (albeit on a less intense scale) almost 10 years on after high school. But then there's something about girls that go through STGGHS ... relationships do last. Not all of them but more of them than you'd expect. It's not just my set—Ben's grandmother and Ben's mum are still in touch with their high school buddies.
I also think there's something about STGGHS girls themselves, though I can't put my finger on it and I wouldn't want to completely define it or place everyone in the same box. It was just interesting on Boxing Day when I got together with some of that lot to do our annual movie outing (we saw Lemony Snickett's A Series of Unfortunate Events which is awfully good and quite faithful to the books), I invited Lizz (Ben's sister) along as well who is a present-day STGGHS girl. Despite never having met my friends before in her life, she hit it off with them pretty much straight away and they did very well to include her and make her feel welcome but not in a formal well-we-have-to-do-this-because-this-is-Karen's-sister-in-law kind of way.
Anyways, because Liwen finishes work at some crazy hour, I scrapped the idea of us going out to dinner and invited them all to my place. I must confess, now that I'm holidays, my brain isn't quite working properly; I can be wandering around the supermarket, thinking, “Thai beef salad, Thai beef salad,” and I'll still wander home with pork stir fry. I made Haoran's noodle salad (well, it's not really Haoran's but I associate it with Haoran because I ate it first at his place) and I marinated the pork for Thai beef salad, fried it but didn't put it with salad. So it was a bit of a strange meal but everyone was satisfied.
We packed up and hopped in two cars and drove south in a convoy. I was in the front car with Ynping who always keeps up a running commentary about the traffic while she drives (she had a lot of things to say about green P-platers but thankfully I'm the exception to that bunch). We lost Melinda and the others round about Kanahooka (it's really hard to convoy in the dark!) But we all got there in the end and the girls were just getting started (despite the fact that it was 9:30) and so we set up the DVD player and started the first disc of The Return of the King extended edition (my friends are all LOTR-obsessed). Foolishly I had left the remote control at home which meant that we couldn't access any other options but the first one. But that was all we needed, really.
The first disc ended in a really stupid place (right in the middle of the battle scene in front of Minas Tirath) but it was 1 am so we went to bed. In the morning, I rounded up everyone for breakfast at a reasonable time and then we drove to the Minnamurra Rainforest and did the falls walk. The steep inclines were quite a killer and Ynping and I felt so unfit, watching these little kids run by at top speed. But the walk was worth it and we felt so virtuous having done all this great exercise. For lunch, we got some cold meats and made sandwiches. In the afternoon we drove to Berry, playing trivia guessing games in the car. Berry is so nice to just wander around. We poked around the shops for a good two hours and I talked Liwen into buying a Thai wrap-around skirt (she thinks I'm such a bad influence). I saw this gorgeous Arwen-like white cloak ... I must confess I've always wanted a cloak. Ben thinks it's a really silly thing to own but I'd love to have one. My friend Kere's got one her mum made for her out of black moleskin—it's got green lining, a hood and a Celtic clasp and I think it's gorgeous ... anyways, I digress.
At the end of our shopping tour, we visited the Very Bonut Dan (that's what Ben likes to call the Berry Donut Van). Quite frankly, I don't understand why people reckon Krispy Kremes are better. We got a dozen donuts and ate them on the adjoining tables, licking cinnamon sugar off our fingers. Then we drove back to Jamberoo. Everyone was feeling rather sleepy but were still happy to chat. Liwen, Ramya and I did the girly thing and put on face masks. We also watched some episodes of Blackadder before it was time to make dinner. And of course, after dinner, it was back to The Return of the King. The girls broke out the Malibu and Coke and laid down rules for each other of when they could take a sip (tied to when various characters came back on screen). At the end of ROTK, we were still pretty alert so we put on the first disc of The Two Towers (extended edition) until we were too tired to go any further.
In the morning it was clean up and farewell the place. We drove to Wollongong and walked along Northbeach in the sun, then went to yum cha at Twin's. I had a debate with Ramya about same-sex marriage (I am so inarticulate ... sometimes I wonder if it's better to keep my mouth shut). We drove back to my place again and the girls were rather reluctant to go home and quite eager to start ROTK special features so they all stuck around until I had to kick them out so I could prepare for church.
All in all a lovely weekend. Must do it again sometime!
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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Other comments
Get out! We just spent last week down at Seven Mile Beach, and spent three-quarters of a day up at Minnamurra ...
Guan
Really??? Wow!
Sounds like a lovely holiday!
I have a cloak from my med-soc days. My mother made it for me out of dark blue mock-sued, lined, with a silver clasp. It makes me look like Darth Vader.
Mock-SUEDE.
I spend too much time at work.
(Have you got your membership for Continuum yet?)
Guan - you forever sound like you’re at some beach location!! Do you ever work at MM??
Elsie: that is totally a trick question, so I’m going to choose to ignore it. In return, please ignore the time that this comment is going up as any indication of my level of ‘work’.
Kathleen: I sent it just after Christmas but haven’t heard from them yet. Am I supposed to get a confirmation of some sort? They haven’t charged me yet either.
And surely you can’t look like Darth Vader without the helmet!