/Karen/

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Jamberoo reprise

Tuesday, 10 January, 2006

Last weekend I went away with my school friends down to Jamberoo—just like last year, only this time Anita was able to join us. Because she was the farthest geographically, we all decided to meet out her way for dinner. And because Ben needed the car that weekend, he and I picked up Liwen and he dropped us off at Ramya's who then drove us out to Anita's. Mel and Ynping came together and we all went for gourmet pizzas at Isabelle's Woodfired Oven Pizzeria restaurant.

When we finished, it was starting to rain and the sky was all moody and grey. I was in the car with Ramya and Liwen and we put on the soundtrack of the most recent Pride and Prejudice and they started gushing about how atmospheric the drive was—through the darkening woods with the misty rain. I had a couple of memory lapses in my directions but we never lost Mel and Ynping (unlike last year), though we did lead them to do figure eights in a carpark as we turned around to visit the local Woolworths for supplies.

We got to the house at around 10:30. The bathrooms have just been renovated so I went to check them out (isn't it interesting that the fashion now is for shower doors to be completely see-through glass? Before, manufacturers used to do everything they could so you couldn't see the person in there; now they seem to do everything they can so you can). We bagged rooms and beds and then started the evening's viewing. Everyone just wanted something light. I happened to have brought down the DVD of Mean Girls (purchased secondhand for $10) and they surprised me by wanting to watch it.

We also found that we had vastly over-catered because everyone had brought some junk food to pitch in but, being six girls, there was really no way we could eat it all!

It was about 1 am when the movie finished and we all went to bed but I stayed up talking to Anita for ages ... pretty much until the sun came up. Which wasn't good sleep-wise but it was so nice to just talk to her properly—which I haven't done in ages.

On the Saturday morning, Liwen and Ramya, who are both working girls, were up early (comparatively early). We all had breakfast together at 9:30 and then, once we were all showered and dressed, we hopped into our cars and went to Bombo quarry which, in my opinion, is one of the most interesting-looking places in the world and has a much more exciting natural formation with the sea coming through than the Kiama blowhole. Unfortunately, even though I packed a hat in my luggage, I didn't bring it with me so I got sunburnt and so did some of the other girls.

After walking around in there for a while and snapping photos, we drove down to Berry for lunch at Lorell's Secret Kitchen and then we walked around the shops—which wasn't as interesting as the previous year because we'd done it before and we didn't really stumble across anything fascinating or new, though I did manage to purchase some curtains for Ben's study at Haven & Space. We made Anita try the donuts from the Very Bonut Dan, then shopped for stuff for dinner, and went home (nearly missed the turn off because I fell asleep and forgot to give directions) and vegged by watching special features of Mean Girls.

I was hoping to watch the first Introducing God talk then with my friends (who had said that they'd like to watch it with me and tell me what they think) but everyone was far too tired and I didn't think it was a good time. Instead, Ynping showed us how to make Scoubidous, using supplies from her stash, and most of us got really into it—fiddling with the plastic strings while we watched episodes of the old Astro Boy series. Meanwhile, Anita was in the kitchen working her magic (Anita is an awesome cook ... I have dreams about her cooking sometimes) and resisting all offers of help. We had butter chicken with that cucumber and yoghurt stuff, plus pappadams (mmm ...).

After dinner I suggested we watch Introducing God and we did. Then we talked about it over dessert (Anita had made pasayam or however you spell it). The conversation was a bit slow in getting started—I suppose it was quite a weird thing for us to be doing, sitting around and talking about God and talking about a speaker ... that's not normal—not something you'd naturally do with friends. And I'm not very good at leading discussions. But nevertheless we did manage to have a very interesting conversation about stuff and Anita was always there to pitch in when I wasn't able to express something properly, or to clarify or whatever. I know my friends are still a long way from knowing who God is but the really cool thing is, when I asked them if they wanted to watch the next talk, they all said yes. So I will have to organise that some time ...

We washed up and then chose the night's viewing, along with the night's nibblies. Someone poured me a Malibu and Coke but I can't say that that's something I would drink by choice (it did smell nice though). I don't usually drink alcohol at all but not because of any moral objection—mostly because I've never liked anything I've tasted.

By this stage it was about 10:30-11:00 pm. Because there was some disagreement about what to watch, I got everyone to vote sort of synod style about what to watch. We managed to get it down to Blackadder (series 3) and Monsters, Inc, but in the end we were so tired, people were dozing off after a couple of episodes of Blackadder and we all went to bed and slept for around 10 hours.

In the morning only Liwen was up, reading on the couch, but occasionally dozing off. It was midday by the time everyone was up and we ate breakfast together, cleaned the house and had a group photo. We were on our way by 2 pm—this time me travelling with Melinda and Ynping because I figured it would be easier logistically with all the dropping people home. I checked to see if my parents were home so I could give them back the keys but they weren't there so I went and hung out at Mel's place for an hour or so, watching Batman and Robin with her and her brother, until Ben came to pick me up, fresh from attending a wedding.

/Karen/ had a thought at 4:39 PM | | EE comments (3)

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