/karen/

Left here to linger

Friday, 15 August, 2008

Monday 4/8/08

Back to work. I would have taken the day off because Saturday was really a work day for me, but The Briefing was going to layout on Tuesday. I was in at work around 8. I ate breakfast and got into it: email, Sola Panel and the all-important Bible brief. I felt depressed and angry, and I knew why I was depressed and angry but, really, knowing only goes so far in helping you; it doesn't always help you to get out of feeling depressed and angry. I whinged to Bec and Guan on IM.

Elsie came around 1 to read the Bible and pray, and I whinged to her too. Afterwards, I finished off the Bible brief and worked on cover and contents. I was completely wasted by the afternoon. Tony arrived around 3. “Do we need to meet?” he asked. “I dunno; do we? Can we do it tomorrow?” I said. He graciously let me postpone it. I left at 4, went home, had a shower and watched So You Think You Can Dance?. Ben makes me dinner.

Tuesday 5/8/08

I woke up and got into work around 8 am again. I did quick check through the Bible brief to make sure it was okay, then uploaded it and most of the other Briefing stuff for Joy for layout. I checked in with Tony to see where he was up to with stuff, then got started on e-news. I thought I was on target for everything I had to do that week, then three things happened in the course of an hour which completely changed my work plan. I had lunch with Bec, feeling somewhat depressed, then came back upstairs and kept working on e-news. Ben was at the Customs House Library working, and I IM-ed him about the movie tickets given to us by my brother—the ones we needed to use really soon as they were about to expire. We wanted to see Wanted (heh!) and I thought we should go see it that night or the next. In the kitchenette, Em was talking about Wanted and voiced the desire to see the movie as well. I checked with Ben and asked her along. She wasn't free on Wednesday so we decided to go that night at Greater Union Bondi.

I came home first—I left at 6, I think, because I was trying to get e-news done (because e-news is never just e-news; you also have to fix all the things that e-news is linking to) and also make a print-out for Ian—and Ben and I ate leftovers for dinner before hopping in the car and driving to Bondi. It only took about half an hour from our place to Bondi Junction, but then we spent another 10-15 minutes driving around the block, trying to find the right entrance to take us up to cinema parking. We finally got there and met Em in the theatre, and treated her with our free tickets. She brought Violet Crumble and lollies, and we sat about four or five rows from the front in a Senstadium session.

Wanted is very much a teen boys' movie: lots of action, violence, fast cars, guns and pretty girls. And a bit of sex as well. The premise is a bit stupid (particularly the way the assassins are given their targets) but the first half was immensely fun—probably because they utilised every plot trick in the book (and quite a number from fairy tales—see Max Lüthi) to make you like (or at least pity) Wesley Gibson (though having James McAvoy in the role doesn't hurt!) so when he finally rebels, you're cheering him on. The direction was very jerk but interesting—gritty, violent, yes, but at least not the slick Hollywood-ness I was used to. Some of the action shots were just amazing. But the second half made the whole thing fall down and I totally hated the ending.

Afterwards, the three of us walked back to the parking lot, said goodbye and went home.

Wednesday 6/8/08

I slept in and woke around 9:30 or 10, and tried to work. Instead, I ended up surfing the web aimlessly and egg hunting on Facebook. Ben went to have lunch with Pete at college, and rang me to ask for a lift because it was raining. The rain was short-lived but I still went to get him because it got me out of the house. When we got home, I decided to abandon work for a while (because it was clearly not working) and spent the afternoon watching a week's worth of So You Think You Can Dance?. I made dinner and then got stuck into work (The Daily Reading Bible [Volume 5]—Volume 5!—and e-news related things), plodding on until midnight, feeling really tired.

Thursday 7/8/08

I got into work at around 8, made the final touches to e-news and sent it off. I brought Bec some cushions for her office as they were lying around at home not doing anything. Then, after dealing with email and Sola Panel and other foo-type things, I went up to The Spot to get the cake for Guy's birthday.

They called it a Japonaise and said it was hazelnut flavour. We had it for morning tea, singing a very normal “Happy Birthday” which was terribly uncharacteristic for our office. I ended up eating too much cake—I always overestimate these things.

Guan, Bec and I ended up having lunch together in MM. I spent the afternoon doing a full Movable Type export of all posts, stylesheets and templates, and then moved onto chasing commissions, doing some preliminary cuts and fills on Briefing #360, checking Tony's in this issue before it went off to Joy, etc. For staff meeting, I was on phones, and I took my knitting to the front desk and sat there, knitting away, willing the phones not to ring. They didn't (probably our first staff meeting where the phones didn't ring) and I was relieved an hour later.

I left at four and drove home and packed. Ben wasn't home yet but came in not long after. I decided to have a shower, even though we were slightly running out of time, and then we left to go to Matt and Larissa's for dinner. I felt completely wasted and didn't think I'd be very good dinner company, but we went anyway, and, somewhat predictable, got lost.

It was lovely to see their place all set up. We browsed their DVD, CD and book collections, and they fed us very well and told us horror stories about buying furniture, played us Kylie Minogue music videos and battled us in Singstar. Whenever I'd go up against Ben, he'd make me laugh which meant I couldn't sing, so I kept losing against him. We bade our goodbyes around 10 or 10:30, drove home and went to bed.

Friday 8/8/08

Luckiest day of the year according to the Chinese calendar. Also my dad's birthday. We were in at work by 8 (I insisted because I had no idea how I was going to make up the hours if we came any later than that.) I worked on Briefing cuts and fills. I got it all done by about 10 or 11 o'clock (bar the Resource Talk which still wasn't finished) and handed everything over to Em. I was very tired and cranky. I had a quick lunch, finished off Briefing commissioning, started work on The Daily Reading Bible (Volume 17) (which I know is going to come around and bite me once I get back from leave), and went with Ben at 2:45. He dropped me at home and went on to counselling. I finished packing and had a shower. Then Ynping and Andrew came to pick me up to drive out to the Blue Mountains.

They helped me carry everything to the car but when we were only a couple of minutes away, I realised I'd forgotten my hat. Thinking I'd just left it on the bed at home, and also realising that we were about to hit peak hour traffic, I said no to their offer of turning around to go get it. We continued on the M4, and it was nice to just relax in the back seat while someone else drove. We listened to the radio—Thank God It's Friday or some such program (it had Colin Buchanan on it) and laughed at the silly jokes. Traffic was crawling all the way to the M4 and even on the M4, and Ynping was stressed by it. Mel called my mobile to let us know they'd be a bit later (they had to turn around and go back because Liwen had forgotten her purse—much more important than a hat!) Then she called a bit later to ask about the traffic on the M4, and to report that they wouldn't be as late as they thought.

The traffic cleared somewhat as we reached the mountains, and then it was a smooth run through the dark to Leura. We stopped at the real estate agent's house and picked up the key in the mailbox, then tried to find the house in the dark. I had to get out and squiz at house numbers, but finally we found it: Rob Roy garden cottage. Even in the dark, it was beautiful.

We let ourselves in, turned on the central heating and set about exploring. I did take photos during the dark but the flash on my camera is just horrid. So here are the shots I took during the day.

The others turned up about half an hour later. We helped them carry in their bags, and they also oohed and ahhed over the house. Then came the obligatory standing around, waiting for someone to make a decision about dinner (all the while our stomachs were starting to growl because it was so late). Finally we decided that half of us should go to Coles and pick up supplies (we made a list) and half of us should go pick up some pizzas. I went with the pizza crew to Leura and we ended up at Terrafirma. Strangely enough, Duncan and Fiona and Fiona's parents were there, but I didn't see them (never learned to mind my surroundings ...) We ordered four pizzas and were told that it would take an hour for them to be ready, so at the last minute we decided to get them delivered. Then we returned back to the house, only we were the first ones there and the others had the key, so we just sat in the car and I read Juliana's piece from The Faithful Writer again and gave her brief feedback.

Then the others returned and let us inside, and we settled in the Studio and turned on the television to wait for both the pizzas and the opening ceremony. The pizzas came in first and was well worth the wait. We ate off plates on our laps, and then the opening ceremony began, and I knitted and watched.

I was amazed by it—there were so many beautiful things I loved, like the dancers painting on the piece of paper in the middle of the floor, the hoards of people dressed in those lavish costumes, the amazing projections which made the scroll look like it was unfurling, and so on. I know that parts of the ceremony were later broiled in controversery, but overall I thought China did a splendid job.

In the parade of nations, we took turns picking the worst costumes (in the end, I forget who won). We ended up going to bed at around 2 am when it was all over. Liwen and I shared a studio—me on the sofa bed, her on the actual bed—and I fell asleep pretty much straight away, apart from the odd bang I heard on the roof and then at the back door.

Saturday 9/8/08

We all had a bit of a sleep in and I think we really needed it—well, all of us except for Liwen whose internal clock woke her early. Ynping was up preparing breakfast—frying bacon and making scrambled eggs. We put together quite a feast: cereal, bacon, eggs, toast with honey, and tea, and it was lovely to sit at the beautiful dining table in the sunshine.

I don't think I've ever eaten toast with honey before.

Then we all got ready to go out, and drove to Echo Point. The parking meter was broken: it ate our money and refused to spit out a ticket. I was all for leaving it and appealing the ticket if we got one, but the others were virtuous and went and got a valid ticket from a working machine, and then tried to call the number to tell whoever was responsible that their machines were broken (they just got a recorded message).

We went to Echo Point and mingled with the tourists, enjoying the view. I was regretting forgetting my hat, but the ever generous Liwen lent me hers. After much photo-snapping and a bit of wandering, we went into the gift shop and then back to the car. We drove a bit further up the road and went to the Blue Mountains Chocolate Company but didn't find it all that impressive.

(The “girth control” chocolate was amusing though.)

Time was getting away, and most of us were keen to get to Leura, so we drove back there and parked, and walked up and down the street, browsing in the shops. This bored Andrew, the only guy among us, but we had fun. I loved Elizabeth Rosa, the stationery shop, which made me appreciate fine writing implements like these:

I like the thin barrels; fat ones make me feel like I'm writing with sausages. I also loved the homewares shop which had these fancy hatboxes.

We were keen to have a bit of an afternoon snack after our brunch to tide us over 'til the evening. But Josephan's is full, so we head over to Wayzgoose. Liwen and I arrive a bit later than the others, having been buying umbrellas and gloves. They are crammed into a little booth, and we think that we have to sit in the booth next door, but then a large party leave and we get their table. But then we realise we are out of time: Wayzgoose is shortstaffed and if we order, it won't be a while until we get our food. Poor Ynping, feeling guilty, makes an executive decision to leave, and we apologise and walk out, and drive back to Rob Roy.

We all partake of leftover cheese and crackers from the night before, then get ready to go to Sparadise, the Japanese spa place. I soon realise I'm the only one who will not be wearing a bikini and feel really old fashioned. The spa is a half hour drive away, and we divide into two cars and drive.

We arrive at this Tudor-style house with a zen garden out the front. Signs ask us to remove our shoes at the door and place them on wooden shelves in an alcove at one end of the porch. Once inside, we are given questionnaires asking health and allergy information, which we fill out in the tearoom.

When we hand back the questionnaires, we hand over our money and are taken on a tour of the place. There's a quiet room (no talking allowed! Or aloud), the corner with the Japanese showers (you sit on plastic stools and douse yourself), the sauna, the indoor hot bath (set to 40 degrees), the indoor cold bath (set to 18 degrees but it felt more like 12), then the zen garden outside (overlooking a sheep paddock) and the outdoor hot bath (also set to 40 degrees but it felt much hotter than that).

We stuffed our belongings into the lockers provided and took our keys (these were on elastics which we put around our wrists) and went to the showers first to rinse off any moisturiser or dirt, before getting into the baths. For the next three hours, we kept moving from bath to bath, from room to room. Sometimes we couldn't stay in one place for too long because the heat would get overwhelming; we'd sit in the outdoor hot bath, and then have to stand up and let the air cool us down (this is on a day when the weather was about six degrees, but then we were also surrounded by steam). The sauna was also rather overwhelming; it smelled of eucalyptus and the air was really thick; I don't think I lasted more than 10 minutes in there. Also, our skin would start wrinkling so we had to get out of the water sometimes. Unfortunately while walking in the Japanese zen garden, I slipped on one of the paving stones and landed on my bottom right in front of everyone. How embarrassing! Fortunately Mel is a physio and gave me instructions on what to do: I took a cold shower and made the area really really really cold, then she asked me to do certain things to check that I hadn't damaged anything else. I was fine; just bruised and sore. We also sat in the quiet room but quickly became too giggly—like we were in study hall at school, about to be busted by a teacher. (Four of us went to school together.) Andrew asked us later how we found it, and pointed out that most of the guests there were couples. I hadn't noticed that—I'm so oblivious to my surroundings—but after he said it, I went, “Oh yeah!”

Finally it was time to get dressed and leave. Ynping wasn't feeling too well so we stopped at a nearby service station for supplies. My admin/logistics instincts kicked in, and I suggested that half of us go to Coles for dinner supplies and the other half go straight home. I should also have added “And heat up the pizza”, but oh well. Anyway, everyone thought that was a good plan, so Mel and Juliana took Ynping back so she could rest, and Andrew, Liwen and I drove to Coles at Katoomba.

I don't think I'd really ever talked to Andrew properly before so it was good to get a chance to get to know him a bit better in the drive back. He's into politics but, surprisingly, had never watched The West Wing, so Liwen and I were lauding its praises to him. At Coles we picked up salad ingredients (including a very nice ripe avocado!), a BBQ chicken, extra milk, Caesar salad dressing and batteries (for my Wii because the ones that came with the second remote were flat). Back at Rob Roy, we found Ynping asleep and the others watching the Olympics on TV. I quickly got dinner started and ordered everyone around: we cooked the rest of the bacon, made a salad, broke up the chicken, heated the pizza in the convection oven, and set the table. It was a very yummy, healthy dinner (well, apart from the pizza!) Liwen even made us fruit salad for dessert.

Then we loaded the dishwasher and got it going, and broke out my Wii and Singstar. We played a few rounds of Wii Sports and one round of Wii Play (which Ynping thought was hilarious; I love the bit where the aliens come and try to abduct the Miis and you have to shoot them), and then put on Mario vs. Sonic at the Olympic Games. It had the Bird's Nest and the Watercube, and you got to compete with Sonic and Mario characters. (I love Shadow but when you choose him, he crosses his arms and says “Fine!”)

When we were sick of Olympic Games, we broke out Juliana's PS2. We played one round of Katamari Damancy so I could show the others how nuts it is. (If you visit that site and click on “Presents”, you can play it online). Basically you have a ball which you roll around and try to pick up things, and whoever has the biggest ball at the end wins.

Then we got into SingStar. I think I was the most enthusiastic out of us all: I kept going through the discs and finding songs I wanted to sing. Juliana had all these SingStar games I'd never played before: Singstar 90s (my favourite; I never realised what a boring melody line “Beautiful Day” has though), R&B, Pop and Pop Hits. Unfortunately most of my friends didn't know the songs. Mel was always ready to have a go though. She also challenged Ynping and I to do “Baby one more time!” as off-key as possible. Liwen was so tired she managed to sleep through all our screeching! We finally quit at around 1 am, cleaned up and went to bed.

Sunday 10/8/08

We had to be out of the house by 10 am. I woke around 8:30. Liwen and I packed up and put the Studio in order, then went to help the others with the rest of the cleaning up process. I made hot chocolate for everyone to tie us over until we got to the café, and also to use up all the milk (because I'd meant to have hot chocolate the night before). The gummi bear experiment seemed to have gone well over the weekend too:

We dumped the rest of the food and did the dishes, cleaned out the garbage and did a second check to see we'd gotten everything out. We took a group shot of us on the front steps, then said goodbye to Rob Roy, dropped off the key and headed to Josephan's in Leura for breakfast.

Josephan's was full but not so full that they couldn't accommodate the six of us. We squeezed onto a table near the door.

I had an Italian hot chocolate shot, and ham and eggs:

The others had smoothies, milkshakes, hot chocolate, eggs Benedict and waffles:

It was a very satisfying breakfast, and we were very grateful that we could sit inside—especially as a party a little larger than ours turned up not long after and had to sit outside. Just as we were leaving, snow started to come down, quashing all suggestions of a bush walk.

So instead we headed to the main street of Katoomba for more shopping (poor Andrew! He was very good-humoured about it all).

I loved The Hattery: they had some gorgeous felt hats but none which looked particularly good in me and in all the colours I wouldn't wear. I did, however, buy a rather nice Jendi beret (like Catherine Zeta Jones's in No Reservations) and a hat box with a white rose pattern all over it. (This made me look rather bohemian, walking around with my Tree of Life coat [which was complimented in the coat shop], black sueded gloves, beret and hatbox.) I also found a rather goth looking skirt in Vivianna's creations, a $5 Indian cotton shirt in a thrift shop and some wooden coathangers for 50c each in a shop that was closing down.

It was getting close to high tea time, and we returned to the car so I could put all my stuff in the boot and not carry it around. Mel and Juliana, who had to be back for church, decided now was the right time to make their exit, so we said goodbye to them before making our way to the Carrington Hotel for high tea.

The Carrington was apparently the place to go in former times, and it still looked spiffing.

We wandered around inside for a little while as our booking wasn't until 3. But as we still had half an hour to kill, I said to Ynping, “Why don't we just ask if we can go in early?” She went to ask and it was fine, so we went in and found our table.

We were all feeling a bit sleepy. There was a pianist playing jazz standards and schmaltzy tunes in the corner, and ours was the table closest to him which made it a little hard to talk at times. The sandwiches, cheese, crackers and cakes were yummy. Liwen told the staff she was diabetic so they gave us extra cheese and crackers. We were also given a tea refill—something which Ynping said they didn't do at Observatory Hotel. The stack didn't look like much, and yet we were really pushing to finish it by the end (I think it was the scones taht did it). We were the last to leave.

On the drive home, the traffic for the first part was awful, plus we had to make another pit stop. Then I fell asleep just as we reached the M4 and didn't wake up until we reached Leichhardt. Everyone helped me carry my things up to our flat. Unfortunately I still couldn't find my hat (so sad! I think I've lost it for good. I loved that hat: Ben bought it for me in 2005.) Then they said goodbye and I unpacked, put away stuff and had a shower. Ben was still at church (I had missed church because I knew I wouldn't be back in time). I wasn't that hungry, but I ate a Frûche and watched last week's So You Think You Can Dance? (I loved Thayne and Chelsea's cha cha and the Mia Michaels Tim Burton wedding). Ben came home, and I told him about my weekend and showed him my photos on the giant TV. Then we went to bed.

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