/karen/

One down, two to go

Sunday, 18 November, 2007

Wednesday 14/11/07

Day off! I slept in, then caught the train into the city to make some serious headway into my Christmas shopping. (I know, it's only mid-November; what am I thinking?!) I was looking for curtains in Lincraft but theirs only go to 213cm whereas I need 310cm. So I will have to look in IKEA. I also stopped in to have a look in Tapestry Craft because both Jan and Di rave about it. I was suitably impressed, plus I got some cheap yarn out of it (7 balls for $1 each, and a $1 knitting pattern for a jacket which I hope to adapt ... one day. I was thinking I'd make it out of dark red 12ply wool and felt it!)

After finishing the bulk of what I needed to do (including picking up part of Little and Seamus's wedding present), I went to the café in Kinokuniya and had a chai latte, and spent about half an hour scribbling stuff in my journal for my talk for church women's fellowship at the end of the month. (It's on family and I'm borrowing rather heavily from The Essence of the Family by Kirsten Birkett.)

I caught the train home, had some lunch and spent the afternoon watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 4, then made dinner in the evening for Ben and messed around on the computer.

Thursday 15/11/07

Odds and ends sort of day at work. It was also staff lunch day and because I didn't have much on, I helped Anna go get and prepare the food. I left right on four, came home and made some dinner. Ben was going out afterwards but we ate together before he left. Then I watched an episode of “House”, did the dishes, had a shower and watched Underworld: Evolution which was a lot more violent than Underworld (plus it had a couple of very unhelpful sex scenes). I was rather bored by it and thought it probably could have benefitted from better character development. Selene is sort of interesting but you don't really get why she defends Michael, who is more of a cardboard cut out sort of character.

I went to bed at around 10:30-11:45. Ben came in later and woke me up.

Friday 16/11/07

Another odds and ends day at work, but I finally got to attacking some of the rest of the old web extras. I added a number of interesting articles on self-esteem and body image: “A long, hard look at ourselves” by Jane Tooher, “Self-esteem and God's esteem” by Amelia Clarke, “Changing the way you look” by Carmelina Read and “The gods of the body” by Jack Mock. I had lunch with Bec and then Elsie and I met but talked more about other stuff than about Cash Values stuff.

I was feeling a bit low because I discovered that next year's fourth year houseparty (that's when Ben's entire year goes away together for a weekend) is not on a weekend but takes place Monday to Wednesday in April. I realise why they've done that: it's because many of the guys in Ben's year who have graduated will have jobs which require them to work Sundays, and most of them have wives who stay at home with the kids so it's convenient for them. But it just made me feel overlooked again because I'm in the minority. I don't want to have to use my leave for the houseparty because, to me, leave is for other things. I was whinging about it to Tony but brightened when he said we could probably work something out.

At 3 pm I left to go to counselling, then spent the half an hour or so in the waiting area (which is really nice and peaceful—I like the waiting area there. There are nice chairs and magazines, and the radio is normally playing classical music from 2MBS FM)—spent half an hour or so in the waiting area scribbling stuff in my journal for my talk which will form part of the writing workshop Bec and I are doing at National Training Event.

Counselling was helpful because it helped me to see that life has been ridiculously busy as of late so in a way it's fitting that I should be trying to “recharge my batteries” by doing things such as watching so much TV. Not that that's a proper justification for copious amounts of TV-watching; it just explains why I have been feeling like I don't want to do anything except watch TV. I drove home thinking I was making good time, but I was wrong; it still took me almost an hour. I had to get changed quickly and put on my make-up, then catch a train back into the city to Town Hall where I walked over to Wharf 9 near the Sydney Aquarium and met my friends from school for Ynping's hen's night (hen's night number three for the month).

We were going on a Vagabond Aqua Latino cruise. Unfortunately several of our number were running a bit late and the boat just couldn't wait so we had to leave without one person. (She never made it in the end.) It was a lovely night to be out of the harbour so the first little while was spent exploring the boat and taking photos of everything. We had a buffet dinner and then the entertainment started with Brazillian dancing and Capoeira, samba and rhumba. All those who were celebrating something (birthday boys and hens) were called out and taught moves so that they could participate in a So You Think You Can Dance?-off. It was terribly embarrassing for Ynping but she was a good sport about it all! Then they called everyone up to form a congo line, and then the dimmed the lights and turned on the music on the dance floor. We all got up and danced (Melinda doing it better than anyone), but it wasn't my kind of music and we got tired after a while. Plus it was a bit stuffy. So we went outside onto the deck, then upstairs to get dessert (there wasn't much left by this stage), then back down again for more dancing (because of the “Nutbush”. Now there's a song that goes on for just a little too long!)

The boat docked at around 11:30 and Pauline offered to give me a lift home because Zhen was picking her up and they were going my way. So I got dropped off, and then Ben and I went to sleep at around 1.

Saturday 17/11/07

We meant to get up at 10:30 but it was 11:30 by the time we finally rose. I ironed Ben's shirt for the wedding (wedding number #1) but got annoyed at our iron. I think I'm going to buy a new one. I inherited the one we have from my mum and we've had it for eight years so I think it's had a good run. It just does really annoying things sometimes, and now I'm worried it will just burn our clothes when I use it. Ben also vacuumed the floors and I ate some lunch, then had to quickly change and put on make-up before we had to leave.

The wedding was in Haberfield which was quite close to us and we were on time. It was a very hot day which meant my black lace parasol came in handy (portable shade!) Plus I had the fans from Haoran and Sarah's wedding which kept me cool. (They need to invent fans for men; using wedding programs really isn't good enough.) It was a lovely ceremony and Lisa looked radiant. The minister preachers on 1 Corinthians 13 and I was worried he was going to leave Christ out of it but he eventually got there.

Afterwards Ben's family were going to come over to our place between the wedding and the reception, but the other cousins were going to go to the Sydney Rowing Club where the reception was to spend the time there. (So we didn't need to vacuum the floors. But it's probably good thing we did. And at least I didn't have to find a place to hide the Christmas presents.) Ben and I decided to go home, and we spent the afternoon watching the finale of So You Think You Can Dance? as well as Law & Order.

The reception was at Dedes with a lovely view of the water. We were on a table with Tim, Ros, Lizz, some of Ben's cousins and a couple of others we didn't know. All the speeches took place first to get them out of the way, and then we had dinner and dessert (very yummy). Then Lisa and Damian did their bridal waltz and got the dancing started. Ben's not into dancing but Lizz was keen so she and I went up and danced for all of 10 minutes before she had to go with her family. (Lizz is fun to dance with!) Ben and I went home not long after.

Sunday 18/11/07

We slept in again this morning, but Ben got up earlier than me because he had to study. I did dishes, put together my prayer cards, messed around on the computer and watched three episodes of Buffy (including “Hush” which everyone told me was fantastic but I thought wasn't as good as “Band Candy”, “The Wish” and “The Zeppo” from Season 3).

Then I had band practice (during which I played very badly), then church.

And now it's work tomorrow. Goodnight.

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