/karen/

Re-wind

Wednesday, 27 February, 2008

Monday 11/2/08

I didn't sleep too well but I still went to work and worked on Michael's You all day (except for when I went to the doctor's). The time difference is such that often he is up on the other side of the world and can answer my emails promptly until about 8:30 am or so.

Because Ben was starting to have second thoughts about doing fourth year, he went to see the principal in the afternoon. That helped him to make a decision.

I left work at four and felt so exhausted that I was braindead all evening. Ben made dinner and did other things yet I still end up going to bed late.

Tuesday 12/2/08

Ben came into work with me and we got there around 9. He decided not to continue with college but just to graduate with his BTh. Suddenly the shape of the year looked a whole lot different. Don't get me wrong: I would have supported him either way, and I was all ready to face fourth year with him. I was going to scale back all my commitments and do less so I could support him. But at the same time, it's also a bit of a relief that the year won't be as stressful as I was expecting it to be.

The day was filled with more editing of You. Saying this in conversation elicited amusing results: “I'm editing You today” and “I've nearly finished You”, etc. However, it was also Briefing cuts and fills day so I kept having to stop what I was doing to work on that.

I defrosted too much chicken on the weekend for Chinese New Year dinner so I decided to cook it at work, and invite everyone in the office (plus Bec) for a free lunch of coconut chili basil chicken. There was plenty to go 'round and leftovers, even, to take home. Plus other people said thank you and did the washing up for me.

My staff review was in the afternoon and it went well—apart from the fact that I suddenly started catching a cold and so went through a million tissues while talking to Tony in his office. Good thing I have an understanding boss!

I was going to stay late but getting sick changed things, so we left at 4 or so. Church fellowship was supposed to be at the beach with a BBQ and we were going to talk about “Sorry” day and reconciliation with Australia's Aboriginal people. But it rained so the event ended up being held at church. Ben went but I stayed home feeling sick and spent a very relaxing evening watching So You Think You Can Dance? Australia, knitting, reading some of The Complete Polysyllabic Spree and going to bed relatively early.

Wednesday 13/2/08

I woke late having slept well—good news, considering my cold. Fortunately the cold seemed to have left me. I spent the day doing computer-y things and watching Buffy Season 5 over lunch. Then I left at 2pm an drove to Macquarie Centre to see if I could find Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi at Borders on Kathleen's recommendation (because I had a 40% off voucher to spend) but unfortunately I couldn't find it so settled for Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons instead (which is well-written and astonishing and well worth another read).

I had some time to kill before counselling so I went to find Tree of Life but, to my surprise, it had gone and been replaced by a T2 which was more of a café than a tea shop (though you could still buy tea; the tea display occupied a shelf near the front). The walls were all painted black and decorated with screens and drapes. There were bench seats with cushion strewn about them, glass-topped tables with dark antique-looking chairs. The feel was cosy and exotic, and there were lots of people sitting around drinking tea and chatting.

I ordered an Ultimate Chai and the girl gave me a teapot covered in Japanese characters instead of a table number to identify me when they brought it out (I wondered how that worked on their end: “Take it to the table with the teapot covered in cherryblossoms”). And then I found a very nice table close to the windows on a bench seat strewn with cushions. The ultimate chai was all right; I must confess I've had better. But I spent a very nice half an hour there writing before it was time to go to counselling.

Counselling was helpful. We talked about forgiveness and letting go, knowing yourself and learning to trust yourself, and understanding your reactions and what they tell you about yourself—all of which are massive topics. I drove home through the traffic which wasn't too bad but it still took an hour. The evening was spent doing computer-y things and watching Buffy as Ben went out to drop something off at a friend's place.

Thursday 14/2/08

Valentine's Day. I didn't sleep enough. I woke up at 6:30, snoozed for 10 minutes, then got up and left the house at 6:55 to drive to work. I came in at the same time as Simon, then went to get blood taken out of me at 8 to check my cholesterol. The rest of the day was spent working on You but there were various interruptions along the way.

Bec, Guan and I had lunch together and talked about the site design for Christians who write. Then we had team meeting and product development meeting. I stayed back to work on You and finished at 6. I drove home.

I was supposed to have dinner with Naomi and even had arranged it as such, but her husband called and said that he wanted to surprise her by taking her out for dinner for Valentine's Day. That suited me. So we didn't tell her and she was suitably surprised.

Instead, I went home where Ben had made me some dinner, and the evening was spent on computer-y things and Buffy. Very anti-Valentine's Day in some respects.

Friday 15/2/08

I caught public transport into work because Ben needed the car but I left a bit later than usual and didn't try to get the 6:50 am train; 7:10 was good enough; that got me in by about 8:00.

I was supposed to chase Briefing commissions on this day but I was on a roll with You and didn't want to stop in case I totally fell off that wagon. So I pushed on and ignored all Briefing things. For the first time in a long while, I didn't go to counselling because Ben and I had swapped appointments. He still came and picked me up though, so I ended up staying back a bit later than normal.

The Trappels invited us over to their place for dinner. We hadn't been to their place since they moved. They kept inviting us but you know what my calendar is like; it's a disaster. But finally we nailed down a date, and we spent a very pleasant evening with them hanging out (and listening to my Last FM radio station for some reason).

Saturday 16/2/08

I slept in, then watched a bit of Buffy and ate lunch before it was time to leave. Erin was in town and she was having a BBQ at her parents' place. I figured that the best time to catch her would be right at the beginning because most Australians (if you will pardon the stereotype) don't show up on time. And I was right: I arrived right on 2 pm and I got to chat to Erin and Dave for a good 15-20 minutes before the other guests showed up. I figured I had it good: none of the other party guests would be able to monopolise her for that long during the entire course of the evening/afternoon.

Several girls from school showed up after a while so I was able to catch up with Katie. But then it got to five o'clock and I made my goodbyes. I drove to my mum's place to say hi and Peter gave me a box of books that he wanted to get rid of. When I got home, I put them all into Bookmooch (though I took a couple for myself) and the following day I had 11 requests.

The evening was a period of enforced rest during which I watched more Buffy and knitted and didn't do much. Ben went out but I forget where he went.

Sunday 17/2/08

More sleeping in and resting all day, watching Buffy Season 5. Dave came to hang out with Ben in the afternoon. I didn't end up going to church in the end, though I was all set to go. I finished Buffy around midnight.

Monday 18/2/08

Ben was working at UNSW this week so we drove in together. I spent the day working on You. Unfortunately it was also Briefing thinking day and I was in no mood to think about the Briefing. I cobbled together what I could and gave it to Tony, but just dropped the rest so I could concentrate on You. I actually got the initial edit finished—yay!

Lunch was with Guan and Bec (we seem to be forming a tradition of sorts). Then in the evening, I hung around until 6 pm and then met Ben at Pinocchio's for dinner. We drove up to Fox Studios, picked up our tickets for Raw Comedy at the Comedy Store where we ran into Joseph and his entourage (including some people I was not expecting to see). There was still time to kill so Ben and I went for a walk past Brent Street (where one of the contestants of So You Think You Can Dance? Australia trained) and around the oval, and came back just before it started.

There were 12 contestants that evening in three groups of four. The guy who was MC-ing warmed up the audience with a bit of his material, and as he continued to do so all the way through the evening, I wondered if he was wondering why some of his jokes about religion and Christianity fell completely flat in certain sections of the room. Joseph was up first and he did well. The rest varied in quality: some were really un-funny, some were just weird and some were hilarious. I liked the guy who won: he told us the story of Croesus and the money, and he had this sort of very conservative English professor-ish manner about him.

It was 11 by the time it was over so Ben and I left pretty much straightaway.

Tuesday 19/2/08

Ben and I travelled in to work again. He drove and I went to sleep in the car. He dropped me off by about 8:30 and I spent the day reading back over the whole of You and stitching together a copy to print for Tony. I had lunch with Guan and Bec at Dong Dong Noodles, then stayed back late to finish the job. Ben went and bought vegies to make himself dinner. I went to Naomi's place to have dinner given that we weren't able to do it the week before. We had a good chat, then it got to 9:30 and I thought I should go home.

But I wanted to drop off Fish's birthday present. He was at the Newington pub with Simon, Naomi's husband, and said why didn't I meet him there? So I did and stayed and chatted for a while—so long, in fact, that I was still there when Naomi turned up to pick up Simon. By the time we decided to get going, it was about 10:30, 11:00 so I said goodbye and went home.

Wednesday 20/2/08

This was supposed to be my day off but because I had been working on You, I was now a day behind with Briefing editing. So I went into work with Ben, printed out You and bound it for Tony, and went through and prepared and cleaned all the Briefing material on the April issue. I also gave most of the articles a light sub-edit as I went.

It was a good thing it was fairly mindless work because when you've just finished a major book project, it's hard to re-engage your brain into something else. I left promptly at 4 and caught the bus into the city, wandering my way through Dirt Cheap CDs and JB Hifi and emerging with the soundtracks to Finding Neverland and De-Lovely, Dark City on DVD and a birthday present for Bec. I also wandered up to Kinokuniya to see if they had Persepolis but couldn't find it.

Then it was down to the George St cinemas for a almond milk tea at EasyWay. A queue was forming for the movie I was going to see (August Rush: I got a free double pass to a preview screening via the Sydney Symphony Orchestra newsletter). Liwen was running late so the queue passed me by as I waited for her.

In the end, however, we did get fairly decent seats. We were in the giant movie theatre where Bec and I saw Sweeney Todd. And it was a lovely fairy tale of a movie—completely improbable and fluffy (it's about a little boy who is trying to find his parents through music) but I really enjoyed it. I liked Freddie Highmore (who was also in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Finding Neverland, and did the voice of Pantalaimon in The Golden Compass) and Keri Russell and, of course, the delectable Jonathan Rhys Meyers (who played the coach in Bend it Like Beckham and apparently did a suitably creepy Steerpike in Gormenghast which I really must see someday but to do so, I'd have to buy the DVDs over Amazon). He sings all of his own songs. The music was fantastic; it left me wanting to hear it all again. And I kept thinking about the movie for a long time after, even if it was a bit of fluff.

Afterwards Liwen and I went to Sakae for dinner. We went to catch the train home but unfortunately a lot of trackwork was going on so we ended up having to wait for ages. In the end, I didn't get home until 12. And I thought it wouldn't take long to put together the parcels I needed to send for Bookmooch, but then Elsie came online (she was in Beijing) and I couldn't sleep because I remembered all these people that accidentally got left off the Word by Word list when I had that great Thunderbird Address Book disaster in December, so I had to get up and fix it. But this meant I didn't get to bed until 1.

Thursday 21/2/08

I got up at 7:15 so that Ben and I could do our usual thing of driving in together—and I even showered—but when I went to wake Ben, he said that he had forgotten to tell me he was going in. There was no way I was going to brave rush hour traffic on six hours of sleep so I tried to go back to sleep again, but by that stage, the school bells were going off and I could hear the cries of children around the block which made sleep pretty much impossible.

In the end, I got into work by 9:30 feeling rather grumpy. I wasn't quite up to getting into editing proper so I chased commissions and did various Briefing admin things. We had Ben's Thai for staff lunch and I met with Tony in the afternoon for all of five minutes to talk about the April issue.

I left at four and did some Briefing stuff at home. We went out to dinner at the Australian Youth Hotel with Fish to celebrate Fish's birthday, then went to the Ice + Slice in Newtown for ice cream afterwards (I had a Squirrel Heaven—hazelnut and pistachio gelato with hazelnut sauce, fresh cream and roasted almonds. Yum!) Once again, we were home late.

Friday 22/2/08

I got up at 5:45/6:15 to have a shower and found there was no hot water. This made me rather cranky. I went into work and edited two Briefing articles, watching Buffy Season 6 over lunch, then left at 3 to go to counselling where I had a good whinge session. I listened to my sublime playlist all the way home and it made the traffic more bearable (funny how you are less stressed when you are singing).

Ben messaged to say that the hot water was back on (they had to replace the entire tank). He was watching Lost when I got home. He dropped me off at Broadway and I went and bought movie tickets for The Jane Austen Book Club. I was heaps early so wandered around in Giordano and bought two tops for $10 each.

Liwen and Ramya showed up about 10 minutes before and we went to get food. We were in a little movie theatre which was fairly full but not too crowded. It made watching the movie a bit more of an intimate experience. And I have to say I enjoyed it, though I didn't like it as much as August Rush. I thought Emily Blunt was fantastic as Prudie and I liked how the various stories played out, but I guess I felt it was a little too “chicklit” and it didn't stay in my head as long as August Rush did afterwards. Still, that said, it was perfect for a Friday evening!

Afterwards we walked up to Badde Manors for dinner. Well, Ramya had already eaten hers, so she had dessert, but Liwen and I had a proper dinner. I quite like the food at Badde Manors. It's all vegetarian/vegan but it's very tasty. I had a mushroom pate, grilled Haloumi cheese, tomato and spinach bagel and it was divine (sorry, Michael, no photos). Their drinks menu is also a lot more interesting than your standard caf´/restaurant.

Ramya was fading because it was, after all, Friday evening. So we said our goodbyes at around 10:40. Unfortunately I had already missed my bus. I went to see if Gleebooks was open but, quite sensibly, it was shut. So I walked down to the bus stop and sat there for about 20-30 minutes, knitting a scarf from a pattern I looked at in a book for all of 30 seconds when I bought Watchmen from Borders: you cast on 12 stitches, knit a couple of rows (I knitted three), then you take the first four stitches and knit i-cord for about 150-200 cm (depending on how long you want your scarf to be), then you do the same with the second four stitches and the third four stitches. Then you braid all three stitches of i-cord together and join the 12 stitches back again with another three rows, then bind-off. I guess you could add tassles after that; I'll decide after I've finished knitting the thing. (Anyways, this probably sounds like gibberish to most of you. I'll post a photo when I'm done.)

I caught the bus home and then walked up from the bus stop. Ben, who had been spending the evening with Luke, came in not long after.

Saturday 23/2/08

We had Word by Word at the offices of MM. 10 of us showed up, including three new girls. Unfortunately most of the regulars were away. Ben M gave a devotion on 1 Peter 5:5. I did a writing exercise based on The Complete Polysyllabic Spree (which I might post later), we had some writing time (during which I tried to work on a CHN I have no time to write) and then Toby reprised his excellent talk on collaboration which I enjoyed all over again. (But this time I recorded him so other people can hear it.)

We had lunch from Ben's Thai and then did some workshopping in the afternoon. Two of the new girls workshopped which I thought was extremely brave of them, considering it was their first meeting. I also workshopped my “Coffee” piece but was unsatisfied with the feedback I received.

Then we cleaned up and got out of there. Ben and I went to Bunnings so I could get odds and ends like flyscreens, plastic corner thingummies for flyscreens and shelf supports (because, for some reason, we keep losing them which means we can't use some of the shelves on our bookshelves). When we got home, Ben was exhausted, but I still had enough energy left to get the laundry done, fix our broken flyscreens and put up the shelves properly on our bookcase.

I made butter chicken for dinner, then spent the evening watching Buffy and chatting to Guan and Bec on IM while Ben went out to Simon and Naomi's to watch stuff. (I was having self-imposed rest and didn't go. Self-imposed rest means no people.)

Sunday 24/2/08

Writing day. Bec and Guan showed up at 10 and we wrote in our living room for about an hour and a half. I didn't get much done—I wasn't quite feeling up to it—and Bec hadn't gotten much sleep. One and a half hours is good enough, anyway; I reckon my concentration starts to drift after that. So we packed it in, Bec showed me what World of Warcraft looks like, and drove to Newtown to have lunch at Hikaru where Ben is fast becoming a regular. We talked about the revised site design for the site for Christians who write, as well as The Faithful Writer conference (which is running again). Then Bec and Guan left and I spent the afternoon doing work: Faithful Writer conference stuff, C.S. Lewis Today conference stuff (but I'm only handling the web this year, not the admin) and installing Expression Engine on the site for Christians who write (Ben helped me fix the installation because it wasn't working. Now if I could only figure out what's wrong with Movable Type ...).

I went to church in the evening. Malcolm preached on Matthew 1-2 and it ended up being a very long sermon so we didn't finish until 8:30.

Monday 25/2/08

Once again, I didn't as much sleep as I would have liked. Ben and I went into work together and shared an office. I did Briefing things all day. I also brought the tape of So You Think You Can Dance? and some of us gathered in the boardroom at lunchtime to watch some of the performances.

We left work at around 4:30 and stopped at Marrickville Metro on the way home so I could buy vegetables. I made my stir-fried mince dish for dinner and we watched Law & Order SVU from last week—an excellent episode which must have drawn on Second Life for material.

I went to deal with my electronic correspondence for an hour (and I don't just mean email) but then came back at 8:30 to watch the 80th annual Academy Awards. I love watching the Oscars. I think it's because I used to watch it my mum. It's not because of the fashion (which is usually fairly conservative or way out there) ... I just like the whole spectacle of it. I like hearing the list of nominees and rooting for a winner (I'm usually wrong). I like the performances for Best Song. I like getting a glimpse of the history of motion pictures (though, as this article points out, there were way too many montages this year). I like finding out about films I've never even heard of.

I stayed up and watched the whole thing (but was puzzled as to why Channel Nine ommitted Best Foreign Film; did they think we wouldn't be interested???) I was pleased about the following winners:

• Best Music (Song): “Falling Slowly” (Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova) from Once, a film I wanted to see but never got around to seeing at the cinema. Glen Hansard is the lead singer of The Frames, an Irish band that both Ben and Duncan really like. I don't like them as much (not enough to go see them at the Metro last year which Ben said was an absolutely awesome gig and not just because of the number of enthusiastic Irish people in the room), but for some reason I really like the song. Perhaps it's the mix of her and his voices. Anyways, you can download it for free.
• Best Music (Score): Dario Marianelli for Atonement. (He also did the Joe Wright/Keira Knightley/Matthew Macfadyen version of Pride & Prejudice). I love how he incorporated the typewriter in the score: it was just so perfect.
• Best Writing (Original Screenplay): Diablo Cody for Juno.
• Best Animated Feature Film: Ratatouille (can I say I'm pleased about this even though I haven't seen it?)
• Best Art Direction: The people who did Sweeney Todd. I wished Colleen Atwood had won for costume design as well but never mind ...

Tuesday 26/2/08

Because I stayed up 'til midnight watching the Oscars, I slept in and went into work at 9:30. More Briefing editing ensued, though I was climbing up the walls by the end of it (I reached the Bible Brief which means I'm making pretty good progress).

I left at around 6:10 pm and pretty much as soon as I got in the car, it started bucketing down with rain—and serious cats and dogs sort of rain, not mice or finches sort of rain. It turned parts of Newtown into swimming pools, and I wondered whether I had made the right choice to go the way I did. When I got home, I made a run for it but the hem of my skirt got soaked and my sandals got waterlogged in the creek running down the path at the side of our house.

Ben went out to Bible study but I stayed in watching Buffy Season 6 and resting (I watched the musical episode—“Once More With Feeling”!) I have decided not to join a Bible study group this year. I've been part of one every single year since 1996. And it's not that I have nothing more to learn from the Bible—far from it!—but I find myself getting more and more exhausted these days. I need a break. I need to move slower. So I think that taking a year off from Bible study is a good thing to do. I'll keep meeting up with Elsie to read the Bible and pray, I'll keep plodding on through the Robert Murray M'Cheyne Bible reading plan with Carson's For the Love of God (Volume 2) as my companion, and there will also be church and work, so for those of you who are afraid I'm going to turn into a heretic, please don't worry; I think I get more Bible in my diet than most of the Christian population. And of course the Christian life is not really about that anyway ...

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