/karen/

Repose

Friday, 22 August, 2008

Monday 11/8/08

We slept in. A lot. We woke really really really late. Ben was feeling sick. I did some laundry, then we walked to Enmore in the sunshine, went to Man^oosh to get lunch. Ben goes there so often, the owner now knows him. We each had a Zaatar with ricotta, and then got baklava to round things off.

Then we walked home, got in the car, went to the video store and hired out six DVDs for $6 (because that's what you do when you're on holidays!) before going to do the fruit, veg and grocery shopping.

Back at home, I did a bit of vacuuming, then made grilled salmon with salad (mushrooms, capsicum, cherry tomatoes, avocado and baby spinach) for dinner. We watched taped Law & Order: Criminal Intent, Fahrenheit 9/11 and then the rest of Arrested Development Season 1. We went to bed at 1.

Tuesday 12/8/08

Once again, we slept in. We had intended to go to the zoo but as Ben was sick, I didn't think it was a good idea. So we slept in. Late. Again.

I woke up and felt like I'd been run over by a truck, despite having slept for 12 hours. I suspected I too was getting sick. I finished off the laundry, cleaned the shower recess, talked to Bec on IM, dealt with various email things and surfed the internet. I listened to parts of Wicked (Bec lent it to me) while blogging.

For dinner, I made coconut chili basil chicken, and we watched Capote. (I liked Infamous better.) We went to bed at 1.

Wednesday 13/8/08

This was our third day of sleeping in and neither of us seemed to be able to kick the cold/virus—whatever it was we had. I woke up, head a shower, listened to Wicked and did some blogging. Bec and Guan were on IM so I chatted to them for a while.

We had leftovers for dinner and watched The Royal Tenanbaums (I liked it; Ben didn't). Then we watched the first episode of The Life of Mammals as it had come free with some newspaper and Peter had given it to us. (This episode was on marsupials. I never realised how weird they are. Isn't it weird that we live in a country full of them!). We also watched The Late Show with David Letterman (Ben likes Letterman). Ben was excited because they were featuring the Hold Steady, Maggie Gyllenhaal and Neil Young (“Best episode ever!” he said).

We went to bed at 1 after doing the dishes.

Thursday 14/8/08

Once again, we slept in. (Is this holiday going to be a sleeping holiday???) I got up, had a shower, read my Bible over breakfast and prayed, then did some blogging. Ben wanted to go for a walk. I made him burn me photos from The Faithful Writer conference first.

We went for a walk around Annandale. I was feeling a bit down and was venting. Maybe I was just tired. (More sleeping needed?) I don't know. I think I'm one of those people who finds it hard to change gears and launch immediately into holiday mode. It takes me a while to unwind from work—to get out of the habit of thinking and stressing and engaging, and instead enjoy the slower pace. This is why it's completely useless for me to take just a week off; I need to have two, otherwise it doesn't do any good. And this was my first stretch of leave since January.

We found this creek with marshland around it and all these educational signs aimed at children about what lived in the marshland and how it operated as an ecosystem. It was rather pretty. Then we walked back via Johnston Street and had a very late lunch at Le Comptoir. I had a bagel with smoked salmon, avocado and a baby spinach, which was great because I love bagels (and they are one of the big things I miss about North America—the ubiquity of bagels) and I love smoked salmon but not with capers (yuck!) and this bagel had nary a caper in sight. I also had a vanilla milkshake. Does anyone else get milkshake moods? I do, so it was very satisfying to have one!

Then we walked home and I did some more blogging things. Then I drove to Newtown to meet Bec. I arrived at the CarriageWorks carpark at the same time as she did, and parked right beside her. We walked up to Urabn Bites together and had the $10 pasta special, rounded off with chai tea. We ranted to each other about stuff, which I think was good for both of us, then we walked back down to the CarriageWorks for the performance: Rafael Bonachela choreographs the Sydney Dance Company. I'd never seen the Sydney Dance Company before, but being a “fan” of the CarriageWorks on Facebook got me $20 tickets in really good seats.

We were early so I picked up the tickets and we sat in the foyer for a while, dreaming about a steampunk ball. There was a pre-show before the actual show—Bec sums it up much better than I—and though the dancing was absolutely amazing (particularly the lead female principal who was really expressive with her face—much more than most of the other dancers), I don't think I really grasped what was going on in front of me. The choreography was certainly very odd and interesting, and I think I felt it more than I understood it.

Afterwards, Bec and I parted ways, I came home and finished blogging.

Friday 15/8/08

Once again we slept in. At 11:30, I hopped in the car and drove to my mum and Peter's new place. I was a bit nervous about it—I don't like driving strange places and one can never quite trust the directions Google Maps give you. But I made it in one piece with no mishaps along the way.

My mum gave me the grand tour and then we went to a nearby café for lunch. We also walked around the neighbourhood a bit to see what was there. Then we came back to her place and I broke out the Wii to show her how it worked. We played a bit of Wii tennis, golf, boxing and Wii Play before we decided to stop.

I drove home and was on the computer doing things (I think) before it was time to leave. We went to Man^oosh and picked up two Zaatars and two pizzas to take to Marinka and Rosey's for dinner. They had never had Zaatars before and they enjoyed them very much. We started watching Stranger Than Fiction but stopped halfway through when Sam showed up, and then Shannon and Jennifer. Ben and I knew Sam and Shannon from Wollongong but hadn't seen either of them in years. We hung out together for a while before they had to go. Then we finished watching the movie (which I liked very much—particularly the GUI [graphic user interface]).

After the movie, we hung out and talked for a while, then Marinka said she was tired and was going to bed. Rosey didn't want us to go, so we stayed and hung out with her for a bit longer until she got tired and kicked us out. Meanwhile, I had been knitting a hat out of this yarn—

—but I completely miscalculated the gauge size and it turned out enormous—like a pink and white mushroom. Unfortunately that sort of yarn is really hard to unpick so I've decided to leave it (though I have no idea what I'm going to do with it).

Saturday 16/8/08

I woke not feeling very well, went to the lounge room and finished reading The Nanny Diaries. I kept at it until Ben got up. Then we decided to rearrange the lounge room so we could move the giant television out there. (I never thought we'd be the kind of people who own a giant television, but there you go ...) Rearranging things was rather satisfying and I think the lounge room works a lot better now. I even broke out and set up the Wii so I could play it more often.

I had a shower and then we drove to Cronulla. We parked near Leigh and Zoe's, then went up to their flat to meet them and flopped on their giant LoveSac. Then we walked down to the restaurant (Thai) and met the others inside—Ben's school friends, former bandmates and their wives. The food was really yummy. Ben and I made the mistake of ordering the young coconut: we thought it would be coconut juice plus some coconut in a tall glass, but no, it was really a young coconut with the top cut off and a straw sticking out of it! It wasn't as sweet as the coconut drinks we're used to but it was still rather nice, and it sustained us all the way through the meal as we carved off the insides of it and ate them.

Afterwards, some of our party left but others came back to Leigh and Zoe's for cheese and crackers, carrots and tea. We hung out for several hours, then ended up leaving at around midnight when everyone else had gone.

Sunday 17/8/08

Today, instead of going to bed at 1 and sleeping in 'til noon, we got up a bit earlier and went to Broadway shopping centre where there was a Harvey Norman. Ben wanted to investigate TiVo and see if it's worth getting. After some research, it seemed to us that it wasn't as good as it made itself out to be: the Australian version doesn't fast forward ads, the timer is often inaccurate (so the Season Pass isn't much use) and, because of Australian copyright laws, it doesn't contain a burner so you can't actually get stuff off it (and even if you can via USB, the media is all encrypted so you can't do much with it). Ben was more in favour of getting a hard disk recorder, which left the problem of what kind and how big a hard drive.

*Sigh*. I think I'm reaching the age where technology is wearing me out, and the thought of learning how to use a new thing is exhausting.

Anyway, we ended up getting one (even though there are several rather annoying things about it—for example, it can't get HD channels [???] and you can't actually watching anything else while it's recording), and I also found and bought Wii Fit. Wii Fit is the main reason I wanted to get a Wii in the first place: I hate exercise—I totally loathe it (probably something to do with being forced to do it at school; fun run was definitely not “fun”!)—but I know I have to do it. I don't have enough motivation to make myself go out and do it regularly; I might spend a day doing some serious walking but then do absolutely nothing in the week following. Joining a gym is scary, running is out of the question, and swimming? You've got to be kidding! See? I need all the help I can get. My mum said she'd buy me a Wii and Wii Fit for my birthday, but as she's been footing the bill for my counselling sessions, I decided to use the rebate I got from Medicare to purchase it.

So that was one rather expensive shopping trip. We came home, had a quick, healthy lunch (avocado and mushroom with melted cheese on corn thins), then caught the train into the city and went to the Swissôtel. Ben's family (all except Tim who couldn't make it) met us there, and we went to the Crossroads Bar for high tea. I'd wanted to take Ben there ever since reading about it on GrabYourFork. For $35 a head, you get tea or coffee (with refills—I don't think there's a limit) and you can partake of the high tea buffet as much as you want. The catch is it only runs from 2 to 4 pm on weekends, and you do have to book ahead.

We spent a lovely couple of hours there, then parted ways. Ben and I caught the train back home, and immediately I got ready to go to church. I brought some microwave popcorn for supper (turns out the fairy floss bucket we got at Cirque du Soleil is the perfect size for microwave popcorn!)

Mark preached an interesting sermon on pleasure. Afterwards, I met a lovely lady named Maia. Dinner was at a local Thai restaurant following supper. I felt like something a bit healthier (espcially since I'd had Thai the night before) and so got a chicken and prawn noodle salad:

It was a little spicier than I would have liked but it was delicious nonetheless.

I drove home and played around with Wii Play until Ben got home. Then we watched Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (which I thought was all right) and then Stranger than Fiction special features (which made me appreciate the movie even more. It also made me want to check out more of Marc Forster's work; I've only ever seen Finding Neverland). Then I read some of Fables Vol 1: Legends in Exile (birthday present from the lovely Kathleen) and went to bed.

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