Rewrite
Thursday, 14 August, 2008
Monday 28/7/08
I woke around 6:15 but couldn't make myself get up. I stumbled out of bed, got myself some breakfast and then was out the door by around 6:35/6:40. I was in at work by 7, and I ate breakfast, read my Bible and prayed. Then I powered through my To Do list: email, Sola Panel, doing the final check of the Faithful Writer booklet (sent through by Bec) and calling the UNSW Bookshop to check that everything was right for the conference bookstall (they said they'd check and give me a call back). I had also hoped to start editing Briefing #360 (September) but instead ended up doing the layout—something I'd never done before.
Later that morning, the UNSW Bookshop emailed me to say that there had been a communications mix-up and that they weren't coming on Saturday. I was not impressed and ranted to Bec on IM about it. Elsie showed up around lunch time to read the Bible and pray, and to listen to my further rantings. In the afternoon, I met with Tony who was glad I had done most of tomorrow's work for him with The Briefing layout. We came up with a plan for the bookstall, and I called the UNSW Bookshop again and left a message.
I tried to get into editing in the afternoon but my brain certainly wasn't with it. Bec and I left at 4:30, and because it was bucketing down, we decided to drive instead of catching the bus. I stupidly parked on Lang Road near Centennial Park, thinking it was the best thing to do because they had all-day parking there. But it meant that we had to walk a long distance to get to the College of Fine Arts and we were late for the start my mother's graduating exhibition (Ben was already there).
Considering she had to move house, change jobs and pull the exhibition together all in the same period of time, I thought opening night was a great achievement! Peter wasn't there (he was still moving furniture) but there were a whole lot of other people I knew, including old work colleagues and my Honours supervisor (who also happens to be Bec's master's supervisor). So it was good to catch up with them. And the exhibition was beautiful. I think Ayers Rock was my favourite; I liked how you could see the footprints and scratches in the dirt when you looked closer.
Around 6 pm, there were speeches, and at around 6:30, Hans and Cathy showed up and walked around to look at everything. Our former supervisor encouraged Bec and I to get ourselves published and apply for grants and put together anthologies which was very encouraging of her. Finally it was time to lock up and say goodbye.
Ben, Bec and I walked down Oxford Street towards Wagamama (Bec had never been there before). It was freezing cold and I felt bad because I'd stuffed up the parking and now the restaurant was so far away. Plus I hadn't told Ben about the Wagamama plan and he'd already had it for lunch that day. Oh well.
I had fried udon noodles with stuff plus green tea. We also had their scrumptious sweet potato chips, then ice cream for dessert (coconut and black sesame for me!) It was fun hanging out with Bec: we talked about the acts (music) that we would go see, open mike nights, writing retreats, and so on.
Afterwards, we said goodbye and headed our separate ways. Bec walked to Taylor Square to get a bus and we crossed the road to get another bus to take us to the end of Oxford Street. (We could have gotten a bus from the same place but we didn't know that!) When I boarded the bus, I remembered I'd left by umbrella at Wagamama. Silly me. Ben and I shared his umbrella as we walked back to the car, then drove back to Wagamama so I could retrieve mine. Then we went home, and I did computer things (emailing people, Faithful Writer things, etc.) before going to sleep.
Tuesday 29/7/08
At work, it was email, Sola Panel, Briefing editing (shorter pieces and then onto the lead article) and Faithful Writer stuff. I ended up getting frustrated and feeling really stressed. I think I worked a long day that day. Did Ben make dinner? I forget what happened.
Wednesday 30/7/08
I drove in to work around 8 to do some editing, then went to babysit my mum's exhibition for three hours. Tony was heading out so gave me a lift up to COFA so I could get there by 10. I sat and waited for someone to open the gallery but no one came, so I rang security and they opened it for me. (Turns out that was what I was supposed to do but nobody told me that.) I must have looked somewhat official because students kept coming up to me and asking me where Room E101 was. I wasn't sure but I figured it must be on the first floor, given UNSW's room naming conventions.
During the three hours I sat there, only a handful of people came in to look at the exhibition and my feet got cold. But I sat and knitted most of an Urchin hat while I was there.
Someone came to relieve me at 1. I was hungry and had thought about going for a walk around Paddington, but decided I should really get back to work because I was concerned about The Briefing. I caught the bus from Taylor Square and ran into Mark G and his family on it (how often do you run into people you know on the bus?!) They were going further than I was, and I hopped out at Kingsford and went back to work. After a quick lunch, I got stuck into Briefing editing again and finished everything except for one article. I left at 6 and we had leftovers for dinner.
Thursday 31/7/08
I was in to work early and I finished editing the last article. This cleared the way for me to work on Faithful Writer stuff, Sola Panel and I forget what else. I left at 4 and drove to Officeworks to pick up supplies for the conference: name stickers, pens, spare paper, etc. I forget what we had for dinner but I think we spent the evening watching Law & Order.
Edit: No we didn't. We caught the train to the city and went to Greater Union George Street and saw The X-Files: I want to believe because Simon and Naomi had a free movie voucher which expired that night.
Friday 1/8/08
Ben and I got in to work around 9:30/10:00 am. I worked on Faithful Writer things—making name tags (in colour!), printing signs, going through my run sheets and thinking through logistics. I had a quick lunch and then Ben dropped me at UNSW at around 2:30/3:00 pm. I checked in at New College, got a trolley and then walked up to the UNSW Bookshop who were supplying us with 50 copies of The Little Red Writing Book. They had also managed to source a proof copy of The Little Green Grammar Book for people to flick through (from my preliminary glance, it looked really useful!), and they gave me 120 canvas bags for conference attendees.
I brought everything back to New College and then went thorugh logistics with Trevor which mostly satisfied that things were under control. I spent the rest of the afternoon doing the signage and the photocopying. FOCUS were booked into MCR for the evening and were decorating it with balloons and streamers. New College were a bit concerned, what with the conference being the following day, but Joyce assured me everything would be put back to where it was when they were done. (And it was nice to see Joyce too!)
I finished earlier than I thought I would, so walked back to work and got myself an almond milk tea with mango fruit (not a good mix!) from Easyway. I fired up the computer and did a bit more work, then Ben came to pick me up.
We had been invited out but I was determined to do nothing all evening, so we ate leftovers and watched TV (many episodes of Arrested Development Season 1). Kathleen showed up at around 9 or 9:30 bearing birthday gifts (my birthday never stops!). We had tea together, then retired for the evening to be well-rested for an early start.
Saturday 2/8/08
We were up ridiculously early and got into New College at 7:45. The swipe card I had been given didn't work so Trevor had to let me in. I ordered Kathleen and Ben around, setting up the bookstall and the rego table, and putting up signs. Kathleen and I took the lift to the fourth floor to put up signs, and then found that the chairs hadn't been set up in the seminar room. I called Tony to find out how he wanted his, then Kathleen and I arrange the chairs in a circle, then go to do the same for the other seminar room.
This meant I was late getting back downstairs to greet Mark Tredinnick. Fortunately Ben had already done so, and all the books Mark had brought were all set up. Mark had some copying and printing for me to do, and I ended spending the next 10-15 minutes making PowerPoint slides because I thought that would be more efficient than making 116 copies of everything. I also checked outside, and Guan and Bec were handling the rego and there were no apparent glitches (though there was a big coffee stain on the rego table—I found out later why). Roberta also arrived to look after the bookstall and I gave her hurried instructions.
Finally we got started. Despite my slide to fill all chairs and not leave any gaps, there were still gaps between people and not enough chairs, so we had to pull some more from the dining room. Trevor did the opening proceedings: interview with Mark, his devotion and then some announcements. Meanwhile, people were still arriving, and the students who had been on the doors very graciously got them sorted out. I thanked them as I closed the doors to keep the background noise out.
Then Mark began his keynote address with me on PowerPoint. About three minutes in, I had this niggling feeling that nothing was being recorded, so asked Trevor to check. I was right; turns out no one had been told to look after the recording, just the sound. Trevor improvised, and I turned my attention back to Mark's address. I could see the limitations of having everything on PowerPoint instead of working off a whiteboard for Mark's style; he tended to move organically between topics and I couldn't work out where he was up to on the outline. Close to the end, he worked through his points sequentially, and then finished off the session with the writing exercise.
At this point, everyone moved off to morning tea in the next room. I sent Dave to get Mark a coffee because he was being swamped with people. I moved his laptop into the office and got Guan's laptop and set it up. I tried to get the USB scanner working but it was being temperamental. I even tried to download the driver but it didn't help. I finally worked it out as writing time began, then, while everyone else was writing, Ben and I worked out the technology for Greg's seminar (Greg had gone home for a couple of hours because he was feeling sick but he said he'd be back in time for his seminar). Then I did more photocopying for Mark's seminar.
12:30 rolled around and everyone submitted their pieces of writing (well, everyone who wanted to). The five of us—Trevor, Bec, Tony, Mark and I—grabbed a stack and proceeded to read through them which was a little difficult in a room full of talking people. We selected our top two—that is, the two that would be the most useful for the mini workshop—and gave them to Mark to read. We realised then that scanning them probably wouldn't work so well because of the nature of people's handwriting, so we decided to type them all in. Bec and I sped to the front of the queue for lunch, pushing past everyone else, and gobbled our food, barely even pausing to chat to the girls who came and sat with us. Roberta came up with the key to the cashbox and said she was going to lunch. (I made her go back and bring me the cashbox before releasing her from her duties.) Then Bec and I rushed back to MCR and, while she dictated, I typed six pieces for the mini workshop into Word on Guan's computer.
After lunch, we had the mini workshop on the big screen. It was really helpful to have Mark go through each piece slowly, talking about the bits he really liked, the things that could be improved, different principles to do with writing (e.g. avoid clichés). Towards the end, I asked Bec to take over running the computer, got the office key off Trevor and took Ben to retrieve the speakers and stuff for Greg's seminar.
When the mini workshop was over, I put up the slide for the seminars and set Mark up with my iPod and recorder. Everyone went off to their nominated seminar. Then it was time for Bec and I to take the floor. Duncan kindly babysat the cashbox for me. We passed out our handout and got started. It really helped we did a dry run at Word by Word the month before; if we hadn't, I'm sure we would have run into problems, especially as we were already running late. We started with a brainstorm about what an editor does, then I interviewed Bec about her work on Salt, then we got two volunteers up (George was one of them) to read the radio play script Bec had written (it illustrated all the things that writers and editors shouldn't do when working with each other), and then we gave people a chance to work on the examples before going through them. I said something at the end about pushing editing to the limits—turning sermons/talks/notes into articles, etc.—and Bec wrapped it all up. I hope people got lots out of it. Certainly the ones who spoke to me told me how much they enjoyed it.
During afternoon tea, I minded the bookstall and was pleased to see that almost all the copies of The Little Red Writing Book had been sold. I also met Jean for the first time (I think I appeared really out of it). I was glad that all the bits I had to be on the ball for were over, and I could relax a bit. The clock was ticking and we got to 4:45 and still hadn't started the next session. I sent Bec next door to find Trevor. Five minutes later, we were underway. Trevor made brief introductions and tripped on Guan's laptop cable. The laptop went flying but didn't suffer crucial damage; it was just dented on one side and my USB drive was bent. Greg read first—some wonderful funny and whimsical articles and children's poems. Bec read her pineapple tart story which I enjoyed hearing all over again. Mark finished up with some poems. I was finding it hard to concentrate but I loved the one he read about the moon.
Then Trevor did the wrap-up and thank yous at the end, and gave Mark the present we'd picked out for him (a Moleskine notebook, a tin of Bookdarts and The Future of Jesus by Peter Jensen). And then it was all over.
Many people came up and told me how much they enjoyed the conference, and thanked me for my efforts. I ordered my friends around to pack up the bookstall and the rego table, to help Mark carry his stuff back out to the car and farewell him, to clean up and pull down signs, and so on. Lastly, I removed my stuff from the office and we were off.
Kind friends helped carry things to our car. It was freezing cold! We put stuff in the boot, then went off to dinner. In my email earlier that week, I had asked that someone else make a decision, but I'm of the opinion that people are incapable of making decisions in groups. George too charge and we went off to Ratu Sari which had been my original suggestion. The restaurant threw together some tables for us: me, Ben, Kathleen, George, Duncan, Honoria, Sandra (who was up from Melbourne) and Jess G (who had joined us just for the dinner at my invitation). At this stage, I was really out of it and burbling nonsense, so the others took care of the ordering (I think George drove it mostly). The food was absolutely delicious (but I couldn't be bothered photographing it).
Afterwards, we said farewell. Kathleen, Honoria and Sandra came back with us to the car, and we dropped Honoria and Sandra at Newtown, then continued on to Leichhardt to pick up Fish. I made him sit in the front seat and navigate (I'm so bossy!), then reclined in the backseat talking more nonsense all the way out to Mount Druitt. We got there with plenty of time to spare, and found a park on the roof. Why Mount Druitt? Well, Mount Druitt has TheHalfPipe—the LoveSac cinema—and I thought it would be fun to see The Dark Knight there (and being bossy, everyone else sort of fell in line with my suggestion). And after a very long day, it was certainly very nice to just lie on the LoveSac, eat popcorn and watch Christian Bale, Heath Ledger, Maggie Gyllenhal, Aaron Eckhart and Michael Caine do their thing.
Afterwards, we drove back, dropped off Fish and got home around 1 and went to bed.
Sunday 3/8/08
I think I slept in until 10. Kathleen was up early, reading her way through my library. (She told me she wanted to borrow everything!) We had a very late breakfast, and then I took her to Leichhardt to visit BerkelouW where we drooled over books. The café wasn't open and we were running out of time, so we went to pick up supplies for a quiche from Coles. I forgot to get our parking validated—a fact I found out, unfortunately, as I reached the exit gates—so I had to pull into the temporary parking space, race upstairs to Coles and get the silly thing stamped.
At home, we made a quiche for late lunch (I can't remember the last time I made a quiche but I felt like a quiche today for some reason), then drank chai mixed with honey while we waited for the oven. The quiche was ready around 3:30 and it was delicious. Then Kathleen packed up her stuff and we headed off to church.
Greg was preaching once again (poor guy; two talks in two days!) I was finding it hard to concentrate. Afterwards, we went up and chatted with him. We were going to drive Kathleen to the airport then but it turned out Lesley was going that way to pick up a friend, so she gave Kathleen a lift. So we said goodbye to her, then went to have supper in the hall (Indian! So yummy!) I was still feeling a bit angry and upset from the day before, but it didn't twig why until we sat down to eat and I was talking to George. I was also really tired, so after we finished eating, Ben and I went home and I think I went to bed early after reading a bit of Demo.
Blinks:
A way of funding writing in the future: pitch and idea and get people to support it.
Place where you can hire play equipment for parties, etc.
How to recalibrate the home button on your iPhone.
Unsolicited manuscripts accepted by Pan Macmillan with certain conditions.
Thought Balloon is a group blog in which the writers tackle a new theme every week? month? with one-page scripts. This URL is for their Phonogram ones.
How to sew a zipper on a knitted garment.
Issues organised by tale.
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