Rope tricks
Monday, 23 October, 2006
Last week was a strange week. Because I overdid it and got sick, I thought it prudent to stay home and rest instead of going to church. Emma filled in for me on the piano and I had a nice relaxing evening at home watching television and then going to bed early.
Monday was more of—guess what!—Teaching Little Ones—though later in the day I got sick of the whole thing and worked on web extras instead.
Tuesday I went to work for Greg in the morning, tried to get as much as possible done and then went home. I had vague notions about going to see Step Up (Greater Union were showing it for just $8!) but decided instead to have a restful afternoon. But Ben was feeling down so we watched some TV together and hung out for a bit.
Wednesday was more Teaching Little Ones goodness but halfway through the day, Lizz rang. She was having a bad day and she asked if I could come pick her up at 3. I left work early and went and got her. It was a really nice day and it was early enough so the traffic wasn't ridiculous all the way down to the Shire. We went and had coffee together in Gymea (“coffee” meaning she had a lemon, lime and bitters and I had a chai tea which was quite a nice chai tea). We also poked around in a secondhand shop where she got a top and a book all for $1. (That shop had some funny books in the cookbook section—cookbooks that I thought were awfully specific, like Peter Russell Clark's Egg Cookbook, 52 Things You Can Do with Potatoes and The Joy of Onions.) After dropping her home, I drove home and found a rather sad Ben. Despite his mood, he did not want to cancel our dinner date so we went to Andrew and Paulina's place and enjoyed quite a lovely evening with them.
Thursday was full of e-news (extremely frustrating: the service we use to send it out changed their codes recently and I spent the better part of the day reading their 82-page manual, trying to figure out how to make it work), staff lunch and then Bible study in the evening. I also went to pick up Lizz but we got our wires crossed: she thought I was going to drive her home and I thought she was going to stay over. Ben dropped her home afterwards.
Friday was think about The Briefing day. Monday was really supposed to be Tony's day to think about The Briefing but I wasn't going to be able to meet with him in the afternoon on Monday like I normally did so I persuaded him to start thinking about it early. My brain was pretty fried by 3 pm when Elsie turned up (I was doing more Teaching Little Ones) and Emma had given me a minor editing job to do just before Elsie came which I intended to do before I left but instead Elsie and I had a good chat and went to get an Easyway drink together before I dropped her home and then drove home myself. Ben was going to visit Luke so I was on my own. I had a lovely evening just knitting and watching television. (Yes, I know, I watch too much television. But Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of LIfe was on!) And then Ben came home and we watch a bit of Rage together because he likes doing that.
Saturday I had the best sleep-in in a very long while. In the early afternoon, I went to counselling. I have started seeing the same counsellor as Ben except I was a little freaked out about driving to strange places so he came with me—I drove and he directed. In the evening, we had agreed that, to celebrate his birthday, we would do dinner and a movie. But there wasn't anything he really wanted to see and it was getting nasty outside, so I cooked and we watched The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe which, unfortunately, he didn't like.
Sunday was taken up with much sleeping in as well (I think I really needed it!) and then my friends came around for Introducing God (Talk 7: How Then Shall We Live?) We had a lovely lunch and an interesting discussion afterwards, and then Ben and I had to go to band practice at church. Band was frustrating—firstly because I couldn't hear myself very well on the new keyboard, secondly because Ben could not hear me at all and therefore was not playing the drums in time with me, and thirdly, the singers were either deaf or on time delay because they were not in time with Ben or me and I felt like I was playing music underwater. The current setup at the front of the church means that I am stuck behind what Cameron likes to call the “gun tower” (the wooden turret with the little stairs that the preacher is supposed to climb up and preach from the top). It means I can't see the congregation either and that's a little frustrating. It's not that I want to put on a show or be seen as one of the church's musicians; it just makes me feel disconnected from the rest of the congregation, and I cannot tell if they are having trouble or if the words just haven't showed up on the screen yet or if they're the wrong words, or if something terrible has happened—I just play on oblivious because I can't see them. And then fourthly, we were doing “In the Beauty of Holiness” which is quite a nice song with wretched counterintuitive timing, and the singers just didn't get it. They wanted me to help them out—to sing the line where they are supposed to come in—but the state of the accompaniment meant it was very difficult for me to do that and play at the same time (look, I'm not a drummer!). I got very stressed instead and ended up snapping at people. And when we did it during the service they completely stuffed it anyway and I just covered up their mistakes.
Today I finished that little editing job for Emma and didn't get anywhere near Teaching Little Ones as Tony asked me to comb through the stuff in the locker and put together a couple of possible Briefing issues based around two or three key articles. That was kind of fun and he liked the results. Unfortunately then I had to skidaddle—scoff my lunch in 15 minutes, drive home and catch the bus to Ultimo to the ABC centre where I met Ben and finally revealed to him the surprise I had been trying to keep under wraps for the last couple of weeks: that he and I had tickets to sit in the studio audience of Andrew Denton's Enough Rope. Denton interviewed Billy Crystal via satellite (which was hysterical and it's a shame that the whole thing wasn't broadcast on television tonight—particularly the bits where Denton would move off-camera and Crystal would say plaintively, “Oh no! Where are you going? Please don't leave!”. He also interviewed Les Carlyon who has just written a new book about the western front of World War I. That was a harder interview to listen to because it was so sad and so horrific. (That one wasn't broadcast that night so who knows when it will be on.) Denton also did various other little teasers and bits and pieces (but no audience spot) and he let us ask him questions in the bits where they were waiting for stuff to happen. There was also a guy named Ewan Campbell who spent a lot of time entertaining us, giving us Fantales, getting us to loosen up (he told us that chat shows like Oprah would never take off in Australia because most Australians have the attitude of, “Don't pick me. Get lost. Leave me alone.” whereas Americans like to talk and talk and talk and talk), and telling us when to smile and applaud. Ben and I had fun, and I am so glad he really enjoyed it because I was afraid he might hate it (I'd been trying to think of nice things for us to do together that don't cost a lot of money, and being in the studio audience is free).
(I really enjoyed seeing Denton in action as an interviewer. He really is phenomenal, and he'll push a little, then draw back, and then push a little more, then a little more, until you find him boldly asking questions that you wouldn't dare ask of someone like Billy Crystal unless you were a close friend or something [and even then, probably not].)
Tomorrow is the morning with MM and the afternoon with Greg (who won't actually be there). Better post this and go to bed.
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.
|
|
Disqus comments
Other comments
did you buy the potato book? I have about 3 and i love them, partly because i love potatoes - they are such a fantastic vegetable.
I had a thought about the piano and drums set-up at church (ideally it would be great to just move everything) but how about one of those mirrors that bus drivers use. That way you can see what the drummer is doing, and the pianist can see what the drummer is doing. Unfortunately the singers will still have not a clue because they cannot see you or the words on the screen.