Story: 13/10/08-19/10/08
Tuesday, 18 November, 2008
Monday 13/10/08
I was up at 6:45, I ate breakfast, read my Bible and prayed, had a shower, and then Ben dropped me off at work around 8:30. I still felt like I was on holidays. It was cuts and fills day for the November Briefing but I hadn't heard from Joy. I rang her, then chased commissions, dealt with email and Sola Panel and made a To Do list.
I caught the 400 bus at 12:15 with my mum's luggage to the top of High St, then walked to my mum's new office (complete with an original Sidney Nolan on the wall and an Aboriginal sculpture). It was stinking hot outside, so we sat in her office and ate a very yummy lunch of salad consisting of rocket, roasted capscium, mushrooms, chicken, bocconcini, cucumber, tomato, hard-boiled egg and something else, with a honey and lime dressing.
Then I walked back to MM in about 20 minutes. I did cuts and fills for the November Briefing and had it ready for proofreading by the end of the day. Unfortunately one of the printers was playing up, and the toner cartridge that was in it appeared to be leaking, so I had to print the proofreading copy in the warehouse.
Ben came back and we worked until 6:15. We picked up Guan and then drove to Em's place. Bec was already there. We made friends with Em's cat Trinity, glimpsed Em's other cat Neo, offered to help Em in the kitchen, and conducted conversations with her from the kitchen while she made our dinner. She showed us her book on cats so we could see what kind of cat Trinity was. Ben was freaked out by the cat owners. He and Guan played a game together (I forget what it's called), and then Ben put on a Sting CD to play that game of how many Sting songs you can listen to before folding (he got through the whole album; Guan was protesting long before then).
Dinner was extremely yummy—chicken and Asian greens, plus salad. We met Em's flatmate who ate with us, and we polished off all the salad. We had a short break, and then dessert: chocolate muffin with ice cream (also delicious). Then we said goodbye to Em, drove home and went to bed.
Tuesday 14/10/08
Day off! I was supposed to get up at 8 but couldn't get up 'til 10:30. I did laundry and fought foo: it took ages for me to get to blogging—probably because I spent a heap of time joining Flickr and working out how to use it. Ben made dinner (rogan joshchicken, then we watched The Simpsons and NCIS and went to bed late.
Wednesday 15/10/08
Ben's birthday. I was up at 6:15, I ate breakfast, read my Bible and prayed, and then was in at work by 7:30. I dealt with email and The Sola Panel. The Briefing came back from proofreading, but I needed to talk to Tony about some things and he wasn't in.
I decided to take the plunge and join Twitter—mostly because I wanted to read Ben's Twitter updates. Lots of people welcomed me and immediately started following me. Then I worked out how to sync Twitter with Facebook so that the former would update the latter automatically. So began my foray into the world of microblogging ...
I spent most of the day chasing commissions. I went to counselling at 2 (nearly forgot). I had a smooth run. When I got there, the normal spots were filled so I parked in an authorised spot. I sat in the car and scribbled stuff about motherhood and art and Rachel Powers until it was time for my appointment.
Counselling was a little frustrating; I felt like we were going in circles. Afterwards, I drove straight home, arriving around 4:45. Ben was in Newtown meeting Rosey. I did some stuff on the computer, then caught the train into the city, meeting Ben at Macdonaldtown. We went to the Night Noodle Markets in Hyde Park, which were on as part of The Sydney Morning Herald's Good Food Month.
There were lots of people there already—mums with prams meeting their husbands after work, gatherings of work colleagues, friends out for a good time. Fortunately it was not raining, though the sky threatened to come pouring down. We did a full circuit of all the stalls, looking to see what was available to eat.
I ended up getting my dinner from Yai (at Surry Hills). It was just noodle soup with BBQ pork (and it came in a surprisingly liquid-proof takeaway container! I don't know why but somehow it just felt wrong not to get noodles at a night noodle market):
And I also got black sticky rice for dessert:
Ben helped me set up the picnic rug on a spare patch of grass a little way away from all the tables and the screen reeling re-runs of the badly dubbed Monkey King series and the lion dance procession (with annoying clanging cymbals and banging drums). Then he went off to get his dinner. His took forever, so I started eating, and I was finished by the time he came back. He had ordered a Japanese pancake but for some reason they took a long time to make it!
We split the black sticky rice and then Ben went to get some Danish pancakes with cream (very un-noodlish!)
We were pretty tired, plus the cymbals and drums were getting irritating. So we packed up and caught the train home and went to bed early.
Thursday 16/10/08
I got up at 6:15 and was in at work by 7:30. I needed to get The Briefing ready for the printers. I caught up with Tony before he had to go to a meeting, and we talked covers. I did changes with Joy who said she would send the issue back when the ads were done. I worked on chasing commissions, Sola Panel and other foo-ish things. I discovered I had accidentally deleted the minutes to the last Briefing minutes (oops!) and attempted a reconstruction. I also had lunch with Bec and Guan (can't remember where). Then we had prayer meeting and a production development meeting.
Afterwards, I checked where The Briefing was up to and the ads still weren't done due to various setbacks. It was quite late in the day when they finally got off to Joy, and I stayed back to wait for the issue to come back so I could check changes and go over them with her. We went back and forth a couple of times before I could put my seal of approval on the issue and allow Joy to send it off to print.
I drove home fairly quickly as I was running late and I was worried we would miss the train. But we had a bit of leeway. Ben and I walked down to the station and caught the train to Circular Quay, and walked up to The Basement where we had reservations for dinner. It had changed since the last time we had been there: there was a new entrance and a whole new area you came through before you reached the tables. We had a nice, cosy table for two—something The Basement doesn't normally do but I had pleaded with the girl over the phone, saying it was my husband's birthday and could we not share with anyone else?
We ordered and ate a yummy dinner—salmon wrap for entree,
steak for main course,
Matt Walters came on and did the support act. (I thought he was very Pete Murray; Ben looked at me as if I was nuts.) Ben didn't think he was that good. I liked what I heard initially but then got bored when it was more of the same.
Dessert was chocolate mousse, strawberry and cream, and apple crumble and ice cream.
After dessert, the staff cleared away the table and we waited and waited for the main act to come on stage. We got thirsty and asked for water. Finally Lisa Mitchell (Australian Idol Season 4: same season as Bobby Flynn. In my humble opinion, those two were the best things about that season) came on stage with her band.
I really enjoyed listening to her play. She had this sort of daffy/vague stage presence which worked because of who she is. Her backing band was a lot of fun and very talented. They did a 45-minute set, plus one encore. I was really glad she did some of the songs from Said One to the Other—including “Slow” and “Alice in Wonderland”. I also enjoyed her new stuff.
At the end of it all, we paid our bill, then caught the train home, arriving around midnight.
Friday 17/10/08
I forgot Ben didn't need to come with me to work because he didn't need the car because he didn't have counselling because our counsellor was on holidays. I went in at the normal Friday time, though, and arrived around 9:30. I started compiling The Daily Reading Bible (Volume 18) and finished off Faithful Writer minutes. I didn't meet with Elsie because she had to move house that week.
I kept going with stuff in the afternoon and then got really sick of it. I left around 6 and went home, did some stuff on the computer, and then we caught a train (for the third day in a row) into the city. We got off at St James and went to the International Nippon Australia New Zealand Club where we met my dad and Helena. We ate Japanese but they had a limited range of stuff (no soft shell crab!) We talked property stuff, then parted ways around 9 or 9:30.
Ben and I caught the train home, then I did some computer things and went to bed later than I should have.
Saturday 18/10/08
I was up fairly early. I had a shower and then we went food shopping. It took a lot longer than I thought it would, and it was frustrating because it took so long and I couldn't find what I wanted in a clothes rack/airer. I couldn't even find one of those racks you put over the door to hang things on.
We finally came home and unloaded the car. Dave and Kellie cancelled our lunch date, which was probably a good thing as it gave us more time to clean up before guests arrived.
After lunch, we were back on our respective computers. While searching RealEstate.com.au, Ben found a flat in Naomi and Simon's building. The inspection was right then, so we hopped in the car and went over to have a look. It was a two bedroom unit on the top floor with lots of sun, and it overlooked a park. We both quite liked what we saw (Ben was keener than I though) and asked the estate agent for a contract.
Back at home, I got back on the computer and was doing various things until Dave and Kellie showed up with Ethan. He was just waking up from his afternoon nap, so we got to see him when he was docile and being rather content. We even both got to hold him.
Dave had a go at Wii Fit as he and Kellie were thinking of buying one. Then Francis and Erin SMS-ed to say they were here but were waiting for Calvin to wake up. Ben M arrived just as Dave, Kel and Ethan were leaving, and then it was time to set up properly for Ben's birthday party. We carried a bunch of nibblies and things outside onto the grass, and then I put eyeliner on Ben (as he had told everyone else to come with eyeliner for some reason. I said to him, “I thought you didn't like it when I wear it,” and he replied, “That's because you're crap at it.”) I went back upstairs and put eyeliner on myself and finished just as Guan, Mary and Bec arrived. They helped me chop up stuff and prepare the salads, while Francis helped Ben on the barbecue. Then we transported all the food down, commandeering the picnic table to put it all on. It was rather nice eating outside in the garden, even with the light fading (Mel brought a fake skeleton along—she had dressed as a witch—and Bec posed him on the bench for some rather spooky but funny photos.
After dinner, with the light well and truly gone and the outdoor lights being odd, I ordered everyone around and we carried everything back upstairs. I started doing the washing up, and Guan, Ben M and Bec helped me by drying and putthing things away. I was glad it was all done.
Then George arrived, feeling very down. I was glad she came because it meant I could give her her present. (And it was also gratifying to see how much she liked it!) We sat in the study—Bec too—and talked, and I showed them photos of when I was a kid.
Guan and Mary had to leave at this point, and Bec went with them. George and I continued hanging out and talking in the study, and every now and then, someone would pop their head in and say goodbye to me. Then eventually George decided to go, and I saw her out, carrying a box of books I had been meaning to give her.
When I came back, I found the others in the garden still. Some said goodbye and went home, but there were still a few upstairs—Luke, Nancy, Rosey and Fiona. We played some very loud music (having pre-warned the neighbours) but there wasn't much dancing as opinion was divided over what we should be dancing to. Ben connected his laptop to the television and we watched some YouTube videos (including the one of Robert Muraine, the popper who auditioned for this year's So You Think You Can Dance? USA [and he's now in an IKEA commercial]). We ended up staying up until 2:30 am, at which point I started doing some tidying in preparation for going to bed. The others said goodbye around then, and then Ben and I continued the clean up, and went to bed around 3 am.
Sunday 19/10/08
We slept in until 11 or so. Ben was already up, and he came in to tell me he was going to the beach with friends, and was taking the car. He wasn't going to be back in time to get me for band practice though. I tried to get a lift with Kester, but Kester was already over there and wasn't coming back this way. So I said I'd take public transport—a move I later regretted.
Ben left to go to the beach. I got up and started doing some computer things (like trying to fix the errors that Windows Service Pack 3 inflicted on my start-up [no joy there ...]). I should have slept some more but I didn't. I packed myself a pasta salad lunch, then caught the train to St James, eating my lunch on the train (leftovers from last night). I got a bus from there to Maroubra.
While I was on the bus, Ben rang to say that he had drowned the car immobiliser in the sea, and therefore couldn't drive the car. He said he would come get my keys and immobiliser off me at church. I said I was nearly at Maroubra and perhaps we could meet there instead. I said I'd call him when I reached there, which was only three minutes later. I went to the intersection of Anazac Parade and Maroubra Road and waited for him, knitting and sitting on a bench. Eventually he turned up, and I gave him my keys and immobiliser, then walked the rest of the way to church with my parasol to keep off the sun.
I was late, but Bec, Kester and Kurt had just finished their music meeting. We had band rehearsal, then church. Kurt preached on what he calls “the reals”: this week, it was “Real with God”. It was good stuff.
At the end of the service, I couldn't find Ben, but it turned out he was feeling really tired so had gone back to the car and was having a snooze in the front seat. Since we were both exhausted, we decided to go, and I got my stuff and we drove home. We had salad, rolls and leftover meat for dinner, then watched Law & Order and The Simpsons, and went to bed early (for once).
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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Any word on the contract?
We signed it a couple of weeks ago.