Story: 18/8/08-24/8/08
Sunday, 14 September, 2008
We slept for a long time. I finished reading Fables Vol 1: Legends in Exile. Then we got up and realised that the thing we were going to was going to start at 3 pm, not 4 as I had original thought. We ate a quick brunch, then got in the car. We were delayed by a hearse coming out of Scots College: I'm not sure why they needed policemen there to stop traffic so the hearse could come out, but there you go. We returned the DVDs to the video store, then drove over the bridge to St Thomas's North Sydney. Unfortunately I did not even think about what to do about parking, and there was none in the church parking lot. I dropped Ben off, intending to go park at my mum's, but the visitors' parking space was occupied. I tried to ring Peter to see if I could bring up my car keys, but couldn't get hold of him, and figured that he probably was asleep, having his afternoon siesta. So in the end I drove around and found parking in the multi-storey close to St Thomas's.
This meant I was late and only caught the tail-end of Greg's talk—the first of an afternoon event which was put on by the Centre for Public Christianity. I couldn't see Ben so I sat with some strangers. When the talk was over, I spotted Ben and went to sit with him.
Having not watched many debates on the subject of Atheism vs. Christianity, I didn't know that much about the subject but I found Dr John Lennox interesting. In the latter part of the afternoon, however, I found it harder and harder to pay attention. We got catch up with Clive at afternoon tea which was nice; he was like me and hadn't really thought much about the topic either, whereas Ben had been watching a number of debates online involving people like Dawkins, Hitchens and Sam Harris.
After afternoon tea, John Dickson did a talk highlighting some of Dawkins's factual and research errors. I thought that stuff was good to know but felt his point was a little too pointed, and wondered if he could have been a bit more gracious and a little less angry as per Greg's opening address. During the question time at the end, I was really starting to lose it and didn't even try to follow what was going on. Ben and I both had splitting headaches by the end of it, so although we said hi to some people we knew, we made a quick getaway, drove home and I made grilled dory for dinner. We watched The Simpsons (oh my! We can now pause live TV!), and Ben tried to get the HD channels to work on the hard disk recorder but he couldn't. (*Sigh*. Isn't technology supposed to make things easier???). I also watched taped So You Think You Can Dance? (US) but missed the elimination so I don't know who's left. Then we went back to bed.
Tuesday 19/8/08
I had this annoying dream where I was at a Moore College houseparty with other people from our year, and I was helping clean up or something, and one of the babies fell into the soapy dish water. I fished it out and started frantically trying to give it CPR, thinking how do you hold a nose that small and breathe into such a small mouth, while everyone else stood around being useless. Then the dream changed, and I found myself on a spaceship with two others, and we had barricaded ourselves into one part of the ship, and enemy was getting closer. I was sorting food and water bottles so that we could put them into our only knapsack which we could take turns carrying because we were going jump out of the ship and land on the nearest planet in the middle of the jungle. And the enemy came closer and closer ...
We woke at 11:15—later than intended. We had planned to go to John Lennox's talk at Sydney University, but Ben decided not to because he had a stack of work to get done. I got up and turned on the computer, played on Facebook for an hour, then did laundry. I had a shower, ate leftovers for lunch, then walked to the post office to post a parcel, withdraw some money and visit the deli to find black and chili fettucine for Fish (it was shut because they don't open on Tuesday—grr.) I also went to the IGA to buy milk, mushrooms, tomato, bacon and chocolate, then went home and spent the afternoon reading blogs and putting new Ben mp3s on my phone to use as ringtones.
We left at 4:38 to catch the train to the city, and we strolled to the new Apple Store so Ben could buy a spare laptop battery for his work, and also to have a look around. (Did you know that they run free workshops on how to use GarageBand?) It was slightly odd to be surrounded by so much Mac geekdom. I played with Photobooth on a shiny iMac with a giant screen, and wished I had one of them to use at work.
We had 20 minutes to kill so we wandered into the Virgin Megastore near Martin Place, and walked out with a small stack of DVDs. Then we sat in the downstairs food court of GPO Sydney No. 1 Martin Place. I got us some drinks from the bar. Ramya called to say she would be late and to go ahead and order. She arrived as I was queueing. We had some very yummy pizza from GPO Wood Fired Pizza (highly recommended), then headed over to City Recital Hall for the IQ2 OZ debate on “We'd be better off without religion” (Watch is on the Sydney Morning Herald website). We managed to get some very nice seats right behind the sound desk which gave us lots of leg room, plus good sound as well. And it meant that during the question/comment time we could watch the video monitors and see the audience members at the microphone.
I found the arguments on both sides a bit disappointing. I suppose that's the problem with these things: they lump all religions in together and don't take the time to define what they mean by the term. The “Against” side was also not united in their argument because it consisted of one agnostic, one Jewish historian who said that she didn't care what people believed as long they believed, and Dr John Lennox. When they opened it up to questions/comments from the floor (and from the web for those who were watching the webcast), the variety of opinion was very interesting. They ranged from the nutter in the poncho who shouted the gospel message from the third tier to Dr John Dickson, Greg's co-director at the Centre for Public Christianity. (I thought John Dickson's comment was a good one: think of all the religious people you know, and whether religion has had a positive or a negative influence on their lives.)
At the very end, the debate's MC presented the results of the “before” poll (we were asked which side we were on before entering the auditorium) and the “after” poll (we were given long cardboard strips with “For” and “Against” written on them, and before the question time, we were asked to vote by placing them in the buckets that came around. Undecideds had to put the entire strip in). The “For” side came out in the lead with just a 1% swing from the undecideds.
We said goodbye to Ramya who went to catch a cab because she wasn't feeling well, and then Ben and I walked towards Town Hall station. But then we had a fight on the way, and I stormed off a in a huff in the opposite direction, and then caught the train from Wynyard. I sat on the train playing Tetris on my phone, then got an SMS from Ben saying he was sorry, and we made up. When the train reached Stanmore, we found that we had been in the same carriage, only he had been upstairs and I had been downstairs.
We walked home. I finished the laundry and then got Wii Fit out to give it a try. Wii Fit gave me a Wii Fit age of 58 and told me I was “unbalanced”, based on my performance on the balance games. Then I worked out I had the board the wrong 'way round. Unfortunately I wasn't much more balanced with the board the right way 'round, and Ben laughed at me. And I also disturbed our downstairs neighbours by playing the step exercises (oops!) I apologised to David when he came and knocked on our door, then switched to less house-shaking exercises. I logged 45 minutes with Wii Fit, then called it a night, and went to read and write a bit in bed.
Wednesday 20/8/08
We were up earlier than normal, and we caught the 9:38 train to Circular Quay, and got the ferry out to Taronga Zoo. It was a beautiful day—sunny but not too sunny, with a smattering of cloud. The cable cars were out, so we caught buses up to the top entrance, then breezed through the line with the Zoo Pass. There were primary school children everywhere; I guess that must happen almost every day of the year at the zoo. We headed off towards the reptile house first, stopping to admire the birds on the way. I loved the black cockatoos. I have photos of everything but I can't be bothered putting them up here; maybe later.
I think in the past I've been too flippant about looking at animals, but Ben taught me that it was rewarding to just pause and watch them for a bit. So we were rather slow going through everything. Unfortunately one of the school groups caught up with us and they were the loudest school group ever, with all the kids screaming at the top of their lungs, “I can't see it!” “Where is it?” “It's over there!” “I can see it—it's right there!” etc. etc. Eventually we slowed right down to let them pass us because they were so annoying, their teachers' shushing completely ineffective.
We wandered down the western side of the zoo, taking our time and sometimes, as we backtracked, going back to visit exhibits we had already been to (this was particularly rewarding with the tiger because when we had first seen him, he was somewhere up the back of his enclosure, but second time around, he came and preened in front of his fans right before the glass. Also we arrived at the snow leopard around the time he was being fed, so we got to see him tear his food to pieces.). My biggest disappointment was the red panda: he was right up in the top of his tree and could not be glimpsed. My favourite was the guenon (De Brazza's Monkey): we arrived at his enclosure around feeding time when there was no one else around. The keeper threw in a round plastic container with honey at the bottom, and he sat on a branch right in front of the glass trying to get it. His tongue wasn't long enough, so he used his claws to break through the bottom of it, then licked the honey out.
We stopped and had lunch near the elephants (exorbitantly priced fast food) and laughed at the ibis who was annoying this Asian mother and her child (she would keep shooing it away and it would keep coming back). Then we circled back and made our way around the eastern side of the zoo—dingos, wombats, kangaroos, possums and the like. It was getting later and later, and we were pretty tired by the time we reached the environmentally friendly house full of spiders and stick insects, turkeys wandering around in the backyard. The whole southern seas area wasn't much fun as the seals were off doing something (so was the gorilla, actually: he was called away for “animal husbandry” reasons), but we did glimpse the fairy penguins from afar.
Then it was back to the ferry and the train. We stopped off at the deli again on the way home to get that fettucine for Fish, but they only had the coriander one. Then at 7:30 or so we headed over to Fish who made us a scrumptious dinner with parmesan toast and pasta, with Magnums for dessert. We finally met Kath, and the four of us played Wii together (Sonic and the Secret Rings, Sonic vs. Mario at the Olympic Games and the crazy bunny game).
At around 11 pm we bailed and went home.
Thursday 21/8/08
Housekeeping day. I took in the laundry, did the accounts, filled in various forms that needed to be filled in, cleaned my desk and mailed a whole heap of things. Guan and Bec were online so I talked to them via IM for a while. I spent half an hour with Wii Fit, had a shower, cooked dinner (stir-fry mince), watched TV, finished the accounts and blogged.
Friday 22/8/08
Nothing sort of day. We had leftovers for lunch and then I went and wrestled with Expression Engine to make it do what I wanted to do. At 6:30 or so I went and caught the bus to UTS, and went and found George who was working, hosting a thank you evening of drinks and pizza at the student bar for all her student volunteers (Ben went to visit Luke). There was a 70s theme but most people hadn't bothered. I kept her company and we tried to converse through the loud music. Then the pizza arrived, and we snagged ourselves some slices before bailing, visiting her office and the bathrooms so she could change, and heading off to the Seymour Centre to see Tell Me On a Sunday starring Jolene Anderson (from All Saints and It Takes Two). When Kookaburra had first announced their 2008/2009 season, I noticed you could get this “Ya Laughin'” subscription for $30 per show—cheap and nasty seats in the front row or off to the side. I couldn't be bothered trying to get someone to come with me to all three, so I just booked two subscriptions and asked various people if they wanted to come on the dates that suited me.
Anyway, our seats, despite being cheap and nasty, were actually fairly good. We were right at the end of the row on the right hand side facing the stage, not far from the front, and we could see everything really well. George said they were better seats than what she had for The Phantom of the Opera! And she was excited that it was Jolene Anderson.
I thought Jolene did a superb job, carrying the entire show on her shoulders. I'm not a fan of Andrew Lloyd Webber, but when I have gone to see his shows, I have enjoyed them for what they are. And I liked her interpretation of “Unexpected Song”—I found it surprisingly moving.
Afterwards George and I headed to the Ice & Slice for dessert. I had gelato (I was contemplating the Turkish delight but it didn't go with hazelnut, and for some reason I always feel like nutty sort of ice creams). We ran into Katie there who was out with some of the girls from school (girls I barely remembered).
Around 10:30/11 pm, George hit the wall and had to bail. She caught a cab and I walked down to the station, intending to catch the train home, only to find that stupid Cityrail had decided to start trackwork several hours early, which meant that a whole bunch of people were stranded in the rain, waiting for rail buses that never came. In the end, I caught a bus headed for Marrickville, intending to get off near the Enmore post office. Unfortunately I missed my stop and got out one stop too late, so had to walk back through the rain. But I finally got home, had a shower and went to bed.
Saturday 23/8/08
We woke late. I made Ben bacon and eggs and fried tomato. I'm really not very good at bacon and eggs and fried tomato but I did my best. I spent the day wrestling further with Expression Engine, trying to get the Hippocampus Extensions migration happening. Then we caught the bus into town and met Liwen at Sakura for dinner. We ate sashimi, soft shell crab rolls, California rolls and other goodness. Then we crossed the road and headed north a block or two to go to the Wesley Centre to hear John Lennox debate Michael Shermer, Executive Director of the Skeptics Society and founding publisher of Skeptic magazine. This was conducted less like a formal debate and more like an exchange of ideas. I liked that you were able to get more of a sense of what each one believed because they had more time to speak. The guy who was MC-ing (I think he hosts Catalyst on the ABC) was also very helpful—completely at ease with the crowd, engaging, plus he was wearing this really cool red velvet jacket. Once again, there were questions and comments from the floor, which both sides tried to answer. And John Lennox did a really clear presentation of the gospel at one point.
Afterwards the three of us walked down to Central, talking about the debate as we went. We went to Capitol Square and got some really really yummy deserts from Passionflower (*drool drool*): I got a Superstar which consisted of red bean and black sesame ice cream, with black sesame glutinous balls. Afterwards, we took Liwen upstairs to show her the crazy Asian game machines filled with stuffed toys and gumball machines. And then we walked to Central and parted ways, Ben and I catching the bus back home because of trackwork.
Back at home, there was more Expression Engine wrestling before bed.
Sunday 24/8/08
We woke at 11. I had a shower, then wrapped presents, and then we set off to visit Ben's family to celebrate Tim's birthday lunch and Father's Day. We had a yummy lunch, followed up by Black Forest Cake, then went to Miranda Fair so Ben could sign up for mobile broadband with 3. I was also looking for the collector's edition of Sweeney Todd but couldn't find it. I did, however, find Once, Stranger than Fiction and Paris Je T'aime.
We drove straight to Wild Street from there, and heard Kurt preach on 1 John 1-2:2. Bec was also there, and broke the news about her decision regarding her job. We stayed after church for dinner in the hall, and I spent it getting to know Jess and Becky. Then we went home, where I continued to work on the web migration.
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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