/karen/

Sydney-sider

Sunday, 19 December, 2004

We no longer live in Wollongong.

The movers came at 6:30 on Thursday morning. We were just about packed—only odds and ends and dismantling to go, all of which was accomplished fairly swiftly. The removalist company stuffed up our booking and sent only two guys instead of three and didn't tell them about the piano. Luckily these guys were pretty efficient and strong for their size, they dealt well with the complications of our situation and they cleared the house in about two hours. We hit the road in reasonable time and they tailed us all the way to Kareela where we filled Ben's parents' garage with most of my precious books and all our kitchen's contents, then moved on to Blakehurst (the suburb where I grew up) to finish off the rest. They were done there at about 12:30 and, because, the company had stuffed up the booking, they didn't charge us the extra $80 for the piano.

So now our dining table is at Stu's, our couches are at Jono's, the microwave has been donated to the Chaplaincy and the fridge is in Newtown with Steve's brother. On the up side, having less stuff at our new place means there's much less to unpack.

After the movers left, I made sure the bed was made so we could collapse onto it and we rested for an hour or so before hopping in the car again to lunch at McDonald's (healthy plus!) and go to Wollongong for my work Christmas party. This was in the Pro-Vice Chancellor's front garden and most of the staff from RAID was there. I enjoyed it more than I thought I would—we spent most of the time chatting to my work colleagues from the Research Services Office who told us amusing stories about what happened to them during the 1998 floods. There were also a handful of kids running around too which made things feel a lot more relaxed.

We had to leave at about 7 to go to the IBM carols service (at which Ben was playing and I was leading singing). There was quite a number of people there—including a good number of people who aren't Christians but who got to hear the gospel during that night. Tho shared his testimony (which was awesome!); we sang Silent Night in English, French, Japanese and Indonesian; and the Hong Kong students sang a song in Cantonese. Richard gave the same talk that he gave at the carols service on mission, just adapted slightly for the international students. The whole thing finished by about 9 pm.

By this stage, Ben and I were pretty exhausted. Amanda offerred us her place to stay for the night and we accepted and spent the night on her floor. We slept for around 11 hours. In the morning, she gave us breakfast and then we set off to clean our old house. This took five and a half hours and I'm sure the place has never looked so clean! We scrubbed down the problem spots on the walls, washed the bathroom and toilets, steam-cleaned and vacuumed the floors, Windex-ed the windows, mowed the back garden (which had grown back awfully quick!), swept out the garage and took our unwanted falling-apart furniture to the tip. Amanda came by during the last part of it and helped us out by going out to borrow Richard's lawn mower and taking it back for us when it was done. Finally, at about 3 pm we were all done and we returned the keys to the real estate agent and had Chef's Choice for lunch (Ben was so desperate for food, he broke his rule about never eating there again).

Then it was up Mt. Ousley again back to Sydney to prepare for Elwin's 25th which just happened have a dress code of black tie (do you know how hard to is to find black tie stuff when all your clothes are in boxes???) We took the M5 out to Ingleburn where Elwin had hired out a function room at the local RSL. There were stacks of people we didn't know (probably from Elwin's church) but sitting on our table was Braddon Upex who wrote “An Essay on Hymnody” and who I hadn't seen since we did that reading together at New College. It was nice catching up with him and hearing about his experience of Moore College. Ben's other school friends—Booth, Marto, Fell and Wylie— were also there so there was much reminiscing taking place. Ben was down to make a speech (which he hadn't prepared) but the great thing about being a spontanteous person (as opposed to a structured/organised person like me) is that you can make up speeches on the spot. So Ben spent his main course writing down notes with the help of the other guys and then got up to deliver this really great hysterically funny speech pre-dessert. Unfortunately he also alienated most of the room by expressing his desire to reform Elwin of his liking of Joyce Meyer.

There was dancing with flashing coloured lights and a DJ who didn't listen to anyone but the girls when it came to song requests (but he didn't play ANY Jamiroqui when I asked him, even though he promised to). Ben and Fell could not be persuaded to dance and I only went reluctantly because Crystal was going. The music was your standard rubbish—R&B, techno, dance—but Marto and Wylie's antics on the dance floor kept me amused for the rest of the evening. We decided to call it at night at half past 11. Ben asked me to drive because he'd eaten too much cake and he was worried about the zero alcohol policy for P-platers (I didn't think you'd get much alcohol from cake!!). We followed the Fells out of Ingleburn but they went in circles for the first part and Ben rang their mobile and complained that he had sleeping to do and to please get on with it. We reached home at 12:30 and thus passed our first night in our new place.

So what's it like here? We're in my aunt's place but my aunt doesn't live here—she lives in Hong Kong. She's letting us stay here rent-free. My cousin comes back every so often to take a shower and change his clothes but he doesn't really live here either. There are two large bedrooms, one small bedroom, a formal lounge room and a back area that adjoins the kitchen. My aunt used to do pottery at TAFE so there are ceramic things everywhere. The grass hasn't been mowed in an awfully long time and there are heaps of dead leaves that need to be raked. We cleaned the shower recess this morning (and believe me, it needed it!) but there's still lots to do to get this place looking more or less respectable. I asked my brother if he'd like to help (we saw him today when we went to yum cha with my dad and stepmother) and he said an emphatic “No.” But if you would like to help, we'd greatly appreciate it!

All right, time to stop blogging mindlessly and drive down to Wollongong again for my last-ever Sunday school lesson and our last-ever church service at St. Michael's.

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