Tales from outer mundania
Sunday, 22 June, 2008
Tuesday 10/6/08
I woke at my usual time and went to get ready to leave for work, but Ben was trying to get my attention. I'd forgotten he was coming with me. But he hadn't come back from !!! at the Enmore 'til 1 am and was no condition to get up. So I got back into bed and went to sleep for another hour. Then I got up. He asked for another hour so I went to work on Sola Panel things at home. We finally left at 10:30 and got into work at around 11. Then Ben went off to a work meeting and I worked all day on Briefing things: chasing commissions and article assessment, getting The Briefing ready for proofreading, etc. Ben came back in the late afternoong and we ended up leaving work around 6. We came home and made the stir fried mince thing for dinner. Ben didn't go to Bible study and we spent the evening relaxing and watching NCIS, going to bed around 1.
Wednesday 11/6/08
Day off. I slept for 10 hours, then got up, showered, and had breakfast/Bible/prayer time. Ben went to lunch with Pete. I spent the morning fiddling with my phone, working out how to convert MP3s to AAC so I could put sound files of Ben on my phone and make one of my ring tone and one my alert noise. I ate lunch and then watched De-Lovely which I had borrowed off Liwen. I enjoyed it far more than I thought I would: I'd forgotten just how much I love Cole Porter's music. When I was a kid, Anything Goes was playing at the State Theatre with Geraldine Turner as Reno. I went to see it. Twice. And then listened to the record of the cast recording over and over again at home. I loved that the movie encapsulated so many of Porter's wonderful songs. The artists they brought in to sing them didn't do a bad job either: I love Diana Krall's “Just One of Those Things”, Vivian Green's “Love For Sale”, Sheryl Crow's “Begin the Beguine” (in a minor key), and then there were those glorious renditions of “Night and Day” (with John Barrowman who was Captain Jack Harkness in Torchwood) and “So in Love” which I think were my two favourites from the movie.
Ben came home and we went to visit Naomi in hospital. We ran into Dave D out the front of RPA who told us that Huong had just given birth that morning. He was surprised we already knew; someone had sent an email out to the year list. He invited us to visit her so we did. I don't think I've ever seen a woman who has just given birth before. Their little Bethany looked pink and cute and not like she was just a day old.
Then went down to visit Naomi. Marinka was there, and Emma F showed up in the course of us hanging out with her. Marinka and Emma left to go work on Black Tie things. We hung out with Naomi until visiting hours were over. We left her hoping that the baby would come that night.
At home, we ate leftovers for dinner and watched Spicks 'n Specks and The Gruen Transfer. I spent the rest of the evening doing things on my computer: I had recorded Ben making funny noises like “Ha ha!” and “Eep!” and I was trying to work out how to convert them .wav files so I could put them on my work computer. We watched the end of The Movie Show as I knitted. Then we went to bed. But I couldn't sleep.
Thursday 12/6/08
I had funny dreams: I dreamed I was in a writing class taught by Neil Gaiman. He wrote my initials across one page of his Moleskine with his fountain pen and proceeded to adorn them with watercolours. I wished that Guan and Bec could have been there for the class but they couldn't. He asked me which group I wanted to be put in—song writers? Actors? Directors? I said, “Is there a category for writers?” There wasn't, but he was genial about the whole thing, and put me in one anyway.
I also dreamed that the July/August Briefing wasn't quite ready—that Ian hadn't time to proofread it—and that I had sighed and told Joy I would talk to her about it later. She wasn't too fussed; she was busy making a new table centrepiece which consisted of paperbark encased in glass. I told her it looked really good.
Obviously my dreams all got mixed up with anticipating seeing Shaun Tan at Kinokuniya that evening. I got up at 6:45 am and was in at work by 7:30. Simon was already there, and he put some new RAM into my computer to try and make it run faster. The old coffee machine was back as the new one had gone bust on Tuesday (I blame the cockroaches). I went out and bought milk while Simon fixed my computer.
It was very slow getting into the rhythm of things. I worked on Briefing article assessments, then the minutes from our last meeting which took place over a month ago. Ian gave me back the July/August issue and I tried to get it ready for the printer. Tony and Emma called a Product Development Meeting at the very last minute so that took up much of the afternoon. (Yes, I know it's in the calendar, but sometimes the things that are in the calendar don't happen, which makes you think you can't rely on the calendar and which therefore makes you think you shouldn't pay any attention to the calendar because the calendar is usually wrong.) I wanted to leave at 4 but couldn't. I rang up Kinokuniya who told me that there were lots of people coming to see Shaun Tan. I panicked. I left work at 4:30 and drove straight to Macdonaldtown where I parked and caught the train in to Town Hall. I wasn't thinking straight and bought a single ticket instead of a return. Oh well.
I was one and a half hours early at Kinokuniya. I bought myself my own copy of Tales from Outer Suburbia to get signed, and then, because I didn't have anything better to do, I stood and read it near the cordoned-off area. A queue started forming behind me, and eventually a Kinokuniya employee came to tick off my name and told me to go sit down. I got a very nice seat—front row of the benches at far right-hand side where the easel was where Shaun would draw a picture to be auctioned off for charity.
While I was waiting, I wrote in my journal, working on about three or four different writing projects which are due scarily soon. That's one of the advantages of going places alone; you can just sit and write. (Not that I deliberately decided to go alone; it just happened that way. Guan was busy, Bec was off at staff conference and Fish decided not to. I don't mind going to things alone.) The place started filling up, with people taking the seats behind me, beside me and even on the floor around me. (I resisted the urge to kick the ones who were on the floor in front of me.) But there wasn't as many people as there had been for Neil Gaiman.
Then things got underway. Shaun Tan was smaller than I expected. He talked for a bit and read some pieces from Tales from Outer Suburbia—“Alert but not alarmed” (which was written around the time the government were distributing fridge magnets with that slogan on it [though Shaun reckoned it caused people to “be alarmed and not alert”], and was inspired by a conversation he had with a taxi driver in New Zealand who told him that back in his home country of Lebanon, an unexploded missile wound up in the middle of the street, and someone took it home, kept it in his backyard and gradually sold off the parts bit by bit. Shaun liked that they had found a use for something so destructive) and “Undertow”.
He talked about how we have an ambiguous attitude towards suburbia—that it's a “mixture of paradise and nightmare”. He talked about how he thought outer suburbia was a bit like outer space—that there is something surreal and weird about new developments being transplanted onto an old landscape now cleared of trees (and how, in his art, the wildlife come back to reclaim it; they don't speak but they signify something)—how, in a way, it was like those medieval forests in which fairy tales occurred. He talked about how he set his tales in places he knew—to the point where some of the places in the book were based on actual places around his suburb. He talked about growing up in the suburbs and feeling like he didn't belong. He talked about keeping things short as a way of keeping things strange (and of also letting the reader complete the story in their minds). Then he drew a man in a spacesuit holding out a speaking horn to a rabbit in the middle of an empty lot across the road from some houses and telegraph wires, and then got into signing books.
When it came to my turn, he drew a flowerpot and a card on my name on it in the frontispiece of the book before signing his name underneath. He did the same for Bec's copy. I told him how much I had enjoyed his talk, and then asked him whether his views on fairy tales were the same as Jack Zipes'. He said, “What does Jack Zipes think of them?” which I found rather surprising, given he had just been at a conference with Zipes. But I told him, and when I had finished, he nodded and said that sounded about right. Then I thanked him and left, and went to Sakura to enjoy soft shell crab and eel rolls washed down with hot green tea.
I caught the train home, trying hard to remember to get out at Macdonaldtown and get my car and drive home. Ben was still up when I arrived.
Friday 13/6/08
Ben came in to work with me. We arrived at around 9:30. I worked on Briefing minutes and then started constructing a database of authors we can commission to write stuff using Zoho Creator. Ben went off to have lunch with a CBS-er. I had lunch in the kitchenette but took it a little more leisurely than usual. Then in the afternoon I found myself getting sick, going through tissue after tissue. I was not happy! I needed to be well for the wedding the following day. So I went out and bought myself some of that Vick's First Defence stuff and started taking it. It seemed to help.
Ben went off to counselling by himself and I continued working away on my database. He came back at 6 and I was still working on it. I finished it at 6:30, and we went off to Elsie's for steamboat dinner with Guan and Mary. We ate ourselves silly, then sat around talking while Elsie tried to give away stuff. Then at around 10:30 I thought we should go home so I could sleep.
Saturday 14/6/08
Day of Matt and Larissa's wedding. I was up at 9:30 after a very long sleep which was probably good for my cold. I had a shower and logged onto Ben's computer to check my email to see what the arrangements were for the Hive Mind City Writing Day. Janet was on Facebook and I ended up talking to her on IM for about half an hour. I probably shouldn't have as I started running out of time. I got Ben up, got dressed (black skirt, black top, dress coat, boots, cloche hat), ate a hurried breakfast (which should have been brunch if I had time but it's hard to know what to eat before you're going to go sing as both dairy and fat are bad for your vocal chords, so I had soy milk on muesli), I put on some make-up, threw my stuff together, and we got in the car and drove to Narwee Baptist for band rehearsal. Fortunately we got there before Kester and Catherine which made me feel not so late.
Little Rachel, Seamus and Andrew H were already there (they were ushers). Most of the band were also there. We set up and got into it. I wasn't feeling too bad but could feel the virus at the back of my throat just waiting to pounce. We finished rehearsing at 12:30 and then the guests started to arrive, including Greg and his family. I thought, “Oh, I'm going to sing in front of my old boss!” and wondered if I should be more nervous. Ah well.
The groom and his entourage also arrived looking spiffing; it was so nice to see Duncan, Matt and Lynley all dressed up to the nines. I went and took a seat over on the right hand side near the organ, and various people came and went to chat with me—Kester, Stacie, Karen—as I kept sipping water and willed the cold to stay at bay. I thought it was all a bit surreal: in Matt and Larissa, so many different parts of my world come together: St Michael's and Wollongong, UNSW, work, etc.
The bride was about 15 minutes late. When she finally arrived, she came in looking radiant. It was a lovely wedding—the singing went fine (I stuffed up a couple of lines and went a bit flat during the item, but no one noticed except Ben, or else they were kind enough not to tell me), Lionel's talk was great, and there was plenty of touches of both Matt and Larissa in the service. Afterwards, there was afternoon tea in the hall: lots of sweet things. I hadn't had any lunch but didn't think I should be eating sweet things for lunch.
I wandered around meaning to say hi to Greg and the other Clarkes but somehow not ever getting to. I met Anna's flatmate (who works with Matt) and an old family friend of Cathy's who knew Ben when he was a baby. I also spent a bit of time talking to Seamus, Little Rachel and Andrew. And I even got a chance to say hi to the bride and groom. They made some speeches and then we had a giant group shot. Somehow we managed to end up at the front of it but I hit behind the bridal party so you probably can't see me in the finished photo.
We left when they left, getting McDonald's on the way. I'm not sure if McDonald's for lunch is any better than sweet things but anyway ... I felt a bit ill, and was glad I'd brought Vicks and water. We drove to Newtown and parked, and walked to RPA to visit Naomi who had given birth to Jasper the day before. Lara and the Blair children were just leaving, and Naomi's sister was there. We got to spend a bit of time with her and we even got to hold Jasper. He went to sleep in my arms. So cute!
We had to leave at 5:30 to go to the reception. It was at the Stamford Grand at Mascot. We parked in the underground lot, then forgot our bay number to tell reception so had to go back. We left our keys with reception as we had parked someone in (that's the way it works, apparently ... weird). The bride and groom came in around the same time as us and I waved at them in passing. We went upstairs and I placed our present (not our proper wedding present; our silly wedding present) on the present table, and finally got to say hi to Greg and Amelia (they told me their kids had made nice comments about my singing). Then we headed in and found our table.
We were on a table with Kester, Catherine, Steve, Andrew, Seamus, Little Rachel and Karen. Along with my placecard and wedding bonbonnière, I found on my plate and envelope with a personalised note in their wedding stationery thanking me for singing, a Westfield gift card and a can of gourmet jelly beans. I don't know how they got the time to do all this before the wedding but it was very much appreciated!
We enjoyed a lovely three-course meal interspersed with speeches. Purely for the purposes of making Michael drool, here are some photos of our meal. Here is the entrée: smoked salmon on fennel and apple with crème fraiche and brandied sultana:
Main course: option of garlic and parsley crusted salmon with wilted spinach, potato mash and a grain mustard beurre blanc:
or braised lamb rack with Mongolian pepper sauce and garlic mash:
Dessert: option of french apple tart with King Island double cream:
or a trio of chocolate marquis:
The bride and groom also came around to say hi to everyone and take photos at each of the tables. Around the room, people were getting into the Russian tradition of crying out “Gorko!” to get the couple to kiss.
I enjoyed the speeches (I think that's rare at a wedding). Mrs Aldridge even managed to get an Into the Woods reference into her speech! It's just so nice to see two Christian families so happy for and so supportive of the newlyweds.
There was no bridal waltz, though there was a bit of dancing. Then we all went out to the foyer for the bouquet and garter toss (sadly unmarried women completely outnumbered the unmarried men). Then the bride and groom came around for hugs and farewells, before exiting the party.
We also left and went home and crashed.
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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Hmmm…that lamb looked good. Wouldn’t mind some of that right now…