“Things are looking up ...”
Monday, 29 November, 2004
I think that's a line from 42nd Street—I can hear it singing in my head but I don't really remember the musical it's from. Anything Goes may be a possibility but 42nd Street (which I saw at Her Majesty's Theatre years ago) is more likely.
(Update: The day after I write this, I remember where it's from—“Crazy for You” the Gershwin compilation musical.)
My brain is singing that because I'm feeling happier and I want thank you guys for your prayers (if you prayed) and your love and concern (if you love and are concerned ... erm, that's a little silly, isn't it). I think the AIM day greatly helped Ben and I for reasons that I'm not sure I can articulate so the last five days have been very lovely (even if Ben is still not sleeping well) and I'm grateful to be married to such a wonderful person (even if he can't see how wonderful he is).
All right, will stop gushing about my husband.
On Thursday, even though Ben and I threw out a heap of stuff, we only really packed two boxes. The communal recycling bin must be bursting at the seams with our rubbish. We meant to have a rest in the evening but somehow that never happened.
On Friday I caught the train to Sydney with friends who very tolerantly put up with me running errands so that we could kill an hour so that Matt could join us for the exhibition. I enjoyed it, even though it was small (one room) and so much more could have been added to it. The stills and posters of Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence were beautiful and I half-wish I could be in Sydney to see it however the session is now sold out so Ben A and whoever he is seeing it with are very lucky and I expect a decent review by the time I return from NTE. We also spent some time in the Japan Foundation library looking at magazines that none but Michiyo could read (there were a couple of articles on Howl's Moving Castle!).
Little had to go soon after but the others were willing to wander around Pitt St. for a while. I found some Christmas presents in Dirt Cheap CDs (where almost everything is $10. All of us bought something in that store except for Michiyo). Simon led us into Allan's Music to look at guitars. I wouldn't have known it was there at all (did you know that they have the ENTIRE SCORE to Pacific Overtures in their sheet music section?) Ben and I sorted out our travel plans via SMS which meant I would be staying in the city until the wedding. So I bid farewell to the rest of my travelling companions and hit the mall to finish my Christmas shopping. HMV almost succeeded in completely bamboozling me but I emerged unscathed and stumbled into the Myers building food court to write to Deb. But the subdued techno gave me a headache so I figured it was worth the effort to return to Kinokuniya where I got distracted by all the books, found expensive Studio Ghibli merchandise and another Christmas present for us, and settled onto a sunny bench by the window to write before it was time for the wedding.
Unfortunately Ben and I got our wires crossed so we ended up getting changed into wedding clothes in the toilets at Centrepoint and I had to lug all my Christmas shopping up into the lift. This was the first wedding I've ever been to in the tower and it was beautiful with the lights just starting to come on around the city as the sun was setting (at this point, if I could, I'd blog some photos). The traffic made everyone late so Zoe's entrance was somewhat delayed and the lift doors closed in her face before she could do the processional properly. Everything about the wedding was non-traditional—no attendants, all the parents making speeches, the bridal “waltz”, the 100% chocolate “cake”. Leigh sang a song for Zoe which I would love to hear again one day one some Birdwood Snape album. I wish I had been more awake for the reception but I wasn't really energetic enough to do more than enjoy the food and nod significantly while Brendan yelled to me his theories about the way 2-year-olds digest postmodernism over the appalling dance floor music. He is going to be an interesting one to go to college with.
The Fells drove us back to the Shire and we actually got to see their one-bedroom granny flat. Fell even returned my “gospel sunglasses” (props from our wedding five years ago). Ben had a splitting headache which far outweighed mine so I drove back to Wollongong and quite enjoyed it. We got home at 2.
So Saturday was a sleep-in day, filled with Christmas-present-wrapping, file box-buying, food-shopping, ornament bubble-wrap-encasing, sheet-washing and sandwich-making. I only succeeded in packing one box but on the other hand I've mostly packed for NTE.
On Sunday a friend came over to write puppet scripts for NTE. He's never done them before and had no idea how to start. We had fun writing them, although three was a bit much and I started scraping the barrel of ideas concerning the incarnation round about 11:30 am. I did the laundry and prepared for Sunday school, deciding to use my collection of 161 2c coins as tokens for the game I invented to teach the kids about money management. New paragraph to talk about Sunday school:
We were on the kids' spot for church. I had written a script based on “The Price is Right” TV show and it was pretty interactive with overheads and volunteering kids to come up the front (“Jesus paid the price—the very right price—so that we could have peace with God”). There weren't that many people in the congregation but the ones who were there enjoyed it.
Because it was stinking hot, we had games in the front room (we played Hovering Bunnies). I brought our guitar and attempted to play “Be Strong and Courageous” by Colin Buchanan while most of the boys shrieked their heads off and I couldn't help laughing at them which probably provided further encouragement to do so. Rowan did a brief mission spot on Nepal because he had left his materials on the printer at home. We broke up into groups fairly late in the piece but oh well, it didn't matter—I think the kids were having fun.
With only four girls in our group, we decided to have a go at the board game together. I had no idea it would take so long!! They really got into it but I had to cut it short before a winner was declared otherwise we would run out of time. I split them up into two teams and sent them off to hunt around both rooms for slips of orange or green paper which had half a Proverbs verse on them. Their task was them to put the two halves of each of the seven Proverbs verses together. The older ones finished quickly; the younger ones took a bit of time. If I had to re-write this course, I think I would change the Proverbs hunt a bit to make things a little easier for the kids. There were some questions to finish and it was lovely to see my girls really engaging with the issues of money, how to regard it and what to do with it. We finished a little late but it didn't matter too much.
I was on band, replacing Susan, but thankfully Alice agreed to lead so I didn't have to do more work (because I was also on prayers and I didn't want it to be the Karen show). The weather was changing so things were cooling down somewhat. Shaun farewelled us during the service since the last time we're at St. Michael's will be the 19th December which is the evangelistic service. He asked Ben, “What is your funniest memory of St. Michael's?” Ben replied, “Watching Shaun each week make the segueway from the notices into the greeting time. I've noticed that Janet, or maybe Eltham, have started rating them on the comment cards.” Just when the interview was over, Ben added, “By the way, I found some aftershave I don't want and would like to give away so if you want some, please see me after the service.” Shaun picked up smoothly by saying, “Ben wants to see how I can segueway from aftershave into the greeting time ... but I can't so I'm not going to try.”
After the service, we dropped Joe home (it may be the last I ever see of him considering that he's flying back to Hong Kong on Friday; I thanked him for teaching Sunday school) and went to Irwan's for dinner (this is at 9 pm). Irwan made us yummy noodles with tofu and Asian greens. He told me I should buy 2-minute noodles by the box; his lot cost $8 and he had well over two-dozen packets. It was nice hanging out with him and chatting to him about stuff (he's going to start MTS at Wollongong next year). He told me that he found our website by accident when doing a search for his name; prior to that, he hadn't even known that we had a website.
Speaking of which, Ben and I have plans for the Hippocamp. BIG plans. (Well, maybe not so big.) Watch that front page.
(Ben's computer has now been fixed. Isn't it great!)
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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You guys are a great encouragement. It matters little, in the grand scheme of things, that your circumstances aren’t as good as they could be because you’re bearing up under it all pretty well and are being perfected in your perseverence. Out of it I reckong you guys will more fully appreciate the grace and love of God than any Christian who goes through life carefree with no problems.
H.
Naaah, I like it when people are so publicly affectionate about their spouses. In the UQES bible studies, one of the staffworkers always referred to his wife of a few months as his princess, etc., and it made me happy and not cynical anymore about marriage.