Tube duel
Thursday, 17 April, 2008
Saturday 5/4/08
I got up, showered, did breakfast/Bible/pray, turned on my computer to print some things, then caught the train to Circular Quay and walked to the Customs House Library where Bec and Guan met me for our writing day.
In our continuing quest to find new and interesting places to write in, we thought we'd try it out as we went to the State Library last time. My goodness, I don't know why I haven't been sooner! The place is so cool and everything looks like a designer thought long and hard about it. As you go in, there's a café on your left—
—which we didn't have time to try. On your right, there's a nice little waiting area for reading and other stuff:
—and then above you three storeys up there's a skylight and a box kite-like sculpture suspended from the ceiling:
The floor is glass, and under your feet there is a full scale model of the Sydney CBD, complete with little fairy lights:
On your left there is the magazines and newspapers, with this incredibly funky chandelier hanging from the ceiling—
—and then next to that, there's the computer terminals for the catalogue—
—which are probably the funkiest terminals I've ever seen. Even the toilet doors are cool:
We headed up to the Reading Room which is on the third floor and it was divine—up high, with plenty of light streaming in through the windows, dark wood tables with neat little white lamps, the walls completely covered with bookshelves.
Oh, did I mention that they have free wireless internet at the moment? They're trialling it.
So we sat in the Reading Room with our assorted paraphernalia and wrote for around one and a half hours which is, in my opinion, a good stretch, and then we walked up to Pitt St for dumplings and yum cha. (It was sunny so I had my black lace parasol out, and we were stopped by some American tourists who had been admiring it for four blocks and who wanted to know where they could get one. They also loved the rest of my outfit: I broke out the black lace thing I bought in the Dandenongs for the first time and wore it over a black singlet and long black skirt. But they didn't like my Kinokuniya bag—“No, she needs Prada,” said the man, and I almost started laughing.)
We went to Sky Phoenix in Skygarden and consumed our fill of dumplings, mango pudding, tofu dessert and custard tarts, and then went our separate ways—Bec and Guan back to the eastern suburbs, me to Tapestry Craft to see what they had by way of yarn. It wasn't just the American tourist's comment; I know I need a new bag. The little handbag (more like a pocket with a shoulder strap, really) I bought in 2005 for $8 finally carked in a couple of weeks ago (the zipper gave out) and I'd been thinking for a while I should make one for myself and customize it so that it had enough room to fit my wallet, mobile, A6 journal, pen, keys, lip balm and tissues—something like this (but in black) and perhaps felted (yes, I keep talking about it and never do it!) I wanted something wiry and sturdy to knit with but Tapestry Craft didn't have anything like that. I wandered around the store twice—overhearing a knitting lesson in progress and being rather amused by it. In the end, I just bought a row counter which I thought would be useful for knitting on the go (it is!)
Then I walked to Bathurst Street and caught a bus down Newtown, alighting at the southern end. I was looking for the At The Vanishing Point gallery because a girl at church told me that she was having some of her work hung there. It took me a little while because I got the address wrong, but I finaly found the place and took a look around. I also stopped in at Etelage, a jewellery making and bead store run by a lady from my old old church, and bought a book on beads and jewellery making for $10. And then I made my way back north (stopping in Tree of Life to have a stickybeak) and wound up in Camperdown Memorial Park just on 4 for the start of Cardboard Tube Fighting League—the Australian branch.
This was something wholly instigated by Fish. A couple of months ago, he kept saying to us, “Cardboard Tube Fighting League!” and we both said, “What?” and then he set a day, advertised it online and advertised it on Facebook, and then the media got in on it and ran a story in the Inner West Courier(plus a photo where Ben's face is completely obscured by Fish's cardboard tube on Facebook). Then the Sydney Morning Herald picked up the story with a massive amount of space being devoted to it on page 3 (with a great photo of Fish decked out in cardboard armour profiled against the sky). Then ABC Radio rang, wanting Fish to talk on air. He didn't want to, so he got Ben to do it, and Ben was interviewed on ABC Illawarra and ABC Adelaide the Tuesday before this (he did an excellent job too!)
No one was sure how many people were going to show, so it was a nice surprise to see that all these people had turned up to watch, and a stack of people had turned up to participate—old and young. Some of them had gone to a lot of trouble too, sporting cardboard armour, shields and helmets of various kinds (I liked the Thor-like wings that one guy had!)
Ben was helping out, dressed as a cardboard booth. He got people to sign waivers before they picked up their standard cardboard tube:
Notice the cardboard toast on the front of the booth.
This guy went to a lot of trouble:
And here was Fish all decked out in his cardboard armour:
Here was the prize: a cardboard tube sword:
Before the battle began, everyone posed for a photo, tubes raised high in the air.
(I think this was mainly to satisfy the media people who were there, which included, I was told, BBC Radio, The Sun Herald and—get this—the National Archives of Australia.)
Fish went over the rules (no jabbing; no grabbing the tube; avoid the head; if you hold your tube out horizontal and it is dangling at a 90 degree angle, you're out) and then everyone paired up with someone of comparable size (so that grown-ups weren't battling kids). Then he and Marty called out them out pair by pair to duel it out.
Most people went for the hard slashing which was a bad idea because their tubes broke pretty quickly. People soon found that the best way to preserve their tube (as the aim was to be the one with the last unbroken tube), they had to not treat their tube like a sword.
At the end of the first round, Marty and Fish duked it out:
Then the second round began. I found it terribly funny watching everyone fight because some people were so into it. I don't think I've laughed that much in a long while!
While the fighting was going on, Ben and Duncan F were walking around recording the first episode of their podcast on Ben's iPod. There was this boy being chased by two girls who had joined themselves together with cardboard tube armour, and Ben and Duncan stopped them to interview them about what was going on.
Eventually a group of people were left for the third round which was a free-for-all. And then finally one guy was declared the winner and was given the prize.
Clean-up followed but thankfully there weren't too many cardboard scraps that needed to be picked up off the grass.
Here's me in Fish's helmet:
Christie took some of the cardboard her car, and Duncan dropped me and Ben at Fish's in their other car so we could retrieve our car. They invited us over for dinner and a movie (which I said was fine as long as I could get a truckload of knitting done). At their place, we decided on Indian, and walked down to the video store to rent a movie. We settled on Ratatouille which none of us had seen (and even though Ben isn't fond of animated movies, he went along with it). Then Duncan and Ben went off to get nibblies and drinks, and Christie and I went to pick up the food.
It took us 45 minutes because traffic was a nightmare and we got lost in Newtown's back streets on the way. But we finally got it home, and we ate a very yummy dinner along with Duncan and Christie's friend Warren, before settling down to watch the movie (me knitting away furiously).
I enjoyed it very much but think I'll have to watch it again. Afterwards, we said our goodbyes and headed home.
Current:
seen: Moon 15/10/2009
read: The Incredibles 11/10/2009
seen: She's the Man 05/10/2009
read: I Kill Giants (Joe Kelly and J. M. Ken Niimura) 04/10/2009
read: Astro City The Dark Ages Book 1: Brothers and Other Strangers (Kurt Busiek, Brent Anderson and Alex Ross) 04/10/2009
seen: Children of Men 02/10/2009
seen: Metric (The Metro) 30/09/2009
seen: 500 Days of Summer 25/09/2009
seen: The September Issue 18/09/2009
seen: Gilmore Girls: Season 1 17/09/2009
read: Flight (Volume 1) (edited by Kazu Kibuishi) 16/09/2009
seen: Ponyo 11/09/2009
read: Batman: Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader? (Neil Gaiman and Andy Kubert) 05/09/2009
heard: Aimee Mann (Enmore Theatre) 04/09/2009
heard: Ben Folds Solo (Opera House) 31/08/2009
read: Phonogram: Rue Britannia (Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie) 26/08/2009
seen: Northanger Abbey 20/08/2009
read: The Princess Diaries (Meg Cabot) 18/08/2009
seen: The Phantom of the Opera 17/08/2009
seen: Who Framed Roger Rabbit? 10/08/2009
seen: District 9 10/08/2009
read: Shortcomings (Adrian Tomine) 02/08/2009
read: AIR Volume 1: Letters from Lost Countries (Willow Wilson and M.K. Perker) 28/07/2009
seen: Persepolis 25/07/2009
seen: Ghost Town 25/07/2009
heard: Gutter Twins (Seymour Centre) 23/07/2009
seen: Coco Avant Chanel 20/07/2009
seen: Gutenberg! The Musical (Seymour Centre) 16/07/2009
seen: So You Think You Can Dance? Australia Live Tour (Sydney Entertainment Centre) 11/07/2009
seen: Every Little Step 07/07/2009
seen: Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen 03/07/2009
seen: Synecdoche, New York 30/06/2009
seen: Charlie's Angels 27/06/2009
seen: Penelope 26/06/2009
seen: Coraline 10/06/2009
seen: The Sky Crawlers 08/06/2009
seen: The Bourne Ultimatum 07/06/2009
seen: The Bourne Supremacy 07/06/2009
seen: The Bourne Identity 06/06/2009
seen: Stick it 05/06/2009
Comment:
@Sarah: Thanks for the tip RE Australian Breastfeeding Association! I never would have thought to look there. Ditto KMart: I was wondering if they did since Target don’t.
@Rae: Thanks for the tip! I’ll check it out.
@Little Rachel: Oh, I’ll definitely be up for visitors! I may not be very good company (brain-dead, etc.) but I’ll certainly appreciate visits!
@Rachel C: CONGRATS!!! So excited for you 
Yours sounds like a good philosophy. One day I shall have to blog about Outliers!
@CafeDave: Thanks for the tip!
@Elissa: Thanks for your kind words! It makes me happy that you and Dave were excited we were getting married! Thanks also for the prayers!
@Elsie: There are lots of other lovely things I could have said about you, but let’s not overload my readers, shall we? ;P
Aww...thanks for the lovely things you said about me! I enjoyed reading this post (as I do with all yours). xo
Congratulations to you both. I know you will be such wonderful parents. You sound WAY too sensible! 
(Sorry to read that there were some unusual comments made about your marriage! We thought it was exciting. We still have a lovely photo of you & Ben in our lovely box of special memories. (I was only 22 when married & I was 30 when we had Bonnie...)
Everyone is different! I nodded through your post. SO many people feel the curious need to share their “horror stories” which is just dreadful. I remember complaining to David who said - go find people who are positive & listen to them. Great advice, which I did. Those people still have a big place in my heart because their advice was honest & gentle.
Bless you & Ben & the little Peanut. We pray all goes smoothly over the coming weeks/months ahead. We sometimes forget what a precious little miracle life really is…
Another book from the dad’s perspective I found helpful was From here to paternity - it’s an Australian book, and was followed up with a blog.
Hi!
I’m so excited for you reading your blog about being pregnant I am 13 weeks pregnant with #2.
You’re so right about all the pessimism “advice” that you get. I got so mad about it but never found a good response. I’ve had such joy right from day one with E that I just don’t want to buy into the negativity (I’m sure kids pick up on it too!).
My philosophy was/is to be a relaxed mum and from that figure out what was best for my baby/child. Get advice when you’re not sure on things or want to know how other people approached things, read books (loved Outliers!) that aren’t all about parenting… but just enjoy.
In a sample size of one to date, I’ve had such a happy, chilled out son right from day one. People say all the craziest advice… glad you don’t do guilt
With love,
R
Thanks so much for writing more! I love hearing how you’re going and all your thoughts.
After watching my sister I agree with you that it seems the first six months are perhaps the hardest. She got quite lonely at home all day; weekends were all right because then her husband was around but it’s just as you say… one feed ends then the next begins! If you are accepting visitors during this period then I hope to use some RDOs to come have grown-up conversations!
The book review of The Second Nine Months makes me want to read it now!
Names: We have one girl name that we both like and no boy names that we agree on. But they are also top-secret… so if anyone else uses them we can’t accuse them of theft! 
Yay Peanut, keep on growing, can’t wait to meet you!
Hello! Thanks for sharing
I loved reading your pregnancy update! I am glad to hear that things are all going pretty well, and I hope the rest of your 2nd trimester is as good.
I just wanted to add, that some other blokes decided that there was not much for the fathers-t0-be, and made a couple of DVD’s just for expectant dads. They are called ‘Being Dad’and i think they are available at big W. I have both though, if you would like me to send them!
Just wanted to wish you all the best!
Love
Rae
re: gluten: no idea!! I didn’t have to go on that diet - it was probably related to the test I didn’t do.
At the risk of adding to your list of advice:
Re: maternity bras - because I’m big I had to look hard for something nice in my size and discovered the Australian Breastfeeding Association. They have a massive range online and most are (dare I say it) sexy.
Re: maternity clothes - Kmart have a nice range of basic stuff.. I only found out towards the end of pregnancy and I would have liked to know earlier!
Re: Parenting classes - if you’re at RPA you can just ring the midwives section (they’ll put you through) and ask directly.
Congratulations again
Don’t laminate your ultrasound picture That is my advice.
Congratulations! This is so fantastic!
Thanks so much for sharing all of this… people swap engagement stories but rarely pregnancy stories! And it’s kind of similar don’t you think, all this excitement leading up to a big day!
So happy for you guys! Actually never been more excited for anyone except my sister! I think it’s because I think that you will both be amazing parents and love the idea that someone could grow up in your family.
Looking forward to many more posts on the topic.
Lovely news, Karen.
Thanks everyone! I will be sure to ask for help when I need it!
Great pic!! Peanut is cute! :D
Praying for you all!
xx
:D
I had a similar sort of morning sickness.. except I threw up! I’m suitably impressed that you coped OS.. that must have been tough.
It sounds like you’re doing marvelously otherwise!
Book recommendation on something a bit less technical and a bit more human: ‘Birth’ http://www.birthnet.com.au/
Praise be to God indeed! Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful.
Congratulations, Beilharzen! Welcome to the slightly-bewildering world of pregnancy (and birth...and children...). God has blessed you greatly with this new life. We’ll be praying for Peanut’s growth and development, and for you guys as you prepare.
I’m sure you’re surrounded by baby veterans, but always happy to help with books/advice/recommendations/listening.
B&L;
Excellent job Karen! You SHOULD be pleased with yourself!
Have you discovered http://www.ravelry.com ? It is an excellent site with thousands of free patterns in its database, lots of support, tips, forums etc and of course - friends like me? Look me up when you get there - fionag77
PS Are you just wearing a bulky dress or are you sporting a bump under that dress?
oooh.... It’s done and it looks great on you! xxx
Well done on all that hard work! It looks great and will be very snuggly come winter!
Thanks for letting me know, Timo!
Hi there,
Thanks for pointing out the shortcoming on our website. I’ll pass it on to my colleagues and hopefully it will be rectified soon.
The documentary at Fashioning Now was by Holly Kaye-Smith; I’d be more than happy to put you in touch with her if you’d like.
Again, thanks for the comment, much appreciate it!
Kind regards,
Timo Rissanen
Thanks Mark! Much appreciated!
Rich survey, Karen. Particularly I was struck by the notion of Jesus being clothed with our sins. I heard recently somebody suggest the crown of thorns was a kings crown but it was made of the symbol of the curse in the Garden - thorns. I would like to read your thoughts about Joseph’s coat of many colours.
Looking forward to the next installment. Regards,Mark
It is lovely - and looks great on you.
You’ve made me want to read it - though I may need an interpreter at times!
Well done with the sewing!
I think it looks good - very relaxed and spring-y.
Hey Sandra! Thanks for the tip! I read it yesterday, but I struggled a bit because Lewis doesn’t start from the Bible. I wasn’t convinced by his argument. What did you think?
Interesting post Karen - Thanks
I like the ending too! :D
xxx
Fantastic post, Karen. Just great. Thanks!
Thanks Bec! Eternal life just keeps getting better and better ...
I do like the way you ended this post - excellent thought.
Personally I don’t feel that way. Maybe that’s something you should blog about?
Wow. Lots of things to pick up on there. It’s been interesting to see the changes to your blog these last 6-12 months: Twitter is certainly more immediate, but are there (gasp) downsides to having its constant buzz in the ear?
Is our (already fractured) ability to concentrate on a single relationship at a time further jeapordised by the regular buzz of tweetdeck (and worse yet, by the imagined sense of loss that goes with being off the grid)?
Or am I just projecting my own fears?
Hi Karen!
If you’re still thinking about this… I just read CS Lewis’s essay “Learning in War-time” which exactly addresses this issue (ie. how can we justify cultural & aesthetic pursuits when people are going to hell around us?). Have you read it? i’d be interested to hear what you think..
(i have it in his little volume “Transposition and other Addresses”, but it’s easily findable online)
I’m doing my own series on the trials and tribulations of writing on my own blog here http://sedshed.blogspot.com/search/label/From%20Head%20to%20Hand
It’s coming along slowly
Coincidentily, I stumbled upon the above Phonogram vs. the Fans cover when digging around for ID concepts for Salt. A disturbingly brilliant image.
Thanks Karen. At the very least, this post gives some context to your myriad of phonogram tweets. At best, it has reinvigorated my stagnated appreciation of comics.
Seriously, though 4,549 words. Is that the best you can do? I say, longer!
Blinks:
Maybe discomfort is better for writing.
Showing her daughter that women are great by doing tours and walking in the footsteps of famous women. I like that this article is about engagement.
Jordan White, editor for Marvel, answers questions.
Jamie McKelvie answers questions.
Vision therapy as a treatment for ADHD, learning disabilities and even autism. The scientific community's opinion. The results of concentrated therapy.
Kieron Gillen on Phonogram, Siege, Ares, Loki and his collaborative relationship with Jamie McKelvie.
Superheroes and how they have changed the way we see urban landscape. Their attraction to New York.
Kieron Gillen talking about Phonogram's run and the effect it had on its audience.
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Comments
That looks like sooo much fun, and I do wish Sydney was in easy driving distance.
Well, you know, you could always move! ;P
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