/karen/

Brain. So. Dead.

Friday, 24 March, 2006

Stupidly I only got 7 hours of sleep last night but I still got up and caught a train and a bus and got to New College by 8:30. I don't normally work for Greg on Fridays but we're trying to get these brochures out into the world so that more people will come register for the conference. We also had a meeting for several hours about the various bits and pieces for the conference and I have to say it all looks very exciting and interesting and I must make sure I sleep well before each day. And I got complimented several times on the website.

Some of the committee stayed for lunch and, because it's an Anglican college, we had fish and chips. Then in the afternoon I did data entry and stuffed envelopes until I was going batty (not really, it just sounds cool) and then grabbed a stack of brochures and caught the bus into town to distribute them. At Borders they said they would take them (as the conference coincides nicely with the release of the DVD of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe). Dymocks took a stack and relegated them to the corner. Kinokuniya put some in their café. Galaxy let me leave some there and I asked them if they were going to do something with Neil again given he's going to be in Sydney during the Sydney Writers Festival in late May (which doesn't coincide with the conference, otherwise I thought it would have been amusing to get him to be on the panel on the Friday night debate but he doesn't quite take Philip Pullman's position; he just wrote a story on Susan Pevensie called “The Problem of Susan” which people either love or hate) and the guy at Galaxy said he hadn't even known that Neil was going to be in Sydney but he would ring the publisher and see what they could do, and I also bought Hannah a birthday present (something I'd really like to—it's kind of fun when you buy things you want for other people) and I walked down to the George St cinemas (passed a friend from church on the way) except George St weren't interested in having our brochures and sent out their lackey who was sporting a particularly ugly hair tie to tell me so.

And it was hot and I was cranky so I went and caught the train from Town Hall and I even managed to get a seat (that's one plus about being on the Inner West Line). At Central a guy got on and sat down next to me and when he saw me knitting, he struck up conversation. (NB: I don't normally talk to strange men. It's weird being a girl and having strange men talk to you—I'm always worried they're trying to chat me up—but this one was friendly and upfront about the fact that he was married.) He told me all about how his wife's grandmother had been knitting this blanket for their yet-to-be-born baby and how, before she died, she left very strict instructions for his wife's aunt to do the finishing touches, which she did. So now they have this absolutely beautiful knitted blanket which they don't know what to do with since they don't have kids.

“Do you have any hobbies?” I said, after telling him that knitting was trendy and that movie stars like Julia Roberts did it.

“I used to restore old furniture,” he said. And we got talking about my piano and how they don't make stuff like they used to—no pride, no craftsmanship, shoddy materials and the like.

“What do you do now?” I asked.

“I'm head of the subtitling department at SBS,” he said. “And no, I don't speak another language. I always get asked that. I just work with a lot of young people who do.” He's been there 16 years!

Then he asked me what I did and I told him that I worked for a small Christian publishing house in Kingsford that produces Bible studies and books and CD ROMs and the occasional DVD and that I also did conference administration for the C.S. Lewis Today conference and because I had so many, I gave him a flier and told him all about the conference. And then it was my stop and I had to get off and I told him, “It was nice meeting you!” and then, as I crossed the road to go to the IGA to buy a little steak for the BBQ tonight at Women's Fellowship, I kicked myself for not telling him to thank his department for the wonderful work they do in making subtitles for SBS—how much I liked SBS and how cool it was they were screening anime on Thursday nights (Samurai Champloo started this Thursday night! Vampire Hunter D is also on but I have no idea when that started ...)

And then I started writing this and realised I was late for Women's Fellowship and I had procrastinated too long about making Changis noodle salad. So I did and ran out the door with a heap of bags (including the yarn which I wanted to show Rosie to make a scarf/shawl for her) and then it started to rain and I had to park a fair bit away and got rained on. But there weren't that many people there yet and no one minded that I was late and Cameron had already cooked the meat and I didn't want him to go out into the rain again just to cook my steak so I stuck it in his freezer, made up the salad and got stuck into dinner. I was one of the first to eat and one of the last to finish.

Then it was time for the formal stuff to start. Julia was speaking on Proverbs 31. She started by giving us an overview of Proverbs and introducing us to some of the main characters. Then we divided up into pairs and illustrated the verses which were tacked up on the wall. Mel read to us the chapter and we laughed at the drawings because some of them were funny.

Several things stood out for me from Julia's talk:

• The adjective used to describe her isn't really “excellent” or “noble”; it's “strong”. She's the biblical example of what it means to be a strong woman. And it's so different from society's concept;
• She isn't a rival to her husband; she complements him. Their relationship is based on a foundation of trust. It's not like she has a meagre weekly allowance with which she goes out and buys the groceries because he cannot trust her with any more; she's making big financial decisions and she's doing it all on her own;
• She's selfless and her labour is for the sake of her husband, her children and her household;
• She's well-off yet generous to those in need;
• Her work frees her husband up to do his work at the city gates (which is where the elders used to gather to talk about civil and judicial matters);
• Everything she does stems from her fear of the Lord (which, as we saw in chapter 3, is the beginning of wisdom).

Afterwards we sat around eating brownies and ice cream. It was getting late and I was tired. But I found out that Rosie and Katie were going to catch the train and I thought that that was ridiculous, given that it was nearly 11 o'clock and they lived only five minutes away from me. So I dropped them home and said a silent thank you for all the people who used to give me lifts when I was car-less.

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