/karen/

Story: 27/10/08-2/11/08

Friday, 05 December, 2008

Monday 27/10/08

I was up at 6:15 and in at work by 7:30. I edited Sola Panel posts for three hours, then switched to Briefing editing (Pastor's brief). Guan was in, so he, Bec and I went out to lunch. I stopped by to see Elsie on the way to give her some towels we don't use and don't need, as well as some cutlery. On the way home, we bought Magnums from the IGA because of the Magnum Gold Class promotion. (I was aghast to learn that both Bec and Guan had had Magnum Gold Class wrappers before, but had thrown them out! I made them promise to give me one.)

In the afternoon, I met with Tony to talk about where The Briefing was up to, being cranky and the seasons of life one goes through. I decided I was on top of things, so that meant I could have the day off tomorrow. I went home at 4 and played with Wii Fit—even jogging for 20 minutes (record!) Ben was at a Cardboard Tube Fighting League photo shoot with Fish and Kat. He rang and said that Fish had invited us for dinner. I had a shower, finished editing the Pastor's brief article, sent it off, then drove to Fish's.

With the help of Kat and Ben, he made very yummy pizza for dinner. We played Lego Star Wars for Wii (it belonged to Fish's flatmate, or at least Fish's flatmate had borrowed it out). It amused me that such a thing exists. It amused me even more the way things disintegrate into little Lego pieces when you smash them, or when you die. (I wished you could kill Jar Jar Binks but no such luck.)

Ben was tired so we said goodbye and went home. However, we ended up staying up late doing whatever, and then went to bed at 1.

Tuesday 28/10/08

Again, I meant to get up early but instead I slept. When I got up, I ate breakfast, read my Bible and prayed, then got stuck into stuff—laundry, working on my script for “Going home” for Fish, getting annoyed at Microsoft Word because it wouldn't do what I wanted, wishing I had a decent version of Photoshop, trying to draw and ink Page 1 of my comic for Dean, and meanwhile things to do with the flat we wanted to buy were going on in the background (we were outbid and we decided not to raise) and I didn't want to pay attention to any of it. Ben and I started snapping at each other which wasn't good.

Ben made a stir fry for dinner and then we spent the evening watching TV—NCIS and The Simpsons. We went to bed early but stayed up late talking because we both couldn't sleep.

Wednesday 29/10/08

I was up at 6:45 and in at work by 7:30. I ate breakfast at work, dealt with my email, Sola Panel and various Briefing things. I got stuck into the Bible brief and worked on it all day. I updated my status on Twitter a lot as I went so that my updates formed a sort of running commentary on Jeremiah as I went along.

Lunch was spent at my desk. I met with Elsie after that, and vented about stuff—feeling cranky and not being abel to handle the extra stress of stuff. We read 1 Timothy together and commented on the chapters, then closed in prayer. I continued with the Bible brief in the afternoon and finished it. I edited the Epilogue and sent it off, and then started subediting Up front.

I finally called it a night and went off to Bible study where we had nachos for dinner. We were all there except for Sammi. We did a manuscript discovery study on Galatians, then prayed in groups of boys and girls. With us girls, it took us so long to around talking about things, we ran out of time to pray so Bec prayed for all of us.

I drove home, had a shower and went to bed. Ben had been out somewhere but came in while I was still awake. He was still down and said he thought we should have raised our offer.

Thursday 30/10/08

Both of us didn't sleep that well. Ben came into work with me and we were in by 8:45 (due to bad traffic). I read and subbed Up front and one of the feature articles, and then gave the Bible brief one final check. Ben got a call from the agent: apparently the other bidder pulled out. The agent had some story about how this lady's place had gone to auction the night before and it had sold for $50K less than she had expected (and of course we have no way of knowing whether or not he lied). He said that we could have the flat if we were willing to pay the price she offered for it. Ben told him that we hadn't offered that amount. We stuck to our guns and refused to raise. And Ben became very stressed.

Guan was in and shared an office with me in Gordo's absence. At lunchtime, Kurt came in to eat with Ben, and I had lunch with Bec and Guan (the three of us were completely out of it so conversation was rather odd). Bec gave me her Magnum Gold Class Wrapper. After lunch, I worked on my devotion on 2 Kings 5 (Elisha cures Naaman of leprosy). I gave it at staff meeting. It went well, and then we prayed together.

In the afternoon, I wasn't quite sure what to do with myself. Guan went home and Ben came to share an office with me. I ended up listening to Peter Adam's talk on Jude from Synod, and then did a bit of transcription of something from a recent MTS day.

We left around 4 and went home for a bit. Ben went to the FEVA office to shred some old papers we didn't need any more. I met him at the station and we caught the train to Town Hall. We had dinner at Sakura, sititng outside (sashimi and gyoza) and then got some cupcakes from the shop nearby. They had this really cool Halloween cupcake display:

Then we walked to Greater Union George St to use our Magnum Gold Class Wrappers to see Burn After Reading (the wrapper allows you a free upgrade from a standard ticket to a Gold Class one. As Gold Class is normally around twice the price of a normal ticket, that's a pretty good deal!) However, the session we wanted was completely full, so we opted for the later one (9:30). This meant that we had a heap of time to kill in the city.

So we went walking around. We went up to Kinokuniya and I spotted The Graveyard Book (which was two days ahead of its release date):

I bought Ros her Christmas present there. Then we went down to Dirt Cheap CDs and discovered that that branch was closing. At JB Hi Fi and I saw Blackbird by Katie Noonan:

(I should have bought it then and there for Elsie for her birthday, but I wasn't thinking straight.) We discovered there was now a Passionflower just near the George St cinema, so we stopped there and had dessert. I got three scoops of ice cream: white chocolate and hazelnut, cookies and cream, and hokey pokey in a waffle basket.

Finally it was time for our movie, so we headed back to Greater Union, got ourselves some popcorn and tried to find our cinema. Gold Class totally confused us, but at George St, in order to access the Gold Class cinemas, you go through this bar area with its own maître d' (where you are encouraged to order food, and you could order a three-course dinner plus alcohol there if you wanted to, but you pay on top of your ticket price), and then you are directed up to the actual cinema where you are ushered to your seat. The seats are these enormous recliner things covered in some sort of suede plush material, and you can lean back and put up your feet (and, presumably, go to sleep). The cinema holds no more than 40 people, and at various intervals, waiters will come in with the food people have ordered. I can see it appealing to couples who go out on fancy dates, but personally I think I prefer the bean bag cinema.

And Burn After Reading was okay. It was really the sort of Coen Brothers film I'm not that fond of (I prefer Intolerable Cruelty, The Man Who Wasn't There and O Brother, Where Art Thou? ): something happens because someone is motivated by greed and self-interest, and things degenerate from there into comic circumstances, but the directors certainly aren't kind to their characters and seem to have a very bleak outlook on human existence.

Afterwards, we caught the train home via Museum (the trains were running the other way) and went to bed.

Friday 31/10/08

I didn't sleep well but I was up at 6:45 all the same. I was in at work by 7:30, and I dealt with my email and November Briefing things (e-Briefing, store, new products, The Longing, etc.) I needed to talk to Tony so he could choose which free articles we would put online but he wasn't in until lunch.

I had no lunch so ventured outside into the blazing heat to get some. At the green grocer, I bought some salad stuff: baby spinach (in which I found both a moth and a ladybug), mushrooms, cherry tomatoes and an avocado for 99c. I chopped them all up and ate them, while blogging about the Michael Horton interview.

After lunch, I talked to Tony to get some of the answers I needed and finished off most of the November Briefing things (everything except the free Library articles.

I left at 4:05 and went to the shops to buy fruit and vegetables, fish, chicken and basic groceries. A Woolworths employee told me to move to a shorter line, but it ended up taking longer. However, the talkative and friendly gentleman in front of me struck up a conversation with me about his recent knee operation and who would win in the US elections.

I loaded up the car and then went to pick up Ben and Rosey from Glebe Park. We dropped Rosey home, then drove back to our house and carried all the groceries up the stairs and put them away. I chopped up all the chicken while watchined Toy Story, while Ben made dinner (soy chicken with salad stuff—leftovers from lunch). We watched some Law & Order. Then I washed up while Ben packed, I had a shower and we went to bed.

Saturday 1/11/08

Ben was up at 7. He left for Port Stephens, taking my camera with him. I got up at 8:30, checked my email and the weather, printed the attendance list for Word by Word and then caught a rail bus to Central and a train to Circular Quay. I redeemed the free bacon and egg McMuffin coupon I had received at Lizz's Sydney Eistedfodd recital, then went to the Customs House Library.

It looked like some people were trying to do a fashion shoot in the doorway but it started raining. I was early so I headed inside and sat in the foyer with some other people, waiting for the library to open. I sat and scribbled, then closer to the time, I came out and met the others: Ben M, Ali, Little and Becky. Bec and Guan were running late. The rain was really coming down, so we went into the foyer and gawked at the full scale model of Sydney under the glass floor. Bec and Guan arrived around then, and the library opened, so we headed upstairs to the reading room on the second floor and got to working for one and a half hours. (I worked on my four-page comic.) I suppose it was oddly fitting, given that it was the first day of NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) but none of us were actually participating (unlike Kathleen!)

We finished up at around 12:30 and went and got some lunch at the kiosk outside the Coke building. The weather was fine enough for us to sit outside and eat together (though Guan had very sensibly brought his own lunch). Afterwards, we split up and went our separate ways. I walked to York Street and went to Morris and Sons again where the yarn sale was still in full swing. I bought some more yarn, then crossed the road and went to Eckersley's Art and Craft and bought an awl, a cutting blade, a cutting board, a metal ruler and some craft glue. I needed a tailor's needle but they had none, so I walked to Lincraft in the Imperial Arcade only to find that the whole place was shut due to renovations, and that my nearest Lincraft was now in Alexandria.

So I walked to Town Hall. On the way, I passed a clothing store that was closing down, and managed to find a fairly decent 100% cotton blue and white dress for only $10. I caught the train to Central and then the express bus to Stanmore, I bought some milk from the IGA and then walked home.

I watched The Simpsons and then House and part of Life. Then I thought I'd better clean up before Bec, Guan and Mary arrived. I cooked them coconut chili basil chicken and microwaved some vegies to go with it. Then I got a call from Ben saying that he had fractured his ankle while quad biking at Stockton. He was laughing when he called which momentarily confused me. Apparently towards the end of their quad biking session they had been heading back to the base, going over the sand dunes. He said that he didn't realise he was approaching at 1.5-2 metre drop until he was almost there, and then he threw himself off the bike because he was afraid the bike would land on him otherwise. He landed badly and fractured his ankle, and goodness knows what happened to the bike, but he was taken in a truck over the sand dunes (bump bump bump) back to the carpark, and Nancy drove him to the hospital at Nelson Bay. They took some x-rays and put him in a temporary cast, then said they wanted to transfer him to Newcastle as the fracture did not look good and they were afraid they would have to operate. Ben told them that it was better if he went back to Sydney, so Marinka drove him in our car (with him the back seat with his leg up) all the way back from Port Stephens.

We had finished dinner and had just started the screening of Mirrormask (which was the main reason we had all gotten together—Bec hadn't seen it) when Ben rang to say he was in Emergency at Royal Prince Albert. Marinka said she would come get me, and she turned up not long later. So I grabbed my purse and a thin jumper, told Bec, Guan and Mary to hang around as long as they wanted and to just pull the door shut behind them when they went, dropped Marinka home, then drove to the hospital. I was lucky to get a park right outside on Missenden Road, and then I went to emergency and found Ben in the waiting room with a pair of crutches by his side and his leg in a temporary cast propped up on a chair. Note to self: whenever you go to emergency, bring something to do, because chances are you'll be there for a long while. I sat with him. After an hour and a half, he got to see a doctor who wanted more x-rays because the Nelson Bay x-rays weren't enough. We waited for a bit and then were taken off by a very nice radiologist who let me come with him. Then we were sent back out where we waited some more. I actually went out and got Ben some food (because at this point it was around 9 o'clock and he hadn't eaten since 1), but just as he had taken his first bite, the doctor called him in again and told him not to eat in case they had to operate. So I ended up eating some of the food I'd bought (which was yoghurt, a sandwich and a drink from the local corner store because even McDonald's was closed at this point). After consulting with orthopedics, the doctor said that they would admit him and find him a bed. So we waited some more, and meanwhile most of the people in the waiting room had gone, even the poor lady lying across several seats with a drip in her arm. At 1:30 am Ben was finally admitted, and I went with him in the wheelchair up to the ward where they put him in a bed. Then I said goodbye and left him, drove home (and discovered gratefully that Bec, Guan and Mary had done all the washing up) and went to sleep.

Sunday 2/11/08

I woke around 9 or 9:30. I ate breakfast, got my stuff together and drove to the hospital, parking a couple of streets away and walking the rest of the way. I went to see Ben and brought him his laptop so he could do some stuff if he wanted—check email, work, Twitter, whatever (mobile broadband is great!) He was okay but rather tired as the doctors and nurses had kept on waking him up during the night for various things.

So we kept cyberspace informed via Twitter and Facebook, and received lots of well-wishers and prayers which was very touching. Josh said he would come visit; same with Ben's parents. Ben was rather tired so had a snooze. He was also on a drip and couldn't eat anything because of the impending surgery. I sat at his bedside and knitted, and then started work on inking my four-page comic (I brought my drawing board and materials). I also went and heated up my lunch (something which the friendly staff at the cafeteria did for me for free).

In the afternoon, Josh came to visit, bearing lollies, DVDs and a small portable DVD player. He stayed until 4. Then Hans, Cathy and Lizz came to visit. I ended up skipping church to stay by Ben's bedside. Finally we had news of when the surgery would happen, and the nurses came to get Ben for the operating theatre at around 6. They let me walk down with him and say goodbye like they had when Ben had hernia surgery last year.

While he was in surgery, I went home, ate the dinner that Hans, Cathy and Lizz had brought me and watched the rest of Life. Then I came back with keys and Ben's laptop, and waited for him to come back. The nurse came around with Ben's dinner but of course he wasn't around to eat it. He was finally out at around 8, and he was very groggy with the drugs, so it was hard to wake him up. The nurse told me to let him sleep, and let me stay for a bit longer. I stayed until 9:30 and then said goodbye and fed him the morphine pill the nurse had told me to give him.

Then I went home and went to bed.

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