/karen/

Story: 8/9/08-14/9/08

Wednesday, 15 October, 2008

Monday 8/9/08

It's a real testament to Vick's First Defence that I was up at 6:15. I ate breakfast, read the Bible and prayed, and then was in at work by 7:30. I worked on Sola Panel things, then the site went down again.

I had a doctor's appointment at 10:15, so I went to the medical centre and sat and waited for my turn for an hour. It was good because I could sit and knit while I waited. I was feeling a bit sad, and I was remembering what George said about owning your feelings, so I sat and let myself feel sad. I think it was helpful: instead of going around and around in circles, it was good to just stop and stay still, mentally speaking. And later I was able to articulate why I was feeling sad without feeling angry or casting blame.

When I finally was able to see my doctor, I got an extension on the mental area health thing and I didn't even get charged for the session. Back at work, I kept working on bits and pieces. Bec and Guan were in so I said hi to them. I didn't get to The Daily Reading Bible (Volume 17) but I did get to have lunch at the Tea Inn with Elsie (I had beef and vegetable noodle soup with almond milk tea with coconut fruit). We read Hebrews 12 together.

In the afternoon, I pushed on with The Daily Reading Bible (Volume 17) and met with Tony. Then I realised that Wednesday was going to be just crazy: not only did I have Briefing cuts and fills, I also had to do prep for the Briefing meeting and show Paul how to do things.

I stopped work at four but hung around to do some blogging since we still had no power at home. Unfortunately the internet connection went stupid and it was only fixed by unplugging the fax machine. I ended up not leaving until 7.

At home, we still had no power (except for the bedroom and spare room). Ben hadn't been able to cook dinner either. But he had borrowed Gavin's really really long extension cord to plug in the fridge, and the other extension cord was powering the router. We used a powerboard to plug in the electric frypan without losing power to the fridge, and then I made risoni for dinner. We watched the end of Australian Idol and then the premiere of 90210 which brought back memories of watching the original.

On Ben's laptop, I worked on getting my del.icio.us feed working with FeedGrab. Ben helped and it actually worked! (Now if only I could get the cron job to work ... what do I know about cron jobs???) Then we went to bed.

Tuesday 9/9/08

We woke up for the electrician who arrived at around 7:30. I ate breakfast and read my Bible. The electrician got the power back on. After he left, I felt really tired and went back to bed.

I got up a bit later and then fixed the Robert Murray M'Cheyne Bible Reading plan because I hadn't put the version with the linked verses into Expression Engine and, amazingly, people still use it in their daily devotions. I burned the happy playlist for Guan, then we headed into work. We arrived at around 12:30, I dealt with Sola Panel things and email, and then ate lunch.

In the afternoon, I kept working away at The Daily Reading Bible (Volume 17). I finished at 5:15 with only 10 studies left—hurray! We headed over to Guan's place for dinner with Guan and Bec but not Mary because she was in America. Guan was in the kitchen cooking and refusing our help, and Bec and Ben were messing around on their laptops, so I played on Guan's Mac (changing his Facebook status when he wasn't looking!) and getting my full posts and del.icio.us feed working.

After dinner, we drove to Eastgardens to see Hellboy II: The Golden Army. It was better than Hellboy I and also visually beautiful (I loved the troll market and the tree god's death!), but still annoying in places; there were just too many scenes where the hero shot of here-comes-Hellboy-to-save-the-day was used.

We came back to Guan's and had tea, then drove home and went to bed.

Wednesday 10/9/08

I was up at 6:45 and in at work by 7:30. I finished the last 10 studies of The Daily Reading Bible (Volume 17) and then started feeling really overwhelmed by the task ahead. I went through Briefing procedural stuff with Paul until both our brains were exploding. Then I did cuts and fills on the October issue.

I ate lunch. I needed to talk to Tony but he wasn't there. I did some admin and some Faithful Writer things, and did as much of the cuts and fills as I could with Joy.

Finally Tony got back in the office, and I was able to sit down and go over the October issue with him. This resulted in more changes and more talking to Joy.

After all of that, I started preparing for the Briefing meeting, trying to do the minutes from the last one, getting things up to date, and so on. I didn't end up leaving work until 6:45, and I drove to Bible study down a road with way too many speed bumps.

It was my first time with the group and it helped that I knew most of them already. I was so glad they do dinner together every week! We did Mark's studies on culture which provoked some interesting discussion. Then we broke up into guys and girls for prayer. Sammi had even made me a prayer book like the others which made me feel very welcome!

Afterwards, I followed George's car out until I figured out where I was, then drove home, had a shower, and stayed up looking up passages for my seminar at Word by Word.

Thursday 11/9/08

I was up at 6:45 and in at work by 7:30. I felt exhausted but I also finished my prep for the Briefing meeting and put together the agenda. I also did the last bits and pieces to get the October Briefing to proofreading. Anna sent around an email saying we were going to have cake to celebrate someone's birthday at 10:30 but that was no good for me, given that the Briefing meeting was at 11 o'clock. So I worked through morning tea and cake with my door open, and almost missed out on cake because I hadn't standing out there with the others. That made me feel crabby.

The meeting started late anyway. It was Paul's first. I used his laptop to take minutes because Tony's was in the middle of doing something and he couldn't unplug it. We got sidetracked talking about one of the future issues and my mind started wandering. We finally finished around 12:30-12:45. Guan and I decided to go to Red Hat for lunch, and I finally got to eat won ton noodles (I'd been craving some for several weeks!) We talked about books and writing and ways of working. The difference between me and him is that I generally know where the plot goes, whereas he doesn't.

We walked back to work and then it was time for a team meeting. We went through sales figures and prayed. Our production development meeting got cancelled and I was glad because I didn't think I'd be able to survive it, and was planning to leave at four anyway. I left at four, walked in the door and realised I'd forgotten to buy bok choy and milk, so went out again. I played Wii Fit for 45 minutes, including the free step exercise for 10 minutes while watching television. I had a shower and made grilled dory for dinner. We watched TV—The Simpsons, Law & Order and a bit of Idol—and then went to bed late.

Friday 12/9/08

I woke at 8 and then worked on Word by Word things. We got into work at 10:15, and then it was all fighting foo: email, Sola Panel (coding the Bible reading survey and setting it up properly), and then finally got back onto The Daily Reading Bible (Volume 17) which I read over one final time. I finished the New Product Information Sheet for it and told Emma it was done.

It was Friday Thai day so we had Ben's Thai for lunch. Ben decided he was never getting Ben's Thai again. After lunch, I read over all The Faithful Writer feedback again, collated the masterclass applications for all the committee members, gave Bec her lot, then took a walk over to New College to drop off the applications and the feedback forms for Trevor. I walked back and bought some nibblies for Word by Word as well as some milk. I was intending to stop work so I could do some Word by Word stuff, but then The Briefing came back from proofreading and I had to check some changes with Tony.

Ben picked me up and we drove home. I changed my clothes. He went off to see Luke and I caught the train to Central to attend Bron's hen's night. I walked to the Chinese Gardens from Central. On the way, I saw that the Chinatown markets were going again—probably to coincide with the moon festival. The stall where I had bought flower fairy lights for Ros was there, and I remembered there Ros wanted to get some for her friend, so I bought some more lights—pink ones this time.

Inside the Chinese gardens, according to Mel's message, they were near the lake, so I made my way there but couldn't see anyone. Fortunately Judith and Marinka showed up behind me, and they spotted the others, so we made our way along the bridge to where Bron and everyone else was sitting, watching the re-enactment of the story behind the moon festival. It was quite spectacular, with lights and a helium balloon acting as the moon, and fireworks.

After the show was over, we walked towards the teahouse and I caught up with Lara. Most people hadn't had dinner yet, so after collecting our free (tiny) mooncake, we headed over to the Regent. We got two tables near the stage and, being the only Asian there, I ended up ordering for everyone on my table. (There is something rather bizarre about ordering Chinese food for westerners in English when the waiter is amused at your lack of Chinese language skills.)

The food was great and, of course, we didn't eat it all. I got to catch up with Marinka, Meg and Rosey, and also with Bron a bit at the end. A book was being passed around for us to write stuff in so I scribbled a long and rather incoherent message in it to Bron.

At 10 pm I bailed. I intended to catch the train home from Town Hall, but Rosey left around the same time as me and said she was walking home and did I want to walk with her? I was worried about her safety, and agreed to walk as far as Central. But we got deep in conversation (about relationships and technology and church and music and psychology) and just kept going down Broadway—past Central, past the turn off to her house—and I was going to make her turn back and go home, but she said I should go a little further. We finally parted ways near Stanmore and I walked the rest of the way home by myself. The whole walk took around one and a half hours; I arrived home at 11:30.

I had a shower, then stayed up 'til 2:30 (long after Ben came home and went to bed) doing preparation for Word by Word. Oh dear, that was bad.

Saturday 13/9/08

I woke at 8 and, of course, it was hard to get up. Ben had a shower and I had breakfast. We were going to vote before in the council elections, but then realised we could do it after. We drove to Matthias Media and set up. We found the coffee machine broken which meant that all the coffee drinkers had to go out to get their fix. Dave and Kel came with little Ethan. Dave did the devotion and then Guan did a dialogue writing exercise. I gave my training seminar on basic grammar but tried to stop people from getting too finicky about it. The examples were helpful: I gave them excerpts from books like The Djinn in the Nightingale's Eye (A.S. Byatt), To the Lighthouse (Virginia Woolf), The English Patient (Michael Ondaatje), Perfume (Patrick Süskind) and A Dove of the East and Other Stories (Mark Helprin) and asked them to tell me what they observed about the way those writers wrote—how they used verbs, adjectives and adverbs.

During writing time, I actually got some writing done (I wrote some pieces for WebSalt. One of them became “Cheap is not always best”). We went to lunch at the dumpling house, then came back for workshopping. I workshopped the piece I just wrote (“Tube”) and then we wrapped it up.

Ben and I drove home, walked down to the school to vote and then went to sleep. I woke at 5:30, made noodles to go with our leftovers, and then watched So You Think You Can Dance? while I ate. Then I drove to Narwee Baptist (where Matt and Larissa got married) to attend their “Share the Well” concert which was to raise money for their link missionaries who help locals dig wells to find fresh water in Indonesia. Everyone performed really well and I was amazed at the number of musicians and singers they had. I especially liked the a capella rendition of “When I Survey” with harmonies by a lady who sounded just like Celine Dion. And it was wonderful to see Mel dance; I don't think I'd seen her dance since high school. And I also got to catch up briefly with Larissa.

It was Mel's birthday but unfortunately no one could make it but me. Afterwards, we went back to her house and ate dessert, and watched Mr & Mrs Smith which Mel hadn't seen before. Her sister Juliana joined us. It skipped halfway through which was annoying! The other odd thing was that it was a different cut of the movie to the one I had seen before; I wasn't sure if that was because it was the “Unrated” version (“Fail!” says Ben).

When the movie ended, I said goodbye and wished Mel a happy birthday again, then drove home, stopping for petrol near the intersection with Canal Road. I read for a bit and then went to bed around 1:30, 2 am.

Sunday 14/9/08

I slept for 12 hours and woke around 12:30. I ate brunch, had a shower, then got on the computer and did some blogging. I went to church at 5 and sat with Bec. Rod preached on 1 John 2:29-3:10. Afterwards, I chatted with Guy and then Emily (which was great because I hadn't really had a chance to talk to Emily much before). Then everyone went to Vinny's Woodfired Pizza afterwards. I split a pizza with Mike (unfortunately named “Il Bordello”) and also got to know him a bit better. Then I went home, did some blogging, compiled a shopping list, read a bit and went to bed.

Current:

Blinks:

Blog archives: ----------- January, 2012 November, 2011 September, 2011 June, 2011 April, 2011 March, 2011 February, 2011 January, 2011 December, 2010 November, 2010 October, 2010 September, 2010 August, 2010 July, 2010 June, 2010 April, 2010 March, 2010 February, 2010 January, 2010 November, 2009 October, 2009 September, 2009 August, 2009 July, 2009 June, 2009 May, 2009 April, 2009 March, 2009 February, 2009 January, 2009 December, 2008 November, 2008 October, 2008 September, 2008 August, 2008 July, 2008 June, 2008 May, 2008 April, 2008 March, 2008 February, 2008 January, 2008 December, 2007 November, 2007 October, 2007 September, 2007 August, 2007 July, 2007 June, 2007 May, 2007 April, 2007 March, 2007 February, 2007 January, 2007 December, 2006 November, 2006 October, 2006 September, 2006 August, 2006 July, 2006 June, 2006 May, 2006 April, 2006 March, 2006 February, 2006 January, 2006 December, 2005 November, 2005 October, 2005 September, 2005 August, 2005 July, 2005 June, 2005 May, 2005 April, 2005 March, 2005 February, 2005 January, 2005 December, 2004 November, 2004 October, 2004 September, 2004 August, 2004 July, 2004 June, 2004 May, 2004 April, 2004 March, 2004 February, 2004 January, 2004 December, 2003 November, 2003 October, 2003 September, 2003 August, 2003 July, 2003 June, 2003 May, 2003 April, 2003 March, 2003 February, 2003 January, 2003 December, 2002 November, 2002 October, 2002 September, 2002 August, 2002 July, 2002 June, 2002 May, 2002 April, 2002 March, 2002 February, 2002 January, 2002 ----------- Amusement Anime Canada/USA 2005 Comics/graphic novels Craft Depression Depression Talk 2006 Divorce Dreams and nightmares Forgiveness Gender Hong Kong 2007 Links Love and relationships Melbourne 2005 Melbourne 2006 Money Moore College MTS Notices Photoblog Pregnancy, birth and parenting Quotes Reading Recipes Reflections Scribbles St George Girls High Story of my life Talks The Arts Victoria 2008 Web geekery Writing ----------- Current archives: ----------- September, 2010 August, 2010 July, 2010 June, 2010 May, 2010 April, 2010 March, 2010 February, 2010 January, 2010 December, 2009 November, 2009 October, 2009 September, 2009 August, 2009 July, 2009 June, 2009 May, 2009 April, 2009 March, 2009 February, 2009 January, 2009 December, 2008 November, 2008 October, 2008 September, 2008 August, 2008 July, 2008 June, 2008 May, 2008 April, 2008 March, 2008 February, 2008 January, 2008 December, 2007 November, 2007 October, 2007 September, 2007 August, 2007 July, 2007 June, 2007 May, 2007 April, 2007 March, 2007 February, 2007 January, 2007 December, 2006 November, 2006 October, 2006 September, 2006 August, 2006 July, 2006 June, 2006 May, 2006 April, 2006 March, 2006 February, 2006 January, 2006 December, 2005 November, 2005 October, 2005 September, 2005 August, 2005 July, 2005 June, 2005 May, 2005 April, 2005 March, 2005 February, 2005 January, 2005 December, 2004 November, 2004 October, 2004 September, 2004 August, 2004 July, 2004 June, 2004 May, 2004 April, 2004 March, 2004 February, 2004 January, 2004 December, 2003 November, 2003 October, 2003 September, 2003 August, 2003 July, 2003 June, 2003 May, 2003 April, 2003 March, 2003 February, 2003 January, 2003 December, 2002 ----------- Bible Books Concerts Exhibitions Graphic novels, comics, manga Movies Music Musicals Series Talks and lectures ----------- Twitter archives: ----------- January, 2012 December, 2011 November, 2011 October, 2011 September, 2011 August, 2011 July, 2011 June, 2011 May, 2011 April, 2011 March, 2011 February, 2011 January, 2011 December, 2010 November, 2010 October, 2010 September, 2010 August, 2010 July, 2010 June, 2010 May, 2010 April, 2010 March, 2010 February, 2010 January, 2010 December, 2009 November, 2009 October, 2009 September, 2009 August, 2009 July, 2009 June, 2009 May, 2009 April, 2009 March, 2009 February, 2009 January, 2009

More /Karen/ ----------- Blog About me Testimony Favourites Wishlist Contact me ----------- Writing ----------- Articles Mixed Poetry Prose

Hippocampus Extensions H/E Ben Shots fired Sermons

Open links in new windows

Feeds

• Full posts
• Full posts and del.icio.us feed
• Excerpts only
• del.icio.us feed only
• All comments

Social media

• Flickr
• Last FM
• LibraryThing
• Listal
• Ravelry
• Twitter