Thursday 27 December 2007

Sufjan Stevens makes excellent writing music

Yesterday the Uns and the Beilharzes came around for Boxing Day lunch and trifle (which seemed to be much appreciated by all). Unfortunately, Ben and Karen had to leave for other engagements, but we had a pleasant cup of tea together before they had to go. Guan and Mary showed me the delights of We Love Katamari, an insane Japanese PS2 game that is pointless and yet extremely addictive (as so many pointless things are), with a nutty Japanese-pop soundtrack which G and M sweetly sang along to as I played. They left to pack for their trip to New Zealand, and I had a worsening headache so had to go and lie down.

I made some turkey and sweet potato pasties with the last of the Christmas leftovers, and mum and I had a glass of wine and watched the rest of the North & South DVDs Kiz had loaned me. I rather enjoyed it in the end, although the first two episodes had me grumbling that Elizabeth Gaskell had obviously been studying Pride and Prejudice a little too closely, but seeing as I've never actually read any Gaskell I could be completely off with that judgement. Still, nothing quite like a quiet night in with a bonnet drama, I must say.

Today Karen and I had the first of many (hopefully!) city days. We met at the Tea Centre at 10.00 and wrote for a couple of hours, while enjoying banana bread, turkish bread, various teas and Sufjan Stevens as a very good writing soundtrack (I wrote 13 pages, hurrah). We left and wandered down to Allan's Music, which had a 20% off sale, so K bought up a bunch of film/musical theatre scores and I bought the piano score for the last Pride and Prejudice film. Then on to King's Comics, where we saw many things we would like to buy but we were restrained and only got one thing each (I got Johnny Hiro: half Asian, all hero, which I thought would be a lot funkier than it was). And then finally to Kinokuniya, where miraculously I didn't buy anything, but Karen bought half the shop with her Christmas money (how satisfying!).

We had lunch at Sakura on Pitt St (gyoza and miso soup for me), and chatted some more. We discovered we had a mutual friend from completely unrelated circles, which is always kind of freaky, and I shared with Karen some of the big things that have happened to me in my life. It's always funny when you get to that point in friendships; you've shared lots of the day to day stuff, and the ongoing stuff, and the new memories you are creating together, but there comes a time when you have to decide whether you're going to tell them all those things from your past that make you who you are today, whether good or bad. I guess some people choose to keep them hidden, or are very selective about what they tell, but I figure it's all part of my testimony. All the bad stuff (as well as the good) has been part of God's plan for shaping me, for bringing me back to him, and although it is painful I don't think I'm less of a person for having gone through those things.

Having said that, I do have to be choosy about when and who I tell certain things to. Some people might not ever be ready to hear it, some people might never be close enough to me to hear it. And I'm certainly not going to go into detail about it on the internet! But I was glad I told Karen - hope it wasn't too much to hear.

Karen went to meet Ben for a movie at the Dendy Newtown, and I wandered around the city to buy the last few things I needed, then caught the bus home feeling sick, strange and melancholy. Once home, unable to shake it, I went out into the garden and dug up weeds for an hour. I'm discovering that this is excellent therapy for those down moods, it gives you a useful activity to do while your brain is processing whatever is making you feel down, rather than just lying around or mooching on the net. Also Scout is so much fun in the garden, attacking bugs and leaping in the air in an attempt to catch birds twice her size which are, of course, flying metres overhead.

And now, it's bedtime.

1 comment :

  1. I'm glad you trust me enough to tell me! I just hope it didn't make you sad and your headache even worse :(

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