Catch-Up Post

So last week I let you all have a peek through my windows, and posted each night a diary entry of that day's events.  It was fun - I enjoyed writing it, and I trust you enjoyed reading it.  :)  Now for those who were following my week, you'll know that I got through Monday to Thursday but then Friday, Saturday and Sunday just didn't happen.  I shall attempt to fill you in on those three days - it won't be in so much detail though - and share a few things that have been happening since then.

Friday I spent flitting around in excitement, tidying up in preparation for Elizabeth to come and stay.  In the end, I didn't get everything done that I wanted to before I got a phone call from Elizabeth saying that she was at the bus stop, ready to be picked up.   It was a funny conversation...

Elizabeth: I've just arrived!
Me: Yay! Well, Mum and Dad have just ducked down town but they'll be back any minute now and we'll come and get you.
Elizabeth: *laughs* Ok.  That's all right - I can wait.
Me: Um, so where are you?
Elizabeth: *confused* At the S--- bus stop... Isn't there just one?
Me: Umm... no.
Elizabeth: Oh. Right.
Me: What is there around you?  Are there any fuel stations or anything?
Elizabeth: Ummm... there's an Agricultural Hotel.  Does that help?
Me: ... ahhh... no...
Elizabeth: Ok... um... I can see another hotel... the Albion??
Me: Ah right!  I know where you are now!  See you soon!


She made it here in the end.  XD  We spent most of the evening chatting, giggling, playing board games, looking at pictures on Pinterest and so on.  Finally we got ready for bed one by one and then each lay there reading with the lights on until about 11:30...

Saturday dawned, and we lay there sort of dozy for a while before jumping into talking and giggling again.  Mum came down stairs to our room and said that she thought she would drop us girls off at the book fair and then go grocery shopping.  That sounded fine to us, so Elizabeth and I went and had some breakfast (everyone else had already eaten) and we got ready to head down town.

Now whenever I go to the book fair down at the show grounds, for some reason, I seem to expect engilding rays to be flooding the books with heavenly illumination.  It's not like that... at all.   The fair is held in the big shed at the show grounds.  Rows of tables run up the middle of the room and against the walls.  Every table is loaded with boxes and boxes of books.  The room is not dark, but it is not exactly glowing either, and in the background over the clatter of conversation and whining children is playing old classics like Abba... (ok, admittedly, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do just happened to be the only song I recognised, but I'm going to go out on a limb and say that most of the music played was from that era... :P)  

When we were dropped off, Elizabeth, Joy, Elise and I all went our separate ways.  Book finding is kind of a personal thing.  Oh, of course we touched base every now and again, but when you are looking for books one must be able to wander at one's own sweet pace and run one's hand over the books, feeling the thrill of bibliophilia run up fingertips, arms and into the soul.

We spent about two hours browsing, collecting, revelling.  The fair had a deal happening that you could get a plastic bag of books for $5, or a cloth bag of books for $10.  When we all met back with our books, we decided that we were going to stuff all of our books into one bag and get them all for $10.  While we were working on this worthy achievement, a short little man with a beard and a camera stopped and asked if he could take our photo for the local paper.  We agreed and he took it right then and there.  After taking our names, he moved on.  Elizabeth started giggling.  "My first time here, and I get a picture in your paper!" she laughed.  We finished packing all our books in a single bag and went and paid for them - thirty-two books for $10.  ^_^

After lunch, we decided to watch a movie, being rather tired and not feeling like doing anything particularly vigorous.  We put on The Princess Bride because it is one of our favourites and Elizabeth had not seen it before.  After that, Elizabeth and I walked over to the shop near our place for the sake of taking a walk.  We got a milkshake each (chocolate for me, and strawberry for Elizabeth) and walked home again.  The milkshakes were really nice until we got to the bottom and there was a good layer of syrup coating the bottom of each cup.  We left that bit in the cup.  ;)

That night, after dinner, we drove Elizabeth back home.  We were tired, but it had been a wonderful weekend.

Sunday consisted of church in the morning, and in the afternoon we went to Tahlee to visit Jess.  It was a bit sad to leave her there, but it was nice to see her.  I also visited my Korean friends who are just seven weeks off welcoming their first baby!  It was only a brief visit, but it was lovely to see them.  They got me to try a Korean tea which was like a creamy nutty milk, only it didn't really have milk in it, and it had little nut bits floating in the top.  They also got me to try some of their dinner (even though I had already eaten with the family!) which was a spicy pancake.  They didn't think I would like it because it was spicy, but I don't mind a bit of punch or burn, and it certainly wasn't the hottest thing I'd ever tried.  I quite liked it.


This week - I can't believe it is nearly over! - has been busy and interesting.  Joy has been quite unwell, but is so much better now, praise God!


This week, I finally finished my cross stitch that I got for Christmas in 2012.  It's not a fantastic photo, but you can kind of get the idea.  I'm quite happy with how it came out, but I do need to put the French knots in for the eyes... I can't do French knots.  I think I need some expert help.  I also need to find a frame for it.  I'm not sure whether to buy a new frame, or to try and find a revitalised vintage frame.  What do you think?

I think I mentioned last week that I have recently re-joined town band.  Last Monday's band practise was quite amusing and I got a new nickname.  Nine senior flautists showed up that night.  (By senior, I mean, they are in the senior band, not the intermediate band.)  Because there were so many of us, we had to share folders and music stands.  I was sharing with a girl called Anna.  Next to her was Ruth, a lady my family knows from the Pirates of Penzance production and gets along with really well.  The conductor announced that we would play a piece called "Boogie-Woogie Bugle Boy" and so we all flicked through our folders to find it.  When Anna and I found the music, we noticed that at the end of the music was written in lead pencil Running Bird Seahorse.  Needless to say, we had no idea what that meant.  Anna asked Ruth to see if she knew.  She didn't.  So, with the sheet of paper in my hand, I flagged down the conductor.  (Being in the front row is such a handy thing!)

"What does Running Bird Seahorse mean?" I asked giving him the music.  He gazed it for a moment.
"Umm... I think it's your Indian name," he said, handing it back to me.  Anna and I giggled.
"Great!" Ruth said.  She gestured to first Anna and then me. "You can be Running Bird, and you can be Seahorse."

I have a feeling that's going to stick... I don't mind, but it's pretty funny.  If you are ever down at our band hall, and you hear someone mention Seahorse, it's probably me.  XDD

Well, it's very late now, and I'm tired, so I'm going to sign off and go to bed.  Goodnight people!!  :D

This week: Day by Day - Monday

Monday

I was rather sleepy this morning... Mum ended up waking me a bit past seven.  I am usually up by that time but I can account for this morning.  Poor little Elise was rather unwell during the night and kept me awake with her coughing and shivering.  Eventually (a bit past 2:00 am) I got up and realized she was running quite a high fever.  This is not unusual for her when she gets any sort of bug, and it always hits her very hard in the form of high fevers, back aches and extreme headaches.  And it is usually in the middle of the night.  This means that I have to help her upstairs to the couch, take her temperature and wake up Mum to offer comfort to the little sufferer.  I don't mind too much (after all, I'm the one who's planning to do nursing...) but it does make me rather tired... and tired me can result in one of two versions of me:

1. The crotchety, cranky me; or
2. The giggly crazy me

The concerning thing is that not even I can say which version is going to come out throughout the day.  It can change.  I must admit that when I got up with Elise, it was cranky me.  I tried to be the sweet nurse I can envision, but maybe it takes three years uni to master that... (I wish... LOL!)

It took a cup of tea and a chorizo sausage with a couple of eggs to get me going.  That and this morning's breakfast music.  I sat down at the table next to Annie's high chair, and she asked, "Can we listen to Annie??"  (Now do remember that her name is not really Annie, so this makes much more sense in it's real context.  What she was referring to was the new movie of Annie released at the end of last year.  We love that movie - the soundtrack is awesome.  I have a movie review coming soon.  :D)  So we kids all sat around the table and between mouthfuls sand songs like Tomorrow, Easy Street, New York City, Opportunity, I Think I'm Going to Like it Here, Maybe, and so on, and so on.  It's so much fun singing together - those of us who can pick out parts do so, and it sounds really nice.

But all fun and nice things come to a close eventually and before we were ready to stop singing our little hearts out, it was time for us to all disperse and tend to our duties for the week.  I am on vacuuming this week and so I did a quick tidy of the lounge and dining rooms and vacuumed them.  In winter it is also my 'job' in the mornings to get the fire going.  James would gladly do this for me (the little fire-bug!) but it never gets going for him.  I have tried to tell him that piling the kindling on top of the logs will not ignite the logs, but never mind.  When he gives up I enjoy setting it up (properly!) and getting the house nice and warm.  This morning I got a bit of a scare when a burning stick rolled out of the fireplace on to the hearth, sending a spray of shattered burning coal bits onto the carpet and my skirt.  Thankfully, nothing actually ignited.  The carpet is somewhat scarred now with ugly black pits, but I am rather thankful that we still have a carpet and it didn't go up in smoke.

At 9:30 is our come together time where we read the Word, pray and read our read-aloud book together.  This morning's Bible reading was Joshua 11 where a whole gang of kings come together to fight Israel but in less than 24 hours, the Lord helps Joshua and his army wipe the entire lot of them off the face of the earth.  It's amazing.

Our Read aloud book at the moment is Jonny Tremain.  It is the story of an intelligent, arrogant boy whose dream of being the best silver smith in the American colonies is shattered when he is permanently injured by a spiteful practical joke.  He eventually finds himself swept up in the emotions and politics of the Revolution and meets some of the high up persons that shaped America to what it is today.

Our reading time lasted about an hour and then everyone went off to do their book work.  For me, this means biology and for this module, that means memorizing the anatomy of a crayfish.  I know.  Go figure.  A crayfish.  Last module it was the anatomy of a an earthworm.  I can't wait to get to vertebrates.

Lunch.  Lunch is getting a bit tricky for me as I seem to have become (to some extent) gluten intolerant.  I usually go digging through the fridge for some left overs.  Today that came in the form of a chicken drumstick and beans and a bit of pumpkin.  I made a mushroom sauce to go on the chicken (because if you can add mushroom to anything, why on earth wouldn't you??) and I must say it was really yum.  ^_^

Mum decided that Joy would help her do the lunch clean up today, and so Jess and I took Rosie and Annie to the park next door.  Our version of minding the girls in the park is to let them run where they want (within reason of course - they are not allowed ANYWHERE near the road) while we sit under a tree and read, glancing up every now and again to make sure we know the whereabouts of our little sisters.  When we came inside again and Mum put the little girls down for their afternoon rest, Jess, Elise and I all sat around the fire and read for a good half hour.  It was lovely.  I am currently reading several books (as you would know if you follow me on Goodreads =P) but I am concentrating on The Book Thief.  It is an amazing book.  The imagery Zusak uses is astounding.  I am really enjoying it, and am proud of myself for being well over halfway through it.  This may not sound like such a wonderful feat except that it is more than 500 pages long.  XD

At 3:00 mum had a 'music meeting' with our pastor and the other music leader (Mum being one music leader and Curtis the other).  She dropped Joy and me off at the library on the way down as we meet with a lovely librarian friend of ours every month.  And so, after hanging at the library for an hour, and then chatting with Lee for an hour, we went home with a few more books than we returned.  (Please tell me we are not the only ones who do this!!)

By the time we got home,  Grace had dinner on and before long, it was ready.  There is something rather homey about meat and veg.  Add to that the lively chatter of a family of ten and you have one of the most beautiful things in the world, in my opinion.

After dinner, we were on the go again (I told you this week would be busy!).  Mum, Dad, and Joy went to music practise at church (Grace and Elise weren't well enough to go tonight) and I went to town band.  Town band is a 'new' thing for me, as in I used to go but last week was the first time in five years.  I am really enjoying it and having an outlet for my flute playing gives me an incentive to practise.  I know a lot of the people in the band, and most of the flautists.  Tonight there were six flautists but I am under the impression that all up - intermediate and senior band combined with no people away - there would be 17 flutes.  Wow!  That's quite a number of shiny metal tubes, I can tell you!  The people down at the band are really lovely and I love playing with them.

So here I am now, typing this out for you all to read - a bit of a window into my day.  I am the only one up now and my eyes and head are begging me to put away the bright screen and go to bed.  So I think I will.  But I am going to leave you with a verse from my personal Bible time from 2 Corinthians.

Anyone you forgive, I also forgive. And what I have forgiven—if there was anything to forgive—I have forgiven in the sight of Christ for your sake, in order that Satan might not outwit us. For we are not unaware of his schemes.

(2 Corinthians 2:10-11)

Goodnight all, and God bless!  :)

We Three Kings of Ominous Are...

Today Jess, Grace, Joy and I tried to do some music together.  This is always an interesting exercise as we are all of very different temperaments and each have our own idea of how to learn something as a group.  In the past, we have tried to learn hymns together (we called ourselves "Hers playing Hymns") but it never got very far.  So today, we decided, would be the day.

As it is coming up to Christmas, we chose "We Three Kings" with Grace on the piano, Jess on cello, Joy on violin, and me on the flute.  The very first verse threw us into turmoil.  It is obviously the three kings singing together, so we had to play together.  There was only a melody line and a scant harmony written in on the music.  

"Don't worry," I said, the ever-optimistic.  "I'll just write a harmony in.  GRACE WOULD YOU STOP PLAYING PLEASE!!!!"  And yes, believe it or not, I yelled that bit.  (Grace has a tendency to get bored when we aren't playing and starts to play her own thing loudly over everything else.) 

"Noooooo... don't write a harmony now!!!"  the girls beg.  I promptly sit down at the piano, pencil in hand, ready to do the deed.   Grace and Joy go outside in frustration.  Jess sits there and plays on the ipod.

15 minutes later...

"I'm done!"  Everyone comes back and I proudly display my three part harmony - for the first verse.  I inform them that I will take care of the chorus later.  They groan, but we start playing the new music.
"Stop, stop, stop, stop, STOP, STOP, STOP!!!!"  I call.  "It doesn't sound good right now!!!"

Grace's head makes contact with the music rack as Joy complains, "I'm sight reading."

"We're all sight reading," Jess says dryly. 

"Look,"  I say logically.  "Let's run through our parts separately." 

Grace groans again and leaves the room.  "Call me when you're ready."

Joy, Jess and I practice separately and then together.  We call Grace back, and she accompanies us on the piano.  It sounds good - the first verse.  The chorus is a wreck, but we figure we play the chorus through once for each verse, so we have plenty of time to figure it out.

Joy takes the part as the first king, the king who offers gold.  We convince her that the violin sounds much better if she stands up, instead of sitting on the floor, but she brings up another problem.  "I haven't got anywhere for my music," she says.  We are starting to get desperate, so we blu-tack the music to the glass sliding door near the piano, and that does the trick.  (You know they say that necessity is the mother of invention!)  Joy is only part way through her verse when I stop her again.

"Joy, stop.  You are playing a king - A KING - he is a vigorous king, not a weak person about to cry.  And use your vibrato - it sounds so much better."

"I hate vibrato."

"Do it anyway.  That's better."

I am the frankenscence king, and as I know what I want out of the verse, it goes off without a hitch... ;)

Jess is the myrrh king and plays her verse nice and deep on the cello, accompanied by deep chords played by Grace.  Dubbed the "death verse" by its gracious cellist, it has a tendency to make us start giggling in the middle of it.

We finally worked out the chorus and were really happy with how it sounded.  We played it through a few times and were starting to get comforable with the harmonies and the parts when Mum came in the room.

"The harmonies sound really good," she encouraged us, "but there's something wrong with the timing.  It is supposed to be in 3/8 - I think you are playing it in 2/2." 

We were.  How we managed that, I'm not sure, but Grace says she can't play it in 3/8 and so now we have to wait until she can figure it out.  I know she can do it, she just needs to practice.

So that was our music session for the day.  I would love to master some more pieces together - we'll have to wait and see.  :)