The perfect shoes

My bridesmaids and I have found the perfect shoes for my wedding - and here they are!

Photoshop

"Are you Photoshopping your face?"

Steve, upon seeing me applying make-up in preparation for our date.

Martin Place

It's 12:30 on a sunny November day, and in Martin Place scores of office workers have come out of their air-conditioned cubicles to eat their lunch in the sunshine - the lucky few sitting on bench seats; the rest making do with steps. Somewhere around the middle, I'm brought up short by the sight of about a dozen people dancing salsa to the accompaniment of "Under My Umbrella" playing on a portable stereo. For a moment I wonder if it's a free lunch-time class of some sort, but they're too good - each of the couples looks like they're accustomed to dancing together. But the way they're dressed confuses me - they're all very casually dressed, in jeans and tracksuit pants and the like. Apart from one woman, who's wearing a colourful top, flippy skirt and proper dance shoes. She's obviously an instructor. But as for the rest - I can understand the exhibitionist desire to dance in front of a bunch of strangers, but... why would you do it in trackies??

College life

OK, people have been complaining (probably justifiably so) that I haven't updated my blog in far too long. So I thought I'd tell you a bit about college life, now that I'm a residential student at SMBC (that's Sydney Missionary & Bible College, for the uninitiated).

Here's some pics of my room... it's a very nice room, in a brand spanking new building, so I'm the first person to live in it. The furniture's all new too. So it's got a lot going for it! The only drawback is I feel a bit like I'm living in a fishbowl... I'm on the ground floor, right next to the pedestrian thoroughfare where all the single guys and most of the married couples who live on campus walk through to go to the lecture rooms, library and dining room - so that can be a little weird when I'm getting changed into my pyjamas and can hear a couple of guys chatting just outside my window.

I have 7 housemates, who are all lovely, and share a bathroom with just one other girl (Josie, who I've known since the start of first year). Upstairs is a lounge/dining room and a fully equipped kitchen, which I'm pretty tickled with - even though the most I've cooked so far is 2-minute noodles and air-popped popcorn, I like knowing I can cook properly if I ever feel the urge.

All our meals are served in the dining room - although we are given the option of having breakfast in our accommodation if we're not "morning people" - which I, along with several of the other girls in my house, do regularly. On the occasions when I have made the effort to get out of bed early enough to have breakfast in the dining room I've found I'm not really awake enough to have a proper conversation, so there's very little point! And on the morning when the coffee machine in the dining room wasn't working, it wasn't pretty. Dinner is served at 5:45pm, which often just makes my non-institutionalised friends laugh (although not so much the ones with small children). It takes a bit of getting used to, but does make for nice long evenings so you have lots of time to ... erm... study. :o)

My Nan rocks!

If I’ve spoken to you recently you’re probably aware that I’ve taken up residence in one of my grandparents’ spare bedrooms in Glenbrook as of about six weeks ago. They’re in their early 90’s, and still living in their own home, which I think is thoroughly impressive! Sadly, Grandad is suffering badly from dementia and is really not the man he used to be. For the first month, he looked slightly surprised and confused (although not displeased) every time I came out of my bedroom. He seems to have got used to having me around now, but I’m pretty sure he still doesn’t know who I am. This would be very sad, if not for the fact that he is a believer, so I'm just looking forward to the day when he is restored to his former self in his resurrection body!

Nan, on the other hand, is still sharp as a tack! Not only is she still very interested in what’s going on in the world and the lives of her grandchildren (she’s generally recognised to be the hub of family gossip), I’ve been reminded in recent weeks of how very cool she is, for a lady of 91. For example:-

• She still calls me “mate”.
• She still gets quite excited over a good game of rugby, and warns people that she can’t be held responsible for her language when she’s watching football (she’s been known to say “damn” and “bloody”!!).
• She can still hit me hard enough to hurt (this happened most recently when she got quite excited over a good game of rugby).
• I can talk to her about sex.
• She still eats burritos, and enjoys a glass of wine or two with dinner.
• She doesn’t take herself too seriously – when I busted her walking around the house with no trousers on because she didn’t realise I’d come home, she laughed and said, “Don’t worry, I haven’t lost my marbles, I’m not Grandad!”
• She takes an interest in technology – she was very curious about how it is that I talk to my friend Steve using my computer (i.e. Skype), and was thoroughly impressed when I showed her how my webcam works (as you can see in the picture above, taken on said webcam).
• She can still cook a mean lamb roast, and wonderful corned beef.
• She still, on occasion, wears denim.
• Last year, a month shy of her 90th birthday, she danced with me at my uncle’s wedding - to “The Love Shack”!

Yep, my Nan rocks. I hope I grow up to be like her!

Strong women

“When you’ve got two strong women agreeing with each other, it doesn’t matter how wrong their information is, you’ve got no chance”.

(My Auntie Chris, herself a strong woman, commenting on a conversation where my Mum and their friend Gail were vigorously refuting a fact which Chris knew without a doubt to be true.)

Some people REALLY need to get a life

Are you one of those people who call back missed calls on your phone when you don't recognise the number, and demand to know who you're speaking to? Well if you are, PLEASE DON'T! Really - apart from the fact that it sounds very rude and aggressive, if you don't recognise the number and they didn't leave a message, chances are it was a wrong number. If it wasn't a wrong number, and it was important, they'll call back!

What precipitated this post was somebody doing that to me, except that somehow they got the number wrong when they called back. The conversation went something like this:-

Me: Hello?
Caller: Who's that?
Me: Err... Debbie.
Caller: Debbie who?
Me: Uh... YOU called ME! Who's this??
Caller: There was a missed call on my phone, I wanted to know who called.
Me: Okay... who are you?
Caller: Mabel Smith.
Me: I didn't call you. I don't know who you are.
Caller: Well, the number on my phone was **** 737 ***
Me: My number is **** 739 ***
Caller: *jovially* Oh! I got the number wrong!
Me: Yes. *click*


Well, there's 45 seconds of my life that I'll never get back!