Lunch with a stranger

It smells good outside. New cut grass, cool air. Yesterday evening I met a bunch of the yits people at Eastland for dinner (in the food court of all places). I walked in (after getting a lift with Jess and Sam) and went to check my roster at Dymocks - yes I was working 9-3pm. An utter pain, considering the plan was late night movies. Kat and Dave attacked us (well Kat did) while I was checking - being hugged across the barrier of 'behind the desk' was interesting ha, Kat has no social qualms whatsoever. Wandered our way down to wait for who ever else decided to show: Darryn, Elyce, Iain, Alecia, Sara, Kat, Dave, Sam, Jess W and myself made it for dinner. Clacy and Jess H joined us later at Jess's place. Kat fell off her chair after she was convinced people across the other side of the room were watching us, if they weren't then, they did now. We all made it to Jess's after an expidition into BiLo. Watched Episode 1 (the pilot) of Alias to have something 'suitable' for the guys rather than French films. Not bad, not hugely enthralling. A couple of them headed off, and we got Dave, Iain and Darryn sitting through most of Love Me If You Dare (french film). Elle was entirely put off by the ending. Kat declared it a good movie. Darryn left 3/4 through as he couldn't stand any more. I love it and have already seen it, but this was the first time in colour (yeh, stupid tv's). Sam was pleased to have put together the fragments she's been shown - or was that the next movie? Iain was shocked at having sat through a whole subtitled movie. Said goodnight and goodbye to all except Alecia, Kat, and Sam (and Jess because it was her house). We set up beds, and watched 'A Very Long Engagement'. I was half asleep through most of it, picked up stacks more than the first time and had to explain stuff to Kat every 20 minutes or so. Not a good movie for late at night. Complicated plot and sufficently gory, but quite excellent nevertheless. Sam and I talked for a bit, (and if you have her blog you can read that, if you don't , poor you). I suddenly noticed a set of knots in the wooden roof that looked like this funny dog's face and started laughing, even harder when after I mentioned it, Sam saw it straight away. So we got the giggles (oh how I hate that word) for a while. Then I decided I'd better sleep. What a boring saga of an evening. Mind you today I did something new. Work. Around 1pm I go for my lunch break. The food court is massively full and I didn't fee like wandering ages to find another seat. Finally found one. Ten minutes later a woman comes up to me, "Do you mind if I sit here.". Knew the difficulty, so I said, "Yep that's fine". Anyway, I had my tent of a Dymocks shirt on, and I ask her if she's Christmas shopping (merely to be polite, because of course the answer would be yes), then we talk about books for a bit. Eventually I introduce myself and she herself. Christine (middle aged - late 40's). Got talking somehow ended up that I grew up overseas, now in M. She says, "Oh I run for (erm.. labour?) for that area". And then conversation drifts onto church (she was not a Christian no, but did know a bit about Vineyard and stuff re: soup kitchen etc...). Anyway. it was cool. Talking to a complete stranger. It made my day thoroughly interesting. She came into Dymocks later and bought something, said hello/goodbye to me again. I apparently should be seeing her face on promo things for this area. Interesting. Bizarre. I should like to do it more often. Ha. Saw, Geoff S (old pastor), Anton (Janice's dad) and the one and only Rowan Lewis (YITS) all today. Quite a mass of people out shopping. The place was crazy. Bus home, air con is not working, it's really warm. I get a msg from Paul re: someone at his work. Entirely amusing. Listen to music and continue on getting my Tolkein fix for the year (halfway through the Hobbit - my Christmas tradition). And that was my day. Oh, and Wendy Rayner is here to spend Christmas with us, we are pretty much her (almost) family. It's nice to see her again. :) be mad, be very mad at bec making you read boring accounts of what she's done. Thats all for now.