A weekend in Canberra
On the weekend I went to Canberra and stayed with my friend Michelle, who is posting over at the EQUIP book club this month. We had a lovely time beginning with going to the Farmer's markets early on Saturday morning. Getting up early on a Saturday to go and buy food is not something I'd usually rush off to with great enthusiasm, but these Farmers markets were a hive of activity, because farmers markets are stuff white people like, and I resisted them all but amongst all the fruit and vegetables there were also enticing baked goods (things like pumpkin and lime cake), and we got some chorizo sausage off a funny old chap from somewhere in Eastern Europe who had a smallgoods trailer too. We met up with an old friend briefly there, invited her and her friend for dinner, then went our separate ways.
We then went out to the Cork Street cafe in Gundaroo, in a converted old stables, for lunch with a collection of Canberra dwellers. It was very pleasant driving out through the rolling hills to sit outdoors and soak up the sunshine. Michelle then went to an engagement party in the afternoon, and there were numerous people I could/should have looked up but instead I stayed home, read a few pages of Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson, then fell asleep.
That evening the friend mentioned earlier came over for dinner with a friend. She is now the speechwriter for the Governer-General. When I knew her back in Brisbane she was doing a Ph.D in 17th century poetry - John Donne and George Herbert. I am jealous! (of the Ph.D that is, not the speech-writing). I got rather inspired talking to her and wondered whether I could do a Ph.D in Arts, even though my Honours is in Science.
Sunday morning we went to Crossroads Church and heard a great sermon by Dave McDonald on Titus 1:1-4 and I caught up with some military folk I know through the Fighting Words network. Then we took a walk around the lake, and before too long I needed to leave for home.
It was nice to just spend time with someone on a Saturday and have an extended conversation while doing various things together.