It's In!

The dissertation was handed in about 10am on Friday morning.

Later that day, Jonathan obliging did a victory dance in honour of this great event. Being a little shy of 9 months old, he doesn't really understand that in this dimension (unlike Pylea) children are not obliged to engage in dances to express their parents' emotional state. So, he made a good effort to fulfill what he thinks are his filial duties.

It was an excellent victory dance. It was quite complex and moved through a kind of latino phase before emerging into a final hip-swivelling, energetic jig, which aptly expressed the immense joy the removal of this load has injected into our lives.

So impressed were we by his efforts, we have contemplated renaming him Numfar, but that might be confusing.



Thank you to those of you who have been praying for us. There were moments during the week when it looked less likely that it be finished in time: like when it took Mark almost a full two days in the last week to recover from a trip to the library! The final sprint was an all-night affair involving both of us, accompanied at various times by Jonathan (who had a bad cough and kept waking up). But by 8am, it was completed and bound and ready to go.

Mark's supervisor was quite pleased with the final product, which was particularly encouraging given that Mark has been ill for almost all the time he was working on it. It also means we are still slightly hopeful that we may be able to stay at Oxford. In any case, we now have a few weeks to rest and recover before Mark does the Viva in early October and we find out what the future may hold for us. Mark has blood tests on Wednesday, but is feeling much better. And made his first real Dad joke on Sunday. (But then, he's been making Dad jokes for some years; only now it is legit).

We now turn to the long list entitled: Things We Need To Do After The Dissertation Is Submitted. JMB

No longer do the dance of victory, Num... no, um, Jonathan!

We've Been Tagged.

We have to complete a 'meme' apparently, divulging six random facts about ourselves to the waiting world.

Apparently there are rules about this as well. We have to tag people and so on.

Well.

We're not going to follow them.

We're on the other side of the world.

So, what'dya'gonnadoaboud'it?

Well, we'll hand over the random facts. We won't do the tagging, not because of the beligerent attitude but because there is a dissertation due next week. And anyway, we not really good at linking to other blogs. Like Facebook, this is a skill on our list of things to do after the dissertation.

Random Fact 1
We like gloomy, rainy weather. Thunderstorms, especially Queensland thunderstorms are occasions of great excitement. Pouring, torrential rain is also cause for rejoicing. A check of the weather for the week revealing a full week of wet weather is our idea of a Good Week. We are constantly surrounded by people who find rain a tragedy, but we secretly thank God for it. Though, as it turns out, not so secretly anymore. Yes, we're the traitors people. String us up.

Random Fact 2
We don't own a TV. When we were in Australia and we owned a TV, whenever we really liked a TV show it would be axed or moved to an impossible timeslot (like 3am). So, we tend to watch DVD's of TV shows. Our favourites are: Morse, Lewis, Press Gang, Veronica Mars, Buffy, Angel, Bones, Gilmore Girls, Sherlock Holmes, Dead Like Me, Wonderfalls, Firefly and for a brief week Dr Horrible's Sing-Along Blog. We don't just watch TV either, to the annoyance of most of our friends (and unwary acquaintances), we analyse the shows we watch. A lot. Continually. With great excitement.
If you look at this list, you'll realise that all these TV shows have something in common: they explore what it means to be human and to relate to others. That interests us a great deal. And a good script doesn't go astray either.

Random Fact 3
We used to get together at the University of Queensland when we were studying there in the early 1990's and pray for revival. Fairly seriously: about 5 hours per week. There were four of us who got together regularly and we would read bits of the prophets out of context and pray. The group was called Dead Prophets Society, (named by Mark), and although we didn't get the great exciting, earth shattering revival we prayed for, God did graciously answer our prayers in that now it is easier to hear the gospel at UQ. You have to avoid certain people if you don't want to hear it, as we understand it. God was very gracious to answer our prayers like that. And Mark and I were falling in love at the time, which is kind of an added bonus.

Random Fact 4
Mark wore a black cape to our wedding reception. We only got one photo of it. But it was cool. He looks good in a cape. Swashbuckling good.

Random Fact 5
We both like cooking, together. It is almost impossible to do this these days, but we used to love planning a menu for a dinner party and then cooking it together. We even had speciality areas. Our greatest moment was cooking a roast dinner at a houseparty/camp for about 120 people. We worked on it all afternoon and tag-teamed the last hectic hour. As far as we could tell, people enjoyed the meal and we were very pleased with ourselves.


Random Fact 6
We like books. Lots of books. We like to own the books we read. Mostly so that we can go back to them and lend them to people (and lose them forever). We like reading, together, out aloud, to our little boy (who also loves books), and by ourselves. We use books to stimulate us, recharge us and to, yes, you guessed it, analyse the world. When we move (which seems to happen more often than we would like!), we usually feel a sense of belonging and calm when our books are unpacked.

We have officially provided you with some random information. If you read this and own a blog, and wish to contribute to the random facts floating about in the ether, consider yourself tagged, gentle reader. JMB