Well Hello!

Hi There Everyone!

Well what an exhausting four days of work it has been!! Thank goodness I've had two days off, although I have to admit Thursday was another long one, but fun and not really work related. Kind of.

Last Thursday I made mention of the rumour to go to Kareoke. Well that actually became fact when Breanne, Marie and I tottled off to Finchly.The pub itself is on three levels and has a set up similar to The Carron in Spencer Street. To begin with it was rather quiet, maybe 10 people in there, but by the time the comp had began I'd say we'd creeped up to 35. Not the busiest place around, yet served it's purpose. Oh my gosh this one guy got up and he was really, really, really bad. I mean I know I'm not crash hot, though I'd imagine there would be no telling this guy!! I don't do public singing. Normally. But I'd found another pub which serves Snake Bites (Andrea you're an evil woman, I am hooked now) and well, lets just say B52s Loveshack will always be a fond favourite of mine....BUT Breanne entered the actual comp they have going. In a space of two days I learnt she could play the guitar and sing, both brilliantly well. So Marie and I persuade her to enter. And blow and behold, she's through to the Semi's!! And she is really good! So that's on the agenda soon enough, back we'll go and we're trying to get all the HA's to come.

And while I'm on that thought, I'll explain a few things because in the past two days I've had several comments from several people informing me I 'slip into the lingo' and manage to lose people. So I'm going to try explain myself. HA's is short for House Assistants, whichI am one of nine that we currently have. That will drop to six in the winter. There are four main shifts. K1, K2, House and Program. In the last month you are here, you have the chance to do an additional shift known as K3, but if you choose to do that, then it's the only shift you do. It's pretty much all cooking (well assisting) and you tend not to go into the dish washing pit. Oscar is our garbage disposal and Tilly is the industrial diswasher we have. Dixon is the resident dog. When I refer to a Session or Session Participants, these are groups that come here for a specific program. These can run from 8-10 days. Aside from that I don't think I refer to too many other things...if I do, let me know!

Friday night we had the 'Friends Banquet'. Basically, we have a volunteer group who help raise money for Pax Lodge and you can become a member and what not. You are then known as a 'Friend of Pax Lodge'. And every so often they have dinners. Of course if you're a member from another country it's hard to attend...but you get my drift. Thankfully we didn't have to cook or serve. In fact we were invited to attend. But here we are, nine lovely young ladies mixed with about 40 rather, mature aged women. It was rather odd. Then the added bonus was we all had to do the washing up afterwards!! It was eat and run! But see there was wine on the table. So two glasses of wine and then a mad rush to get dishes done is quite an interesting experience, especially when you've got 11 people in the kitchen!! Record time, a huge mountain of dishes unlike I've ever seen was done in 50 minutes. The issue was I was so hyped up that I had a huge amount of energy I had to burn otherwise I wouldn't sleep. So I declared I was going for a walk! Yes at 11pm or later at night in the dark town of Hampstead I wanted to go for a walk...next thing I know, five others are coming with me! So in the end we went up the hill to check out the line for Harry Potter...it was kinda long and there's a photo on my photo page...but the issue was, when I meant I wanted to go for a walk, I meant a fast brisk burn up energy kind of walk. These people just dawdle!!! In the end, I ended up running (yeah I RAN!! Everyone has just passed out) like a block ahead of them, running back and I did this five or six times and the blocks here aren't your conventional block size!! Needless to say I slept really well that night...

Saturday and Sunday were my first two days off work, slightly complicated by my bout of food poisoning. I'll tell you now for those that have never had it -You Don't Want It!! It is horrible! Started about 1am on the Saturday morning and come 7am start time, I was in agony! I sware to you, it was an image worthy of a hangover! I am on the floor of the loo literally doubled over, he he he. While I didn't think so at the time, it's quite amusing really. So my big Saturday night out was actually a little night in. And in essence that wasn't too bad really. Thankfully the first three of my four days were program and since we don't have a session in, it was mainly office duties, although I did get called to do other things which I'll get into later on.

Sunday night (as I was rostered in Program), my evening didn't finish until about 9:15pm. This is because the groups we had in had requested what's known as an evening program. Basically, it's an opional extra when you stay here. We can put together activities with a theme if you wish. Usually it's a Pax Lodge or International Theme. And it goes for about an hour and a half. Generally has an opening, a bit of a rundown on the HA positions, The Pax Lodge Song, followed by a series of activities (as the rostered on HA's help out) and then its Taps and the Friendship squeeze. Of course I've never even been a part of evening program, so I wasn't sure exactly what it was I was supposed to do!! But it did run quite well and it was actually quite enjoyable.

Monday was the day from hell. I tell you, it was a mad house. We were having about 47 guests stay that night, with 30 currently checked in and the remainder to check in during the day. So two big things happened. The first was the water tanks were being drained and cleaned. A process that was supposed to start at 9:30am and be done by 2pm. We'd planned on that. We'd worked around all our loads of washing (and when you have 59 odd beds in a place, each with a fitted sheet, doona cover, two pillow cases plus all the towels you can ever imagine) you'd come to understand there's a constant flow of washing in this place. And ironing, oh my gosh. But back to the water. It eventually went off just before 11am and come back on around 3:30pm. So if you had a call of nature, tough luck! Thankfully all our guests were out for the day, we'd told them upon checking in what was happening and they'd planned around it. Of course we said it'd be done by 2pm, but when they started to wander back around 3pm we were still without water. In that regard it was fine really, they weren't too fussed. The biggest issue were the matresses.

Every five years we get new guest matresses (can I just say the tanks get done every 8 so I managed to score both on the same day!!). As I said before, we have 59 guest beds. Now again this was all fine because we knew it was happening and we'd prepared. You'd think that when the guys rocked up at 9am the day would run smoothly. No. Ha no way in the world. You'd also think it was logical to replace an old matress with a new one as they were removing them, or do them room by room. Wrong again. They decided to take all our matresses (well they could take all but around 20) and come back with the new ones, then take the remainder of the old ones away. So where does the issue lay? Well put it this way, 47 guests that night all had a bed which needed to be made up from scratch, including the matress protectors which were being washed when and where possible (remember the no water part). We ended up with an extra hour for lunch but working an hour later to allow all the help possible to make beds. And the problem? The new matresses didn't rock up until 4pm!!! Even if we went and got the old ones from the drive way, we'd still be 27 short!! We had people checking in and everything!! Marie was freaking out!! Which is understandable!!

What followed was one amazing feet. We got those matresses pointed in the right direction quick smart, making 47 beds in just under an hour!! That was three of us working our asses off!! Or was it four?? It was four. Keep in mind we were needed to take the plastic off and get matress protectors on, plus keep washing going and iron the sheets before they went on!! Argh!!!!!!!!! Needless to say it was a very long day and we were so tired at the dinner table, but still had all the evening work to go!!

Plus Monday night marked my first rosta of Night Duty. Yeah all sounds very impressive ay?!! Basically I'm in charge!! Nah, I have to secure the whole building, doors and windows and all, then I have a phone and the door beeper with me. That's my job for the night. I'm the oncall person if something goes wrong. If the phone rings at some horrible hour of the night, I have to answer it. Which it rang just after 11pm with a 'wrong number' and that was it, that was the only call. The excitement came in the form of a lovers tiff which went on for an hour!! Oh my gosh, who needs daytime soapies!! It was just after I got the wrong number and as I'm at the front of the house with my window open, I kinda heard it coming. Initially I thought it was in the grounds of Pax Lodge, but because the roads here are narrow, lined with tall trees and tallish homes, there's an echo that goes along the street. Now I poke my head out to discover it actually not in the grounds and not on the driveway and no it's not our guests. But as I'm watching it gets even louder and next thing I know the guy has pushed this chick onto the ground!! Keeping into account it's just after11pm, the pubs had just closed and yeah, he'd had a fair bit to drink- indeed they both looked like they had. Now I'm thinking do I keep watching in case he hurts her or what? It goes on and he's 'so sorry babe' and he ends up sitting in the gutter crying. It continues as they go further up the hill, but again because of the echo I can still hear it, it's him running after her.

Well of course twenty minutes later they decide to come back past Pax Lodge, it's not like I haven't heard enough! But it's now a role reversal, he's leading and she's running after him and he's basically telling her to find another boyfriend because she keeps telling him he's too skinny and too pale and yeah, the low esteem list goes on. It was crazy. They've ended up coming past a third time and then just after 12 they seemed to have disapeared, I couldn't even hear them anymore. As I said, who needs daytime soapies!!

Tuesday was a nightmare all over again! Well not really, it was just another long and busy day. Complete and utter change over of guests.Our next session came in. This one is called Footsteps of the Founders and runs for ten days, six of which they're camping down on the coast on a place called Brownsea Island, where in 1907 (or there abouts) the first Scout camp happened lead by Lord Baden-Powell with 22 boys, two of which were his nephews...or there abouts. The other days they're here at Pax Lodge and we are their tour guides as per the norm.

Wednesday was day one of two off. It's really hard to keep track of days here because our working week is 'four days' thus when your two days off come it isn't always Saturday and Sunday!! I can't recall what I did...oh I did washing in the morning and went to Camden in the afternoon where I somehow managed to see the tail end of a street brawl, which was interesting. A change I guess. Not a great one, but you know, it's something.

Thursday marked my first trip out of London! The session headed off to Brownsea Island, just off the coast of Poole. Heather said we can come along too, only issue was we had to be back for work, today, Friday. Which was fine, we caught a coach home late last night. Many adventures and stories to tell from that day and the weather was glorious! You should see me, I'm sunburnt, again!! Erin came with me so we sort of decided 'when in Rome' style that we'd try fish and chips at the seaside. Never again. It was horrible!! Looked at the menu for tonight and it's Cod and Chips! Argh! No no no!! Regardless, we had a great day and I think Erin and I have a lot in common! Which is good. Someone I can relate to in a different way to Monique. For starters we're both control freaks! Though I am a little better than her, I'm not as rigid as I used to be.

The first we heard of the events back in London were via an SMS I got about the 'incidents' on TV. At which point I'm going...what incidents?? Sometime later (note we were on an island in a port which is similar to a nature reserve, we were transfixed by nature!! No technology out there really!) we found Keren who explained to us what had happened, or at least what she'd heard. Over dramatisation is a bad thing, especially when it comes to this. Soon enough we found the happy campers (as we were not working, we were free to wander) and Heather pulled us aside to talk about getting home. I just want to note that poor Heather and Ruth are stuck out there on that island with girls who have a) never camped before and b) assumed the camp was only for two days, not six!! They've had some big issues with a couple of girls in this group, big issues.

So we went back across the bay to Poole, had our dinner and find the coach terminal at which point the driver tells us he's not even sure if he can get us into London. Well that was it really, we started to freak out because we still didn't know exactly what had happened and everyone was telling us different things. The events of the day sparked a rather long and deep and thoughtful conversation between the pair of us. And it was lovely! Like to sit down and have an intelligent conversation. Be frank if we must. Be a little scared and nervous. But it was fantastic and we actually looked at the staff here at Pax Lodge as a whole and worked out what it is we all have in common, it's incredible! Sometime later at about 10:30pm we got back into London. Now the story goes the minor explosions on Tubes and again one on a bus. The thing I want to stress is that the bombs didn't go off as planned, apparently they malfunctioned. So we're like, it's two weeks to the day since the last one. Again it's a Thursday, again it's the second day of a session, again it's three train stops and a bus. Again it effected the Northern Line. We've both marked the calendar two weeks from now and if we're off, we're not going any where, just to be on the safe side...all those little details are just a little too freaky.

Anyways, we still couldn't get the Tube home and buses had only just started running again. Most parts of Tottenham Court Road and Leister Square we still blocked off. So the bus had to detour several times. We eventually got home at around 11:30 and were up talking till just after 1 am. Then I couldn't sleep. But what else is new right??!! Botton line is I wasn't actually in London at the time. So I'm fine and NO I am NOT coming home!!! I don't care if these morons do end up blowing me up, at least you guys will know I died doing what I wanted to do!! Okay, that's probably not a great line all things considered. But you get my drift. I chose to come here. I knew London in some regards was a target city. I'm not going to let this ruin my time. And dare I say it, it almost feels like you can get used to this happening. Last time it was a huge shock, okay and yes this time it is still a bit scary, but you know, I guess I'm more prepared for it this time.

Today was a big important day!!! Yay!! Remember a while back I mentioned that Sheree Blair (Mrs Prime Minister) was coming to Pax Lodge for an interview? Well, we were kinda told she was coming but you know, had to keep a distance. Well that changed! Janet tells us last night (at like 11:45 when we found our way up to her flat to reassure her we were fine) that six of us had to be in full National Uniform for like a photo shoot and stuff for the BBC promos!! Oh my gosh!!! So inevitably I met the woman and I was in photos with her AND they're going to get copies of the prints, she's going to sign them and they're going to be sent to us here at Pax Lodge! How cool! But here's the stunner. Typical Rachael Moment coming!! We're standing in line shaking hands with 'Mrs Blair' and all I can imagine is that Mr Bean episode where he meets the Queen, bows and knocks her out!!! Hehe he. Anyhows, she's going down the line and shaking hands and hearing everyone's name and we were told it was all on a tight schedual so we couldn't talk or ask questions or what not because she's a busy woman. So she gets to me. Shake hands do the 'Rachael from Austalia' thing to which she replies 'Oh I was with Mrs Howard this morning' and me, in all my dorky stupidity, as if I know Mrs Howard personally, goes 'Oh yes and how is she doing?'. It was one of those moments where you can hear yourself saying something stupid, but you can't stop it in time!! And yeah she was telling me about their meeting female youth sexual assult cases dealt with through Benado's or something similar. And I'm standing there going 'oh yes' as if I'm an expert on that!! Like hello! Dork alert! I felt so dumb!! The whole saga lasted about 15 minutes really. So we waved her off and that was it.

She was nice I guess, but I tell you, the photographer was mighty fine!! He had the most lovely eyes and smile...awww mate. Mind you I don't even remember his name!! Dork alert again!! The other thing was we had locksmiths floating around the building who had seen us ealier in the day in our Pax Lodge polo shirts and pants. And of course, one of the guys was standing at the bottom of the stairs as I came down in my official aussie get up and he's cone 'Flippin Heck, what a bloody difference!' ...yeah I'm not so sure if that was a compliment or not!!

Other than that, it's been mostly uneventful. Same old story, washing, vaccuming, dishes...same old same old. Had a staff member leave today and a new one starting next week. A couple of birthdays, no new theatre shows to talk about and Lost is premiering this week, only by the time it gets up to where I left Oz, it'll be time for me to come home!! So really I'll gain nothing. Never mind, not here to watch the box anyway.

Well that just about does it for me once again, hope I haven't eaten too much into your lunchtimes or whever you choose to read this. Hope you are all doing well and staying safe.

Take care and until next time,
Rachael :-)