Re: Some may need to take a seat

Heya,

I think by that time I'll be long overdue to come home!! I know I am crazy but then aside form deciding to come here, this has been the biggest decision I've made thinking only of me.

I'm well aware that the oppertunities I had waiting for me when I got home -yes International was one of those things. But this will be a great resource for me. And Erin pointed out that there are Brownie groups in the area here which would likely be more than happy to have an internaional guest come and run part if not all of a program. Not sure how I'd do that, but I do miss my girls. We had a group of brownies here today and sitting with them at lunch made me realise how much I miss my girls at Dalburn. Little people make life so much more simpler....sighs, I'll live I guess.

Keep on dancing and come January/February, you may need to remind me that staying was a great idea....

Take care, it's late here and we've had two farewells today so it's been kind of emotional. We've another tomorrow and two more in the days that follow. I'll have at least another 12 months of this ahead of me....

Rachael :-)

Some may need to take a seat

Hi There Everyone!!

So what's been happening with you all? My inbox has been eerily silent this past week or so, have you all vanished off the face of the planet??

Well the world of Pax Lodge. What can I say? Hetic as usual! Actually its nice to be winding down for the summer, it's a little odd at the moment because we're all so used to being flat out that right now we have only 20 guests in house, most of which don't eat with us, so we're kind of scrapping for things to do! One extreme to the other! But it also means that all the quarterly jobs get done, one of which is deep cleaning and pretty much you clean one room at a time from top to bottom! Like Monday for example. I went into room 1 (Australia!!) and it's a three bed bedroom. I got in there at 10 am and come 3pm I only just finished. Man that room shines!!

As Monday was a bank holiday, we all sat down for the last half hour of work and had an ice-cream party which was kinda nice as it has been rather warm here today! Lovely sunny weather which I'm trying to make the most of while it lasts, I know come end of November daylight will be gone at 4:30 in the afternoon. That is going to be so weird...

We've had two new HA's arrive! Eri from Japan and Rebecca from New Zealand. Eri's arrival was a huge mix up and a disaster on my part, well not that it was my fault, but I'll get into that later on when I let you guys know what I've been up to. So yes, we gain two HA's but lose four plus the HAC (House Assistant Co-ordinator) within the next three days. So that's a fair chunk of people to be leaving!

And it's odd too. I mean I only just arrived as Caro and Claudia were leaving so it wasn't too much of a big deal. But this time round it's kind of like, wait a moment, these guys have been here with me the whole time...they can't leave!! It's the strangest thing. We spend literally 24 hours a day together and can't wait to get away, but on the same token, you can't help but feel sad because people are actually leaving the world of Pax Lodge.

But since I last e-mailed we've all decided to re-live our childhood. Yeah okay, so we're not that old...but we went down to the local video store and hired a stack of Disney movies and spent like three nights running watching them. The classics mind you. Snow White. Sleeping Beauty. Lady and the Tramp. Aladdin. Even Janet came to join us which was great fun! Somewhere in there we also started a quotes board in our corridoor, it's been filled twice already! It's kind of a hoot! We had the WCM (World Centre Manager) walk past and question a few ofthem!

Both cooks haven't been in for over a week now so it's been left up to us to cook. Thankfully because it's so quiet, there has only been the staff plus one of our long term residents who has just moved in. Her name is Kat and she's from the States and she's here going to school. Today is her first day. She's an odd one. For those of you who went toPaco, she reminds me very much of Kim. Like, mirror image, vampires and all. So anyways, one of the nights Jung-Hwa cooked Korean food for us and it was simply delicious! The North American's got together and made breakfast for dinner which was pancakes and all sorts of delightful things. Needless to say the Aussie has yet to cook anything, purely because I don't really think there are meals we have that are distinctly Australian. If you get what I mean. Not only that, I'm not exactly the worlds best cook. So the last two days I had off we ate out two nights running at two of the local eateries. The first was called the Giraffe which was nice but a little pricy. Mind you, wouldn't expect much else in Hampstead, right? The second night we ate in a run down little place next to the ice-cream shop we go to. I tell you that was the best meal I have had in a very long time and it was very cheap! So we came back and raved and we're going to go back again!

We also had some Japanese guests stay who treated us to a traditional Japanese Tea ceremony which was simply delightful. They had these sweets in these beautiful little boxes and I managed to get one! It's so pretty.

Last Wednesday we had the closing of our last large session for the summer, London Experience V. And I did my closing thought as usual, only this time Ruth was my back up music as she wanted to play the keyboard. She sort of crept up to me and said 'I know the thought is your turf, but I've always wanted to play as a part of one of the ceremonies and haven't yet, do you mind if I play for you?'. Well that was it, we did it! And she did so well! I think I was nervous for her too!! But it went very smoothly.

Last Friday Eri was supposed to arrive from Japan. Because it was my day off it fell onto me to be the one to pick her up from Heathrow. No biggie really. Until you understand that I had to be at the airport at 7am! Which meant me leaving Pax Lodge at 5:25am and walking to the Tube station, getting the first tube through Belsize Park which got meto Heathrow at 6:55am! Which is fine really. Until I stood there for three hours in the arrivals hall watching all the tearful reunions, calling Pax twice to see if she'd called. So upon checking at theflight desk, I discover the flight got in at 5:30 instead of 6am and the plane was empty by 6:05 and almost everyone should have passed through customs by now (9:15am). But the man said because she had come from Japan, maybe they were giving her a medical blah blah blah. Which is fine. Then at 9:55am I get a phone call from Pax. There was an e-mail saying she wasn't getting in until Saturday evening. Well I hung up the phone on the person who called. There are issues with her at the moment. The e-mail had come through Thursday night. She failed to check until she rang me Friday morning. Logically speaking, you have a HA arriving the crack of dawn and you're sending a staff member out to pick her up. Would you not check for last minute changes before going to bed? I'm not at all bitter or anything...So I left Pax at5:25am and returned at 11:55am. I got every delay running coming home. I think I had every right to be pissed. But moving on...

We've also endured the Notting Hill Festival (which I didn't go to as I was working) plus a small fair in the Heath which we went to Monday night and we all suffered from injuries from the dodgem cars. It wasn't nice...

But my big news. Despite what some of you may believe at this stage, I am NOT getting married! He he he, sorry to disapoint you! But just over a week ago I was officially offered a longer job working here atPax Lodge. So I spent a week giving it all some hard thought and went and saw the WCM on Monday to give her my answer. So I was initially coming home in January 06, it now seems the earliest I will be back is October 06. It's all going to depend on when the position starts and if they need to find a replacement HA for me. So I'm here for at least another 12 months. Yep, pure madness I know!! But on the same token, I think I'm a bit excited. Who knows. It is an office job, indeed I shall become the voice of Pax Lodge and handle bookings and phone calls that come through. And e-mail and all sorts of things. But until I get a better break down of what exactly it is I'll be doing, I can't tell you much more. I'll work five days on with three off and my wage goes up a little bit plus I move upstairs to a bigger room. It's all happening, right?!

So yeah, that's about it for the moment really. Hopefully not too many of you are on the floor. Some of you I had wanted to call but I just ran out of time and phone cards and some of you are uncontactable at this point in time. Pax Lodge will be home for a bit longer now andI'll end up seeing another summer of sessions...at least I won't be cleaning up after them though...

Until next time,
Rachael :-)

Is August really almost over?!

Hey Everyone!!

Yeah I know it has been a while since I sat down and wrote you all a ne-mail. Sorry to say it has been a complete mad house here going from session to session and I've been trying to take care of me too!!

So I believe I last left off at Oxford. That was the day I decided I needed to just get away from everyone and everything. The days that followed were long work days and long hours into the night talking until the wee hours of the morning. Seems like 'Dr Rachael's' Office hours are extending, people don't even make an appointment anymore, they just darn well drop in! Regardless of the hour!

The 10th found me receiving a late birthday present, standing in reception bursting into tears and found a number of staff walking around singing the Essendon Theme song in the days to follow. T'was quite amusing really. That same day I had the first of two girls from my District rock up at Pax Lodge, Jillian who came on the 10th was somewhat out of the blue. The following day Rosemary arrived and was lucky enough to have me as a tour guide round the house!! Go the Aussie Guides from Hume District!

Thursday found the opening of London Experience IV, the on set of myErin's terrible bout of illness and me sitting and watching The Bill only to discover I barely knew any of the actors!! It was crazy.

Friday the 12th was my refuge day and crazy because of the big BA strike. We had guests not have flights home, it was a nightmare. For a while there I wasn't sure if I'd get out of Pax Lodge in time to get my train, I was working and we had after dinner duties as always. Amazingly everyone pulled together on my behalf (some did my work for me) and they got me out of there by 7:10pm. I could have cried, although that would have been twice in the one day and that's not great. Yep, Friday it just all got the better of me and I stood in the laundry bawling my eyes out because Ruth yelled at me. If Pax Lodge was going to implode on itself, I swear to you that was the day it would happen. The tension in the place was through the roof.

Thus my last set of days off (13th & 14th) I went far from everyone here at Pax Lodge and was pretty much left to my own devices for two days in a quaint little town called Goring-By-Sea. I can assure you now it was delightful! Instead of sirens and cars zooming by, it was almost silence and seagulls. I just loved it. Thank goodness for Janet and her lovely flat! Otherwise I would have been no use to anyone. It was the first time in nearly two months that I spent time with just me and no one from Pax Lodge about. Spending 24 hours a day with people takes it's toll and I came back looking 100% better and feeling it too. It sounds the most simplest thing, but for two mornings running I sat in my PJs and had breakfast. I didn't have to worry about guests, or keeping up appearances for guests. I didn't have to worry about knocks on my door nor lines for the shower. It was just me and it was delightful. Actually Sally was with me on the Saturday, we spent the morning at Janet's flat then went into a seaside town called Worthing and shopped and ate and stood in the rain! It was fantastic!! Sunday I did nothing. And I mean nothing. I had aimed to get the 4:22pm train back to London but come 4pm I was still sitting there in my PJs...so I decided to wait till 5:22!! But it was such a wonderful day and it was just me, the book and some lovely sunshine coming through the windows. Delightful.

I came back to Pax Lodge that night with a smile on my face and a spring in my step. What followed was an hour long conversation with Janet, among other things, working at Pax Lodge came up. Since then my mind has been a spin, but what else is new, right?

Then straight back into work, working five days straight with one day off (yesterday) then working three more and finally three days off. Then the rota gets back to normal.

Somewhere in there we had the closing of LE IV and my sudden new found fame because suddenly everyone thinks I'm amazing. My closing thoughts seem to be hitting the right notes, we've had people fax and request signed copies of them!! It is complete and utter madness!! I so can't believe it!

Last Monday found all the HA's in a meeting which started at 11am and finished around 2;30 that afternoon! It was a long one! We talked about all sorts of things. But it was good because it gave us a chance to get things out in the air and we've all decided we have three main issues we need to work on. Communication, motivation and understanding. You can interpret those any way you wish!

Tuesday was a great day. Worked our buts off during the day for a huge lunch, like having a dinner at lunchtime and the clean up was astronomical. Since we didn't have any guests for dinner that night (full house but none were relying on us for a meal) all the HA's as a joke decided we were having a pizza night and we were eating off napkins and drinking from cans. NO Dishes were allowed! Blow and behold, later that arvo Janet comes around and asked who was organising the pizza. And then what followed was a discussion about ice-cream and cans from the cold store here at Pax. And the best part-we didn't pay for a cent of it!! So we're not entirely sure who did pay, but we were all treated to pizza, ice-cream and drinks! It was great! Our dinner went for an hour and no dishes! Yay!! Later that night Priyanka put a somewhat large henna design on my arm and I still have it. It took her close to half hour to do, and I took a photo so I'll stick it in one of the albums at some point.

Wednesday brought the onset of the current session, the last London Experience (v) for the Summer. They're half Canadian and half American. Overall they're a great group too. I was out with them on Thursday, we did The Globe and St.Paul's (yes I went up the 530 steps again!) and came back to Pax for High Tea! Yay! Friday night everyone left me alone which was good as I'd just done five days and was tired. So I read and then about 10ish we headed down to the George for a drink only to discover it was cocktail night! So that was nice I guess.

Saturday part of the group went to Brighton and the rest went to Paris. Now there was an extra ticket floating around which was offered to me. I declined it. Yes, madness I know!! But the Paris day starts at 4:30am and sees them back about 11pm that night. It was my only day off and there was no way in the world I could do it and then work three more days. So I went to Brighton instead.

I loved Brighton. The pier is just amazing, amusement arcades and all rides down the far end! Even roller coasters! And the weather was simply fantastic! So did a tour around the Royal Pavilion, then did lunch at a cute little cafe, followed by more shopping, exploring the pier and then onto the beach! Okay, so it's all pebbles, but it's 'the beach'! I got sun burnt again! I'm kind of counting my lucky stars I didn't go to Paris. We got back from Brighton around 7:30 so I ducked down the road and got some dinner, came back and told the others I was going to pass on the clubbing idea. I was tired and wasn't really in the mood. Anyhows, Erin, Ruth and I were sitting in the HAs corridor and Doreen comes out at about 10:30 and says the session is stuck at some place I didn't recognise. Turns out the Eurostar had some brake problems and thus at 10:30pm at night they were still in France! The replacement train didn't arrive till 12:30am and so they didn't get back to London until about 3am. Then they couldn't get into Waterloo and ended up getting to Victoria, then Eurostar gave them a luxury coach to get home!! So they didn't get back here till around 4am!! Can you imagine if I went? I'd be passed out by now! Needless to say, breakfast wasn't till 10am for them!! They're in Greenwich this arvo and the day is kinda cut shorter for them, they're gonna be so tired!

As for me I start back at work at 4:30pm, which is an hour and a half away. Two more days to go and I'm off! For three days! I am soooo looking forward to it! Erin and I are thinking of going camping inWales. Why Wales? Well, it sounded good I guess!! We'll see what happens.

After all that, I'm about to sign out and go and do something. Not too sure what....

Hope you are all well and enjoying the lovely Melbourne weather. Today is nice and humid here. Sunny too. I'm telling you, bring on winter!!

Take care and until next time,
Rachael :-)

Hey There!

Heya,

Well I said I was gonna e-mail you, I didn't think it would be so soon, but no time like the present, ay?!

So it's just before midnight, will likely be after by the time I'm through with this, but I'm not much up to sleeping which is bad, because I'll end up where I was some three/four days ago. Pretty much everything kinda caught up on me. I was so tired, I've been crook with the flu, we're working at full pace because it's almost end of summer and the sessions have been huge. Only one more to go and the entire body of staff is tired too. So the tension is pretty high here. Bottom line is I was in the running for a complete break down.

The novelty has worn off and its now down to hard work to the bone. Which is fine, it's not like hard work scares me, but the toll of being away from the familiarity zone has taken it's toll and I wasn't in a good way. So Janet (kinda like our mother hen) sent me down to her flat for the weekend, not even her housemate was there. Either way I was in a quaint little British Sea Side town and enjoyed every moment of it. I relaxed and chilled and walked along the beach and the pier and thought about everything that's been playing on my mind. Work, Guides, family, Guys, you name it, I was thinking it.

I came back Sunday night ready to take on the world, I looked a lot better, I got some descent sleep and I was feeling far better. I went up to Janet to return the keys, an hour later I emerged with an opportunity which would require a hell of a lot of thinking, only I'm not sure what kind of thinking time frames I'm allowed.

There is a 12 month volunteer position about to open up. It may start as early as the 1st of September, so if I decide to take it, I won't be home before September next year. It's been offered on a plate to me. And okay admittedly I was thinking that staying in the UK wasn't a bad idea. But that was thinking, that wasn't actually doing. Probably a whole lot of hot air. But now that there is an option -I'm terrified. I mean there is so much that I'll need to take into account if I do decided, yeah I want to give it a go. And yeah, top of the list is my job at the crime department. I don't even know how to approach Toni about this. I mean, the job prospect I have sitting there waiting for me is unbelievable. Getting a VPS 3 wage is quite beyond anything I'd expected as a young one straight out of high school with no quals. And I know I am onto a good thing. I'm not stupid. But I just don't know what to do or what options I have. I'm going crazy.

But yeah, in a nut shell that's pretty much what's going on. Other than you, I've told one other person and that's it. I need to try find out more about this job here before I go start making ripples which might land me in strife with people. I don't' know. Its crazy. I have at least till Wednesday which is when Doreen is back who is the person I have to speak to this about. But by the sounds of it they're going to want an answer asap if they want to maybe start it on the 1st of September. It doesn't really give me a lot of time. I can see me having a phone call in the middle of the night just to catch Toni at a good time, if I can catch her at all. I don't think e-mail is going to work well with the kind of time frame I'm facing. On top of that I've got so much more to consider. Argh, there's too much swimming around in my head.

Anyhows, I dribble too much. How is it all going in there? I want to know all about it!! I think of you often, wondering when you'll do the guns and what not. It's all kind of exciting I guess. But how are you handling it? Is it what you expected? Better? Worse? Harder? You can be honest, I mean it's me you're talking to here!

Anyhows, I should probably try get some sleep, I've a 7am start tomorrow with 58 people for breakfast, oh joy. Half hour to prepare too...he he he despite the complaining, I do enjoy what I am doing -most of the time.

Take care mate and look forward to hearing from you!!
Rachael :-)

Erm Well . . .

Hi,

Well I have a feeling you may have expected an e-mail of similar content to what will follow, but I think maybe you wouldn't have expected it so soon. I can tell you, I didn't see it coming!!!

So I've been away for the weekend, finally got some well needed 'me' time. When I came back tonight, I went to take in Janet's keys (as I stayed at her flat) and an hour later I walked out with some choices to make.

Thus when I come and open your e-mail, I find your last line somewhat ironic really. Now this isn't confirmed yet and other than Janet and the World Centre Manager, this isn't public knowledge. But there is a twelve month volunteer position being re-created and apparently my name was mentioned when the discussion took place over the weekend. It may start as early as the 1st of September or as late as December, which means if I take it, then I could be here for at least another year.

Please get up off the floor! I can tell you if I do decide to take it on, J is going to need someone to give her CPR, she's going to flip. But yeah, I'll need to give them an answer I'd imagine within the next couple of weeks so I've a lot of thinking to do. Doreen (World Centre Manager) is off at the moment so I have to wait for her to come back so I can get all the details...*sighs* dear me this is a big call. I can only begin to imagine the amount of people who are going to flip about this.

Oi, what a Sunday! But yeah, for the moment this has to stay between you, me and the computer screen. Not even little hints to anyone. There's a lot to take into account on my part, so guess who is gonna have her thinking cap on...

Catch you when I do, and as usual, any input is very welcome!!!
Rachael :-)

Greetings my Friends!

Heya Dudes!!

What's been happening in the world of TRS?? It seems like forever since I had a chat with you guys! Its just not the same with the people here, they take everything just a tad too seriously. And they don't drink.

Yep I've gained a huge taste for Snake bites and endulged in a shotglass card game the other night. It's official, I believe I have now been 'hammered' as such. Or pissed. Or quite simply, drunk. Surprisingly though I felt fine the next morning when you consider it was vodka, rum, tequila (yay) and some other quite potant drink from Trinidad & Tobago which was so stong it'd burn the hair in your nose. Okay, not a good image.

Well it's about to hit 1am and I'm not working tomorrow, yay! I sware to you, four days here feels like four weeks. It's physically draining, like all the time. But I'm having fun. Erin and I are heading down to Regent Park tomorrow for the open air theatre to see 12th night which will be okay. Tuesday I'm going to St.Pauls, The Globe and Tate Modern Museum, plus we want to head back to The Globe in the evening to catch a show.

So a question. A few of the girls here want to go out clubbing and don't really know where is a good place to go, both atmosphere wise and cost wise. They went somewhere in Leicester Square the other night and paid a 12 pound door charge. Ouch! So yeah, you lived here, any suggestions??

I'm going to start checking out good places to go to and on the cheap. I want to go visit a few places now that I feel okay with London.

But there's really nothing amazing going on. Still single but what else is new right? Oh and I've now officially been a non-smoker for a whole month!! Yay me! Nearly had a moment of weakness but I thought about the things I wanted to achieve when I got back and I broke the ciggie in half and threw it on the ground. I'm so proud of me. Slight issue is the drinking, but we can work on that too!

Anyhows, just thought I'd throw a bit of chatter your way. Stay safe and enjoy,

Rachael :-)
P.S Crasher, are you guys married yet or what?!!