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 :-)