Big Things

Heya everyone!

I sware to you it seems like the gaps between e-mails are getting longer and longer. This isn't good!! Because my e-mails are long enough as it is and the longer it takes me to write, the more things that go on! This e-mail finds me at the start of November knowing that Macibediva (spelt right?) won the Melbourne Cup third year running. Yep, I walked into the bookies and asked the guy and he told me right away. Apparently a fair few people were placing bets on the cup! I can imagine the amount of alcohol consumed at a few of the gatherings they'd advertised!!

Pax Lodge in general has been a bit crazy. Okay a lot crazy but I guess that doesn't much change. I suppose the most prominent thing is my now official appointment to 'Booking Assistant' on the 1st of November. Yep, today. I don't start until Friday the 4th, so my working contract will start then, but I am no longer a House Assistant which is a very, very weird feeling. In addition to that, I was only able to start this soon because they got someone to cover my last House Assistant month. And it's none other than my Erin, yep, Kenny herself! This was very, very exciting news! She's staying another month! We'd actually planned on going to Paris as one huge 'Kenny and Eskimo' Adventure but our budgets weren't going to stretch so far! I mean initially we'd found a great ticket deal with Eurostar, but a week later the prices jumped way above what we could pay. So now we're finding somewhere else to go for a couple of days. Hmmm....a whole paragraph and I really haven't said all that much.

Between massive conferences for 70 people and a million evening programs, it comes as no surprise that we House Assistants have found a new place to relax other than going up the hill to get crepes! That's right, our new winter hang out (it's indoors!) is TinselTown, a wonderful Milkshake place which does every imaginable flavour, plus the most delicious food! It's incredible. Six of us (minus Erin as she was in Ireland visiting Ruth) went up to talk about our HA meeting and put together a list of things for the agenda. Close to an hour and a half later, we'd got our list, had full bellies and spent £35 between us!! Gosh! Monique and I made beds on our day off at one point there, it's so obvious that some of the HAs can't handle a full change over. I mean that's not entirely their fault. For Monique and I, we've been here through the summer and dealt with all the sessions so we know the speed at which you have to work. Our latests ones don't. Like I said, that's not their fault.

Around the 18th I managed to catch the 20th Anniversary episode of Neighbours! Yep, lame I know! But it was really really good! I'm like, gosh that's almost like home! He he he, I can't believe how many oldies they brought back and how many of them live in London (after the episode there was a docco and they spoke to some actors too). We had some pretty bad storms in there too. The lightening was simply amazing. It lit the whole sky up and the dining room while having dinner. I have never been in a storm like that before. Spilt a can of fanta all over me one night at dinner with guests, rather embarrasing really...mind you that same night, Rebecca and I pinned Erin down and squirted her with Oscar, she was soaked!! Ahh, evenings cleaning the kitchen...

Monique and I did make it to the Isle of Wight. Um, in most regards it was nice, but it wasn't what I'd expected. Put it this way, got to know the house we stayed in quite well and saw a fair bit of TV. The highlight and about the only outing we had was walking from Seaview to Ryde along the beach on Sunday morning. I guess Monique and I differ on what is fun when going away on holiday. There is so much there that I wanted to see, but I didn't. That said, I was very relaxed when I came back, I think just getting away for a couple of days was all I needed. And it was very beautiful. He he he on the Sunday night I wandered down to the local pub in Nettlestone (like tiny town!) and there were four people in there, two of which were minors! It was crazy! Overall I've decided I'll go back next summer and do the stuff I wanted to do, even if it means going alone!

The 24th was a huge day! We rushed back early (and I mean rushed, we ran everywhere!) to get back to Pax Lodge in time to go to the UN 60th Anniversary Ceremony at St.Paul's Cathedral (yeah I know I said Westminster Abbey, but I was wrong!). We were up at like 7am to pack and clean and be ready for our bus/train/ferry/coach back to London. We got back to Victoria coach station at 1pm and ran all the way to the Tube station, got back to Pax at 1:30, got changed into our official uniforms, grabbed our tickets and left at 1:40. We got to St.Paul's at 2:25 with five minutes to spare. The ceremony was incredible and I was four foot away from the Queen! OH MY GOD!!! I tell you I was sooooo excited like, that was the Queen, like in the flesh!! And she looked so lovely! The ceremony went for just over an hour and a half. Came back to Pax Lodge and left again at 5:15 to go to a family function. Hmm...it's kinda weird saying that. I mean they are family and all, but I'd only met Olive at that stage and that was it! So I met some more rellies and I doubt it'll be the last lot I'll see. But I went to an Ordination which was kinda cool, although I've yet to work out how Simon and Garfunkel manage to be played, how the chancellor worked the Chronicals of Narnia into her Sermon and how exactly the Bible is like a love letter. Maybe its a religion thing, who knows. I like that fact I don't follow any specific one. Mind you, it's moments like that night I get a little confused!!!

The 25th marked our first attempt to get on the Today Show. We didn't finish work till 8:15pm, so five of us quickly changed and headed into central London armed with banners and signs to hold up. Mind you I was the only Aussie which was quite amusing. The broadcast started at 9pm and we were down in the area at ten to. Come 10:30 we were still trying to figure out where the hell they were! And I tell you, I've now walked in some very seedy parts of London! So with a heavy heart I gave up and headed back home with four tired HAs in tow. I vowed to try again. And I did, the next night! This time only Erin and Monique joined me, but we found them! Indeed we'd walked right past them the night before, kinda. They were in a building a block back from the River and we didn't realise! Anyhows, we got there and there's a small pub which they were doing the broadcast from. The line was massive!! We got there at 8:45 and stood for half hour, took a few photos out the front and I decided I should ask the bouncer what my chances were of getting in. He said I might not even get the chance. Heavy hearted but glad I'd actually found the place, the three of us walked away. As we did this my phone rang and it was my Nan (who was up at 6am watching!!) who declares 'are you there? They're taking the camera's outside!'. Well I promise you I'd turned and started to run back before I even hung up the phone. Twenty minutes later the camera man came out and well, I don't know if I got on there, but I gave it a damn good try! I know of three people who madly stuck a tape in so maybe if one is sent over I can have a squiz...but it was great, there were so many aussies!

Erin was like 'you haven't stopped smiling!'. It was great, people were talking my 'lingo' and sounded like me! You don't realise how much there is to miss! I was smiling coz it was just sooo cool to be around sooo many aussies!The 28th marked Ruth's return to Pax Lodge for a couple of days for the halloween party we'd been talking about for ages but in actual sense never really happened! Okay it was a little off, but it'd been a huge day! Ruth, Monique, Erin and I headed out to Stratford-Upon-Avon on the 29th and I really enjoyed myself! Saw the Teddy Museum and Shakespears Birthplace (which I saw in 2002) but it was good to get a refresh, plus we did a two hour walk which was so fantastic! Plus, the Royal Shakespear Theatre Company is putting on the ENTIRE works of Shakespeare over 12 months starting from April! I am sooo excited! I am definately going to try get up there for Macbeth and any others on top of that. How cool is that?!!!

Sunday the 30th was the day from hell. I worked a 13 and a half hour day, starting at 6:45am and finishing at around 8:20pm that night. I was in House and had a full house change over. 50 Bed plus 19 rooms to clean plus two huge overflowing washing baskets of washing and towels, which had to be ironed and put back into rooms. Okay so not so bad, just like summer sessions. But no. In addition to that, we had an International Adventure day thus 57 brownies and leaders descended on Pax Lodge for the day and because all the HAs run activities, it severily cuts into work time! It was madness!! We were all dead by the end of the day. Thankfully they were an hour or so late for arrival so we (me and 2 others) amazingly had the house ready for the 50 check ins (beds, room and linnen made and ready) by noon. A HUGE feat and a great sense of achievement as well! We did it! But from 12:15 onwards it was all about the brownies. They left finally at 5:35pm, at which point I stuck in more washing (we still had over flowing baskets) then at 6pm had dinner for 49 people (Germans with little english) and clean up took us through until 8:20pm. Then at 9pm we had the somewhat lame halloween party. I mean it was a good laugh but no where near as grand as we'd hoped it would be. And you should see all the candy we have. Literally, truck loads of the stuff!!!

Yesterday (the 31st) marked my last day as a house assistant and guess what? Yours truly slept in!! Was woken up by Doreen (centre manager) at 7:10am! I should have started 10 minutes earlier! Mind you, after the efforts of the previous day, I think I was allowed that extra 10 minutes! It was horrible!! That's now 5 of the 7 HAs she's had to wake up in two weeks!! So I have to go into her office later in the morning to get my new name badge and scarf and talked to about starting in the office and she opens with 'I would have expected the others to sleep in, I wouldn't have expected it from you'. Well that was it. I cowered. I felt bad enough as it was, I didn't want to talk about it!! But it was okay, we joked about it in the end.

Today marks day one of three off. Tomorrow I have to go shoe shopping and I want to try catch a theatre show called 'Mary Stewart' (yes Mary Queen of Scots) which is only running until the 14th. Beyond that no plans and that's fine by me because I am really tired at the moment!!

Okay and again this got incredibly long, I am so sorry guys!!! You know me, once I start I don't shut up....sorry for taking lunch time or work time or just time in general...hope everyone is doing well and please drop me a line every now and again, I know that physically I am half way around the world, I don't need silence to emphsaise that for me!!

Catch you when I do,
Rachael :-)