Is It Really March?

Greetings one and all!

So as always I can't remember when it was I last wrote! I believe it was around Thinking Day time because I remember uploading all the photos into my photo album for all to see. I guess that was only three weeks ago.

My big adventure in that time was going to Ireland for four days. Yep, once more I left the country! Not that far away but still left England. And what did I think? Ireland was very beautiful. Quite cold, but very beautiful! Actually the weather was really good and was sunshine most of the time. It actually snowed properly while I was there! The only issue was I kind of missed it because I was half conscious in bed sick! With no real explanation I essentially lost a day because of being crook. My claim to fame was puking on the main street of Malahide. It wasn't pretty.

However, my adventures took me through the mountains up north to a place called Omeath (you watch me spell all the places wrong!) where we could look across the loch to see Northern Ireland. It was very beautiful. Further along we stopped in a place called Carlingford and went for a hike up this hill come mountain type thing and got some more great views and had a chance to play with some snow!! It was very powdery so no snowman. But it was something at least!

Ruth also took me to a couple of beaches close by too. One was in Clougerhead and the other in my favourite named village of Teremefeckin. He he he. Lots of great names places around! Saw some of the sites of Ruth's town of Drougheda and even made it to Dublin. Though I wasn't overly impressed with Dublin. However I did try Guinness and I wasn't much impressed by that either! That stuff is nasty!

As always I took a load of photos but as yet haven't had a chance to get them put into my online photo album yet. I will do, hopefully tomorrow on my last day off in between doing my washing and finishing my speech. Well I'm not entirely sure it's a speech per say but a reading or a thought or something. See this is a really huge week for Pax Lodge, it's celebrating its 15th Anniversary and there is a large dinner and evening ceremony taking place with lots of important people coming. Yours truly has to get up in front of everyone and talk! Argh! We're looking at about 90 people, plus the 14 staff plus some volunteers and the organising committee and perhaps anyone else who decides to rock up! Craziness.

As a consequence of this, lots has been happening. We've got new cutlery and crockery, new shop display and items. The highlight has been today's events where the front of Pax has had 30 odd flags put on the front of it. I'm still not sure if I think it's a great idea but you know, it's really not up to me. I haven't been out to look for an hour or two now so perhaps they're now all up and seeing all of them up will make the difference. But it'll be a busy week.

Daylight is starting to make a bit more of an appearance these days. Its still cold at times and it snowed very briefly before but spring is on the way. I'm told that when the tree out front goes into blossom, it looks really pretty.

My little adventures in London have continued including riding on a Routemaster bus and going across the Millennium Bridge in the coldest wind I have ever felt!! Several visits to Covent Garden, days in Camden and a trip out to Plaistow yesterday to find the church my grandparents got married in. See yesterday was their 50th Wedding Anniversary and since I wasn't home to be a part of the festivities (at one stage I was going to be!) I thought that perhaps I could do something from this end. Went and played in Hamleys again, made our own Snakebites (really bad idea!). I went with Breanne to Madame Tussuad's which was good and all, but I am glad I didn't pay full price for it. So took a few photos and even found John Howard in there! That was scary! Ate at a nice Turkish Restaurant which was really delicious!

Actually some exciting news is that I've been allowed to take part in the seminar Managing for the Future here at Pax Lodge. So for five days I get to play seminar participant not staff member so that's pretty exciting. There are only 24 participants in it and they're from all around the world. I'm really looking forward to it.

We're still struggling with our House Assistants. I came back from Ireland and it was so weird. I suddenly felt like they were all going to kill each other. I mean it. The tension in the place was so obvious and it was clear that they were functioning as a team even less than they were. I didn't think that was possible.

I'm finding I don't have the patience level for the place I once did because it has changed so much. Up until Christmas I found that this was still a pretty spacial place to be a part of. Even into perhaps the start of January. But as time has gone on, I feel its lost that special and significant feeling and it's now just like any other job. I hate that feeling because this isn't any other job!Aside from that, life is just well, life. I'm getting a proper bed which I am really looking forward to! No more bunk bed type of thing. It'll be great. Plus we're getting new mattresses for all the staff beds. Even better.

Maria Plaza took her turn to be the most recent person to leave Pax Lodge. It was very weird to come back from Ireland and find someone else no longer here. In addition to that, a face from the past came to visit. Jewel from Trinidad and Tobago came back and it was great to see her and find out what she had been up to. But that's pretty much it. I think I've been sitting here long enough and it's probably time to keep moving and get back to my speech.

Oh I'll now mention my phone is up and running again and has been for about two weeks now -thank goodness!!

Hope you are all well and enjoying the remainder of the nice weather. Please send some over here!!

Take care, until I next write,
Rachael