Miss M goes to Newcastle Part 1

Am heading up to Newcastle EARLY tomorrow morning ... Standstead... oh the joys of cheap airlines.... Actually I should complain... it actually takes me a shorter amount of time to get there than it would if I was taking public transport from home in Melbourne anyway!

Am going up for the weekend. I am LOVING weekends! I think that they are truly sent by God and a glimpse of heaven. Ok... so I am exaggerating... but it's my blog and I can exaggerate if I want to! I have been away alot recently... Cambridge, Dublin, back to Australia for WYD, going to Rome next month, doing other random trips where ever! LOVE IT!

I do hate packing for weekends though... it seems such a waste of time! A little bit of this and that... pah... boring. SO boring that I would rather POST then pack... Says a lot yeah?

So anyway... I should do something about it all! (and try not to be disterbed about the strange noises outside my window... someone is TRYING to sing and it makes my ears bleed!)

Yes... I'm back again!

Greetings from London Town... although I am assuming that by now you have all left in disgust believing that I would never return. Well... in true Monification style I have returned... but who knows for how long!

MEANWHILE.... I'm having a ball over here!

Working... meeting people... going places... seeing new things. Learning a BUCKET load about myself... including a nice heathy dose of humility. Nothing like knowing nothing! Does wonders for the soul!

Bit amusing!

I was googling the website for the Archdiocese of Westminster today (as I now have a need for it!) and I just typed in Westminster, then thought ... well that was stupid... Westminster is rather broad topic. Then, to my surprise it was fourth on the list AHEAD of Westminster Abby... just thought it was surprising!

Wow...
So those 10 points go to Jackie! With her very quick hand on the buzzer! Don't worry Jackie I'll keep score... and you'll end up winning SOMETHING I'm sure!

Hmmm I'm very bored without pictures on here... I'll try and put some up soon.

Steps

David has asked howmany steps exactly there are in the building... Well from my office in the basement to my room in the house there are 67 steps, but to the top of the house there are 87 steps but then that doesn't count the tower steps ...which I haven't even been up yet... so, there's probably something like 100...but I'll give you an update when I go up there!

Hay Fever

 Is truly, highly over-rated... Ah ah ah Choooooooooo!!!!!!!!!! Snif snif snnnnnnnnnnnnif! Am in the most beautiful countryside for my long weekend... but my gosh... rapeseed (Canola in Aussie terms) is KILLING me!!!! Mum, Dad, don't you remember how it used to knock you out for weeks?????

Books

Books are heavy. Did you know that? I couldn't take a SINGLE book with me to England... :( was heartbreaking. HOWEVER I was telling this to Hannah, the most lovely girl who works across the desk from me..... and SHE told me that there was a Borders around the corner. So this little Monification took her little self down the street and low and behold there it was shinning in all its bright neon glory. OK so as a rule I'm a "cute little bookshop around the corner" (ten points for the movie reference - Meg you can't play, it's not fair to everyone else) kind of girl. But people. Desperate times call for desperate measures. I raided the place good and proper. I bought North and South, Tale of Two Cities, Picture of Dorian Gray (or i it Gray??) , Jesus of Nazareth and Shakespeare, by Bill Bryson. I know that it's kind of a bit of an English theme apart from the Benedict book but it doesn't matter where I am I STILL would have bought those books! Am now very excited. I have reading material!!! And I really don't want to convert all those pounds into dollars... it might make me weep!!! Time for sleep.

Night!

Monica Arrives in London...Pt1 (I think!)

Well so I sat in the airport lounge at Melbourne airport on the 25th of April....yes ANZAC day (which I felt was quite apt) trying to psych myself up for the super long flight I was about to get onto. I was also pinching myself trying to work out if this was really happening or if it was all part of some bizarre dream. But it was true... crazy , but true. While I was trying to carry all my stuff onto the plane I kept on getting calls (THANKS guys...) which caused me to drop just about everything I was carrying  on more than one occasion! I felt like it was some kind of bad omen! Lucky for me I don't believe in omens so I just got on with it! 

First part of the flight was about 8 hours and I was so happy that I was able to sleep though a good proportion of it! My lead up to leaving was so intense and crazy that I was completely exhausted! AND my most wonderful youngest brother Tim let me take his really great pillow with me which made all the difference in the world! You never understand how far away your head is from you shoulder until you have to sleep sitting up without a pillow! 

So we arrived at about 6am into Hong Kong and spent about an hour and a half in the airport. It was SO good to be able to stretch out properly. Things were all running very smoothly so we got back on board and started the longer stretch which was about twelve and a half hours. It was really fascinating to fly over China (yes James you're right, it's even interesting from the sky!) and Russia, Germany. 

Just at the point where I thought I would never be able to watch another movie ever again we started to fly across England. It was super busy at Heathrow (for a change) and we had to circle for a bit first,  even when we did touch down there were no gates free so we had to get out onto the tarmac and catch a bus to the terminal. It too FOREVER!

THEN we had to get through Immigration which just seemed like it would never end. Poor Jeanine who was waiting for me outside was beginning to think she had missed me coming out!  But, yes of course, I did finally come out! We then made our trek on the tube with my massive suitcase... we made a couple of strategic plans " just in case" one of us get held behind because of the massive proportions of this suitcase of mine. But luckily people in the tightly packed tube carriage somehow managed to let us squeeze past. 

I kept on having that weird feeling of  "am I really here" going through my head over and over. But we finally got to St Patrick's in Soho where we climbed the stairs (lots of stairs) to my room! Al I really wanted to do was curl up in a ball and go to sleep. But (and it was a good plan) the girls wouldn't let me and i was shown around the place, and then taken out to dinner. It was a really lovely and absolutely hilarious dinner. But I was beginning to fade rather badly so as son as we got home I climbed (I'm serious... there are a LOT of stairs) up to my room and just fell into bed! 

Ok .... stay tuned for part 2!!!!!

Ahhhh!

The "@" key is in the wrong place on the keyboard! Really quite annoying! You just don't realise how many times you use it until it's not where you want it to be!

I'm here!

Ok so I am now in London but things are so crazy that I hardly have time to write anything decent here just yet! Give me a couple more days and a few more nights of solid sleep and I'll be much better!

Photos from my party.

Ok So I had a farewell at the beginning of the month. I've been meaning to put up some photos but have only just got the time to do it now. It was themed "all things British" and I had a ball!!!! Not so sure if everyone appreciated that I had made them get dressed up but I thought it was great!

Here's a few from the night! For some unknown reason they are coming up tiny.... will fix that another day!

5 Sleeps To Go!

Who would have thought! Works finished...pretty much, my last weekend is nearly over and I have only a couple more days to sort my life out into three piles... taking, leaving and piffing.

I'm not really sure what I think of this whole business... I actaully feel exhausted but I don't feel like I am leaving! Really bizarre really.

Yesterday I began my "rounds", as Nick called them, in earnest. I met up with Frank for Breakfast, Greg and Richard for Lunch, Nick for Coffee and had dinner at Alex and Helen's place with Jackie, Connor and Connor's brother Nathan and finished up the night playing poker. Which I was appalling at because I had faboulous hands with atrocious kickers!

Today I went to my favourite Breakfast place... Richmond Hill Cafe and Larder.... Otherwise known as "Stephanie's". Then I went to work for four hours clearing everything out and pulling down all my "girls" on the wall. I love my girls. They will certainly be coming with me! If you've ever been into my office you'll know what I'm talking about!

Then I went to the Seminary for the Family and Friends day. I will really miss those boys a lot! I love them heaps and am so proud of them (most of the time!). They really do inspire me a lot and keep me grounded. Sometimes the try and ground me too much... but hey, I guess I need it!

Then I caught up with my beautiful Bernadette for a coffee which was just lovely.

NOW I am heading off to Mass and THEN I have to take all of my stuff back to Mum and Dad's place. PHEW! What a weekend!

That's just the beginning... The next week is INSANE. I fly out on Friday night and I am almost frightened about how much I have to do in the next week. Well... enough for now!

Woooohooooo!

I don't have heaps of time but I just thought I'd say that today I got word that my visa was accepted and I will be leaving on the 25th of April! ANZAC day....hmmmm interesting!

Little Matt
I haven't yet posted about my new little nephew Matthew. He was born onthe 10th of Jan and he's the cutest little thing! Look!

Thanks for the photo Meg. Yes. You're the best.

Good point!

Alice, although rudely making fun of my visa issues and my very much Australian-ness, has a good point. I haven't actually explained WHY I am going to London.

When I went overseas over Christmas I just loved London. Paris was the most beautiful city...but London was the most interesting. And as we all know it is interesting that I like the most! (Yes Meg, interesting things and exclamation marks.) I have never seen so many fabulous things jammed together in one spot.

So anyway I came away from London thinking that "Yes, I could live here for a while". But I didn't think that it would actually happen.

To be honest, I love my life here in Melbourne. I really do. I really wouldn't have actually thought about leaving had not a great opportunity come up to work with the Parish of Soho in London. I will be taking over their fundraising campaign to help restore the Church there and to renovate the basement under the church for a Parish Centre.

SO. CRAZY. I can tell you right now. God works in bizarre ways. He's good. But bizarre.

Oh and yes... I took that photo at Christmas time.

So much to do.

You know when you have so much to do and ZERO time to do in? So much that the very THOUGHT of it all makes you want to crawl into a hole in the ground and weep? That's me. Right now. My Dad calls me Optus girl. (A telecommunications company who's catch phrase is "Yes".) If someone comes up to me and asks me a favour, I will usually say "Sure why not!" Seriously need to stop this. It's beginning to mess with my brain. (Shut up Shannon. I know you would comment about that.)

OK .... things on my list to do.

World Youth Day is coming up and I have a most faboulous group of young people that I'm taking. (Yes, I am coming back from London for WYD and taking the group up with the help of a group of stella leaders!) I love them a lot BUT it's driving me insane at the moment.

There are about 55 people in this group and collecting money from that many people is like trying to make me go to a navel gazing meditation service where you worship fat candles and bolts of chiffon... very hard...

Plus we have a get together this Thursday we have a weekend away helping out at a Parish Mission in three weeks AND I have to work out how the whole this is going to be run whilst I'm in London... which means a LOT of delegation and I am one bad delegator!

So that's just WYD.

Meanwhile I have to do all my normal things at work PLUS get it all ready to hand over which is crazy... and you should SEE the state of my desk. It's APPALLING!

Then I'm trying to work on my visa. Can't even explain that to you or I'll break out in a sweat.

FINALLY I am trying to pack up my life into a managable, suitcase, amount of things. Praise God I don't have to worry about taking sheets, towels and all that! They take up WAY too much room. Biggest dilemma... which books do I take????

Ok. Enough with the whining. I'll just get on with it!

New Profile Pic!

So the first thing to do is change my profile pic to the one that is my favourite because it shows my love of red dresses, posing and lipstick. Enough said.

Right... well then...

Hi all! I would like to work out the percentages for this blog. How much are actual posts, how many are pics and then how much are me saying how sorry I am for not posting! I think that the later might be about half!

OK so so much has happened to me in the last few weeks that I have realised that this pretty much dead blogspot needs to come to life again. I am moving to London in about 6 weeks and so thought that I would use this to let everyone know what's happening with it all!

For now I have to clear my desk of work and then I can tell explain the why of London.

Because they are just so lovely...

I thought I'd put up another photo of Cat and Blair! (Photo by Ryan!)

AHHHHHH!!!!!
You know when you know you're working hard but the pile on your desk never gets any smaller??? What is the why of this?!