I am still here!

I am trying to be good at posting even when I don't have time to post properly! I would like to post all about Rome, and I will... and I would also like to post about my weekend with the beautiful Maria Macgregor and the visit of the Hills, and I will... and I would like to post about my work and how I would love it if you could help me, and I will... and I would like to post about the fact that I am going to have about a million visitors over the next few months, and I will and I would like to post about EVERYTHING, and I will.... BUT I AM SWAMPED for the time being and this post will have to serve as a teaser for you and a list for me! 

Meanwhile it is 8:30pm and I still have a mountain of work to complete before I take off my shoes (a sign that I am no longer at work) and head on up home. Oh... you know... sometimes that's just the way it is. 

THANK HEAVENS Hannah had the brilliant foresight to give me the soundtrack to "Miss Potter" for my birthday. It is beautiful. It, along with Jeanine, Hannah, Teresa, Edna, Anna, Maria, Dan and Jane have kept me sane this past week! 

Well there you go I have just written a longer post than I mean to. All about nothing! Trust me, it takes skill.  

I. Love. Rome. 

Ok so I have just spent 4 glorious days in Rome. I had never been before... yes, I am awear that this is almost a crime, but I have now remedied the situation! It was jammed packed with everything including a facinating look at the temperament of the Italians when one's taxi is sideswiped by a bus (yes I was in it at the time) Interestingly enough... the way to deal with this is to scream at the bus driver and then put your taxi IN FRONT OF IT with your customer inside. Loved it! Ok so I don't have time for more and i want to put up pics which I cannot do from this computer. Shall update with more soon!

26 London Style

Well I was 26 yesterday and I made it through the day... nice!

It was a tad weird. I may be somewhat sheltered ... but I have never been away from home on my birthday before. It was different. There was no Tim to jump on me in the morning. There was no family do... it's a little bit of a shock to ones system I think.

HOWEVER... the most lovely people who I live and work with (some of whom I am lucky enough to do both!) were just so lovely and did everything they could to make it a really really lovely day. It started the night before (yes I held a vigil of my birth) with the beautiful Jovina who was visiting me (ok she wasn't visiting ME she was visiting her sister... but you know... I am here too!) and who took me out to a most lovely Mexican restaurant and the we went to the Haugen Dass (I don't think that's how you spell it... but you know... the super fantabulous ice-cream?) cafe and had a most lovely night! (Jov... I cannot BELIEVE we have NO pictures of us in London AT.ALL!)

Then I got home and the lovely Jeanine was there and she gave me a most lovely present of slippers (she doesn't really approve of my bare-feetedness) and a CD of the brilliant and Ella Fitzgerald.

Jeanine also welcomed me into my birthday by giving me a beautiful rendition of Happy Birthday through the door at 6:30 in the morning... gotta love her!

Then I got to Mass (whooohooo for having a birthday this is also got such a cool title like Michaelmas!) and had my obligatory coffee. At work we had a most lovely cake in the form of a GIANT french fancy... Hannah... you are amazing! Work was of course busy... we've got a marrrrrhusive week this week and there is NO time for slacking off even on one's birthday.

Then after work Hannah, Edna, two of my Anna's, Barbara, Vincent and Marcus came out for dinner on Charlotte Street (love that street... and that name!) where a most exuberant and hilarious time was had by all. The most lovely people at the restaurant gave me a birthday cake with super cool candles on it. It was a really nice night.

So. All in all ... I had a really really lovely birthday. Thanks to all those who sent me messages via phone, email, facebook, post, ect. I really really really REALLY appreciated it! Thanks also to everyone here for making my birthday here so really very special. xxxx

Hmmm I'll just wack up some photos from the night at the bottom here! (Yes Hannah... I stole them off you. x)

Hannah and me!
Edna and Anna (one of them!) Cute (and tasty) cake with very cool candles M&S how awesome are YOU!

Lovely friends!
Me the poser.

Quiet Weekend

Well I am in the middle of a nice a quiet weekend. I've had a stack of filing to do at work so I've kind of hung around the office today trying to catch up on all things work.

I chatted to the family this morning. My youngest brother Tim is really happy about the Hawks finally being a team of which he can be proud! I am very proud that he stuck with his team through all the rubbish years (which have lasted pretty much his entire life) and didn't fall to the usual temptation of childhood swapping to a team who is actully doing well! Well done!!!

Here's a pic of him... just becuase i miss him! xxxxx

We had a little bit of a scare this morning because the Centre of the World, who I mentioned in my last post, went missing for a little while... Fr was doing a baptism and Ambrose escaped while Fr wasn't looking and ran out into the street. Now... Soho... isn't a place for a little dog... so we were SCOURING the place for the little red dog! Somehow he managed to get himself down to Tottenham Court Road Tube Station and found a rubbish bin... one of his favouite things. Well he was found and was VERY sorry. So... we all forgave him. Here's some picture of the cute little thing to perhaps try and convey his cuteness and help you to understand why we all bow down and do what he wills!

See... how much is he so cute!?

Busy Week
Well... I've had a busy week and I wish I had more time to write but I really just don't... I am up to my eyeballs with work and am in the processes of restructuring the whole thing so that I can work properly... am going to go for a walk now and come back later tonight to finish some stuff up. Hmmmm I might take Ambrose out with me... Ambrose is the Parish dog and also know as "the centre of the world" ...because... well.... he is!

Miss M goes to Newcastle part II

Whoo hooo! There is growth! I said I would tell you about Newcastle AND I AM!!! David will be so happy with me.

SO I had a BALL in Newcastle. Seriously loved it. I got up some ungodly hour and got ready and made my way down to my nearest Tube station which is Tottenham Court Road. Scary at 5:30am let me tell you! ANYWAY it wasn't open as yet (1st train is 5:45) and so we had to wait outside for a little while. Seriously. There are CREEPY people in this world. Shiver.

Got To Liverpool Street Station and hoped on a Stanstead Express.... to Stanstead which was quite a nice ride. About 45mins with two stops... which kind of deafeats the purpose of an EXPRESS if you ask me... but it's not a bad trip.

THEN I got to the airport which is actully a nice little one... SOOOOO much better than Heathrow. I HATE Heathrow. A lot.

We had a slight delay, but all things were good (Easy Jet you are great even though you have that horrible orange which makes me gag) and I got into Newcastle at about oooooo 9:45ish and was met by the lovely Maria.

Had a really lovely time with her and her beautiful family who just made me feel right at home! Was really just nice to feel at home when you live so far from it! Maria then spend the day showing me and another friend Liz around the town which I loved. Seriously can you believe this. The council (or what ever they call the council of the town .... not up with local politics here!) have decided that most of the buildings which were built in the 60s and 70s were ugly and so are now systematically going through a knocking them all down! Man... I have never HEARD of such sense coming out of a bureaucracy!

Across the river is a bizarrely familiar sight... I looked at one of the bridges and thought... hmmmm... familiar... where have I seen that....

Yep... from what I can gather... this was kind of the proto type for Sydney Harbour Bridge... it's pretty much exactly the same... but... titchy! Even the lamps are the same. Apparently you can climb this bridge too and it doesn't cost a mint.

We had a great time wondering the streets checking out the Art Gallery which had some interesting stuff... as well as this installation which was... in effect a massive dark room with mirrors. We had NO idea what we were meant to do once we got inside. So after clinging to each other.... we edged our way to the light of the door and came out rather confused. Weeeeeeird.

We had a great lunch which between the three of us came to £11... £11 FOR THREE of us.... I'm not sure you understand how amazed I was .... but I'll leave it at that.

We then had to rush home and get dressed for Mass and a poshy dinner which was marking the 40th Anniversary of Humane Vitae and we had a really nice night. Great people, great food a BEAUTIFUL surroundings. It was a the Assembly Rooms which kind of made me think of Pride and Prejudice. I can't find a pic of the inside so this one will have to do!

The next morning we got up and Pat, Maria's lovely mother made us all breakfast. We hoped over to the Cathedral for Mass which was really lovely (Mass and the Cathedral!) It's a Pugin church and it's BEAUTIFUL! Here's the link to some photos of it. I don't have any :( my camera had run out of battery and I forgot to take my charger up. Seriously beautiful... scroll through til you get one from the nave of the altar. The ceiling is just brilliant.

Anyway we had a nice time just hanging around. Then it was time to go again and I flew back into Standstead at about 10ish and got into bed around 1pm... sooooo tired the next day but it was worth it of course!

WHAT!!!


Ok... I just realised that I am going to have to get up at 4:30 in the morning tomorrow... man... why I do these things to myself I have NO idea!

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.