Daily Notes and News
The Month of October 1999
Friday, 1st
Another great day for our Christmas Pudding process - we managed to make all 58 x 1.8 kg (4 lb.) puddings by 9.15am (an hour and a half) with two less people than were working on Wednesday. A little bit of a hiccup when one of the boilers wasn't working but we got them all into three boilers.
Admittedly it was easier making the larger puddings but even so it was a great effort. I've just had help getting the second batch out and hung and we haven't lost a pudding today to water damage so that is really terrific.
I called to see Maureen this afternoon - she is still waiting for the operation and until she has it she doesn't know exactly what the future will bring. The operation is next Wednesday and she is really nervous.
I've completed the newsletter and printed the first page - I'll do the rest in the morning but now I am heading for bed.
Saturday, 2nd
After I had finished the publishing the newsletter and done my normal Saturday morning surfing of the Web I started stapling the newsletter, the pudding order form and the summary of the Parish Assembly material together for distribution this weekend. As I was doing this a parishioner arrived with a big bowl of stir fry and a bottle of wine for me to have a meal - she thought that I looked so tired last weekend that doing something for me would make life a little easier this weekend.
I headed for town and caught up with Mum and Dad on the way to lunch at Taroona. I also managed to catch by brother-in-law Steve and my niece Lauren as well as my brother Sean and his wife Rowena and my neices Caitlin & Erin. I actually remembered to tell Dad that I wouldn't be able to get him to the doctor's on Tuesday because of a meeting.
I took order forms and an A4 poster with me to lunch to invite any of the parishes to put up a poster regarding our Christmas Puddings on their notice boards - hopefully it might increase our sales again.
I also caught up with Patty and Lyn in hospital - neither were having brilliant days but Lyn still is waiting for surgery - his is not life threatening and had to be postponed yesterday because of an emergency.
I've done some more work on the pudding preparation and now I am heading for bed - we lose an hour over night for Daylight Saving but if I wake at my normal time I will start DS better off than usual - I wish.
Sunday, 3rd
I thought that I might be able to trick my body into waking at a decent hour for the start of daylight saving but it didn't work - I woke at 5.30am (4.30 Eastern Standard Time). The Mass this morning involved the children preparing for First Eucharist on 14th November and included an enrolment ceremony for them - it is a good occasion for the Parish and a time for celebrating the life of God's people.
Then it was off to Ouse for Mass - I left a few minutes later than I had hoped because the type of traffic changes just after 10am - the drivers are slower and the trip takes much longer. There were only a few at Mass as both Enid and Ellen were away in Launceston for the weekend.
From Ouse I headed for Sandy Bay to celebrate the Baptism of John Luke De Martin. His parents are down from NSW for a few days and I've known Marianne's family since school days when two of her brothers were a year or so ahead of me and I celebrated the marriage of one of her brothers back in 1977 - so it was a reunion, not only for the family, but for me as well.
The Evening Mass has just finished and I've heated some of the stir fry that Bev had brought in yesterday and, as soon as I've finished today's notes I'm heading upstairs and going to bed - I am completely exhausted.
Monday, 4th
This morning was spent clearing up after the weekend and setting up the spreadsheet for the pudding orders - it now tells us how many puddings have been ordered, how many puddings sold, what puddings have been delivered and how much is still owed on them.
Just after 12 noon the ladies arrived to prepare for Wednesday's making and boiling - all the ingredients (except for the butter and eggs) have been made ready and it should take only a few minutes to get all that sorted.
The preparation came immediately after the first of the Journey sessions and it all went well - a slightly smaller group that usual but none the less an enjoyable lesson. This evening sessions was also a bit smaller but it still worked out all right.
This afternoon I saw a couple who have begun preparation for their marriage - they are hesitant to do any Marriage program so I will have to do some work on them to get them to rethink.
I called to see mum and dad - dad later rang to say that an uncle in New Zealand had died unexpectedly earlier today so we will be keeping both Richard and Betty in our prayers during these few days.
Now for bed.
Tuesday, 5th
After Mass at 9am this morning we had our first Council of Priests meeting with +Adrian. It was a good meeting with lot's of discussion and suggestions regarding actions which can be taken into the future. I took the minutes of the meeting and will need to sit down over then next day or so to complete the material and send it off to +Adrian and Peter Nicholls, the Chair for confirmation.
After the meeting I called to see Patty in St John's, she didn't have a really good day yesterday asb she fell going to the toilet so is a bit sore and sorry for herself today. I also called to see Lyn Harris - he has now lost four toes on his right foot through diabetes but seems to be all right after the operation. As I was leaving I also saw Maureen Murphy who is to have major surgery tomorrow so we pray that everything will go all right for her.
I then called to see about a new mobile phone - they didn't have the one I wanted so I will have to wait and see what happens over the next day or so.
My marriage preparation couple arrived fairly soon after I had got home so I didn't have time to do much before they arrived and now I have just finished having a bite to eat and I am heading for bed.
I've been trying to contact a woman about making arrangements to do her partners funeral on Friday but haven't been able to catch her yet - will try again in the morning.
Wednesday, 6th
Today's pudding boiling didn't go as well as I had hoped. This morning six bags were damaged and disintegrated as we removed them from the water - luckily we were able to rescue them before they became water damaged. They are now part of the 100 x 100 gm puddings that we had to make.
We have also completed most of the 150 gm puddings - I think we only need another 30 or so which we will make over the next few days.
My two couples for marriage preparation went well - the second couple is going to be a joint Greek Orthodox-Catholic celebration. They will be married at the Cathedral before partaking in a Greek Orthodox ceremony at St George's Church immediately after the Cathedral.
The puddings took a lot of time today so I didn't get too much done about the newsletter or the minutes of the Council of Priests Meeting - they will happen in the next day or so. But now it is time for bed.
Thursday, 7th
After Mass at 9am (not noon as originally planned) I headed to New Town for an Advisory Board Meeting for Awakening 2000 at 10am. I managed to finally catch up with Jenny at Graham Family this morning - I have tried on a number of occasions to see her in the past few weeks but it has been difficult.
After the Awakening meeting I caught up with a friend of the late Terry Daly to make some arrangements for the funeral which will be celebrated tomorrow at the Graham Family Chapel. From there I went out to Glenorchy to see some friends who have been ill recently before looking into a new mobile phone - I have been having a little bit of trouble with the batteries charging and when I asked about a new battery it was only $20 cheaper than a new Nokia phone so I'll go back either tomorrow or Monday to see what is happening.
From there it was off to the hospital to see Lyn Harris and Maureen Murphy at the Royal - both seem quite happy at the moment so I hope that they will both continue to improve over the next few days. From there I went to see patty at St John's Hospital - she is not too good at the moment - in fact she said she didn't have even enough energy to be a good 'sook'.
Next on the agenda was stopping to get the ingredients to make a couple of fruit cakes - one for the Ellendale Fair which will be held next week and which celebrates its 21st birthday on that day. The second cake will mature as become (hopefully) the Christmas Cake for our Christmas Raffle.
From there I headed for Jane Franklin Hall for the College Meeting - it went longer than usual because we were looking at making a decision to spend almost $500,000 on a property which has come on the market and which will provide a whole new face to the College and provide much needed office space as well as provide accommodation for up to a dozen extra students each year.
I've just spent some time fixing the booklet for the funeral tomorrow as well as fixing the Big Book for myself and now it is time for bed.
Friday, 8th
Today has been a bad day.
Before I went to bed last night I should have soaked the fruit for the cakes - the fruit is now soaking but it means that instead of the cakes being cooked this morning they were not started until later this afternoon. Then when I started to put up the web pages I found that the program I use had crashed and not long after that the smaller of the two hard drives where I store all my data files crashed as well.
Then the team for the puddings arrived but we were a couple of people short. The battery in the scales died and I had to use a less precise measure; I had a terrible headache because I was worried about the funeral and how people would relate to each other as there was some tension and I was finding it difficult to concentrate and keep an eye on what was happening; and I wasn't certain how the people extracting the air from the bags were going to do the extracting as well as we need it to be done.
The funeral actually went off all right without any great difficulty but it took a lot of effort to make it all happen. I came home to celebrate Mass at midday with a small group of people and it was good to be at home.
But, someone had unconnected one of the boilers (by accident) and so it was later in its boiling time than the other three coppers. Then John was busy at the time the first puddings were due to come out and I was attempting to remove them when my 2pm appointment arrived and he suddenly was conscripted into helping. There were several which had some water damage and two had more than a little water and their bags broke - one in the middle of the kitchen floor and it is now in the rubbish bin.
Terry and I looked at some of the issues relating to the GST and Parishes and we have made some suggestions to assist the Task Force in making recommendations to the National Task Force to assist the ATO in setting rules and regulations for parishes.
After Terry left I started work on making the water damaged puddings into 150 gm puddings and putting them into the boilers for re cooking - by water damage I mean a small amount of water has got into the bags and the skin of the pudding, instead of being crusty, is a little soft and it doesn't look as good as it should.
That took longer than I had hoped but I still managed to get most of the newsletter done for the weekend but it will take some time to have the internet edition ready as I now have to restart it from scratch - most weeks I just change to appropriate paragraphs.
I was lucky that Tom and Elizabeth Young were able to come up from Austins Ferry (they have just left) to look at what was happening to the computer and found that the secondary slave drive had crashed (a small metallic strip had been damaged and the inert gas had escaped) and it was stopping the D drive from being found. It is all now fixed and one or two other small problems have also been resolved. A quiet glass of wine and a chat has finished off an enjoyable evening.
Time for bed and getting ready for the trip to Campbell Town tomorrow for the World Justice and Development meeting.
Saturday, 9th
After spending quite some time trying to rebuild the October Archives page and the weekly newsletter page (from scratch as both had disappeared) I headed for Granton to meet with the others who were travelling to Campbell Town for the World Justice & Development Commission meeting. Four of us travelled together which made the trip somewhat easier to handle and a lot less of a strain. It was a good meeting with lot's of information about activities that are taking place throughout Tasmania with a challenge to try to change the attitudes of some politicians to ensure better care for refugees and displaced persons.
When I got home I completed work on the newsletter and then headed for the hospital to see Patty Gilbert who is really low at the moment, in fact she has probably only a very short time to live. I will go straight in tomorrow afternoon when I get back from the Maydena Mass to see her.
I've just had tea and now for bed (after watching the Bill of course).
Sunday, 10th
After heading off to Maydena for Mass I returned and immediately went to the Hospital to see Patty - she was unconscious and not expected to live beyond the day. I left after a short time intending to return after the evening Mass but got a phone call shortly after arriving home to tell me that she had passed away at 2.45pm. I've just spoken to her son in law and will see the family sometime tomorrow - they will ring to tell me where they are gathering.
I set the tape backup for the computer to backup all of the C: drive but during the running of the program there was a short power surge which halted the program. I restarted the backup and during Mass the power went off again so I'm about to head for bed with the backup finally completed but I still need to do the verification in the morning.
Monday, 11th
I finally managed to get the tape backup of my C:Drive completed and then a cut a CD of the data on the D:Drive that I wanted to save - after all the mucking round of the last week it is a great relief.
We finally got the confirmation of the total orders for our small puddings - 80 x 100 gm from NuShape ( a diet food supplier), 115 x 150 gm for the Friends of Community Health and 150 x 150 gm for a firm in Melbourne. We will spend some time on Wednesday breaking down the 900 gm puddings to make sure that we have sufficient for these orders and for the small puddings already ordered - if we need more 900 gm puddings we can easily make them without a great deal of fuss.
Both Journey sessions went well today although there were a couple of people missing - the Ouse people weren't there for the second week in a row but I'm certain that they are all right. After the first session we fixed the ingredients for Wednesday's pudding making and then I headed off to see the family of the late Patty Gilbert to get some information about her life and to plan the funeral liturgy for the celebration on Wednesday morning - they generously allowed us a time that will enable us to cook the puddings and for everyone else to get there for the Mass of Christian Burial. I've done some work on the leaflet and Larry, a son in law has just dropped off another photo to see if we can get a better image for the front of the leaflet.
Everyone has just left after the second Journey program so I'm heading for bed.
Tuesday, 12th
This morning started with a a quick dive out of bed to get the bottles out to the kerbside for the recyclers to collect - having a large number of empty bottles at the back door is not the image I like to give to people who come to visit. I then settled down to work on the leaflet for Patti Gilbert's funeral tomorrow - her son in law had dropped in a better photo which, when scanned, actually looked like Patti. I dropped a draft copy of the leaflet round to Angela's for the family to see and they are happy with it so I started printing.
After the Parish Mass I headed for Sacred Heart College to celebrate a class Mass for the Gr. 5 children. I also had a chance to visit the kindergarden class to see my nephew Aaron who was enjoying his time at school.
After the Class Mass I visited my friends at Graham Family to say hello to collect some digital photo's that I will use in the update of their web pages before heading out to Old Beach to talk to a couple about having their 'marriage' regularised - there are some difficulties but it should be possible within a very short time to do something for them.
From there I headed back to town to prepare for an Executive Working Group of the Tasmanian Council of Churches - I was just a little bit out in my timing and was too late to visit the people in Hospital that I wanted to see. I had to wait until after the meeting before having a chance to see Maureen, Lyn and Angus - Maureen has had a bit of a set back and the other two are progressing well.
I got home to find that most of the leaflets for Patti's funeral had been printed while I was away - I finished off the one's that needed to be done on the colour printer before my couple for Marriage preparation arrived.
They have just left and now I am heading for bed.
Wednesday, 13th
After yesterday's Mass at Sacred Heart I took a photo of the puddings and it can now be seen here.
The cooking of the puddings today didn't go as well as I had hoped - there were several which were water damaged (some water got into the bags which meant that they didn't cook evenly) and they need to be cooked for a little longer. Otherwise the main cooking is now over and the rooms of the house now look, at least partially, as if nothing unusual happens here.
The funeral of the late Patti Gilbert was celebrated with real simplicity and a great deal of peace - here was a full Church and a good cross section of the community who were there to pray for her and offer their support for her family.
I called to see a patient at the Royal Derwent and managed to help a little bit there before, finally doing some work on the minutes of the Council of Priests meeting. I haven't finished but at least they have been started.
Then it was off to the airport to collect Mick Wheeler who is staying for 10 days. He is a good friend and I'm always conscious that I am busy whilst he is around, I only hope that this time we can have a bit of a break.
We've been chatting for a while but I need to go to bed so I will finish this now and head off.
Thursday, 14th
We celebrated Mass with the children from School to remember and give thanks for the lives of Bev Rumley (former teacher and mother of the Art Teacher), Harry Cowling (husband of a present teacher), Philip Hayes (father of children in the school) and Kevin Foster (grandparent of children). There was a good crowd of people there to support the children and families and it was a good celebration.
Immediately after Mass we had a morning tea to welcome two members of the Evangelical Sisters of Mary, a group founded in Germany and now working as an ecumenical group to bring a message of repentance to the community. They have a busy time in their two weeks in Tasmania and will be back in New Norfolk on Sunday evening.
Then it was off to lunch to say thanks to the team who have helped with the Christmas pudding making effort - a very enjoyable lunch and pleasant company.
Then Mick and I headed for Ouse to see Mona Browning. The family had been called in late yesterday because she was poorly but when we got there she was sitting up and chirpy. Whilst there I headed off to the local Anglican cemetery to find the grave of my great grandfather - my mum had asked if I could find out the date of his death. I looked but we should have been at the Hamilton cemetery so we headed for Hamilton. Mum's sense of direction is not particularly good - and even with her telling me exactly where we were to look it took well over 20 minutes and was at the opposite end of the cemetery but we found it.
We cam home in time for a bite to eat before I attended the Parish Pastoral Council meeting. There is a lot going on at the moment and we are running out of time to complete all the work for the Call to Change process and preparations of the Great Jubilee.
The last one has just left and now I'm heading upstairs to see what Mick has been up to and then I'm heading for bed.
Friday, 15th
Mr Justice Enfield certainly made us sit up and think this morning as he worked his way through the various aspects of poverty, refugee and human rights issues as he painted a picture for us of this last decade of the 20th Century. A powerful speaker with a great deal to offer who gave us a lot to think about.
Mick and I called to see the Graham Family staff and spent a few minutes talking to Annie about some issues as well as arranging to have lunch on Tuesday. We then headed home and went for a walk through New Norfolk dropping off the order forms for the Business Morning Teas for Wednesday - I'll ask Mary to collect them on Monday after school.
After Mass I went to work on the newsletter and some other aspects of life that needed to be written up on the computer whilst Mick did the cross word and had a quiet afternoon. We've had tea and a quiet early evening and now I'm heading for bed because I have the Prayer Breakfast in the morning and we are out for dinner tomorrow evening.
Saturday, 16th
The Prayer Breakfast at the Salvation Army Hall this morning had the smallest attendance for some time - the Uniting Church Group are at their Annual Synod, the Seven Day Adventists weren't there and a number of the Anglicans weren't there either (for various reasons) - but we prayed for our community and celebrated our unity.
It was then off to Hayes for Mass - today there were three who came and it seems that they will be happy enough to keep coming into the future. Rory told me that his family visit, which was to happen on the last weekend of October, had fallen through because there were no frequent flyer trips into Tasmania until next year.
After a coffee with the boys I came home and finished off some work before heading to town via Claremont and a visit to Mum and Dad. We didn't spend too long there as it was close to their lunch time but will call in sometime over the next few days to see them again.
From there we headed to St Joseph's to celebrate with the Passionist Community the Feast of their founder Paul of the Cross. It was an enjoyable meal and I also managed to have a chat to +Adrian - his email address is now up and running so when I returned home I finished working on the Minutes of the Council of Priests and sent it off to him as an attachment - we'll see how he gets on with email now.
After a short nap Mick and I went out to Jan and Tony Davis for a very lovely meal of venison and some great conversation - we were joined by Mary and Pat Murray and it was a good night. We've only been home a short time but it is close to midnight and I need to head for bed because I am tired and making lot's of mistakes as I type this - thankfully the spell checker will correct most of them before they get posted. Now I'm heading for bed.
Sunday, 17th
Today has been a long day - not that there were so many things happening but I suspect that because I am tired I am in fact getting worse.
There was a good crowd at Mass this morning and almost no-one at Hamilton because many of the people were already at the Fair at Ellendale. Immediately after the Mass ended we headed for the Fair and found that the crowd this year was bigger than ever and there were lot's of new faces and the result is bigger than it has been for the past few years. My 21st birthday cake was a success and actually tasted really good as well - Sandy had done a wonderful job of icing it in a short time. I will have to get onto making the cake for the Christmas Raffle soon.
I came back to New Norfolk for a Baptism and there was a large crowd of people there who were a little nervous about being in Church but I hope that the celebration asked them to think about what they were doing in bringing Thomas King for Baptism and the responsibility that they have undertaken to give him an example of faith and Christian living.
Mick celebrated the evening Mass - there was no music (I normally lead the people in singing 'freestyle' - a cappella on these occasions) but the congregation did it themselves this week so all my efforts over the past 4 years has had a little bit of an impact.
After Mass I headed over to the Royal Derwent Theatre for the Ecumenical Service led by the Evangelical Sisters of Mary - although the service didn't go too long I was so tired that I was nodding off and dropped my papers once. There was a better crowd there than has been to any of the previous Ecumenical ventures there recently so something good is happening.
But now for bed - since I spent most of the Sunday Night Movie falling asleep and missed just about anything which would help me remember what it was about.
Monday, 18th
After the 9.00am Mass this morning the boilers were on to finish the cooking of the 50 puddings we needed to have for the smaller (150 gm) puddings to fill our orders. The after the Journey program this morning we fixed over 230 of the smaller puddings with a team of about 8 and needed to have something to eat towards the end as we were slowly fading away.
A few of them got some extra water damage so we will need to put all the puddings in a new bag before we can sell them - it is just a little too dangerous to run the risk of water damage on the day. There are actually 973 puddings in various sizes available that have been cooked so it is not too bad an effort.
I managed to finally get +Adrian's email address and have sent off the material for the Council of Priests but there was some little confusion regarding the actual name and whether you used uppercase for the first initial but that is all fixed now.
Mick headed off to see his niece and family at Rokeby a little earlier so that he could stop and get some little gifts to take them - that left me to do some tidying up as well as being able to simply stop for a few minutes and rest before the Journey session tonight - they have just left after a cuppa and I am heading for bed. Mick hasn't arrived home yet so I will see him in the morning.
Tuesday, 19th
After Mass this morning I went to a meeting of the Police and Community Consultative Meeting (at the Police Station) - except there were no Police Officers there because of shift changes and holidays. The meeting went well and a number of things were considered which now have to be put to the Police for action [or otherwise].
After the meeting I wandered through the town and collected the final few morning tea orders before going to the supermarket to purchase all the goods we need to make the sandwiches etc. for tomorrow.
After that Mick and I are heading for town to have lunch with Annie Graham at the Salamanca Cafe - we had a pleasant lunch before heading back via Glenorchy to check on some things at Northgate.
From there it was home to cook some sponges and get things ready for the Morning Tea tomorrow. I'm not having a late night tonight as I need to be on the ball tomorrow early so it's now about 9.30pm and I'm heading for bed.
Wednesday, 20th
Today started early with the cooking of scones and making of sandwiches for the Business Morning Tea's this morning. The number we delivered was smaller than usual because several of the business Houses are having some of their staff with days off because of the Show Day break tomorrow. Still we delivered 80+ with some extra morning teas going to the Catholic Education Office, the Catholic Development Fund and Graham Family as we found that we had more than enough for what we needed.
After Mass at midday we joined a friend and wandered around the Royal Hobart Agricultural Show before going to tea with Jan and Harvey Bullen - friends of Mick's from his days as a youth in Alphington, Victoria. We had a lovely meal with them and managed to get home at a reasonable time so that I could think about going to bed in a few minutes time.
Thursday, 21st
Today was a slow day (a public holiday for the Royal Agricultural Show) and I managed to sleep in until almost 7am (after waking at 4.00am and dozing) - and it was good to have a bit of a rest.
I sent off the Board Audit Review papers (by fax, the originals to be sent off by mail tomorrow) for the ITIM Annual Meeting next Friday in Melbourne.
Then Mick and I headed off for a drive to the East Coast - it was all a bit of a rush just to see the area known as Wineglass Bay - it is about a half hour walk from the car park which we made with a little difficulty as neither of us are fit and I think I put Mick under a fair bit of stress. I'm not a very good tourist as we almost immediately jumped back in the car and drove home without too much time spent doing anything else or seeing anything else for that matter.
Then it was a bite to eat and we've watched TV for awhile but now I am heading for bed and hopefully another good nights sleep.
Friday, 22nd
Almost as soon as I was out of bed this morning I started looking for a box of envelopes for our Thanksgiving Program which should have arrived some weeks ago - I couldn't find them anywhere and lost a good part of the morning with phone calls to Sydney, the transport company and checks around the Parish to see if anyone had taken delivery of them. The printing company are going to reprint them on Monday so they should be here by the end of the week - a cost to both of us for wasted time and effort and nobody knows where the originals are.
The rest of the morning was spent doing some work around the house although I didn't get too much work done on the newsletter. This afternoon we headed to town to get some things that we really didn't need but bought anyway - Mick always leaves Hobart poorer than when he arrived and I'm almost as bad. We also called to say hello to Mum and Dad - it will be some time before Mick sees them again - possibly in August next year for my 25th ordination anniversary.
We have had a quiet last night and now I'm heading for bed for a reasonably early night.
Saturday, 23rd
I woke early (4.30am) this morning in order to get the Newsletter out of the way and as it was printing away in the background I checked to see what it looked like and found both the date of the newsletter was incorrect and I'd forgotten to change the celebration to World Mission Sunday so I had to print a whole lot of pages again. On the positive side I managed to finish the Web page (with the correct information) and posted it early so something was working.
Mick had packed his bags so we headed for the car and dropped off the newsletters to the local congregations before heading to town to go to Salamanca Market. The Market is a local adventure and a great tourist attraction - although like all tourist things a little bit overpriced. After looking around there we went to Moonah to see Tom Young re getting some CD's for our CD-R's and to chat about some of the things that Mick can do with his CD-RW - like only being able to use the CD-RW discs in his machine and not other machines.
From there we headed for lunch at Lenah Valley for a pleasant meal before heading to the airport and his trip back to Melbourne before heading off on the rest of his holiday. At lunch one of the priests told us a story of his morning - he related how he had given the Anointing of the Sick to an elderly person last night and had received a phone call this morning to say that the person had died at 5.15am. The undertaker asked if he might be able to do the funeral - at 10.30am - today. Family members were in Hobart from interstate and were not able to get a flight back into Tasmania for several days and would have difficulty changing other arrangements. Since there were only these family who would be involved in the funeral it was celebrated and the deceased was interred by 11am - less than six hours after their death. Nobody is certain but it seems that it would be one of the quickest arrangements and funerals that anyone could remember, let alone imagine.
I headed to see Michael Callinan and had a chat about a couple of people who are struggling with the sickness in the family and how they might be helped - I'll try and see if something can be done for them via a couple of priests over the next few days.
From there I headed home and a little bit of work but now it is time to head upstairs to bed via the TV Room where I will get my weekly fix of The Bill and, hopefully, not miss the end by falling asleep.
Sunday, 24th
Lot's of little things happened today - we celebrated World Mission Sunday at each of the Masses and I was able to speak about the work being done by Bishop Justin Samba and his people in Tanzania (the country in Africa most often thought of as Tasmania) and sought to encourage our parish community to look at ways of building a link with the work in a particular country.
The country Mass was at Ellendale and they were over the moon with the success of the Fair last weekend - a great result for them and the committee which works so hard to provide support for the people of the district.
From Ellendale I headed for town to celebrate the baptism of cousins - children of a family with whom I have had a deal of interaction over the past decade with funerals, marriages and baptisms - it was a lovely celebration including a whole lot of very active children.
From there I headed home for a short quiet time (desperately needed) before I prepared for the evening Mass. I was really tired as I came back from the country and knew that if I kept going celebrating Mass tonight would be difficult - it wasn't, thankfully, and now I'm just finishing a toasted ham sandwich before heading for bed and an early night.
Monday, 25th
Today started reasonably well but I fairly soon got the idea that everything was not going to work as well as I thought. I opened the mail after Mass and found that my mobile (cell) phone account was way over what I expected and it took me 25 minutes to find out why; I had expected that I might be able to get down to school to see about the format for a Parents Meeting for Wednesday night but that didn't happen and I had a splitting headache. I was also trying to organise the prizes for our Christmas Raffle which go on sale this coming Thursday and I haven't started to print the tickets so John will be under some pressure to get them ready unless I do something tomorrow.
After the Journey program this morning the team was here to start to put the small puddings into calico. I told them I was having a bad day but we went on regardless - to our peril because I had the wrong labels and after we had labelled 150+ someone said that these labels are wrong so we had to re do the whole lot. The only good things was that the fried rice and the couple of puddings which were rejected for packing - a little too soft to touch - tasted really great.
I then headed out to see a lady whose husband died recently - she has been struggling over the past few days so I spent some time with her before coming back here to read the paperwork for the ITIM Annual Meeting due to be held in Melbourne on Friday.
By then it was time for tea (toasted ham sandwiches) before getting ready for the evening session of the Journey Program. They have just left and now I am heading for bed - the headache is gone but I'm exhausted.
Tuesday, 26th
When I arrived for the Southern Deanery meeting to look at some of the issues relating to the Call to Change Process I thought that no-one else was going to turn up. In the end there were only two of the guys missing but it didn't look good at the beginning. We were looking at some of the issues that need to be addressed by parishes as they begin the audit process to determine how 'cluster parishes' might look at ways to assist each other to use resources etc. for better value. I didn't have too much time after the meeting before I had to be home for the midday Mass.
After Mass Sr Lorraine stayed as she waited for her car to have a check-up as it had been making some unsatisfactory noises over the past week and she was a little concerned about whether some damage had been done to it. In the end nothing seemed to be too wrong but she did some work and we had a chat about a few things that have been on the back burner for some time.
I worked on some material for the Call to Change process and sent some material to Louise Cotton, the co-ordinator, for possible distribution to parishes. Lorraine helped print the raffle tickets for our Christmas Raffle before she left and that was another job out of the way.
After tea I interviewed a couple for the first step of their marriage preparation and will be seeing them again in a fortnight's time; I also had to contact a lass re not being able to do a marriage in February as it falls on the same weekend that I am due to be in Melbourne for an ITIM Board Meeting.
After all the mucking around today I'm now heading for bed as I think I need a good nights sleep.
Wednesday, 27th
Today started reasonably until I went to upload the web page to the Net and retrieve my email and check out some pages. A friend wanted me to order some wine for her and I forgot so I tried to send her an email (animated from a particular site which shall remain URLless) and I was prompted did I want to download a sample of the email to view - I said yes and everything locked and when I rebooted I could only restart in safe mode and nothing I did made any difference. I lost the CD-R drive and the A drive (the computer couldn't find them) so I headed for town and booted up in the back room area of a computer shop and both were back - it seems that I had not rebooted the machine often enough for everything to come back so I was really peeved.
All the problems happened before Mass so when I got a phone call asking me to help at a Christian Options Session at the local High School I was really all geared up to be enthusiastic and encouraging for a slightly anti-Christian group of Grade 9 students!!!. I had hoped to get down to school to check on some of the things for the Parents meeting (which has just finished) but that didn't happen until about 5.00pm this afternoon.
After I had seen Tom and got the computer back I headed for Graham Family to say good bye to Julie who finished today and will be sadly missed - a new 'girl' starts soon so I'll be meeting her when she starts. I also paid for the Testimonial Dinner for Archbishop D'Arcy which is to be held in 10 days time.
I wasn't home long when another disaster struck. I started to check out one of the videos for the parents meting and it was a damaged video which wrecked the heads on my video player - a quick trip to the repair shop where Andrew took a couple of minutes to re-clean the heads so that I was able to use the machine tonight for the meeting. I just got home when Sandy arrived to talk about the Parents meeting (mentioned above).
The School Board meeting was at 6.00pm so after a quick cuppa with Sandy I headed down to school to act as secretary as Kay was missing before changing rooms for the Parents meeting.
I'm now home and heading for bed.
Thursday, 28th
This morning started with printing the minutes for the Christian Leaders Association Meeting which is held here every fortnight. It is a good gathering of members of the local Church communities working together to address issues facing the Churches at this time.
Also on the agenda was a poster for the Christmas Raffle which started selling on the town this morning - we had a bit of a nightmare during the past few days attempting to find a butcher who would slaughter and cure a large ham and make bacon but was resolved on Tuesday so everything is on the way.
After the meeting I headed up town to get some of the ingredients I used this afternoon to add to manufactured ice-cream to make my special ice-cream for the School Fair tomorrow night. I worked on that later this afternoon down at school after the seeing a family from Kingston who asked to look at our Parish records to try to find some missing details concerning their relatives - they had some success but not sufficient to fill in too many of the gaps.
My couple for marriage preparation arrived and we completed most of the final paperwork before it was time for the Parish Pastoral Council members to arrive to look at the next stage of the Call to Change process - this weekend there will be more material going out to parishioners but I will need to say a few things about these next steps in my homily on Sunday.
Now for bed because tomorrow is going to be a long day.
Friday, 29th
Today was another long day. After loading the page for Daily Notes & News I headed for the Toyota Dealers to leave my car for a service while I went to Melbourne for the ITIM (Inter Church Trade & Industry Mission) Annual General Meeting - held in one of the Qantas Lounges - which meant that I didn't even get out of the airport all day. It was a good meeting with some honest discussion about the issues facing the Mission. In recent times (and into the future) the Board has/will be changed dramatically - in fact by the next time we meet (possibly in Brisbane in February) there could be three new faces on the board which starts a whole new process of rebuilding.
After the meeting I sat with John Ryan (from WA) in the Qantas Club and we talked about a whole range of things that are happening about the Mission as well as our own stories - it is really good to get to know the stories behind people I only get to see three - four times a year.
I've just arrived home and I'm heading for bed almost immediately - I have another early start in the morning and I need some sleep.
Saturday, 30th
This morning after posting the Daily Notes & News I headed for Bellerive to attend the launch of the Awakening 2000 program for this next year and an explanation of the events and program for the next 18 months leading up to Pentecost 2001. There was a good gathering of people there and, happily, a few representatives of the 'major' denominational groups which is an improvement on the past. Mal Garvin challenged us and provided a real chance to reflect on the way that we, the major denominations, look at mission and evangelisation.
As soon as it was possible I headed home to celebrate a Baptism here at New Norfolk. When I arrived I found that the ladies who were due to do the cleaning this week had missed yesterday and were wanting to do their work this morning so they only had a short time to get in and tidy up. The grandparents of the little one being baptised were long time parishioners of Claremont and know my parents really well.
After the Baptism I called to see Ken & Karen re their plans for marriage - we weren't able to sign off all the paperwork so will have to try and contact some parishes on the mainland to determine where Karen might have been baptised as all their family records were destroyed in a fire many years ago. Then it was on to lunch at Lindisfarne were I enjoyed a good meal and was able to arrange for Fr John Williams to see the couple whose wedding in February falls on the same weekend I am due to be in Brisbane for the ITIM Board meeting so that looks hopeful.
After lunch I called to see Mum and Dad before heading back here to work on the newsletter. I had hoped for an early evening but I spent time helping to put up some of the work being done by the children preparing for First Eucharist as well as stapling the material together for the Call to Change and the calendar for November to the newsletter.
It is now later than I had hoped and I'm heading for bed.
Sunday, 31st
After completing all the work left undone from yesterday (the newsletter for the local Churches, the letter to parishioners re the First Eucharist candidates) I headed over to Mass and needed to turn the heaters on it was so chilly. There was a reasonable number at Mass so that was good.
From there I headed to Bronte Lagoon - the Chalet was booked out by people in training for an Antarctic expedition. As we were driving up the rain turned to a light snow so we knew that it was cold. We hadn't finished Mass when Harold suggested that we take a quick turn round the Lake on the Bronte Spirit but before we headed out it started to snow quite heavily. We managed a quick trip but we hadn't been out too long when the snow was back and it fell for some time although it didn't settle.
The trip back wasn't too bad as the conditions, although wet, were reasonable. I've celebrated Mass this evening and been to the Combined Churches Ecumenical Service at the Uniting Church and now I'm heading for bed - I am really tired.
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