I worked on the booklet for the first of the two funerals tomorrow and then spent quite some time getting the BEACON onto the web as well as setting up this last weekend's newsletter. All in all it was a good morning's work so that made me feel good.
By then it was time for the baptism so I celebrated that and then headed off to join the family for an enjoyable lunch and a couple of beers.
I then headed for town to see some people and managed to catch a couple of friends and catch up with some of the stories of their Easter and events of their break. It was good to relax and have some space. I enjoyed a meal with them and now I've come home and I'm heading for bed as I will need to work on the Big Books for tomorrow and print off the second booklet in the morning. I may have put myself under pressure tomorrow but I've enjoyed the quieter day today and I'm going to make the most of it.
After Mass I headed off to Pontville for the first of the funerals which went off well. There was a good crowd, many of whom had been there less than three months ago when we buried her husband so it was a hard day for the family.
I called into Graham's at lunch time before going with them to Cornelian Bay for the funeral of the little baby of the couple from New Norfolk. It was really difficult, as all little children's funerals are, but a little more difficult for me because she was buried close by two other little one's whose funerals I have celebrated in the past twelve months.
I then called to see another family to assist in preparing the material for the booklet for a funeral which is to be celebrated at Glenorchy tomorrow afternoon. Fr Clem Kilby will be celebrating the funeral but is away at the moment so I helped out. I know most of the family anyway and will go to the funeral tomorrow afternoon and then to the burial at Malbina with them.
I've done everything I needed to do today so now I'm heading for bed - hopefully I'll get some sleep after this morning's early awakening.
This morning I fixed the rope system in the Church for the banners - it now looks a little neater and less intrusive and seems to be easier to get the banner into a central position in the Church without too much effort.
This afternoon I went to the funeral of the late Christine Wolfe at Glenorchy where I joined Frs Clem Kilby and Peter Carroll in the celebration of the Liturgy of her life. It was a large gathering of people, many of whom I have known for what seems like all of my life as members of her family have moved in the same parish circles as my family since I was about 7. In fact at one stage one of my brothers was engaged to one of her nieces so she was almost family.
This evening I have done some work on the newsletter so this weekend is looking good as well as written a letter to all the members of the Marianella Program which I am putting onto an aerogramme which I'll send off sometime tomorrow - when I get the ink cartridges refilled. When it is done I'll send off the same message to all the email people so it might become a newsletter thing that we can have letting people know what is happening. I have also arranged appointments for mariage preparation as well as a couple of Baptisms so the weeks ahead are not going to be any quieter.
Now bed, after this mornings effort, I need to try and get some sleep.
After Mass this morning I worked on the financials again and this time have found a few more discrepancies that will need to be followed up so try and resolve before the Parish Meeting next weekend - 13th. I'm not sure exactly when but hopefully I will be able to get things done and under control.
Just as I was about to leave to do a few things in town, like get some more card for the raffle tickets (which I subsequently forgot anyway); dropping off some cartridges to get refilled; visiting my mum; and visiting some people in hospital I got three phone calls. The first was asking me to see someone tonight so I organised that for 7.30pm (more about that later); the second was to see someone at Millbrook Rise - I've arranged that for tomorrow at 11am and the third was asking if I were available for a funeral on Monday at 11am.
I headed for town, did the things I remembered and then headed off to the TCC for an Executive Working Group Meeting in preparation for the Executive Meeting next Wednesday in Launceston and the Annual Meeting on 4th May.
At the end of the meeting I dashed home to be here for my appointment and found a phone message saying that he couldn't make it and could he have another time - I'll need to ring in the morning to fix a suitable time for him.
I've also been working on a letter to all the Marianella people which I will, hopefully, have finished to send out tomorrow. It is an aerogramme letter which is taking some effort to feed through the printer (which is also why I needed the cartridges refilled) but it should all work out tomorrow.
Now bed and, hopefully, some sleep.
After the 9am Mass I headed off to Corumbene for the First Friday Mass but found that a number of the people were away so there was only a few. After Mass I went to the District Hospital to catch up with the three people there before going to see another couple in Pioneer Avenue. Then it was off to Millbrook Rise where I caught up with a patient and met his dad as well - I'd spoken to him on the phone on a number of occasions but never actually met him before.
I was a little early for the meeting with the family to make the arrangements for the funeral for Monday so I went and did some shopping and collected my Tattslotto tickets. This almost always means that I meet a few people around the place so I was a few minutes late getting to see the family - luckily one of the members of the family was also late so no-one was inconvenienced.
After working with them for some time I headed home and had some lunch before working on the photo and the leaflet. I'll take it round to the family in the morning because they hadn't decided on the Scripture Readings until later in the day - they have now been entered so everything is ready to go.
I then headed for town and managed to get a couple of jobs completed before coming home and having a sit down, a glass of red with my tea and now I'm heading for bed. It seems that Essendon is going to stitch up the Tigers badly so it will be a high number for the football this weekend.
I tried to make arrangements to see a fellow who had an appointment last Thursday but can't catch him until Monday night so I headed off to town and caught up with Mum - again, twice in three days is a bit much. Anyway I stayed until her lunch time before calling in to see Tom at the Computer shop for a brief chat.
Got into the car and the screen on my mobile looked as if it were the opening scenes of 'The Matrix' but the shop where I bought it was shut so will need to check there on Monday to see what is happening.
Continued on to lunch at Lindisfarne before calling to see a friend whom I hadn't caught up with for some time. Her birthday is on Thursday so she reaches 51 three weeks earlier than I do so I will remember her then - or do I mean I won't let her forget!!
Headed home before driving to Dysart to celebrate Mass for the Diocesan Leaders of the Pilgrimage to the World Youth Day - it was a grand night with some good people involved.
Just got home and now I'm heading for bed - I much more tired than I thought.
Mass this morning was really well attended and there was a lot of chat afterwards which was good. There were also a good number who came for a coffee so I met up with quite a number of people before I headed off to Ouse.
Not so well attended, however. When I arrived the only people there were a couple from another part of the Parish and the only others to arrive were a woman and grand-daughter so it was very light on. On the way to Ellendale I travelled via Gretna and caught up with a lady there who is having treatment for a tumour and found out her husband was really sick as well.
Lorraine and I chatted over coffee at the Ellendale Market about some of the plans for next Saturday's Parish Assembly at Oatlands before I came home to do a little bit of work on the Big Book for the funeral tomorrow.
Then it was off to Kempton for the evening Mass - @ the new time of 4.30pm and most people were there - I only hope that one's who weren't remembered and didn't come later - I should have thought to stay until close to 6pm just in case.
I'm home, tired and ready for bed so I'm not going to watch any TV - just grab a book and head for bed.
The day started early with a trip to town to drop off my car to get serviced. I borrowed a friends car to get home and made sure that I had everything ready for the funeral at 11am.
After Mass this morning I went up the street and got some of the things I needed to fix the pulley system in the Church but had to wait until I'd been to town this afternoon to get the last few things -it is now ready to go and should work out that I get it finished tomorrow morning.
The funeral went well - larger than I had expected and so I ran out of leaflets which is bad form but there was nothing that I could really do about it. I spent some time with the family at the end of the service at the wake but had three message regarding my car so I decided that I'd better come home to deal with them. I now have to take it back on Thursday to get a few extra things done but have arranged for to borrow another car for the day - hopefully it won't be too difficult for the people I'm getting it from to cope without it.
After collecting the car from the service centre I did a couple of jobs in town before coming home and having a bite to eat before I headed out to see a young fellow who is having trouble in his marriage. There was not a lot I could do because of some legal concerns but I'll keep in touch with him.
Now bed - hopefully for a good sleep.
From early morning nothing of the things I had planned happened in the right order or with any real semblance of order but most things happened.
Mass at 9am was followed by some mucking round with the ropes system for the banners but by just after 10am it was all completed and everything was back up and should now be fixed for good.
Did some work in the house for a few minutes before a friend from the North of the State called in for a coffee on her way home to Elizabeth Town, part of the Meander Valley Parish.
Then a quick dash to the supermarket for the ingredients for the Business Morning Teas tomorrow, lunch and then some work on the lists for tomorrow.
I headed for town to drop off my mobile phone which has developed an intermittent fault in the screen - it dissolves into hieroglyphics every now and then - before visiting my friend who leaves for Ireland on Monday with some of the things that I'd promised her she could borrow. I arrived to find that there was no power and she was preparing an early tea as she had a work meeting and the gas bottle on the BBQ was also empty so I went off to get it filled and found that several of the centres where gas is normally available were out so it took a little longer than usual to get the gas bottle filled. Then when I got back to the house I remembered that I was to collect some trays for the Business Morning Tea and it was almost 5pm and the warehouse shut at 5pm so it was a quick phone call and a dash round to the warehouse where, luckily, the manager was still around because they were backing up the computer data and he let me in.
After a quick tea I headed home for a 6.30pm marriage appointment which has just finished and now I'm heading for bed - I've done a little bit of setting up for the Business Morning Tea in the morning - the rest can wait.
I woke earlier than I expected and got straight into scone making - it all went well and I was able to cook the date and savoury scones and do most of the 'special' sandwiches before the guys for the Prayer arrived at 6.30am. We used the front room of the house because I knew that people would be arriving before 7.30am to help with everything else about the Business Morning Tea.
The whole show now runs so smoothly that we were well finished a little after 9am and people were moving off after a cuppa by 9.30am which gave me time to get my mind back into gear and to do a few small jobs before heading upstairs to have another shower and start the day again.
Mass at midday followed by some of the left over sandwiches and then a couple of phone calls before heading off to Granton to leave my car and drive north to Launceston with +Adrian for the TCC Meeting. It was a pleasant time - I tried not to talk too much because I wanted him to have a rest if he wanted too - not much point getting someone to drive you if all that happens is that you have to keep up a conversation if you're already tired.
The meeting went well and finished early so we got home in good time. I managed to have a chat with the current President of the Baptist Union about our work in the Parish and he is interested in further chats so we might be able to work towards some form of co-operation - that also might be a dream that might never be fulfilled either but we can only hope.
Penny Edman showed me some of the info re the Diocesan Web site so that is good and hopefully it will all be up and running on 22nd April so I hope that that little dream comes true for her, and for me as well.
Now it is time for bed and a good sleep - I'm bushed.
Started off with a trip to town to leave off my car to have a seal replaced in the power steering assembly and a ride to Graham's to borrow a car for the day. Got back just in time for Mass at 9am so it was a bit of a rush.
Then I had a few minutes before we started the Christian Leaders meeting which went through until almost 12.30pm. We looked at the October Festival as well as some other issues including the installation of the new Uniting CVhurch Minister here next Tuesday evening and concerns regarding Christian Religious Education in the local Primary Schools and what things can be done to involve non-church people in the various activities in the area.
Then I headed up town to collect the Derwent Valley Graham Family vehicle which is going to be used in Hobart this weekend and left off the car had brought up this morning. There was a bit of mucking round getting it all changed out but it all worked out.
I headed for town to call into the TCC Office where I worked with Jennifer, the acting General Secretary, on some follow up work that arose from the Executive Meeting last evening. That took a little bit of time but eventually it was all under control.
Then I collected the dry cleaning I'd left off this morning before going back to Graham's to leave off their van and getting a ride back to the workshop to collect my car. Graham's are having the Office area of their home remodelled so there is heaps going on there at the moment.
Got the car and headed for the Eastern Shore to visit a friend to wish her a Happy Birthday but she wasn't home so I called to visit another family before going back to town to attend the Jane Franklin Hall Council AGM. Except the meeting has been transferred to next Thursday - a fact I knew as soon as I arrived but which I had changed in my diary. I now have a clash with the Catholic Education Week Dinner so I'll be an apology for the AGM - unfortunately I have been missing from several of the last meetings and will need to contact the Rector to work out my current status.
Now I'm heading for bed because I'm tired and I need some sleep.
After Mass this morning I headed off on my Communion Round before visiting St Brigid's and checking up on a few things that needed to be done there in preparation for events that are coming up, including the Opening and Blessing of the new School Block and the School Mass which will be celebrated around ANZAC Day.
Then it was back here for lunch and the work mentioned above before I sat down for a few minutes and fell asleep in the chair with my reading matter all across my face.
I went out for tea tonight with the St Brigid's staff and partners to the Old Bush Inn - the pub across the road from here and we had a very pleasant evening although I am now more tired than I was before and I'll need to finish this and hit the bed because I'm really tired and making all sorts of mistakes as I type - thank Dog for spell checking!
Started with Mass at Hayes at 8.30am. There was a bit of a laugh part of the way through the Eucharistic Prayer. I was using the Second Prayer and had just got to Have mercy on us all; make us worthy to share eternal life with Mary, the virgin Mother of God, with the apostles, and with ... the next words are all the saints, when over the PA comes the list of names of prisoners who have visitors for the morning to report to the Office - the group of us there looked at each other and decided that (at this stage, anyway) many of the names mentioned might not be considered eligible to be called 'saints'.
After Mass I came home for a Baptism and then did the final preparations for the Assembly at Oatlands this afternoon.
The Assembly went well - we had 38 people there - which when you consider that there are not more than 250 regularly at Mass in the Parish is not a bad turn up and most people had to drive for an hour to get to the gathering in the first place it was excellent. The atmosphere was good and the generosity of people to be part of the day was excellent. I've driven home with a real spirit of peace.
The next stop was Glenorchy where I joined some friends at a farewell for Lexie who heads to Ireland on Monday - it was a good night but boy am I tired now and I'm heading for bed and that beauty sleep I need.
Mass in the country was at Maydena today and as I arrived and found that the only person there was Lorraine I began to wonder if we might be it but two others arrived - the numbers there are going to be minuscule for the next few months as a couple of people are away for the winter months. It's amazing what two people missing can mean in a small community.
Then it was back to New Norfolk for a Baptism and I was then going to head off to see some people at Kempton but my sister and husband and their three children called in - they had been down at the Esplanade for a Festival. We had a cuppa and when they left it was time to head for Bothwell for the evening mass.
I've just arrived home and I'm bushed. I've had something to eat and am having trouble keeping my eyes open so I'm heading for bed and hoping that I can get a good night's sleep.
Anyway, the rest of the morning was spent getting to the airport to get Lexie on the flight to Melbourne and then to Dublin. As I'm writing this she is probably in Singapore with hours to go before she reaches Heathrow and then onto Dublin about this time tomorrow evening.
After taking Mum to see Marti I went and did some shopping before going to the TASDEC meeting which went longer than usual and now I've come home to a million phone calls - most of which I will deal with tomorrow and now I'm going to bed because I'm really tired and Marti has given me a fright.
Then I got to work on the Newsletter and have managed to get most of that out of the way although there will be some things that will need to wait until the end of the week.
One of the emails was from Eric Burton RAN to the Navy poster and I'll have to wait to see if there has been any answer before I book a medical. I did, however, get all the ingredients for the fat burning soup and have started eating that as the meal of choice so that will be the background to what I eat over these next weeks.
Just before I headed out to the Induction of the Rev Ian Proctor, the new UCA Minister for Bridgewater-Gagebrook/New Norfolk I had a phone call from Mick Wheeler saying that he was going into hospital tomorrow for work on his knee but there had been a mix up about it all - his doctor hadn't told him that his diabetes might make the operation a bit more difficult - especially since he hadn't mentioned it to the surgeon - so he's going in a day early to have some other tests.
The induction went well - thankfully they started a little late - and I've just got home after the supper which followed - a cup of black coffee being the only intake! I've tried to ring Ireland to see if Lexie arrived but haven't been able to get through yet so will try again first thing in the morning.
Now bed - I'm still tired and I need some sleep.
Back home I was ready for the Prayer gathering this morning at 6.30am but there was only the two of us - an apology from Ian and a sleep in from Gillian - I suspect.
After Mass I had a little bit of time before some people came toi check some of our records for their family tree and then, whilst they were working away I headed down to school to tell Peter McBain, the Principal that I was going to the Navy during May and wouldn't be here for the opening of the new school block.
When I got back I was in a hurry to head off to town to go to lunch at Parliament House with the Speaker of the House who had had an interesting morning. He had suspended Question Time because the Leader of the Opposition had not obeyed a ruling from the Chair and rather than suspend him, the Speaker walked out for 10 minutes. It was a good lunch and John Hayres and I got the chance to meet two other members of Parliament so that was good as well.
Then back home to do some work on the newsletter and the finances before heading off to a School Board Meeting that went longer than usual so I'm now very tired and wanting to go to bed and have as long a sleep as I can get because tomorrow night is going to be late after driving back from Launceston at the end of the Catholic Education Week Dinner.
I headed off to Kempton about lunchtime to catch up with a lady there and spent some time with her before continuing on around the Parish to Hamilton where I did some work with the lady who looks after the book there and we balanced of her books for last year - that makes me feel better.
Then it was back home with just a few minutes to spare before I headed off to Launceton collecting Sandy Cowling from her home and then (Fr) Denis Allen at Granton for the journey to the Catholic Education Week Dinner at the Launceston International. It was a grand night with good food, great company and some challenges thrown out by Paul Stevens the Director of the Catholic Education Office and +Adrian Doyle. The entertainment was grand as well - provided by Colin Dean and Andrew Colrain - Colin has done some of the entertainment for the Graham Family Christmas Functions over the past few years.
Now, however, it is time for bed as it is tomorrow morning and the drive home was without incident - 600 kms on the road today with 420 of them starting at 4.30pm
After Mass I headed off on the Communion Round and managed to catch a few people on the way as I stopped off at the various places.
After a quick bite to eat I headed off to Hobart to do some little jobs and to look for some music for Greg Hudson which I wasn't able to find. First on the agenda was a trip to collect my phone which needed a new screen after the last one failed badly. Then it was off to get a new pair of shoes and some more card for the Wood raffle Tickets before continuing onto the Navy Office to collect information about my posting to HMAS Tobruk which is to take me away from the Parish from 9th May-7th June.
From there I headed off to the RACT to get some passport photos taken to start the process of getting an Official Australian Passport but will need to take it to the Passport Office on Monday to get it fixed.
Then I called to see Mum and spent a little time with her (looking unsuccessfully for the music) before coming home and meeting up with a few people here who called in to get some papers signed, make some arrangements for Masses over the weekend and next week.
Now, however, I'm going to take advantage of the possibility of an early night, the fact that there is only AFL on the TV and I need the sleep.
Then I came home for a few minutes before heading off to the TCC for the meeting of the World Justice and Development Commission. It was a good meeting and there is more homework to do before the Annual Meeting of the TCC in a fortnights time.
Then I headed down to Kingston for lunch with the other guys and took with me the list of dates for the next four months. I had faxed them out during the week and only got one return so taking them with me today helped get most of the dates covered - there are only a few towards the end of the time that still need looking at.
Then I headed back this way and continued on to Ellendale where I worked with Winnie Ransley on the finances for the Ellendale part of the Parish. I have managed to get most of the things organised but not everything balances so will need to look at some of it again over the next few days.
I've just come back from a Wine & Cheese Fundraiser for the World Youth Day program. We will be trying to get people to get together to have a small soiree of sorts to raise funds to support the young people who want to go to Toronto in July.
Now bed - and hopefully some sleep.
Mass at New Norfolk this morning involved children from the School as part of Catholic Education Week and they acquitted themselves well. In fact one or two could make good lectors in the years to come.
After the Hamilton MAss I was back here, not even having seen a Targa vehicle, for two baptisms before heading off to Kempton for the evening Mass. When I got there I started to worry that no-one was going to come and when they did it was a woman and her niece. We waited for a time before starting Mass - luckily because no-one else arrived. I rang Lorraine on her mobile and left a message and she rang at 5.30pm as she was travelling to collect a woman from out the back of Elderslie to come to Mass at 6pm. I decided to wait until 6 to see if anyone else arrived and met two families so, sadly, our communication hadn't been too good and people had forgotten that the time had changed after Easter.
Anyway, I'm home and ready for bed and that's exactly where I'm going.
I started reasonably early at the desk working on my words for the Service of Blessing at the Anglican Cathedral at 11am. Each year there is a service organised by the War Widows Guild four days before ANZAC Day when they plant crosses in the lawn and invite people to remember their deceased from the various wars.
I celebrated Mass here at 9am and then headed off to town getting there in good time and managed to preach without making too many mistakes and then headed off down to the Passport Office to organise my Official Australian Passport - it does mean that I will have two passports so that will be interesting - I think!
I came home for a bite to eat, via New Town where I had a coffee with John Williams as well as doing some grocery shopping for the last two days of my diet. I think that I have done well and seem to have lost a bit of weight - I'll know how much tomorrow night when I go for my medical at the Navy.
Next on the agenda was a trip to Ellendale where we spent some time working through the books and, in the end - managed to get a balance without even cheating. I was most impressed.
I'm now home, had tea and I'm heading for bed and a good night's sleep - I think that I'll need it as I have a trip to Launceston in the morning .
The trip home was a bit circuitous because there was an accident on the highway near Epping Forest which closed the highway for some time. No-one was killed but the damage done to the semi-trailer which was hit by a sedan which crossed onto hsi side of the road meant that the highway was effectively blocked for some time.
I wasn't home for long before I headed off to Navy Headquarters for my medical for fitness to go to sea on HMAS Tobruk. I passed without too great a difficulty but will still need to lose weight in order that I don't get picked up next time and held to ransom.
I've had a bowl of soup and now I'm heading for bed.
Prayer went well at 6.30am but we chatted afterwards and it was nearly 8.15am when everyone left. We were due to have a Leaders Meeting this morning but because the new UCA Minister was not able to be here and the fact that there was a funeral at the Anglican Church that a couple of people wanted to be at we decided that there would not be a meeting this week and the next meeting would be on the 9th, the day I leave for the Navy. As it turned out I'm not sure that I would have had time for the meeting anyway.
With the spare time I worked on the BEACON and managed to get a draft ready for the Parish Council Meeting we had tonight.
After a bite to eat I headed for town and dropped off some things at the Navy and collected the authorisation for the pathology sample I need to drop off on Friday before I headed down to the Pastoral Planning and Formation Office to help set up the computer to do a few different jobs in Eva's Office. I also collected some extra leaflets for aspects of the Neighbourhood Church Communities that I presented at the PPC tonight and which I will take with me to Oatlands on Friday.
From there I went to the Yacht Club for the launch of the Diocesan Web Site. It is much better than the original, very ordinary site that was there for some time and which, thankfully, had disappeared some time back. The address is: http://www.hobart.catholic.org.au and follows the same style as other dioceses around Australia. It is hoped that it will not be long before the Parish has a new domain name - a sub-domain of the diocesan site. Unfortunately that hasn't happened but our new name is http://www.parishbeacon.org - any changes will be announced in Daily Notes and News.
Then it was home for a quick bite to eat before people started arriving for the Parish Council Meeting. It was a good meeting but went a little longer than I had hoped and it is now after 10pm and I have to be up at 4am tomorrow for the ANZAC Dawn Service at Maydena so I'm off to bed.
I needed to head off to Maydena almost as soon as I was dressed. When I arrived home for the Website Launch yesterday I remembered that I hadn't collected my Navy Trousers from the Dry cleaners so I am lucky that I have managed to lose a little bit of weight so that I had to fit into trousers from my original Navy Issue uniform from some 19 years ago!! Mind you it was a tight fit.
There was a good roll up at MAydean and it was a pleasant morning. After Breakfast I headed back to New Norfolk for the ANZAC Day Mass here at St Peter's before doing a little bit of work in preparation for the main New Norfolk Service at the Cenotaph. When I got there I was also informed that as I was the only Uniformed Officer present I would need to take the salute at the Post Office as the Parade progressed to the Cenotaph. I then led the prayers at the service and joined others, at the conclusion of the event, at the RSL for refreshments. By now I was really starting to feel the drag of the day.
Then I headed off to Gretna to see the family of the late Fay Pace to arrange her funeral which we will celebrate at North Hobart on Saturday Morning. She was diagnosed with lung cancer some six weeks ago and died on Wednesday morning.
From there I headed to Glenorchy to celebrate with my family my niece's 13th birthday. Most people were there, my sister Karen and her family were missing, but Marti was there looking great but still very tired after the heart attack almost three weeks ago. The medication is still keeping her very lethargic so things for her are going very slowly at the moment.
I'm now home and I've just finished working on the BEACON - it is now 20 pages plus the calendar - the biggest edition so far - so hopefully it will provide a great deal of thought for the Parish and be of use in making details of the Assembly known to people. It is printing in the background as I type so that is good.
I'm heading for bed and an early night - it is almost 7.30pm (what with phone calls and other distractions) but boy is my little bed looking good at this moment.
First on the agenda was the booklet for the Funeral of the late Fay Pace. This didn't take that long but I needed to print off 40 colour copies on the printer so that meant that I needed to be here for all the time it was working. I then copied the BEACON and because it was 20 pages plus the calendar and I did 99 copies of each page it took some little time. Then I started on the Big Book for the funeral and when I had finished that I went to work on the weekly newsletter - so it all came together well and before breakfast.
Before Mass I took my specimen for the pathologist (for the Navy Medical) up to the local doctor from which it was sent to Hobart pathology later in the day and then after Mass headed off on the Communion Round.
It was then a quick dash home to collect some things before heading into town to get the Multimedia projector to take the Priests Plenary next week and then back to Granton to collect Lorraine and head off to Oatlands for the Team Meeting. It was a good meeting and there were a few things resolved so that we might be heading back on track to get things in order.
A quick trip back home after the meeting to get the ingredients for the Lasagna and Salad for lunch tomorrow, to cook the sauce for the Lasagna before heading out for a meal with Adrian and Cathy Sullivan to talk about the work of Caritas/CWS and ForceTen and how we might be able to promote the work within the Catholic Community in Tasmania. It was a pleasant evening but the drive home was tiring and I really need to hit the sack so I'll finish here, if anything else develops you can read about it tomorrow.
After completing the newsletter I headed off to the Funeral at North Hobart and that went well although it started a little later than it was supposed to. After the funeral there was a cuppa at the Funeral Home so we stayed there and consequently were late getting to the Crematorium but not too late. The Owner of the funeral home gave me 1/2 dozen Cascade Premium for doing the service (as well as the fee) to help at the Clergy Lunch later in the morning.
I got home and the oven was working and the Lasagna was cooking away so that also was good. I managed to finish setting the tables and everything else that needed doing before people started arriving for lunch. There were 12 of us, including the 2 Columban Priests who will be looking after the North of the State during this week's Plenary.
After lunch I started printing off the brochures for the Parish to be distributed at Agfest towards the end of next week. There are 300 of them - it probably isn't enough but it will have to do for the moment. Actually that has taken most of the rest of the day and I haven't really been able to get too far away from the computer because the printer only copes with 10 pages or so at a time. Or at least that what I've found before it starts to drag through 2 or 3 pages each time it tries to print a page.
I've just come back down from stapling the BEACON together so that makes life a little less pressured for tomorrow.
Now bed - I'll worry about putting the BEACON up tomorrow morning before I head off to the Priests Plenary.
Anyway, back to today. There was a good crowd at the 9am Mass at New Norfolk and then it was pleasant drive up to Ellendale for the 11am Mass. There was a good crowd there and some good chat afterwards - in fact the chat was so good that I didn't get away until after midday which is much later than usual.
When I got back home I managed to clear away a couple of extra jobs off the desk before loading the car and managing to get away.
It was a good drive up the coast and gave me an idea of how long it takes for when I travel up this way again in July when my Irish friend is here. Anyway, the drive was made more pleasant by the fact that Geelong beat Fremantle in their AFL Game at Geelong so that makes three wins in a row - doesn't happen that often for us over recent years.
My companion in the cabin is Terry Rush and we've settled in reasonably well. We were hosts to the crowd tonight - at one stage there were 10 of us here and in the context of these days - that was 1/4 of the whole group. Anyway, they have now all left and the cupboard is much barer so we will need to arrive somewhere else tomorrow night.
Bed and a good sleep.
We found when we were setting up last night that the theatrette is a much better venue for the Conference part of the Plenary so now we have a Sacred Space as well as a meeting area. It has worked well.
The sessions this morning went well. Frank Devoy used a Freelance Graphics slide show to illustrate his talk using the system that is set up in the theatrette. He was followed by three fellows who spoke about their understanding of their role and identity as priests and then this afternoon +Adrian spoke about his understanding of the 'State of the Nation'.
I managed to contact Ros Giudici after she arrived home from New Zealand after going over there when her husband Sergio got sick late last week. Sadly he died on the operating table on Friday night and the family have decided that they will hold his funeral next Monday, after the Plenary has finished so it was good to talk to her tonight.
All in all it has been a good day with a good spirit amongst the guys.
The rest of the day was a little quieter than the past few days with a bit more free time during the afternoon. Tonight has also been good - I worked on some photos I'd taken over the past few days and added some captions. I'm not sure what I'll do with them but they're there for the fun of it.
As I was finishing dinner my mobile rattled in my pocket and PCHA Eric Burton was telling me that HMAS Tobruk was not stopping in Darwin but was heading for Broome - I am now going to have to make some quick moves in the morning to see what needs to change and what will happen to me.
Just got back from another funny night sharing stories in one of the cabinson Hospitality Row - seems like we're all of a mind to enjoy ourselves at the Plenary.
Now bed.
