Before all that though I'll fill you in on some of the background about the little fellow on the right. [I thought that since many of you think you know him it would be good to say just a few words before you get to read all about my trip - he tells the story differently but ...]

His name is Fr Mike Delaney (picture over there on the right is a little bit flattering - his hair is now almost completely grey!!) and he is a Catholic Priest of the Archdiocese of Hobart, Tasmania, Australia. He was ordained 26 years ago and has worked in various Parishes in Tasmania and been involved in lot's of things (involved might be the operative word!).

Just recently they (the Archbishop and his Consultors) restructured most of the Parishes within the Archdiocese and he changed from being the Parish Priest of New Norfolk, the Derwent Valley & Central Highlands to become the Parish Priest of a much larger Rural Parish which they (the Parishioners, Pastoral Team and himself) have called the Catholic Parish @ Central Tasmania. There are a Team of people to provide the Sacramental and Pastoral Care of this big Parish - obviously the Team involves himself, another priest, Fr John Hayres who lives at Campbell Town, and three women Religious - Sr Lorraine Groves MSS (at Ellendale), Sr Maria Goretti Smith SSJ (at Oatlands) and Sr Marjorie Boutchard PVMB (at Swansea).

Tomorrow (September 10th) I will be travelling to Ireland with him for a holiday. He says that he is going to some place for three months and doing a Renewal Course but I'm not sure because there aren't too many people I know who have actually heard of the place. He says that it is called the Marianella Renewal Centre, and it is just south of Dublin, and he says that you can find it in the Parish of Rathgar - but when I looked at a map I couldn't find it!

And I'm not certain about this renewal thing either. All I know is that while he says that he will be studying(!) I will have the chance to have a rest. It hasn't been easy for me to get ready for this trip as he (the little fellow up the top) keeps running around and I don't have time to get anything prepared.

I'll tell you some of the problems I've had so far. On Friday (31st) he headed to Sydney for a meeting and suggested I go with him to get the feel of flying and travelling with him - big mistake! He set the alarm for 4am and woke me when he woke up at 3.15am! We arrived in Sydney and got to the meeting and he said he wouldn't be long and I waited and waited and he didn't get back until after 10pm - said that they'd been busy all day. I'd never been to Sydney and he hadn't left his wallet so I didn't have any money to make a phone call or go anywhere; he took the door key so I couldn't leave the room or get out of the building (or rather couldn't get back in so I just sat in the room and looked out the window.

Then when we were due to come home the next day - the plane was due to leave at 8am - the place we were staying was 20 minutes from the airport - we didn't need to be there until 7.30am and he gets me up at 5.30am! We left for the airport at 6.15am for heaven's sake and had to sit around for well over an hour and he kept talking so I couldn't even get a nap in the airport - he watched the tennis on TV and kept getting fidgety whenever Hewitt got into trouble.

Then on the plane trip back he just kept squirming round and I still couldn't get any rest so I'm not sure what is going to happen on a long flight.

If last week wasn't bad enough he's getting worse. He can't fit everything into his bag so now he's started to blame me saying that I have too much gear - the size of me and he considers the few things I want to take a problem! I really don't know where he's coming from but if he keeps it up he might just find that I'm not really as quiet as he thinks I am. Boy, I just thought. Wonder what he'd say if he knew I was putting these pages on the web?

Well I'd better get this page up now as I'm sure he'll be downstairs soon - I can hear him upstairs in his cleaning mood (only happens once in every third blue moon)so I'd better be careful or I might be cleaned out as well.