Categories: uncategorized
Date: 01 December 2005 09:47:50
Nothing quite as exciting as what happened to Jack on the way to her retreat happened on the way to mine.
There was the ever-expected lateness of my beloved Lebanese friends, however: the plane was due to depart at 6:45, so we were meant to have checked in by 6:15. Three of us did. Most of the rest turned up nearer to 6:30 when the three of us were beginning to board. Thankfully the Virgin Blue staff let them in. However, several of their bags did not make it so we needed to wait at Melbourne Airport for an hour for the next flight to arrive. Kudos to Virgin Blue who gave us all, plus the two people who picked us up, a $5- meal voucher.
From the airport (which is always so very windy: so very windy) we made our way to a newly-ordained sub-deacon's house where we ate merrily and chatted for a while on all manner of things. We also watched 10 minute of highlights from two parishioners' wedding day: the videon was very well done and there was plenty of humour.
At about 14.30 we headed off to Shiloh Ranch. A very beautiful camp site and a beautiful location where one could look down onto the bay(?) and across to Phillip Island. There were a few too many flies and mosquitoes for most people's liking, but they didn't bother us too much.
Friday night we had some of those dread-inducing "get-to-know-each-other" activities. At least that is what I thought. They weren't too bad: some 'find-someone-who' games and several games where teams had to work to perform various feats. Not bad at all.
It was then off to bed. I fell asleep rather quickly, after quite a while of joking and laughing with the nine other guys in the cabin; I was told later the rest of them stayed up for quite a while continuing the fun. But I needed my sleep: and I wasn't feeling too crash hot.