Jamie, the Best West!!!

My brother received his mission call this week to serve in the Scotland Edinburgh Mission and is leaving on July 17th 2008. I am soooooooooo excited for him! I really think that he will have the best time of his life. I am so proud of his decision to serve a mission, it took him a while but he is now ready to go and serve the Lord and I know that he is prepared and dedicated to his decision. He is an amazing brother and my best friend and I am so proud of him.

Help! I'm being held hostage!

I know this is getting a bit hard to believe but here is yet another random phone call to Church Offices.

It all started out with a phone call for help, which I transferred to Welfare Square due to lack of detail from the caller. Anyway, a few minutes later another operator gets a phone call asking for the 'Austrailian girl'. (I think that the other operator must have explained that I was from England because this caller called me England for the rest of the conversation assuming that that was my name!!!)

So here is how the conversation started:

Caller: I think I must explain the situation a bit further, I think you were confused.'
Me: "I'm sorry. Maybe you can help me understand a bit better what it is that you need."
Caller: "Well, My fiance and I are truck drivers and our truck has been hi-jacked and we are being held hostage by my boss."
Me: "Ok, and you called the Church Office Building?"
Caller: "Well I thought you might be able to help me."
Me: "Ok????"
Caller: ..........

I am not at this point going to make an account of the remainder of the conversation as it was not as comical as the beginning and it goes on for about 10 minutes while I determine that she is not in fact entirely crazy (almost, but not quite!) and gave her the number of her bishop who got it all sorted. Thank heaven for Bishops, and thank heaven I will never be one!!!!!!!

I LOVE COMMENTS!!!!!!

I love comments, I think that the whole purpose of blogging is to get feedback on your writing - or what is the point right - you should just keep a journal. That said, I don't think that what I write is that exciting for busy people to be taking time out to read about my sad little life!!!!!!!!

Anyway, the reason that I am writing about this topic is that I may have mentioned that I work as a church operator and that I am not required to do any work except answer the phone. This means that at night time I have plenty of opportunities to go on my blog and read my comments, however I am now fed up of reading the same comments over and over. So, this is a plea for comments, please leave me a comment - even if it is only a small one - or only occassionally, it will make my day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Call me, I'm here all week!

Another 'just for kicks' phone call!

"Church Offices how may I help you?"

"Do you think that April will be at the other DI?

(I would just like to point out at this moment in time that we connect approximately 12,000 phone lines which all have the same caller id. Therefore, if you do happen to miss a call from the Church Office Building, please do not call back and ask who it was - we have no idea, it could be the prophet or it could be your great aunt gertrude! We just don't know!!!!)

"The other DI?"

"Yes, the other one."

"There are actually 16 DI's that we have listed. Which one did you call and which one would you like to try next?"

beep - she hangs up!

Search for a treat!!!

So I just posted a very cool story about the ant and the grasshopper but as I started it in April and have only just posted it then it is stuck at the end of my April posts and does not show on the main screen - so if you are reading this then have a look at April because there is a new treat there for you!!!!

Don't Bite Me, I'm Santa Claus.

I have just finished reading a great book. It is called 'Don't Bite Me, I'm Santa Claus' and is written by Tom Plummer - who is my new favourite man on earth!!! It is all about different Christmas experiences in his family and what he has learned from them, and it is rather brilliant!

Here is Tom's explanation of the book:

"The fact is, Santa stays with us. He spans our transitions from childhood to adulthood. He symbolizes the kindly adult male that men wish they could be and women keep hoping to find, if even under a rock. He symbolizes joy and freedom, the flow between fantasy and reality that is all too often lost as we cross into our adult years." - Tom Plummer

Great, Great book!!! Plus it is on Amazon at the moment for 1 cent. Yes that is right 1 cent!!!!! Fabulous!

Enemies.

I am not really a person that has a great many enemies, but I have been known to have one or two in my short history on earth!! But that is alright with me. I figure that many great people throughout history have had enemies, and as a great person I feel that I should be no exception to this rule!!!! :)

I am actually addressing this topic now because I have just been confronted - thanks to facebook - with one such enemy from the past!!!! I was actually rather damaged by this enemy (being a rather weak opponent!) and I must admit that I was a little shocked to see her and not exactly thrilled to see how good she looked. I had hoped that she had become withered and crippled with an evil glint in her eye. This is how I usually imagine her and I think that image fits her soul. I think of the witch from the Disney movie Snow White. I expected to see her as the old woman who gives Snow White the poisoned apple, when in fact she looked more like the beautiful queen in the beginning of the movie. It was a bit of a shock.

As always happens in war - of whatever kind, I have been rather severly wounded by this enemy. My wounds have healed rather well and I am back to my rather spectacular self - but there are still scars that sometimes are ugly and painful and hard to accept, but most of the time I am grateful for these scars that remind me of how far I have come and how well I have healed and who I have become because of them. My mother has a saying "If you can't be grateful for what you receive, be grateful for what you escape!" and that is how it is with enemies.

Best Caller of the Day

Me: "Church Offices, How may I help you?"

Caller: " Dum Dum de dum, de dum de dum, dum dum dum dum dum, da da da de dum dum, de dum dum de dum. Do you know what this song is?"

Me: "erm... Ye Elders of Israel."

Caller: "Oh yeah, thanks."

D'oh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Erm... I just asked Elder Scott who he was!

ELDER SCOTT!!!!!!!!!!

oh, I am sooooooo embarrassed!!!!!!!!!

(By the way... the monkey is me - not Elder Scott!!!)

Stuck in My Head

Grr... I have Lily Allen's song stuck in my head..... actually just one line of it - which is worse because I cannot remember what the rest of the song is. That is rubbish. I will sing the line to you.

'The sun is in the sky, oh why, oh why, would I want to be anywhere else? The sun is in the sky, oh why, oh why, would I want to be anywhere else? You might laugh you might frown, walking round London town."

I can't remember the rest.

Rubbish!

A Proper Wally!

So, I have for the past few days had a really hard time at work trying to figure out what people were saying, I just could not hear them very well. This resulted in me being in a constant bad mood that the phone line was rubbish and that people did not talk slowly enough when they called in. It also resulted in me having to shout really loud to be heard by my customers - not fun!!! Anyway, so after being really rather annoyed at the world for my communication problems it was pointed out to me that if I change the batteries in my headset then I will be able to hear better - and guess what! It blinkin works!!!!!!!! So now I feel like a bit of a numpty - but I am soooooooooooo happy that I can actually answer calls and not strain to hear!!!! I am loving it. Woohoo!

Currently Reading...

...Jeeves and the tie that binds.

I do not usually, as a rule, overlap in the books I am reading. This is because I am easily confused and therefore I can only really focus on one good book at a time. But I have not been able to contain my excitement to start this book BUT I am also totally engrossed in my current book - so I have decided to read both together!!!! Luckily, both of these books are really easy to read and really enthralling so I am not having a hard time focussing on either of them.

Brilliant.

Currently Reading...

Children of the Promise Series by Dean Hughes.

I love these books they are amazing, I really have been sucked into them. I love books and I love to read, but most of the time I just get consumed in the book I am currently reading and it becomes my life. I am so drawn in that I actually believe that I am an observer in the book - that I am really there. This means that until I finish the book then I am wandering around in kind of a half dream world. My friend and I had a discussion once about this - he finds that this happens to him just after he has watched a really good movie - he believes that it is in some way real, and this is how I feel with a really good book. I know it is really very random but that is the way it is.

I bring this up however, because the Children of the Promise series is about events that happened in World War 2, and I am halfway convinced that I have been living in war torn Germany for the past 3 weeks. It is very lucky that I am on the 3rd book of 5 and so I should be finished in another couple of weeks, until that time however, please do not make any loud sounds or jump out and frighten me because I will probably try to shoot you with my finger!!!

Just Thinking...

Why? For crying out loud is the air conditioning on on the bus when it is actually not that warm outside. Granted, it is a little bit warm but it is not really very warm - especially in the morning! Turn it on in the afternoon if it is needed, but I am freezing to death!!! Grrr!!!