Tue
Feb
06
2007
I'm Ba-a-ack
Well, I’ve surfaced at long last.
It feels like it’s been forever since I was in the routine of ministry at Toongabbie, and I guess it has been 3 months.
With the confirmation of the move to Springwood, pre-Christmas ministry busy-ness and preparation, starting to pack the house up, Christmas, more packing, disentangling myself from life and ministry at Toongabbie, packing, frantic packing, moving, unpacking, more unpacking, getting oriented at Springwood locality, our farewell at Toongabbie, and so on…
Then there was the added complication of my ordination as Deacon last Saturday. Which meant that my first week on the payroll at Springwood was largely spent at pre-ordination activities.
But it was a very encouraging occasion. More than I expected it to be. There was a lot of hoo-haa made about it being the largest ordination ceremony in Australian Anglican history – 46 of us. But most of the publicity didn’t mention that the big number was in part due to the inclusion of people like me. People who had been in ministry for some time, but were now regarded as eligible for the role after certain policy changes in Sydney Diocese.
Regardless, the ceremony at St Andrews Cathedral was excellent. John Woodhouse (principal of Moore College) spoke very well on a passage from 2 Corinthians, and the people present were hugely supportive and enthusiastic.
Photos will follow, but I’ve only just got broadband internet on for more than a few hours at a time, so have a back log of ‘net stuff to do.
Which brings to ask the question: why is it that phone/interent connections are now about the hardest thing to organise in a timely way when you move?
I started the process of changing the landline at Springwood into my name 4 weeks before we moved. I had the order for DSL lodged at the same time. Allowing for the previous residents to ‘disconnect’ it has still taken 2.5 weeks to achieve a phone line in my name, and a DSL connection. When I enquired about the delay, I was told that I could wait for up to six weeks for the phone account to be ported to my name from Telstra to Optus. Six weeks! You would think we were living in the 1950’s.
More soon on our first Sunday at SWAC
Comment
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Hey, at least they chose the right address to port your number to – they wanted to connect me to an address in greystances somewhere!
— David Corless · Feb 6, 09:29 AM · #
Welcome back, Neil.
You must be the only former Toongabbie minister not heading to Macquarie Anglican. We welcomed Tim and Leah on Sunday night and are looking forward to serving with them this year.
(By the way, I hope that you get good TV reception in your new place. Need that Toppy firing for the current series of Top Gear. I am behind with episodes, but managed to catch the supercar comparison last night after Parish Council finished early. I’m with Jeremy: love the GT-40. And I was AMAZED by that bridge in France.)
— Richard · Feb 6, 09:51 AM · #
@Dave: Maybe you should have accepted their offer – and let someone else pay the bill?! ;-)
@Rich: No chance of me heading Macquarie’s direction! Springwood is definitely heading the right way for me (towards Blackheath). ;-)
I put up a new antenna, and we get as good if not better reception here than at Pendo. Channel 10 was a bit on the weak side in Sydney, but here – full strength… ;-)
— NeilA · Feb 6, 10:57 AM · #
Having worked for the larger of the aforementioned telcos… the time taken to get a phone connected is not surprising… it really is a slow moving beast.
— Simon · Feb 6, 11:26 AM · #
Hi Simon. Sure, and I can understand (well, not really) connecting a physical phone line can take a bit longer, but changing a few details in a computer?
— NeilA · Feb 6, 11:37 AM · #
Neil, this is not one but both of the evil empires you are talking about.. you expect anything to go correctly?? You should try getting them to move a phone line and an ISDN line in the same suburb!!!! They tried to tell me I wasn’t off the same exchange (Pendo) at the two addresses… “What exchange am I on?” I asks (in relation to the villa) ... “Oh North Parra” or somewhere similar was the response …. “hmmm, last time I looked 9896 was out of Pendo?!?” stunned silence from the other end…... after we sorted that out, they did somehow manage to move the business ISDN on the designated day and proceeded to make a right mess of our private phone line.
Ah well…...
— AndrewR · Feb 6, 05:18 PM · #
Oh dear, what have I started!?
— NeilA · Feb 7, 02:42 AM · #